Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[Xeon]

 

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[GPM]

Looks like a guitar or guns in there! Who cares what the box looks like. So long as it will hold up it doesn't matter.

That looks like Reddit. $10 says the comments all devolve into socialist BS about how capitalism is going to kill us all.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Who cares what the box looks like.

The FBI, usually. The only things missing are excess postage, wires hanging out the sides, an oil leak, and a ticking sound.

 

[GPM]

The FBI, usually. The only things missing are excess postage, wires hanging out the sides, an oil leak, and a ticking sound.

Seriously? You can't put things that go boom in a pre purchased box?

Three letter agencies are my favorite. I love USA. Always there to remind you of your freedoms.

 

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[Kak]

So... I have a 55” flat screen TV with a crack that runs all the way across the screen... it was my girlfriend’s and her dog chewed on it the first week she bought it. She was going to throw it away but I said “no no no! Maybe I can find someone to fix it!”

It has been sitting in the corner of my room for months. Does anyone know if it can be fixed? I’ve called a dozen tech and electronic stores and nobody wants to try.

Walmart has 55 inch TVs for $350 bucks now. No way you will get a fat, lazy, commie American to pick up a screwdriver for that.

I always buy my TVs from Walmart. I have four of them ranging from 43 to 65 inches. They work fine for 3-5 years. I don’t understand the paying 5-10x more than this for a TV thing. Also, screw TV.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Walmart has 55 inch TVs for $350 bucks now. No way you will get a fat, lazy, commie American to pick up a screwdriver for that.

I always buy my TVs from Walmart. I have four of them ranging from 43 to 65 inches. They work fine. I don’t understand the paying 5-10x more than this for a TV thing. Also, screw TV.

Yeah. I guess I will throw it away. Just hate to be wasteful and see it end up in a landfill - a perfectly good (other than the screen), basically brand new TV.

 

[Bekit]

Yeah. I guess I will throw it away. Just hate to be wasteful and see it end up in a landfill - a perfectly good (other than the screen), basically brand new TV.

You could also reach out to a local homeschool group with a post like... "Hey parents! Do you have a teenager who has an aptitude for taking things apart and putting them together? Or are you looking to help your teen develop a possible money-making skill with appliance repair? I've got a 55” flat screen TV with a crack that runs all the way across the screen. It was my girlfriend’s and her dog chewed on it the first week she bought it. I’ve called a dozen tech and electronic stores and nobody wants to try fixing it. At this point I'm going to throw it away if no one wants it - but just thought I'd offer it up for free in case anyone wants to have it for the purpose of learning. If your child ends up fixing the screen, they can feel free to resell it, but even if they just want to disassemble it and see inside for insight into how it's all put together, that could be a good experience. Contact me before [deadline] if you'd like to take it off my hands. Thanks!"

Here's a list of Texas homeschool support groups. You can probably get an eager parent to take it off your hands from whichever group is closest to you. I know in the homeschool world, there's a real interest in this kind of thing.

 

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[MTF]

How I Built a Mildly Successful Six-Figure Business in 17 Years

The following is an interactive timeline of my "journey" as an "entrepreneur" and how I "built" a "six-figure business" from "scratch."

www.moneylab.co

A pretty cool timeline of an entrepreneur.

@MJ DeMarco I think you'll like this, with all the ups and downs, shortcuts he tried to take (and subsequent losses), pivots, etc.

 

[loop101]

Forgiving college loan debt seems like obvious proof that a college education is not cost effective.

 

[loop101]

I thought this was an April Fool's joke, it is not, "The problem is that the song contains one of the natural resonant frequencies for that particular hard drive model. It caused the HD platters to contact the drive head, resulting in a crash."

Janet Jackson song from 1989 declared a cybersecurity vulnerability for crashing hard drives

As reported by The Reg, the strange tale comes from a Microsoft devblog by Raymond Chen. He writes that a colleague shared a story from Windows XP...

www.techspot.com

 

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[Antifragile]

I was talking to a friend yesterday about my weekend bike ride of 100km+ and mostly climbing three local mountains. His comment was: "Why do you do this? I have no desire to ever even try stuff like this."

Thinking about it, it's not as easy to answer as it may seem. There is a lot of pain involved and there is no cheerleaders band waiting at the finish line. It was not even an event, it was just training. And when I started, I felt like shit because my kid woke us up many times the night before, I was exhausted and didn't have time for breakfast (start time of 5:30AM). There were moments when I was climbing the first mountain where I felt I may have been dozing off! The "why do you do this?" came to mind a lot, until it didn't.

This is why I like Goggins' stuff. He's intense and he's right a lot too.

