Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Lockdown City

[eamonhonda]

Who the fuck teaches cursive writing to 5yo's, this is great craic altogether. Daddy is a cursive "g" a hanging, standing or sitting letter? Fook knows says I.

Clearly hanging at the same time. Cant believe they still teach that craic

[Murdrum]

Interesting one in the NBA the other night. Seth Curry-bro of more famous Steph- was on the bench for the Philadelphia 76ers against Brooklyn Nets. Mid game, he disappeared from the bench after he had a test come back positive during the game.

The team isn't required to isolate, though they are without about half their team for various reasons including Covid. Opponents don't need to isolate either just continuing stringent testing.

No fans yet but I think they might be around come playoff time this summer. Not sure what is going on in other sports but based on that, to be deemed a close contact, you must need to meet some very specific criteria.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Oh give over yourself. Hyperbolic comparisons should be beneath you
If you cannot see any strategic advantage, no matter how small, in china hosting that platform you are either being wilfully ignorant or just plain ignorant.
The single superpower environment we have grown up in is coming to an end, it's in the other players benefit to facilitate that end.

See thats the misunderstanding right there. That China is trying to win a political battle with the west. China is trying to win an economic battle with the west so they can win a political battle in the east. You win an economic battle by being everyone's best friend. They absolutely and completely do not want to be see as an antagonist with the west for another few decades. Thats precisely why they wouldn't do something as silly as hosting an organisation directed at American insurgency. The fact you even think this is a possibility is mad.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Running the site with the web console open should give you an idea where the issue is.
For the record, I 100% share the pain on this, I've found my usage dwindling a little as I can't be dealing with waiting times as I alt+tab as working mostly.

What I generally do is scrub the sites cache as often as I can, when I notice the slow down. The vbulletin engine has changed significantly and it polls almost constantly instead of statically waiting for input.
It's a weird design that, to be honest, I don't 100% understand.

On the mobile front, there's one or two options that's I still need to commit time to investigating.
Dom has a few ideas of his own that we have discussed and hopefully with Kev's vital technical input we can get it sorted

You're very good. I'd imagine its not like there's much free time available to sort it out, what with the new house, job, pandemic, being a teacher. So I was more putting the thought out there. Appreciate it. The bolded bit is definitely a thing though. That it creates a bit of a friction to posting.

[Wombatman]

Who the fuck teaches cursive writing to 5yo's, this is great craic altogether. Daddy is a cursive "g" a hanging, standing or sitting letter? Fook knows says I.

Don't get me started on that anachronistic crap. The little shits should be learning how to use a keyboard efficiently and how to code. Don't mind all that scribbling.

[Elshambles]

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

We have the kids competing to become high-level wizards on this https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/ winning maths contests helps you progress up the game and buy little virtual accessories and collect pets etc. Its quite smart. Like the five year old this morning was looking at 35 ___ 45, whats the missing number in that sequence? Its not too light a task, I don't think, for a five year old, but they just get caught up in the game and forget they are accidentally learning. The nine year old was having to read charts and interpret the information. Its tailored to each age. They give decent instructions for the first few of a set of number exercises too, so the kids don't run around demanding help when something new crops up.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

We've tried a few of these before and they haven't all worked in terms of keeping the kids attention. This one is notable in that it does actually work. A few others were mathseeds for maths, readingeggs for reading, and codeSpark Academy for coding. The coding one is quite cool though so we might go back to it.

[Raoul Duke III]

Good to see an Irish-led company doing its bit in the Trump cancelling.

And the PGA have cancelled some golf tournament at one of his courses. That will really piss him off.

[Wombatman]

Beware when kids say I don't know how to do such and such bit of school work. Its often code for, I'm not prepared to put in the effort required to gain the understanding.

They suspect you will end up doing it for them, although you think you are explaining it. I made this mistake and I'm still recovering for it. I'm practically doing the leaving again this year.

If they say they don't know how to do something, sometime its better to say OK, maybe spend more time at it or ask the teacher, and then walk off. Helping them to bypass the 'figuring out' defeats the purpose.

