Lurker > IdiotMachine

Cuticrusader09 posted...

I mean this innovation is a given in other companies.

Changes happen all the time. I remember when every exec had their own secretary. Now theres maybe 1 shared among many. Ease of sharing electronic calendars, ease of booking travel electronically and the fact that documents can now be signed off electronically got rid of that position.

Agreed. This was the right thing to do in the name of progress. Sooner or later, this would have happened with or without me; I just happened to be the one to lead it (right person at the right time). I wasnt actually expecting a bonus at all, so this was a surprise a month or so ago when I learned Ill get the bonus and dinner with the CEO (which hasnt happened yet; its scheduled for 6/17). I was allowed to bring +1, to which I invited my wife, but she says I should invite my executive sponsor for the project (whos on my site), or my #2 (who didnt get any award, despite me trying to get him recognized; regardless, hes not on my site so he would have to travel across the country which isnt going to happen).

Since Im boring, Im going to spend $10k of that to replace an old, leaning fence, then going to put $20k every quarter into my brokerage investment account for dollar cost averaging over a year-ish, while it sits in my high yield (~4%) savings account.

Axiom posted...

Whatever helps you sleep at night for putting people out of work

Meh. Its a work shift. Were hiring more people now to manage the tablets and the software maintenance. The $2 million savings per year isnt actual $$$ savings, but projected efficiency gains (which we measure by work years, but I converted to $$$ terms for CE).

Axiom posted...

Sounds like you made the working mans job harder but made money for the bosses. Great job

Nope. The technicians who do the work vastly prefer the digital tablets since it makes their life so much easier. Their supervisors also love it because it makes document revision control not a problem, and makes work tracking and auditing easier.

Only the paper pushers / paper admins are negatively impacted.

IdiotMachine posted...

hah no. A side project that I began 3 years ago to make my small production teams work easier by digitizing the workload began to attract massive interest, which grew to a huge corporate-level initiative that I led to upgrade all paper work procedures to digital for the entire production team. This gets rid of errors in revisions, need to keep paper copies, reduces cost of paper, etc., and increases efficiency and work tracking.

This made a lot of enemies as well people who were in the document control division freaking hated it, because more than half of them are now out of the job, and people in IT hated it because its more work for them. However, no senior and executive management could say no to this digital transformation, since its just so practical and a needed thing in todays world to be competitive.

SilvosForever posted...

What was the change?

Did you round the fractions of a penny to the nearest penny etc.? lol

hah no. A side project that I began 3 years ago to make my small production teams work easier by digitizing the workload began to attract massive interest, which grew to a huge corporate-level initiative that I led to upgrade all paper work procedures to digital for the entire production team. This gets rid of errors in revisions, need to keep paper copies, reduces cost of paper, etc., and increases efficiency and work tracking.

My $130k bonus ($97k after taxes I guess) finally hit my account today. What a great way to start the weekend!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8fc2310c.jpg

It took three years to implement a big change to the organization that I work for, and the change is estimated to save about $2 million a year. I got a big paper and monetary award for this, as well as a private dinner at a 5-star restaurant with the CEO (that I posted about a month or so ago here).

Feels nice.

-Unowninator- posted...

*tests*

Not happening on my end.

I just went to youtube.com in incognito, and typed "baldur's gate killing yourself"; gave me the same screen.

ShineboxPhil posted...

You're supposed to type self-deletion

Is that actually why people started using that phrase? I've heard YouTubers saying "self deleted" when they're talking about characters in a movie/game that committed suicide.

I remember at the end of BG3, you have an option to kill yourself if you become one of those tentacle dudes. I wanted to see the scene again, and then this happened:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/754d41c1.jpg

I like being recognized with awards, especially if those awards carry monetary bonuses. Even if they do not, as long as it is a genuine reward and not a participation trophy, it can only help your career as you will get promoted faster.

Im not giving my insurance company metrics on how I drive for a chance at a tiny discount only for them to drop me because they say I drive outside of their acceptable metrics, blame me for some negligence and not cover an accident, or whatever. Screw that shit.

We have two Litter-Robot 3, and it's great. Literally don't have to deal with shit anymore.

RetuenOfDevsman posted...

Good explanation, thanks!

Yup. Practically, also, the foot soldiers of a major state are not trained to go torture and slowly kill the enemy combatants; they're trained to quickly neutralize the enemy. You can't take the average Joe and systematically change their psyche to want to torture the enemy; you can't even take the average Joe and tell them to quickly kill the enemy either (see "Men Against Fire" by Marshall, where through interviews, he makes the claim that only 25% of US soldiers purposefully aimed and fired at enemy combatants; his study was later scrutinized and deemed not to be scientifically accurate, though I don't think there was a follow-up study on something like this).

PeteyParker posted...

Name one bad thing he took responsibility for

Way to deflect lol.

I assume the fool meant "zero responsibility for covid", and not "for anything", since that was a real thing that Trump uttered: When Trump did publicly announce that he takes no responsibility for the slow testing rollout during covid, and that totally backfired on him (as it should have), he did a 180 and then said he took responsibility for the pandemic response (but not how it arrived to the US).

