spongebue
@spongebue@lemmy.world
- Comment on [deleted] 8 hours ago:
Ethyn
- Comment on What are some good "frugal" movie viewing setups? (Recommendations) 2 days ago:
You use parentheses a lot 😉
How much do you really move? Moving is a pain as it is, and a modern (not CRT) TV isn’t really what makes it so. Projectors are a fun novelty, but if you don’t have that basement home theater room they’re honestly not that great, especially in daylight.
Honestly, I would just get a decent used TV and call it a day. If you really move a lot, like every year, get a new one and leave the box in a closet. Even a relatively small one will be a huge step up from a phone screen.
That’s said, speakers are treated as a mandatory afterthought on TVs these days. Rule of thumb I just made up: if it doesn’t have many ports, it’s expecting your step t receiver or similar to do the heavy lifting. Older TVs may actually be ok and generally have a lot of ports, but may not be full HD. Bottom line: be prepared to at least buy a sound bar or hell, even some computer speakers from a thrift store. Preferably something with a small subwoofer.
- Comment on What bottles/containers should I use for shipping from sea level to places at higher altitudes? 3 days ago:
Technically yes, but if this is a sauce that doesn’t need refrigeration (including after opening) anyway, just not as big of an issue.
Another comment had a great point that less product = more air = more sensitive to different air pressures. Ideally, the product is in a plastic bottle already and OP can squeeze a little out if needed, put the cap back on tightly with the bottle slightly squeezed, pack it safely, and send it off. If the lack of outside pressure is an issue, it’ll give the bottle a way to grow a little.
Source: I live in Denver and always have something (de-) pressurize when I go to/from sea level
- Comment on What if a billionaire wants to help you? 5 days ago:
Flagging just means the money laundering team would investigate the source, determine that it doesn’t have other red flags, and quietly move on.
Exactly. Staying with OP’s hypothetical situation, potential investigation on its own does not mean it can’t happen. It just means there may be an extra step behind the scenes, very possibly without either party’s knowledge anything even happened. More importantly, if the benefactor insists on some dodgy payment method that’s an even clearer sign of BS because a normal bank doesn’t give as much of a shit as OP lets on
- Comment on What if a billionaire wants to help you? 6 days ago:
Those are all extreme cases unlikely to be relevant to OP’s question.
- Comment on What if a billionaire wants to help you? 6 days ago:
if there’s additional suspicious activity
Emphasis on this part. Either way, what you’re describing is generally for tax purposes. Going back to the original question of the thread, if I had billions of dollars and wrote a stranger a check, the bank is highly unlikely to make sure I meant it. At most they may report it to the government to make sure I pay gift taxes (which are paid by the giver, not the recipient, and even they apply far above $10,000 but you still need to report it at that level)
- Comment on What if a billionaire wants to help you? 6 days ago:
Emphasis on “generally” in my statement. Of course there are exceptions where they would, but if I had a multi-million dollar check from Warren Buffett for replacing a few light bulbs in his house, the bank isn’t going to call him and make sure that’s a reasonable price or anything.
- Comment on What if a billionaire wants to help you? 6 days ago:
Hypothetically: Banks don’t generally scrutinize the source of the money or why it’s being transferred. If the funds exist in the account, they just make the transaction. Also it’s on the gift giver to pay any applicable taxes.
In real life: Scammers posing as a billionaire are infinitely more likely to contact you than a real one. The scammers will depend on you thinking a normal bank transaction won’t work so you can jump through some hoops that will inevitably have you paying them real money instead.
- Comment on Popup Ads in Your Pickup Truck? RAM Trucks Now Feature Scammy Ads on the Center Display 1 week ago:
Of course Stellantis was first to do it
- Comment on The number of times a person mentions ChatGPT in a random conversation might work as a rule of thumb to measure her intelligence (inverse proportion, of course) 1 week ago:
I mean, a rule of thumb is more of a guideline that acknowledges the existence of exceptions
- Comment on Is it safe to assume the guy i went out on a date with, just wants to sleep with me? 2 weeks ago:
He said he’s pretty well off. If he’s in a different financial situation than you he may be cognizant of that. Also, not that I need to tell you if you live there, but customs in Japan are all kinds of weird. That could be related too.
- Comment on It's time to boycott U.S. digital services! Here's a chart to help you do so: 2 weeks ago:
US Digital Services is a very specific thing already, and not in the way you’re saying. It was basically hijacked to turn into DOGE. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a boycott of that too (whatever that may look like) but… This isn’t that.
- Comment on Whatever happened to the blockchain/smart contract 'revolution' we were told about? 2 weeks ago:
Hold up, I’m not trying to talk about crypto, certainly not in a wall of text. You said the distributed ledger has its uses outside of crypto and gave some examples. If those examples were truly clamoring for some kind of distributed ledger solution, why haven’t they implemented it by now? I can’t imagine crypto distracted that much to make it impossible, there must be another reason.
