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poorgradstudent
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]
Of course, the cost to administer the charity drive would be deductible.[/quote]And probably pretty fudgable. Estimating costs of any project is always tricky. Seems fairly trivial to round up at every opportunity… if the “true” cost is somewhere between 60-100 hours, why not just throw 100 hours on the balance sheet and call it a day?
ParticipantThe worst is when companies get their employees to contribute money to charity and then claim it in their PR materials (or possibly taxes!!!). I’m actually a little suspicious of any cash-based donation program… pretty easy for the company to take that cash, roll it into their bottom line and then claim it as a deduction.
Participant[quote=ltsdd]a question for the investors/gamblers on this board. If you have $10k to invest in either tesla motors or alibaba which stock would you buy?[/quote]
Neither?
I like both companies, but think both have overvalued stock prices right now. Tesla is falling so there may be a buy opportunity in the next few months, and IPOs are so chaotic it’s hard to predict where things settle. But with BABA there probably will be a low once all the traders exit. If you bought FB ~6 months after the IPO you look like a freaking genius right now, so BABA may have a similar opportunity?
ParticipantIs it really amazing?
Facebook has had a very hard time truly monetizing its user base. It’s one Next Big Thing away from not existing. I know a lot of people who are only on Facebook because everyone else is. On top of that, the kids aren’t really into Facebook. Too many grown ups. I actually had no idea they were profitable though! But yeah, FB went public once Zuck knew there was little exponential growth opportunity left; he sold out at the peak.
Amazon has to deal with tiny margins because ultimately they compete with Walmart and Home Depot and other stores where you can buy the same products.
IBM of course blew their opportunity in the 80s to be a true juggernaut.
Of course there is certainly some froth in that BABA price right now. It’s priced too high for long term investors, so that’s traders playing with each other and dumb money hype buyers who will be left holding the bag.
Participant[quote=flu]Looks like the going price for a 1/1 condo in MM is around $1300/month now for something < 600 sqft west of Camino Ruiz. Interesting.. My tenants are month to month for some time... Meh.. I'm too lazy to raise rents...[/quote] Well just change the word lazy to "nice" and pat yourself on the back. Of course there is a cost to you to find new tenants and a risk if the property is vacant for a while or you end up with bad tenants.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]
I would never rent from a complex. Why live among 100% renter. I would much prefer a mix of owners and renters.
[/quote]
When you’re 21 or 24 and single it’s more fun living in a complex with other young, single renters, and most people that age can’t afford to buy. Home owners tend to be a lot more stodgy about things like noise from parties. There’s also a certain safety complexes provide in terms of shadiness. If you have a good private landlord they will beat a complex any day of the week, but a shady landlord is awful. We’ve dealt with both.
There’s pros and cons, although I strongly feel like at this moment in time complexes are far more expensive than private owners and not worth it.
September 4, 2014 at 10:12 AM in reply to: Realtor didn’t inform seller of back up offer — is this wrong? #777807ParticipantIf the seller accepted another offer before yours was submitted, they basically are stuck. As long as the buyer fufils all their contingency obligations, in the state of California it’s very difficult for the seller to cancel after an offer is accepted.
If the seller knows they have a better offer and WANTS to make the buyer walk they can certainly do everything they can to make the buyer walk. Sort of like being a jerk to try to make your girlfriend break up with you rather than dumping her. The seller could refuse any and all repairs, be generally unhelpful in the entire escrow process, etc. It’s not totally ethical, but I’m sure it happens. Of course, if the original buyer walks during the escrow process there’s no guarantee that better offer will still be there a week or two later.
Although there is a big price gap there, offers are not always apples to apples. If that 690,000 was half cash it’s more attractive than an offer contingent on your home sale.
I’m not sure what the legal obligation is for the selling agent.
ParticipantThe Big Complexes have definitely raised their rent rates lately, at least in “desirable” areas (CV, UTC). The big complexes tend to compile data on their properties and how many empty units they are sitting on and adjust accordinly.
I’m not sure how much of that is seasonal. In the UTC area supply definitely dips as college students figure out where they want to live. Some of those students will graduate or drop out by the Spring.
Private landlords are definitely a bit lower than complexes.
Participant[quote=scaredyclassic]Grow bone and muscle.
Ac went put at my gym. It’s warm.
10x better. Now I can sweat
…Gym ac is a nightmare.
Of course they will fix it..m[/quote]
Why does AC provide a better QoL?
😉Participant[quote=AN][quote=spdrun]
It really depends on the OS and OEM in term of updates. If you have iPhone 4, you can’t install iOS7, which means a bunch of apps are off limits to you.
