Author Topic: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)  (Read 5086768 times)

bluebelle

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6250 on: April 26, 2019, 10:12:33 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

Just Joe

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6251 on: April 26, 2019, 12:01:16 PM »
As with pretty much everything, the lobbyists get in the way of actual efficient governance.

I wonder if the "Smaller Gov't" party will ever rail against lobbyists? Or will like several other themes important to them - will they say one thing and act the opposite?

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6252 on: April 26, 2019, 12:46:19 PM »
As with pretty much everything, the lobbyists get in the way of actual efficient governance.

I wonder if the "Smaller Gov't" party will ever rail against lobbyists? Or will like several other themes important to them - will they say one thing and act the opposite?
For a long time I've been convinced that if we want to remove money from politics, we need to first remove the politics from money. IOW if there weren't as much to gain from lobbying, there'd be less lobbying

OtherJen

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6253 on: April 26, 2019, 08:33:37 PM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6254 on: April 26, 2019, 11:47:41 PM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.

LennStar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6255 on: April 27, 2019, 01:22:10 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.

just fyi:
Alexa does not "activate itself". Alexa is always on, always listening. And sometimes sending what it hears not only to other computers, but to humans who listen to it to "improve service".
 

dragoncar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6256 on: April 27, 2019, 01:26:30 AM »
Ok google?  More like Nokay google.  Amirite?

However, my dog does a much worse job of playing my favorite pandora station.  Believe me, I’ve tried.  Guess I’ll stick with alexa

Morning Glory

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6257 on: April 27, 2019, 03:54:28 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

I saw an ad for something like that. It even had the exercise lady from the beginning of the book. The fact that there is actually a food called Soylent also boggles my mind. Who buys this stuff?  Does nobody read anymore?

I have been creeped out by my phone giving me ads for things that I talked about with friends in person before. I don't like it but not sure how to stop it other than giving up the smart phone altogether.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6258 on: April 27, 2019, 04:07:40 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

I saw an ad for something like that. It even had the exercise lady from the beginning of the book. The fact that there is actually a food called Soylent also boggles my mind. Who buys this stuff?  Does nobody read anymore?

I have been creeped out by my phone giving me ads for things that I talked about with friends in person before. I don't like it but not sure how to stop it other than giving up the smart phone altogether.

In 1984, it was the government listening in to what was said in your house, with the purpose of arresting you and reprogramming you think differently. Moderne spying devices from facebook, google, apple, etc work by detailed algorithms who try to discover your patterns, to give you personalized content and commercials. You won't get arrested for it. But I do agree that it is pretty scary. As soon as I ever google once on some subject, facebook starts showing me adds about that subject for a long time...

rantk81

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6259 on: April 27, 2019, 06:46:23 AM »
But I do agree that it is pretty scary. As soon as I ever google once on some subject, facebook starts showing me adds about that subject for a long time...

Some strategies to deal with this (if you are willing to go out of your way, and deal with some inconvenience): 

1) Use a browser with cookies disabled (e.g. incognito mode), so that your browser doesn't store data that can be retrieved later, and

2) Use a trusted VPN provider, so these spying sites can't cross reference your browsing patterns by IP address. (it will be aggregated with a bunch of traffic from others, so pretty anonymized/scrubbed in the end.)


Parizade

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6260 on: April 27, 2019, 07:06:47 AM »
I have been creeped out by my phone giving me ads for things that I talked about with friends in person before. I don't like it but not sure how to stop it other than giving up the smart phone altogether.

I went over to a neighbors house once for a glass of wine and she told me about some good quality socks she had bought for her son in law at a local sale. I did NOT have my smart phone with me, but the next day ads for those socks popped up on my facebook feed. Her smart phone must have  picked up our conversation and somehow recognized that she was talking to me. That was the creepiest experience I've had with Big Brother.