Philosophers, like Hobbes, believe war is necessary and is part of nature; other philosophers, like Clausewitz, believes that war only exists as states and politics exists. This leads to the just war doctrine, which states that war is morally justifiable (i.e., in some situations, war is not always the worst option). History has also shown that war is inevitable, with countless that get killed on both sides of a conflict.

Given that, and the belief in utilitarianism, the best way to come out ahead on a terrible tragedy of war is to reduce the total amount of suffering and maximize the total amount of happiness. How do you do that? By limiting what can be done during a war. This is the basis of the rules of war; some forms of rules have been in effect for thousands of years, to ensure civility between the two sides, and to ensure humanity doesn't go scorched earth, since that just hurts both sides.

Practically, who polices these rules of war? States can accuse other states of war crimes and invoke the international courts, most commonly known to be a part of the United Nations. Based on the gravity of the situation, many consequences could be faced by the member state, up to and including ejection from the UN and the lack of diplomacy and help from others (as well as punitive measures, like blockades).

But what if the five permanent members (e.g., US, UK, China, Russia, France) commits war crimes? Well the other member states will just denounce the crimes and everyone will just go about their day/business, since you can't really punish the big five. Part of this unfairness was also what lead to the dissolution of the League of Nations and to the start of WWII... so if the five members go crazy, maybe we'll have another WWIII and a dissolution of the UN.

thekosmicfool posted...

And Trump repeatedly said he takes zero responsibility for anything bad that happened during his presidency. What do you have to say about that?

Fake news. He never said he takes zero responsibility for anything bad. Leave it to a fool to spread disinformation like that.

EPR-radar posted...

They are well above average literacy for a Republican, but nothing else there is unusual. It's unfortunate, but there are millions of voters out there just like that who will happily vote us into fascism if they aren't outnumbered at the polls in the swing states.

lol

Im actually a registered democrat but thanks for assuming.

Prestoff posted...

I tried Equinox for a year, because first time users are forced into a 1 year contract, and for a giant price tag of $268's a month it's honestly very mid gym. The gym in DTLA doesn't even have a fucking swimming pool and the equipments weren't maintained well at all. I saw the same equipment out of commission for about a month before it got repaired. And they basically try to nickle and dime you anyway they can by saying they automatically signed you up to see a personal trainer and those personal trainers trying their damn hardest to get you to sign up with them. For a "premium" gym that is expensive as fuck, I honestly expected way better than what they gave.

It has been my experience that the more premium something gets, the more a la carte things get and youre just supposed to pay for everything.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 20-year-old was killed after getting caught in a shooting on the city's Southwest Side.

The shooting happened on Sunday, during a so-called "street takeover" at the intersection of 59th Street and Western Avenue around 3:15 a.m., according to Chicago police.

Guillermo Caballero, known as "Memito," was trying to get through the intersection when he was shot at multiple times by two gunman, police said.

Elizabeth Caballero said Guillermo was heading home after spending time with friends when he was killed.

"Wrong place at the wrong time. Too young," she said.

Guillermo worked two jobs and was trying to save up money to get out of the city, his cousin told ABC7 Chicago.

Source:
https://tinyurl.com/bdewjknm

There are videos of this shooting online if you search for them. Didnt even know what street takeovers were and had to Google it. It apparently is when people get together and takeover a part of the street to do donuts and random car stuff, and is fairly common in cities; it can get anarchist and lawlessness very quickly, with people frequently getting hurt.

LeCh0nk posted...

If you can afford the membership fees I'm sure you'd have no trouble paying for whatever cancer treatment you need.

Yea, whats with people saying would they get a refund, etc. People who can afford $40k/year on a gym membership are doing very well and they probably wont care (despite not being able to afford $300k+/year for blood rejunivation and such).

pedro45 posted...

Think about that. do you try to learn or do you just listen to what others say?
Marijuana just changed scheduling. That's pretty big. We're close to it becoming legal, and now it can actually be researched.
Like, that just happened within the past month.
Consider your news sources if you can't remember something that happened within the past month.

Biden just created a job Corps for climate control, similar to the depression, to create jobs that actually benefit people and their surroundings. That basically just happened.

Oh, Biden also made sure to protect the grand canyon, a giant landmark of America, from being used up by businesses.

so there's three things that he's done. Again, consider your news sources if they're really not saying anything this president has done.

iirc, Trump did very, very little from an executive standpoint.

Its funny that you mention marijuana, because Trumps administration, despite Trump selecting Sessions as his attorney general, stayed quiet and let the states do their own thing when it came to marijuana decriminalization.

DaxNovalis posted...

That's an incredibly simplistic take on the US presidency. He doesn't control the SC, for example. There's nothing he can do if the previous admin put a conservative majority there (two of whom I would say are not even qualified for their positions).