"My legs were jelly when I staggered to shore, and my vision rocked like a teeter totter during an earthquake. I had to lie down, then crawl behind the bathrooms, where I vomited again. Other swimmers gathered in the transition area, hopped into their saddles, and pedaled off into the lava fields in a blink. We still had a ninety-mile bike ride to knock off before the day was done, and they were getting after it while I was still on my knees. Right on time, those simple questions bubbled to the surface. Why the F*ck am I even out here? I’m not a triathlete! I’m chafed to hell, sick as F*ck, and the first part of the ride is all uphill! Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Goggins? I sounded like a whiny bitch, but I knew finding some comfort would help me hem my vagina, so I paid no attention to the other athletes who eased through their transition." (David Goggins, Can't Hurt Me)

My answer yesterday was "Doing this is a way to discover who I am. And my grit will spill over to other parts of life and serve me. There is something pure about learning how you do when it's all mental from a point onwards."

I think mental toughness is as useful in business as in athletics. You can train it too.

/random thoughts

 

[GPM]

@Antifragile I 100% agree with you!

While I do not road bike, I do try to push myself considerably while mountain biking. There is a loop in the foothills about 50 minutes from my house that I am trying to crack the 2 hour mark on. It is a very different ride than what you do, but it is 2 hours of absolute intensity and I push myself every time.

The loop is 21km, with 785m of elevation. It is 3 distinct uphill and downhill segments. The last time I did it I managed to do the entire first uphill and downhill, and half of the second uphill without having to stop to catch my breath. My best time so far is 2:10. I MUST crack the 2 hour mark this year! There is a similar ride that is not quite as grueling, and my average heartrate on the last ride was 142bpm over the 2ish hours.

Sure I could just take my time and take it easy and stretch it out to nearly 3:30 (which is what happens when I go with my brother who refuses to push himself), but where is the growth in that? If I push myself and push myself and push myself and cross the 2:00 mark, the next time I want to take it easy it will be the 2:15-25 time that absolutely kills me right now.

If you never push yourself you never grow. In all aspects of life. Take it easy and you will always suck and everything will always be difficult.

 

[Antifragile]

@GPM
Following you on Strava, I know for a fact you’ll get under 2hrs shortly. Keep up the good work! Glad to be able to push each other here and in the “real world” haha.

 

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[Parks]

A week or so ago I created a python script for searching through all the businesses in a area of my choice and getting their websites in return. I mainly made it to look through service businesses in bulk seeing if anyone had any value skews I could benefit from in my own ideas. I usually try to do this for different industries each night.

What I discovered and I already knew was that value skews are really rare in service businesses. Everyone's advertising and fulfilling the same problem with no skew and their punishment will be growing at the same rate as everyone else. If you found a real skew that people appreciated, I'm sure you could grow like rocket fuel. Service businesses executed well are already in majorly desired need.

Here's an actual value skewing business I found today though that I thought would be worth sharing. In a simple industry such as window cleaning. I don't think this guy is even past one employee yet nor do I know if he's even seeing success in sales, but it's good to see some actual value skews though to learn from.

Window Cleaning for Winnetka/North Shore - JK WINDOW CLEANING

JK WINDOW CLEANING specializes in window cleaning for the Winnetka and North Shore areas. Schedule an appointment now.

jkwindowcleaning.org

That's his home page, which displays no value skews whatsoever. (Lost Opportunity) But scroll down to his FAQ and read his actual skewing services on this link;

Window Cleaning in Chicago - JK WINDOW CLEANING

JK WINDOW CLEANING’s cleaning services are quick and detailed. Book an appointment now.

jkwindowcleaning.org

Instead of spending around 2 minutes cleaning each window he likely spends 30. Instead of spending 3 hours at a customer's house he spends 8. Does he advertise? Nope. He focuses on word of mouth.

I'm not sure how I even found this, but out of 50 window cleaning businesses, and being on the 4th page of results in Chicago, Illinois on Yelp I found him and I'm impressed by it. Thought I'd share.

One Google of his business name and this is the 3rd result.

Meet Jeff Kim of JK Window Cleaning in Highland Park - Voyage Chicago | Chicago City Guide

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Kim. Jeff, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far. “Back in 2007, I was tired of the corporate world, being confined to a cubicle all day. I spent many years in the IT field […]

voyagechicago.com

 

[Xeon]

Facebook parent Meta lays off 60 workers ‘at random’ using algorithm: report

The Meta layoffs come just days after Apple laid off 100 of its recruiters.

nypost.com

The metaverse is as dead as Zuckerberg’s cartoon eyes

No matter how realistic you make the avatars, the Big Bang for the metaverse needs a user experience that technology won’t deliver for a very long time.

www.fastcompany.com

Hahahahahahahaha!