Taran Wanderer

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6261 on: April 27, 2019, 04:57:15 PM »
While I use Chrome, I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine, and I installed a DuckDuckGo plug-in to reduce traceability in Chrome. Still need to pursue a VPN. Anyone have experience with ProtonMail or something like it?

Tom Bri

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6262 on: April 27, 2019, 08:10:58 PM »
I have been creeped out by my phone giving me ads for things that I talked about with friends in person before. I don't like it but not sure how to stop it other than giving up the smart phone altogether.

I went over to a neighbors house once for a glass of wine and she told me about some good quality socks she had bought for her son in law at a local sale. I did NOT have my smart phone with me, but the next day ads for those socks popped up on my facebook feed. Her smart phone must have  picked up our conversation and somehow recognized that she was talking to me. That was the creepiest experience I've had with Big Brother.

Was discussing buying furnace filters with my wife a few weeks ago. Next time I opened Fac book there was an ad for our exact size furnace filter. We don't even own a smartphone.

dragoncar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6263 on: April 27, 2019, 09:06:57 PM »
One time I had a dream about an old friend, and the next day I saw him on the street!  That’s why I don’t buy pillows anymore.  Big pillow is listening to your DREAMS

Parizade

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6264 on: April 28, 2019, 09:03:40 AM »
I reached FI a couple of years ago, and my COL is so low I don't have to pay much attention. I've set up my checking account to accept ebills. I get an email notification when an ebill arrives, it takes about 2 minutes for me to log into my checking account and send a payment. Since I am retiring in just a few weeks I logged into my account to check balances and possibly move things around. Between my direct deposit paycheck, annual bonus/raise, and tax returns from Federal and state my checking account balance was outrageous. Seriously I could pay off my mortgage and have money left over. I did move it from checking into savings but I really need to find a savings account that pays better interest or invest that pile of money.

MPP = once you become established in a Mustachian lifestyle money starts to pile up like old magazines if you don't pay attention. It takes some diligence to keep those little green employees productive.

SwordGuy

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6265 on: April 28, 2019, 10:13:45 AM »
I reached FI a couple of years ago, and my COL is so low I don't have to pay much attention. I've set up my checking account to accept ebills. I get an email notification when an ebill arrives, it takes about 2 minutes for me to log into my checking account and send a payment. Since I am retiring in just a few weeks I logged into my account to check balances and possibly move things around. Between my direct deposit paycheck, annual bonus/raise, and tax returns from Federal and state my checking account balance was outrageous. Seriously I could pay off my mortgage and have money left over. I did move it from checking into savings but I really need to find a savings account that pays better interest or invest that pile of money.

MPP = once you become established in a Mustachian lifestyle money starts to pile up like old magazines if you don't pay attention. It takes some diligence to keep those little green employees productive.

Put the investments on auto-pilot.  Be aggressive.   We set ours to auto-invest 5 days after payday.   Occasionally, if we got a big bill, we just stopped investing for a month or two.  Vanguard makes that super easy.  Solves that problem very nicely.

Parizade

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6266 on: April 28, 2019, 11:28:37 AM »
I reached FI a couple of years ago, and my COL is so low I don't have to pay much attention. I've set up my checking account to accept ebills. I get an email notification when an ebill arrives, it takes about 2 minutes for me to log into my checking account and send a payment. Since I am retiring in just a few weeks I logged into my account to check balances and possibly move things around. Between my direct deposit paycheck, annual bonus/raise, and tax returns from Federal and state my checking account balance was outrageous. Seriously I could pay off my mortgage and have money left over. I did move it from checking into savings but I really need to find a savings account that pays better interest or invest that pile of money.

MPP = once you become established in a Mustachian lifestyle money starts to pile up like old magazines if you don't pay attention. It takes some diligence to keep those little green employees productive.

Put the investments on auto-pilot.  Be aggressive.   We set ours to auto-invest 5 days after payday.   Occasionally, if we got a big bill, we just stopped investing for a month or two.  Vanguard makes that super easy.  Solves that problem very nicely.