[hotspur]

Clearly hanging at the same time. Cant believe they still teach that craic

You probably have cursive g's latest album.

[Denny Crane]

Its such a mad conception that you can think to drop China in there. China has zero interest in getting into a battle with the US and has largely just accepted every dodgy thing that the US has done to them. They also have enough control over their internet that they would be able to prevent anything they didn't want. We really need to think about the way we are sleepwalking into anti-China sentiment, simply because Trump said to do it. This time last year people were refusing to eat in Chinese restaurants in Mullingar so as not to catch covid.

fwiw - its far more likely to be the likes of Ukraine which has a burgeoning data centre business centred on hacking and coin mining. Plus that place is a lawless outback.

[DeeBrown]

Surely the major overriding consideration in buying a home is the beneficial effect it will have on your quality of life whilst you use it as your primary residence.

Access to the amenities you need most such as retail outlets, schools, utility providers and infrastructure etc will determine how well it can serve its primary function.

Life style benefits such as easy access to family/friends, work, entertainment and the environmental bonuses like the space its set in are what sets a house apart from a home.

I understand that buying property is a major financial decision and prudence demands that any potential increase in value is an important factor.

Ultimately however this is not primarily an investment for financial gain, if the biggest money decision in your life is a house I'm afraid you'll never truly be wealthy, a millionaire in the strictest sense perhaps, but not rich in the truest sense.

Set a realistic budget for what you can spend and within those constraints buy the best dwelling available for the life style you want to enjoy. The benefits of this to your mental and emotional well being far outweigh the perceived benefits to your bank balance of taking an amateurs punt on what area might outperform the market.

[DeadParrot]

I don;t think his political sun has set

[Raoul Duke III]

if Orwell had put that in 1984, it would have been criticised as too far-fetched.

[Trippie]

Heard this random remix yesterday when in the airport. Not sure why but it struck a chord

https://youtu.be/IuKj-1sDlt0

[Solksjaer!]

I don;t think his political sun has set

Do you think he will be Bach?

[Wombatman]

I don;t think his political sun has set

With all due respect to Arnold, electing knucklehead celebrities isn't helping matters. Anyone running for public office should be required to have a political science degree or something similar. Most jobs have minimum qualification requirements related to position.

[eoghan104]

For a complete noob with massive FOMO what is the easiest way to get into Bitcoin and all that? Say I want to buy 1k BTC and 1k ETH is the best way just to do it through Revolut? Just looking to dip my toe in.

Cheers

[Murdrum]

With all due respect to Arnold, electing knucklehead celebrities isn't helping matters. Anyone running for public office should be required to have a political science degree or something similar. Most jobs have minimum qualification requirements related to position.

Nah, totally disagree with that. Outside of minimum age and mentally sound, the qualifications required for political office should be very little.

[shrapnel]

For a complete noob with massive FOMO what is the easiest way to get into Bitcoin and all that? Say I want to buy 1k BTC and 1k ETH is the best way just to do it through Revolut? Just looking to dip my toe in.

Cheers

revolut is definitely the easiest, unless you want to physically own your cryptos

[Raoul Duke III]

Nah, totally disagree with that. Outside of minimum age and mentally sound, the qualifications required for political office should be very little.

The qualification required for political office is simply 'the ability to get elected' (and trust to to the good sense of the voters)?

[Denny Crane]

With all due respect to Arnold, electing knucklehead celebrities isn't helping matters. Anyone running for public office should be required to have a political science degree or something similar. Most jobs have minimum qualification requirements related to position.

Don't think a political science degree is really the right qualification. I'd snap take Arnie over a someone with that degree.

Skills needed, public speaking, persuasion, negotiation, budgeting/ accounting, name recognition. Arnie knocks the grad out of the park.

[Raoul Duke III]

Stat of the Day

Trump now 50% of all presidents impeached, ever. Winning bigly

[Raoul Duke III]

Don't think a political science degree is really the right qualification. I'd snap take Arnie over a someone with that degree.

Skills needed, public speaking, persuasion, negotiation, budgeting/ accounting, name recognition. Arnie knocks the grad out of the park.

Delete those anyway.