- Comment on Whatever happened to the blockchain/smart contract 'revolution' we were told about? 2 weeks ago:
But how much of that really demands a Blockchain solution in favor of what’s used currently? Aside from some developers’ time, nothing about crypto prevented what you described from happening and (presumably) it never did come to be.
- Comment on Whatever happened to the blockchain/smart contract 'revolution' we were told about? 2 weeks ago:
And what exactly should it have been used for?
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Kinda sorta. Air conditioners seemed like a more common phrase to reference, so I just clarified that it’s the same thing.
Arguably it would be cheaper to cool than to heat, because the whole point is to move heat from one place to another. The heat is easy to collect in a hot house vs a cold winter outdoor setting, and you probably don’t need to change the temperature as much (if you target, say, 20C and you experience 35 in summer and -5 in winter, you have a 15 degree difference in one direction and 25 in another)
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Heat pumps are air conditioners that can be run backwards. That’s it. You’re running an air conditioner, and it’s summer.
- Comment on The windows XP bench 3 weeks ago:
How high are you right now?
- Comment on Vibe coding takes the "science" out of computer science 3 weeks ago:
Computer vibence
- Comment on The company behind Candy Crush is preparing to lay off around 200 employees amid a push to replace designers, researchers, and creative staff with AI. 3 weeks ago:
Normally I’m not a fan of AI slop, but it feels like a perfect fit here
- Comment on Ice cream trucks still around? 3 weeks ago:
Oscar Meijer Weiner
That’s not how you spell my bologna’s second name
- Comment on It's weird how we say "go to sleep" as if sleep is a place 4 weeks ago:
Go poop.
- Comment on Why does Dairy Queen sell food? 1 month ago:
Oh, for sure. Especially during pumpkin pie blizzard season. Plus they always seem to feed my FOMO with some other flavor so I go twice during that season alone
- Comment on Why does Dairy Queen sell food? 1 month ago:
Here’s the fun part: while you’re all talking about their ice cream, technically it’s not legal to call their product that. You won’t see it anywhere on the menu. I think it has to do with the milk/cream/egg/sugar amounts? There may not be egg at all, but can’t remember for sure.
Anyway, all you’ll ever see on the menu is “soft serve”
- Comment on The "standard" car charger is usually overkill—but your electrician might not know that [32:26] 1 month ago:
The “120 volt cable”, assuming you mean NM-B aka Romex, is rated for up to 600 volts if you look at it closely. It is absolutely acceptable to use that wiring for a 240V circuit, as long as you wrap colored (not green) electrical tape around the white neutral wire to indicate it’s another hot.
Yes, there are 3-conductor (plus ground) wires one can also use for switches and 240V circuits with neutral. That neutral can be used to have 120V and 240V together (your oven may use 240V coils, but the light bulb probably runs on 120). Doesn’t mean you need to have it, if your 240V circuit doesn’t need a neutral. My air compressor is just a motor that can run at 240, no neutral needed, and its outlet is wired up with the same kind of Romex used for a 120 right next to it (with black tape to indicate a second hot)
- Comment on The "standard" car charger is usually overkill—but your electrician might not know that [32:26] 1 month ago:
Dat toaster
- Comment on If youre bi do you have to prove it? 2 months ago:
If you like both vanilla and chocolate ice cream do you have to prove that?
- Comment on Driving through Nebraska twice nearly broke me. The people who live there must be among the hardest motherfuckers alive. 2 months ago:
Eastern Colorado might as well be west Kansas. Both areas I mentioned are in eastern Colorado.
- Comment on Driving through Nebraska twice nearly broke me. The people who live there must be among the hardest motherfuckers alive. 2 months ago:
I drive through it a few times a year, living in Denver but have family in Minnesota/Wisconsin. As crazy as it sounds, at least you have small towns and corn fields along I-80. There are some areas in Colorado (stretches of I-76, US-287 between Hugo and Kit Carson) where there’s just… Nothing. Like, you’d be surprised at how much more empty a corn field can be, and it totally does weird you out how far you are from a simple gas station, let alone a familiar McDonald’s (neither of those towns have that; I believe you’d have to go from Limon to Lamar to get from one McDonald’s to the next on that road, which is almost 2 hours)
- Comment on Holy shit I got Retro Achievements working on my Pi Gameboy! Lmao this is so cool. I get to achievement hunt in my favorite game, earthbound after 30 years. Amazing 2 months ago:
Especially in the last month or so I’ve been noticing how uninspiring technology has been. I used to love seeing whatever the gadget of the season was at Target while my mom shopped. Now it’s all… Phone cords, and um, printer ink cartridges. The same wireless speakers we bought years ago. Nothing about it is cool anymore!