I only have 2 or 3 more paychecks before I retire so it's a bit late for me to set that up but what a great idea.

SwordGuy

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6267 on: April 28, 2019, 01:43:48 PM »
I reached FI a couple of years ago, and my COL is so low I don't have to pay much attention. I've set up my checking account to accept ebills. I get an email notification when an ebill arrives, it takes about 2 minutes for me to log into my checking account and send a payment. Since I am retiring in just a few weeks I logged into my account to check balances and possibly move things around. Between my direct deposit paycheck, annual bonus/raise, and tax returns from Federal and state my checking account balance was outrageous. Seriously I could pay off my mortgage and have money left over. I did move it from checking into savings but I really need to find a savings account that pays better interest or invest that pile of money.

MPP = once you become established in a Mustachian lifestyle money starts to pile up like old magazines if you don't pay attention. It takes some diligence to keep those little green employees productive.

Put the investments on auto-pilot.  Be aggressive.   We set ours to auto-invest 5 days after payday.   Occasionally, if we got a big bill, we just stopped investing for a month or two.  Vanguard makes that super easy.  Solves that problem very nicely.

I only have 2 or 3 more paychecks before I retire so it's a bit late for me to set that up but what a great idea.
@Parizade , see, I'm SO helpful that you found ANOTHER mustachian people problem you have!!!

Parizade

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6268 on: April 28, 2019, 03:09:53 PM »
I reached FI a couple of years ago, and my COL is so low I don't have to pay much attention. I've set up my checking account to accept ebills. I get an email notification when an ebill arrives, it takes about 2 minutes for me to log into my checking account and send a payment. Since I am retiring in just a few weeks I logged into my account to check balances and possibly move things around. Between my direct deposit paycheck, annual bonus/raise, and tax returns from Federal and state my checking account balance was outrageous. Seriously I could pay off my mortgage and have money left over. I did move it from checking into savings but I really need to find a savings account that pays better interest or invest that pile of money.

MPP = once you become established in a Mustachian lifestyle money starts to pile up like old magazines if you don't pay attention. It takes some diligence to keep those little green employees productive.

Put the investments on auto-pilot.  Be aggressive.   We set ours to auto-invest 5 days after payday.   Occasionally, if we got a big bill, we just stopped investing for a month or two.  Vanguard makes that super easy.  Solves that problem very nicely.

I only have 2 or 3 more paychecks before I retire so it's a bit late for me to set that up but what a great idea.
@Parizade , see, I'm SO helpful that you found ANOTHER mustachian people problem you have!!!
Indeed @SwordGuy MPPs are the only problems I really don't mind finding so thank you for pointing out yet another!

dcheesi

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6269 on: April 30, 2019, 10:52:50 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

I saw an ad for something like that. It even had the exercise lady from the beginning of the book. The fact that there is actually a food called Soylent also boggles my mind. Who buys this stuff?  Does nobody read anymore?

I have been creeped out by my phone giving me ads for things that I talked about with friends in person before. I don't like it but not sure how to stop it other than giving up the smart phone altogether.

In 1984, it was the government listening in to what was said in your house, with the purpose of arresting you and reprogramming you think differently. Moderne spying devices from facebook, google, apple, etc work by detailed algorithms who try to discover your patterns, to give you personalized content and commercials. You won't get arrested for it. But I do agree that it is pretty scary. As soon as I ever google once on some subject, facebook starts showing me adds about that subject for a long time...


zolotiyeruki

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6270 on: April 30, 2019, 12:00:37 PM »
In 1984, it was the government listening in to what was said in your house, with the purpose of arresting you and reprogramming you think differently. Moderne spying devices from facebook, google, apple, etc work by detailed algorithms who try to discover your patterns, to give you personalized content and commercials. You won't get arrested for it. But I do agree that it is pretty scary. As soon as I ever google once on some subject, facebook starts showing me adds about that subject for a long time...
Unfortunately, it's a bit more insidious than that.  It doesn't only affect what ads you see, but it also affects what prices you see.  Amazon, specifically, has been caught showing different prices to different users.  All that data can/will be used to maximize their profit from you.