I think you need to know how the mechanisms of your democracy work too (Trump literally had no idea how to get things done for example - this of course was a good thing and saved him from doing even more damage). And I think you need a decent grounding in international relations.

Then finally, you need to be secure enough psychologically to appoint expert advisors and to actually take their advice. Know what you don't know.

[Solksjaer!]

Delete those anyway.

I think you need to know how the mechanisms of your democracy work too (Trump literally had no idea how to get things done for example - this of course was a good thing and saved him from doing even more damage). And I think you need a decent grounding in international relations.

Then finally, you need to be secure enough psychologically to appoint expert advisors and to actually take their advice. Know what you don't know.

This is what all great leaders do.

[DeadParrot]

With all due respect to Arnold, electing knucklehead celebrities isn't helping matters. Anyone running for public office should be required to have a political science degree or something similar. Most jobs have minimum qualification requirements related to position.

I agree but the GOP are gonna need electable faces

[DeadParrot]

For a complete noob with massive FOMO what is the easiest way to get into Bitcoin and all that? Say I want to buy 1k BTC and 1k ETH is the best way just to do it through Revolut? Just looking to dip my toe in.

Cheers

Revolut is piss easy but more expensive (rates and transfer) and you don't *own* the tokens.
But if getting the money OUT is the most important part, it's probably the way to go

[Hectorjelly]

I found out today squids can fly: https://youtu.be/iMq89roPycI

Is there anything they can't do?

[Theresa]

I mentioned those ignorant investors yesterday with more returns than sense. I am one of them it seems. I mentioned this stock in here before, The Score (SCR) stock price has been climbing very steadily recently. Up to 2.26 now. 230% return on this so far for a chunk.

This is my Bitcoin.

[Hectorjelly]

Revolut is piss easy but more expensive (rates and transfer) and you don't *own* the tokens.
But if getting the money OUT is the most important part, it's probably the way to go

Yep, if you just want to make a small gambol this is the way to go about it. Paypal will be releasing something similar soon as well, which should push the price down.

Good time to buy as well (better than yesterday anyway) it's just had a massive correction down to 31k.

[Keane]

There's so much passive money now that in theory there should be more potential for active money.

index holders were front run for billions when Tesla was added to the S&P
You've just a huge wave of predictable money

Add in all the dumb money in retail now and the opportunities should be huge. It's a dream for the likes of SIG.

Any chance you would give a dunce's explanation of that?

[Hectorjelly]

I mentioned those ignorant investors yesterday with more returns than sense. I am one of them it seems. I mentioned this stock in here before, The Score (SCR) stock price has been climbing very steadily recently. Up to 2.26 now. 230% return on this so far for a chunk.

This is my Bitcoin.

Do you want a friendly bet? You pick 3 publically traded stocks (something I can check the price of easily), I have bitcoin. You win if any of the three outperform BTC over 6 months. Loser donates $100 to a charity of the winners choice.

I just got my new Diary couriered from Japan, so it can be the first reminder in it.

Edit: nice returns!

[Theresa]

Do you want a friendly bet? You pick 3 publically traded stocks (something I can check the price of easily), I have bitcoin. You win if any of the three outperform BTC over 6 months. Loser donates $100 to a charity of the winners choice.

I just got my new Diary couriered from Japan, so it can be the first reminder in it.

Edit: nice returns!

I do not want that bet as I don't understand half of it.
I also do not trust my stock picking ability. (see comment on ignorant investor).
I also don't really disagree with your views on Bitcoin, even if I think you are our neighbourhood zealot.

[Denny Crane]

Any chance you would give a dunce's explanation of that?

The S&P is an index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies. Companies are added and removed, and funds that follow the index have to buy and sell the shares to follow the index.

Tesla got added to the S&P index. There's about 11tn benchmarked to the index. Tesla went from 0% to 2% of the index. So everyone knew a huge amount of money would have to go into Tesla. And everyone knew the dates. So market could front-run the index buyers; buying TSLA knowing that billions would flow in after them. It costs index holders billions. And it's something that happens all the time.