This is why closed ecosystems are vile and Stallman was right in vilifying Jobs in the end. Android is definitely less bad in this respect. I have a handset that runs Android 4.1 (don’t want to upgrade to 4.4 because of its asinine treatment of SD storage, so I’m holding out for the next version that is supposed to fix some of that), and I can run 99% of apps even though it’s a two-year-old OS.
Though I have to say that other than Maps and Talk, I don’t use a whole lot of Google apps.[/quote]BS, Android is 10x worse in this department. I had an HTC Thunderbolt that was stuck on 2.3 while Google was already releasing 4.1 at the time. In America, not only are we at the mercy of OEM implementing the upgrade but we’re at the mercy of the carriers allowing the upgrade as well. Most Android phones do not get upgrades, except for the Nexus devices. Even those get faded out in less than 2 years. even the Nexus devices, which is the best of the Android ecosystem in term of upgrade, gets spanked by iDevices.
As for being able to use 99% of the apps, I call bs as well. A lot of apps are starting to require 4.0 and above and yet majority of android phones are still running 2.3. This makes life much harder for the app developers, who can’t implement some of the newer api because there are still a lot of android phones that are still running old versions.[/quote]
It seems like tablets are also making life tough for developers. I have a kindle fire and a Samsung Galaxy S4, and it’s fascinating for me to see which apps are only on one device, the other, or both.
I had an HTC Thunderbolt for something like 4 years. The physical phone had issues before I started feeling the fact that I couldn’t use all the latest apps. But I’m actually a fairly late adapter on technology due to cheapness. Let someone else pay full price at release, I’ll scoop it up 6 months later at a discount!
August 29, 2014 at 11:20 AM in reply to: Best way to Communicate With Owners and Effect Change in HOA #777734Participant[quote=treehugger]I have been living in an HOA community for the past 2 years. I am not involved, I don’t attend HOA meetings (I keep intending to), but I would resent my money being spent irresponsibly and assume most of us care about a lawsuit that may cost money. I would want to know. Do you have a central mailbox area? We have several in our community and I see info flyers attached to those. Even if they were taken down, likely many people would see them before they were removed.
In my opinion, if you knock on doors, introduce yourself as a concerned neighbor, have a simple and objective flyer stating the facts and contact info, I would think that at least a percentage of your neighbors would be interested, I certainly would.[/quote]Flyers are a good idea for those who don’t answer the door. Part of the goal is just to make other owners aware of what is happening and let them make up their own minds.
Participant[quote=spdrun]
Most “growth” is fucking bullshit anyway. Unless it’s an electric car, are we really better off driving cars that are new vs 5-6 years old? Are we really better off having the latest and greatest iToy vs keeping our phones 3-4 years? Are we really better off with 2000 square foot houses vs 1000 square foot apartments and wasting energy with power dryers vs hanging laundry on a balcony?
[quote]
1. Yes, cars of today are both safer and more fuel efficient than those that are 5-6 years old. They also typically have lower maintainance requirements. Although there definitely is a sweet spot where the price of a used car is relatively attractive relative to it’s value, supply and demand generally keep used car prices in check to some degree.
2. The trend is definitely towards people keeping their phones longer. I remember five years ago when a one year old phone felt “old”, these days a 2 year old iphone still seems pretty current
3. I hate apartments, and as someone who has both line dried and used a gas dryer, yes, gas dryers do provide a higher quality of life.
Participant[quote=carlsbadworker]We all hoard something if you compare the amount of usage that we had. For example, do you buy movie but how many times do you watch? Do you buy a car but how many hours a day does it sit idle? Human nature is greedy and competitive, and that’s why you see kids in kindergarten fighting for the toys all the time. It goes back to the fundamental economy theory which is based on scarce resource which will never be solved. (We don’t hoard resources that are not scarce, for example, no one is hoarding air at home).
The trick is to contain your greed to a degree that you don’t constantly piss off other people. Otherwise, they will treat you like you have a disease and force you to go through the useless therapy.[/quote]Usually people draw a line between collecting and hoarding. We might thing the 30 year old man with a room entirely devoted to mint condition, perfectly displayed Star Wars figures is a little odd, but even obsessive collecting usually isn’t called hoarding, partially because what they collect usually does have value to outsiders.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]I believe we can expect low rates for a while still. The Euro zone is in stagnation so the ECB might have to resort to more stimulative measures to revive the economy. When they do, the money will partly flow to the USA.[/quote]
The Fed has also shown they collectively don’t have an itchy trigger finger to raise rates and are more worried about unemployment. There does seem to be some disagreement within the Fed.
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