kanga1622

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6271 on: April 30, 2019, 12:06:40 PM »
See? This is why biweekly salary is confusing and silly for workers with an annual salary.* The number if work hours is never going to be exactly the same due to weekends, Leap Years, etc, and the fact that there aren't an even number of weeks in a year means that the paycycle will be off sometimes. Different companies are going to deal with all these problems different ways and none of them make much sense, even if you do technically get all the pay you're owed eventually.

The whole point of being salaried and exempt from overtime is not have to worry about time worked down to this level of detail.

*I can definitely see the benefits of keeping the paycycle an even number of days for hourly workers, though.

Hourly employee here. Believe it or not, I'd like monthly paychecks as well. Literally all of my obligations are paid on a monthly basis, and I'm tired of the headache of my paychecks moving to whatever flippin' day of the month they feel like being on. I'd rather just get all my money on one day, and blast the auto pay to everyone a couple days after and just be done with it.

(I would also accept being paid on two set days of the month like the 1st and 15th or whatever).

DH and I work for the same employer. We get paid once a month on the last working day of the month. Then we push through payments to all the utilities, mortgage, savings, etc and leave the budgeted spending amounts in the checking account for use throughout the month. We’ve been on this pay cycle for over a dozen years and I love it! DH has a side hustle right now that pays every two weeks and I forget when those paydays are since they are constantly changing. Good thing that income is moved into an IRA so we don’t really have to worry too much about the exact date it hits - just transfer at the end of the month. 

Alternatepriorities

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6272 on: April 30, 2019, 01:06:01 PM »
Quote
If I’m visiting your house, we’ll have a boring day if we play board games, but a great one if we rake the leaves and dig some trenches for an irrigation system.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/09/20/seek-not-to-be-entertained/

Last night my wife and I stayed with one of her coworkers in another town. There was wine and conversation inside and a pile of unsplit firewood outside... I'm really not antisocial just "different". Our hostess does appreciate it.

Loren Ver

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6273 on: April 30, 2019, 01:28:49 PM »
Quote
If I’m visiting your house, we’ll have a boring day if we play board games, but a great one if we rake the leaves and dig some trenches for an irrigation system.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/09/20/seek-not-to-be-entertained/

Last night my wife and I stayed with one of her coworkers in another town. There was wine and conversation inside and a pile of unsplit firewood outside... I'm really not antisocial just "different". Our hostess does appreciate it.

Haha.  This really made me smile.  My DH is similar he would rather be doing than "visiting".

LennStar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6274 on: April 30, 2019, 01:33:57 PM »
Unfortunately, it's a bit more insidious than that.  It doesn't only affect what ads you see, but it also affects what prices you see.  Amazon, specifically, has been caught showing different prices to different users.  All that data can/will be used to maximize their profit from you.

Hint: Don't go online-shopping on an Apple product.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6275 on: April 30, 2019, 01:57:02 PM »
Quote
If I’m visiting your house, we’ll have a boring day if we play board games, but a great one if we rake the leaves and dig some trenches for an irrigation system.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/09/20/seek-not-to-be-entertained/

Last night my wife and I stayed with one of her coworkers in another town. There was wine and conversation inside and a pile of unsplit firewood outside... I'm really not antisocial just "different". Our hostess does appreciate it.

Haha.  This really made me smile.  My DH is similar he would rather be doing than "visiting".
Heh, I resemble this remark!