The second part. The tweet Is about vanguard funds. Again they're huge funds that rebalance on a regular schedule. And have grown so big that they're moving markets.

It's always been a thing in markets, month, quarter, year-end, window dressing, or option expiries. Market structure rather than market fundamentals are driving things. It's just far bigger now with so much passive money.

[Theresa]

ICLN an ETF I'm long in for a while, ever since I figured Biden would be fave for election.

On the flip side, I got out of Slack too soon, I figured it was an acquisition or SlackConnect for the value in the company, and didn't see who could buy em. Salesforce. Of course. sigh.


Denny Crane Such an interesting problem, its not like fund managers can secretly accumulate positions for an ETF thats bad beans and would run counter to any prospectus. But the fact that announcing these decisions is costing people so much money, do you see a solution?

[Raoul Duke III]

Republicans getting backed into a corner where they have to defend an unfit President is a beautiful sight.

[mocata]

I didn't think Slack would be able to scale up, piled into a lot of tech stocks in last few years with differing rates of success. Advised everyone foolish enough to listen at start of year to lump in to Microsoft instead. Happy enough with hindsight, but definitely left a lot of growth cash on the table.

[Ed]

Have any of the new HSP episodes popped up with cousins?

[Strewelpeter]

Getting more than a little pissed off with covid minimisers/ deniers and various gobshites regurgitating content from patreon tin rattling chancers like Ivor Cummins and distorting their drivel into Trumpian denial. Fuck them all.

Given the way the numbers are going its going to be a very close run thing in the race between how much longer we can keep this virus away from my Father and how soon we can get the vacccine into him. In my house where I'm working and mostly living I have three other people who are locked down to shopping and some bits of farming and animal husbandry they are committed to. Then in his house there are a rota of about 8 different carers coming and going and they all have their homes and lives to look after as well.
There is no clear plan yet to deliver the vaccine to the likes of him and his carers but I'm hoping it will be in Feb early March but its starting to concern me that whatever the plan is it hasn't been shared with the Homecare providers and GP's yet.

[Strewelpeter]

if Orwell had put that in 1984, it would have been criticised as too far-fetched.

Came across this brilliantly scathing review of 1984 by Isac Asimov yesterday and really enjoyed reading it.

Great read IMO, something to look out for is the one bit that he is clearly wrong about is his reading of the SF element of the book, while he is correct at his time of writing (early Eighties) and correct that its a mistake to consider it SF he of all people has misread completely and in a way he would appreciate if he was around to see it how AI would allow computers to take over the role of the all watching eye!

[Solksjaer!]

Another Victim of the needless lockdown over a hoax virus

[Hectorjelly]

Came across this brilliantly scathing review of 1984 by Isac Asimov yesterday and really enjoyed reading it.

Great read IMO, something to look out for is the one bit that he is clearly wrong about is his reading of the SF element of the book, while he is correct at his time of writing (early Eighties) and correct that its a mistake to consider it SF he of all people has misread completely and in a way he would appreciate if he was around to see it how AI would allow computers to take over the role of the all watching eye!

That was a fascinating read. I disagree with a lot of it, but it was interesting nonetheless. The part about Women was ridiculous given his output. Also, 1984 is at heart a love story, which he appears to have not even noticed.

[Keane]

The S&P is an index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies. Companies are added and removed, and funds that follow the index have to buy and sell the shares to follow the index.

Tesla got added to the S&P index. There's about 11tn benchmarked to the index. Tesla went from 0% to 2% of the index. So everyone knew a huge amount of money would have to go into Tesla. And everyone knew the dates. So market could front-run the index buyers; buying TSLA knowing that billions would flow in after them. It costs index holders billions. And it's something that happens all the time.


The second part. The tweet Is about vanguard funds. Again they're huge funds that rebalance on a regular schedule. And have grown so big that they're moving markets.

It's always been a thing in markets, month, quarter, year-end, window dressing, or option expiries. Market structure rather than market fundamentals are driving things. It's just far bigger now with so much passive money.

Gotcha, thanks for that. I'm gone out of ETFs myself since buying my house a few years ago anyway, I've been won over by the arguments on AAM that maxing pension and smashing the mortgage are preferable endeavors for the likes of me.