 

[MitchC]

Facebook parent Meta lays off 60 workers ‘at random’ using algorithm: report

The Meta layoffs come just days after Apple laid off 100 of its recruiters.

nypost.com

The metaverse is as dead as Zuckerberg’s cartoon eyes

No matter how realistic you make the avatars, the Big Bang for the metaverse needs a user experience that technology won’t deliver for a very long time.

www.fastcompany.com

Hahahahahahahaha!

This is what happens when you mix up what you want people to do with what they actually want to do.

 

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[MitchC]

 

[Andy Black]

Thought this was interesting...

Brendan Gahan on LinkedIn: TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed. It's designed to display local… | 115 comments

TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed. It's designed to display local content to users. This makes a lot of sense. The amount of local content popping up… | 115 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Screenshot:

 

[UK_Mike]

I thought this was an April Fool's joke, it is not, "The problem is that the song contains one of the natural resonant frequencies for that particular hard drive model. It caused the HD platters to contact the drive head, resulting in a crash."

That brings back memories, I was an avid reader of Raymond Chen's blog back in the day, along with Larry Osterman and a handful of others. And the whole MS Channel 9 video thing was interesting at the time.

 

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[MitchC]

Thought this was interesting...

Brendan Gahan on LinkedIn: TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed. It's designed to display local… | 115 comments

TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed. It's designed to display local content to users. This makes a lot of sense. The amount of local content popping up… | 115 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Screenshot:

View attachment 44863

They've always done this based on country, interesting it's getting even more local now. Makes a lot of sense.

We were in UK recently and all the content we saw changed from Aussie to English people, it was interesting seeing a totally different feed and just how different it was.

I read somewhere about people having agencies that purely posted Tiktok from local locations.

Imagine running a dropshipping company from Bali and hiring them to post the content from the USA for you.

Opportunity everywhere

 

[Andy Black]

Opportunity everywhere

Indeed. Opportunity knocks so much it's like a drum-roll on our door. We just have to open our ears.

 

[Antifragile]

"It is a more than mildly ironic comment on the vicissitudes of self-report survey methods that social scientists credit the person who admits to cheating at customs with greater honesty than the one who claims not to cheat." (Mahzarin R. Banaji, Anthony G. Greenwald, Blindspot)

 

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[Kak]

I’m proud of myself for not even knowing about the student loan forgiveness scheme until today.

I really am starting to feel removed from the concerned citizen outrage brigade. There’s nothing my outrage would have done anyway.

 

[Antifragile]

I’m proud of myself for not even knowing about the student loan forgiveness scheme until today.

I really am starting to feel removed from the concerned citizen outrage brigade.

Wait, what? Student loans are forgiven?
What about the suckers who actually paid their tuition in full from working?!

 

[Kak]

Wait, what? Student loans are forgiven?
What about the suckers who actually paid their tuition in full from working?!

Don’t know. Don’t care. Paid mine off like a responsible non-loser a decade ago.

One day I really hope not to know who a sitting president is. Probably impossible without dementia. Lol Biden probably doesn’t know.

 

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[Antifragile]

Lol Biden probably doesn’t know.

Morning briefing:
- sir, you are the current President of the USA
- really? That sounds great. What’s for breakfast?

 

[Kak]

What’s for breakfast?

The White House breakfast menu:

Modafinl chip ice cream

Honey Bunches of Adderall

Adderall Benedict

Spinach, Artichoke, Ritalin Omlette

 

[MitchC]

Wait, what? Student loans are forgiven?
What about the suckers who actually paid their tuition in full from working?!

Well now they get to pay everyone else’s tuition too

 

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[GPM]

Thought this was interesting...

Brendan Gahan on LinkedIn: TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed. It's designed to display local… | 115 comments

TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed. It's designed to display local content to users. This makes a lot of sense. The amount of local content popping up… | 115 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Screenshot:

View attachment 44863

As someone who doesn't use social media this is both fascinating and frightening.

The idea of an app knowing who you are, where you are, and what you like to do, and where other people are who also do similar things who are close by, really scares me.

I would rather not know about the cool local eatery, than have a phone that takes 100% of my privacy away and wants to know everything so remote as the file names on my phone.

If I were to be a business that would utilize something like this, I would absolutely just have a second device where I put these apps on it. Not a chance in hell my primary device would have these sorts of things installed on it.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Ya boi is selling awesome.yachts (the domain).

Yeah, you didn't know .yachts was a TLD now did you?

Exactly 17 hours ago I didn't either!

It's just a domain. But come on, it's something you didn't know you needed.

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