Hirondelle

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6276 on: April 30, 2019, 02:13:29 PM »
On this forum I regularly post financial information and my home currency is euro. However, I bought my current computer while living abroad and somehow it does not have a euro sign (€). I've tried virtually every 'how to get a euro sign on my keyboard' sign but still haven't found one that works. As posting in $ feels inaccurate I have to either copy-paste the euro sign from an old post of myself (e.g. in the race threads this is easy) or to go to Google, type in euro sign and copy paste it from there.

The effort I do to keep my financial info accurate here..

dragoncar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6277 on: April 30, 2019, 03:46:07 PM »
On this forum I regularly post financial information and my home currency is euro. However, I bought my current computer while living abroad and somehow it does not have a euro sign (€). I've tried virtually every 'how to get a euro sign on my keyboard' sign but still haven't found one that works. As posting in $ feels inaccurate I have to either copy-paste the euro sign from an old post of myself (e.g. in the race threads this is easy) or to go to Google, type in euro sign and copy paste it from there.

The effort I do to keep my financial info accurate here..

Which OS is this?  There’s definitely a way

Alternatepriorities

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6278 on: April 30, 2019, 04:05:58 PM »
Quote
If I’m visiting your house, we’ll have a boring day if we play board games, but a great one if we rake the leaves and dig some trenches for an irrigation system.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/09/20/seek-not-to-be-entertained/

Last night my wife and I stayed with one of her coworkers in another town. There was wine and conversation inside and a pile of unsplit firewood outside... I'm really not antisocial just "different". Our hostess does appreciate it.

Haha.  This really made me smile.  My DH is similar he would rather be doing than "visiting".

That’s a great way to put it.

APowers

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6279 on: April 30, 2019, 06:43:04 PM »
On this forum I regularly post financial information and my home currency is euro. However, I bought my current computer while living abroad and somehow it does not have a euro sign (€). I've tried virtually every 'how to get a euro sign on my keyboard' sign but still haven't found one that works. As posting in $ feels inaccurate I have to either copy-paste the euro sign from an old post of myself (e.g. in the race threads this is easy) or to go to Google, type in euro sign and copy paste it from there.

The effort I do to keep my financial info accurate here..

Which OS is this?  There’s definitely a way

Press and hold the alt key. Then type 0128. Then release the alt key. Boom. €€€€€

dragoncar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6280 on: April 30, 2019, 07:01:23 PM »
On this forum I regularly post financial information and my home currency is euro. However, I bought my current computer while living abroad and somehow it does not have a euro sign (€). I've tried virtually every 'how to get a euro sign on my keyboard' sign but still haven't found one that works. As posting in $ feels inaccurate I have to either copy-paste the euro sign from an old post of myself (e.g. in the race threads this is easy) or to go to Google, type in euro sign and copy paste it from there.

The effort I do to keep my financial info accurate here..

Which OS is this?  There’s definitely a way

Press and hold the alt key. Then type 0128. Then release the alt key. Boom. €€€€€

AFAIK this only works with a numpad and there could be easier ways based on the Os.  On windows 10, eg you can switch to the international keyboard and right alt+5

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6281 on: April 30, 2019, 10:40:18 PM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.
OTOH,  our water heater is so far from the kitchen that it takes forever to get hot water, so we have a [very expensive] recirculation pump that is connected to a timer. Problem is, I'm FIRE and don't follow a predictable schedule. Our kid gave us that google hockey puck and installed it near the kitchen. Now I just okay Google to turn the hot water on. This reduces the amount of time the recirc pump operates, saving $. My MPP is remembering to tell it to turn the water off.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6282 on: May 01, 2019, 12:06:10 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.
OTOH,  our water heater is so far from the kitchen that it takes forever to get hot water, so we have a [very expensive] recirculation pump that is connected to a timer. Problem is, I'm FIRE and don't follow a predictable schedule. Our kid gave us that google hockey puck and installed it near the kitchen. Now I just okay Google to turn the hot water on. This reduces the amount of time the recirc pump operates, saving $. My MPP is remembering to tell it to turn the water off.