Having said that, is there anything better than low cost index funds for a smallball normie in light of the info above, or is it just a cost of doing business?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

There's something big going down with Trump right now I think.

[Raoul Duke III]

There's something big going down with Trump right now I think.

Something slightly more detailed would be appreciated

[Denny Crane]

Gotcha, thanks for that. I'm gone out of ETFs myself since buying my house a few years ago anyway, I've been won over by the arguements on AAM that maxing pension and smashing the mortgage are preferable endeavors for the likes of me.

Having said that, is there anything better than low cost index funds for a smallball normie in light of the info above, or is it just a cost of doing business?

Just a cost of doing business.

[ComradeCollie]

Something slightly more detailed would be appreciated

Looks more like some us govt sites hacked, stating today is the last day of his presidency.

[Raoul Duke III]

Looks more like some us govt sites hacked, stating today is the last day of his presidency.

What, implying he resigned? He'd never do that.

So we have a House impeachment vote on Weds now. Watch the fun as GOP work out what's worse, vote No and support the lunatic or vote Yes and side with the godless Marxist liberal Democrats.

[limpwhacker]

There's something big going down with Trump right now I think.

Let the man shit in peace ffs

[PSV58]

Tough watching all the corporations who adopted a “trump fans buy sneakers too” policy last few years looking for brownie points as join the pile on when he’s on his way out the door

[ComradeCollie]

Having my first ever go at a 'dry January'. Feels more like six weeks than 11 days so far

[Raoul Duke III]

Having my first ever go at a 'dry January'. Feels more like six weeks than 11 days so far

This really isn't the time to be giving up anything.

[Raoul Duke III]

Dinekes; are you back on your feet?

[dinekes]

Getting more than a little pissed off with covid minimisers/ deniers and various gobshites regurgitating content from patreon tin rattling chancers like Ivor Cummins and distorting their drivel into Trumpian denial. Fuck them all.

Given the way the numbers are going its going to be a very close run thing in the race between how much longer we can keep this virus away from my Father and how soon we can get the vacccine into him. In my house where I'm working and mostly living I have three other people who are locked down to shopping and some bits of farming and animal husbandry they are committed to. Then in his house there are a rota of about 8 different carers coming and going and they all have their homes and lives to look after as well.
There is no clear plan yet to deliver the vaccine to the likes of him and his carers but I'm hoping it will be in Feb early March but its starting to concern me that whatever the plan is it hasn't been shared with the Homecare providers and GP's yet.

Yes....relentlessly fucking stupid people whose gesture of defiance is to not have their mask covering their stupid big fucking noses. Not sure which I despise more the genuine imbeciles or the fuckwits who gird themselves with whatever "fact" is going this week on their favourite conspiracy website and patronisingly beat you over the head with their "proof" every time you have the deep misfortune to have to waste breath talking to the cunts. The exact same type of dangerously stupid "hell Yeah USA" morons with their slack jaws and their dumb beards, their intolerance and bitter hatred of anyone them deem below them (which is zero) and above them (basically any human ever born bar those lobotomised cretins, and most animals)


rant over


Hope all will be well with your Da. It's a stressful time no doubt.

[PSV58]

Having my first ever go at a 'dry January'. Feels more like six weeks than 11 days so far

I postponed it - not the time

[dinekes]

Dinekes; are you back on your feet?

Ah ye, cheers, feel way better.
Fever free since Friday. Looking forward to getting out.

[dinekes]

Having my first ever go at a 'dry January'. Feels more like six weeks than 11 days so far

I'm off it too.
in fairness wasnt too hard the past 11 days.

Did 6 weeks before and genuinely felt great with loads of energy etc. You just have to be careful re integrating it.

[ArmaniJeans]

My Mam got her 'measles vaccine' today in the home, so she can go back to school.
Dementia is a very rotten thing really. Hopefully with all staff and patients done they'll be able to relax the regime a little.

[ArmaniJeans]

On a lighter note, nothing say taking back control more than having your ham sambo's seized by Dutch customs.