Look into IFTTT.  I don't personally use it, but it should theoretically be able to turn the pump back off after a certain amount of time.  Or like it could be part of the program when you leave the house. 

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6283 on: May 01, 2019, 12:16:02 AM »
On this forum I regularly post financial information and my home currency is euro. However, I bought my current computer while living abroad and somehow it does not have a euro sign (€). I've tried virtually every 'how to get a euro sign on my keyboard' sign but still haven't found one that works. As posting in $ feels inaccurate I have to either copy-paste the euro sign from an old post of myself (e.g. in the race threads this is easy) or to go to Google, type in euro sign and copy paste it from there.

The effort I do to keep my financial info accurate here..

Which OS is this?  There’s definitely a way

Press and hold the alt key. Then type 0128. Then release the alt key. Boom. €€€€€

AFAIK this only works with a numpad and there could be easier ways based on the Os.  On windows 10, eg you can switch to the international keyboard and right alt+5

THANK YOU! You've basically solved all my problems now. I never realized that my laptop simply didn't have my native language installed, neither as a language nor the keyboard. I used the alt + 5 thing on my previous laptop and I could never figure out why it didn't work on this one. Now I can talk about €€€€€€€. And I can add döts ánd öther things ön lëtters àgâin :).

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6284 on: May 01, 2019, 01:27:15 AM »

THANK YOU! You've basically solved all my problems now. I never realized that my laptop simply didn't have my native language installed, neither as a language nor the keyboard. I used the alt + 5 thing on my previous laptop and I could never figure out why it didn't work on this one. Now I can talk about €€€€€€€. And I can add döts ánd öther things ön lëtters àgâin :).

€lcome

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6285 on: May 01, 2019, 08:20:39 AM »
Payday was yesterday. I checked our balances and called my wife from my work desk to whisper "The money, it piles up so fast..."

It isn't that we make that much money, its just that we don't spend that much money.

And I can't tell anyone but her and you folks.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6286 on: May 01, 2019, 08:23:29 AM »

THANK YOU! You've basically solved all my problems now. I never realized that my laptop simply didn't have my native language installed, neither as a language nor the keyboard. I used the alt + 5 thing on my previous laptop and I could never figure out why it didn't work on this one. Now I can talk about €€€€€€€. And I can add döts ánd öther things ön lëtters àgâin :).

€lcome

おかえりなさい

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6287 on: May 01, 2019, 08:43:46 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.
OTOH,  our water heater is so far from the kitchen that it takes forever to get hot water, so we have a [very expensive] recirculation pump that is connected to a timer. Problem is, I'm FIRE and don't follow a predictable schedule. Our kid gave us that google hockey puck and installed it near the kitchen. Now I just okay Google to turn the hot water on. This reduces the amount of time the recirc pump operates, saving $. My MPP is remembering to tell it to turn the water off.

Look into IFTTT.  I don't personally use it, but it should theoretically be able to turn the pump back off after a certain amount of time.  Or like it could be part of the program when you leave the house.

You could also retrofit the recirculation pump to be a push-button based system. Then you push a button, it pumps water until there's hot water in the loop, and promptly shuts off. Traditional push-button systems would require wiring from the button to the pump, but it sounds like your pump is connected to the wireless network. Maybe you could find a wireless button + thermocouple solution.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6288 on: May 01, 2019, 08:54:37 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.
OTOH,  our water heater is so far from the kitchen that it takes forever to get hot water, so we have a [very expensive] recirculation pump that is connected to a timer. Problem is, I'm FIRE and don't follow a predictable schedule. Our kid gave us that google hockey puck and installed it near the kitchen. Now I just okay Google to turn the hot water on. This reduces the amount of time the recirc pump operates, saving $. My MPP is remembering to tell it to turn the water off.

Your MPP may be leading my down to a solution for my MPP!  My kitchen is far from my water heater so it takes a long time for water to get there.  Now i am looking into recirculating pumps and related systems....

Thanks!

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6289 on: May 01, 2019, 09:06:56 AM »
Alexa: I read 1984. Besides, when we lived aboard, as Alexa gained in popularity, our home internet consisted of 1 or 2 GB each on our cheap phone plans.
I love this!   Biggest reason I will never have a smart home.   But so few people have read 1984, I rarely use that reference.  People don't understand that Alexa is always 'listening', and there aren't adequate privacy rules.  Plus, I don't want to hand my security over to a third party.

I won’t have an Alexa or similar device in my house. A friend and I recently had a very creepy experience at her house when her Alexa self-activated (we hadn’t said “Alexa”) in the middle of our convo.

I also don’t understand why someone would want a TV with a built-in camera. Isn’t that a telescreen?

Agreed, I feel the same about Siri and Ok Google.
OTOH,  our water heater is so far from the kitchen that it takes forever to get hot water, so we have a [very expensive] recirculation pump that is connected to a timer. Problem is, I'm FIRE and don't follow a predictable schedule. Our kid gave us that google hockey puck and installed it near the kitchen. Now I just okay Google to turn the hot water on. This reduces the amount of time the recirc pump operates, saving $. My MPP is remembering to tell it to turn the water off.

Look into IFTTT.  I don't personally use it, but it should theoretically be able to turn the pump back off after a certain amount of time.  Or like it could be part of the program when you leave the house.

I use IFTTT to run a couple of things.  The problem I've found is that there aren't very many really great ways to set a timer using it.  There are some hacky things like setting a google calendar event 30 minutes in the future and then using that event a trigger to turn it off.  I mainly use it to get emails from the house when things go wrong.  Power off, water leak, etc.  My house has an email address specifically for those kinds of notifications. 

Just Joe

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6290 on: May 01, 2019, 09:12:41 AM »
I use IFTTT to only charge my devices to about 80% which I've read makes the lithium battery age better.

Plug in a switched outlet, plug in my charger to that and then tell the software to switch off the outlet in an hour or two or several depending on the device.

Also, its a safety for my ebike charger. If I forget to unplug it, the timer will do that for me.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6291 on: May 01, 2019, 06:09:16 PM »
Payday was yesterday. I checked our balances and called my wife from my work desk to whisper "The money, it piles up so fast..."

It isn't that we make that much money, its just that we don't spend that much money.

And I can't tell anyone but her and you folks.

This made me snicker. Good job!

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6292 on: May 01, 2019, 06:50:48 PM »
I’ve considered a heating loop, but it would never make financial sense given I only waste a few gallons of water waiting for it to get warm. I usually will try to repurpose that water for something else but it’s not always possible.  Would be really nice to have a seconds drain that just goes outside to the plants

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6293 on: May 02, 2019, 04:55:39 AM »
Payday was yesterday. I checked our balances and called my wife from my work desk to whisper "The money, it piles up so fast..."

It isn't that we make that much money, its just that we don't spend that much money.

And I can't tell anyone but her and you folks.

Love this! 

So true.  I was talking to my 82 year old dad the other day, and he was "complaining" (in a very MPP way) how the money piles up in his checking account until he remembers to shovel it out into investments and CDs a couple times a year.  His total income (SS and a tiny pension) is $1250 a month, and he's living on a lot less than that.  You rock, Dad.     

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6294 on: May 02, 2019, 06:43:39 AM »
Payday was yesterday. I checked our balances and called my wife from my work desk to whisper "The money, it piles up so fast..."

It isn't that we make that much money, its just that we don't spend that much money.

And I can't tell anyone but her and you folks.

Love this! 

So true.  I was talking to my 82 year old dad the other day, and he was "complaining" (in a very MPP way) how the money piles up in his checking account until he remembers to shovel it out into investments and CDs a couple times a year.  His total income (SS and a tiny pension) is $1250 a month, and he's living on a lot less than that.  You rock, Dad.     

What a great role model you have!

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6295 on: May 02, 2019, 08:38:43 AM »
So true.  I was talking to my 82 year old dad the other day, and he was "complaining" (in a very MPP way) how the money piles up in his checking account until he remembers to shovel it out into investments and CDs a couple times a year.  His total income (SS and a tiny pension) is $1250 a month, and he's living on a lot less than that.  You rock, Dad.     

What a great role model you have!

Yeah - your Dad is doing it right - savings even with a modest income.

Its crazy to ponder that with a little planning - and luck (lots of luck) - we will always have enough money to take care of at least life's basics b/c of savings, investments, etc. Still have to reach retirement but we can do that.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6296 on: May 02, 2019, 10:53:57 AM »
I’ve considered a heating loop, but it would never make financial sense given I only waste a few gallons of water waiting for it to get warm. I usually will try to repurpose that water for something else but it’s not always possible.  Would be really nice to have a seconds drain that just goes outside to the plants
I ran the numbers once, and it's way less waste than that, even.  Our furthest shower wastes about half a gallon waiting for hot water, and our house is not exactly small.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6297 on: May 02, 2019, 11:56:48 AM »
I’ve considered a heating loop, but it would never make financial sense given I only waste a few gallons of water waiting for it to get warm. I usually will try to repurpose that water for something else but it’s not always possible.  Would be really nice to have a seconds drain that just goes outside to the plants
I ran the numbers once, and it's way less waste than that, even.  Our furthest shower wastes about half a gallon waiting for hot water, and our house is not exactly small.

The waste doesn't concern me, it's the time wasted.  I have to run my kitchen faucet for like 3 full minutes before it gets hot.  It's insanely frustrating to have to use cold water, or if I really need it hot and it hasn't been used in hours I have to just leave it running and walk away so it can warm up.  I don't understand it either, because my kitchen sink is only like 20 feet away from the water heater in the basement.  I don't understand how it takes so long for hot water to make it's way up.  The shower is further but warms up much faster because it has a much higher flow rate, but that still takes a few minutes.  And it takes about 10 minutes for the pipes to be fully saturated so every shower is a game of finding the correct setting, then a minute later adjusting it slightly cooler as the hot water fraction of the stream has gotten much hotter, then a minute later adjusting it again.  Or I just blast full on hot water for a few minutes to saturate the line, then dial in the setting I want.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6298 on: May 02, 2019, 01:05:17 PM »

The waste doesn't concern me, it's the time wasted.  I have to run my kitchen faucet for like 3 full minutes before it gets hot.  It's insanely frustrating to have to use cold water, or if I really need it hot and it hasn't been used in hours I have to just leave it running and walk away so it can warm up.  I don't understand it either, because my kitchen sink is only like 20 feet away from the water heater in the basement.  I don't understand how it takes so long for hot water to make it's way up. 


Our old home had had a water filtration unit added into the water flow.  The hot water heater was at the back of the house, 10 ft from the kitchen sink.  The big filtration unit was added to the crawlspace in the front of the house.   So, the water was piped to the front of the house and then back to the kitchen.   Except before we moved in, the filtration unit had been removed.   The in and out pipes were joined up so the water still made that long trip.   Took us awhile to figure out what was going on.

Hope that helps!

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #6299 on: May 02, 2019, 01:40:41 PM »
Payday was yesterday. I checked our balances and called my wife from my work desk to whisper "The money, it piles up so fast..."

It isn't that we make that much money, its just that we don't spend that much money.

And I can't tell anyone but her and you folks.

This made me snicker. Good job!

I had that exact same thing a few days ago when I reached 10k! Could only celebrate that with my partner and on MMM.

My MPP: my senior coworkers, who make 2-3 times as much as I do, often complain about how life is so expensive. I find it very hard to emphasize as I have half of my income left over at the end of the month and I earn the parttime equivalent of an average income.