As the leader of the Democratic Party, he could have pushed Congress to expand the number of SC judges and then shoehorn some ultra left judges onto the panel, the latter of which the Republicans were able to do. Its strange to me that Republicans can stick together and achieve their goals but Democrats cannot (Im reminded of the time that Republicans refused to anoint Obamas SC choice for months, and then just shoehorned their own choice shortly thereafter).

Dont pretend the president has no power or influence.

I forgot housing and interest rates too. Under Trump, I was able to refinance all my mortgages at 2.25 to 2.75%. Under Biden, good fucking luck with buying a house right now, and enjoy that 5%+ mortgages.

DaxNovalis posted...

To be fair, most of those are not Biden's fault. Roe vs Wade was overturned because of the conservatives taking the majority in the SC, and that's thanks to the Trump admin.

LoZguy709 posted...

To be fair, Biden isn't responsible for anything the idiot posted except for maybe having a hand in inflation, which was already out of control from Trump's time in office, most notably his botching of containing COVID and the extent to which we needed government assistance to re-stimulate the economy. Also, Americans who want a lower cost of living at the expense of living standards and likely the very survivability of upcoming generations can all eat shit. Terrible,, hypocritical people to their cores living in all the ways the New Testament said not to.

Hes the commander in chief. Whatever happens, its his responsibility. I would say the same for any president sitting in that chair. Own the issue and dont deflect.

bobspacethespacecow posted...

trying real hard to live up to that name there

On a presidential level, Trump is definitely not even remotely close to a good person. But his administration did far better than Biden for the average Joe. I cant even name one landmark legislation Biden passed.

Life was definitely better for the average Joe when Trump was president, with huge tax cuts, lower cost of goods, lower gas prices, and better stability in the world, even with a global pandemic to boot.

In contrast, under Bidens administration, wealth inequality grew, Roe vs Wade was overturned, inflation is crazy, two giant conflicts began (Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia), and the biggest thing hes done is to forgive student loans to attempt to buy Gen Z/Millennial votes (which obviously isnt even working since these younger college kids hate Bidens stance on Israel and are destroying their own universities for some reason).

As a voter in a swing state, Im leaning towards Trump at this point. Bidens administration didnt make my life any better.

Murphiroth posted...

Imagine being this proud of being cruel to animals. Not the first time you've done that and it won't be the last.

Not proud of being cruel, but indifference. Frankly, I subscribe to Descartes philosophy on animals. I personally cannot make sense of people that view animals as equal or better than humans; like those who say theyll save a pet over a strangers baby or the like. But to each their own; thats their version of truth in their life, so let them be. Getting off topic very quickly.

bigbadharry posted...

You have died of dysentery.

Press space to try again.

But seriously stop wage theft and give workers a fai share of the profits you greedy corpos!

Wage theft and fair pay are two different things, each with its own issues.

Cartoon_Quoter posted...

Instructions unclear. Cannot keep job due to health issues. Cannot fix health issues due to no job. Infinite loop detected, press any key to abort.

I didnt post safety nets, but if you dont have any income, you will qualify for Medicaid which will cover your health issues. There are also cash assistance programs (which are underused), Section 8 housing, and food stamps, which everyone qualifies for despite never paying any taxes (unlike unemployment, which requires you to have a job in the first place).

Murphiroth posted...

On what step do we throw a bunch of eggs from bird's nest on the ground and then run to CE to brag about it?

Whenever you make it, have a pool house to entertain your friends and family and cook under, and then a bird decides to nests on top of the food prep area, which requires movement of the bird due to sanitary reasons. Thanks for asking!

Prerequisite:

• You have a job.

If you dont have a job, the most important thing is to get a job. In modern times, internet is required to job search and apply. If you do not have any electronics nor a phone plan, use libraries. If you do not have housing options, sign up for Planet Fitness at $10/mo for access to showers and a safe clean area; you might still have to sleep on the streets or at a shelter, but you can clean yourself up for an interview. If you legit have no cash for anything, use your towns resources to get aid (e.g., TANF, cash assistance).

Assuming you have a job, spend your money in order of importance:

1. Basic food and water.
2. Basic clothing.
3. Basic transportation to get to work (bus pass, bicycle, roller skates, whatever).
4. Basic phone/plan.

After you get these down, youre ready to be more secure! While pursuing the below, consider continued job searches for better pays. In order of importance:

1. Housing/utilities.
2. One to three months of savings, based on risk tolerance and job security.
3. Contribute up to the employers 401k match.
4. Savings to pay for niceties (e.g., a car for your transportation, better food/dining, better housing, better phone, laptop).

Once you get these down, now its time to secure for your future:

1. Contribute up to IRA max.
2. Contribute up to HSA max.
3. Contribute up to 401k max.

By now, youre pretty savvy. Enjoy your new and improved life!

thisworld posted...

What do you mean tc?

'%' means 'hundredth' or '1/100'
1% = one 'hundredth'
100% = one-hundred 'hundredth' = 1 (one)

To convert from decimal / fraction to % just multiply it by 100%. It's the same as multiplying it by 1 (see above, 100% = 1)
2/100 = 0.02 = 0.02 * 100% = 2%
3.14 = 3.14 * 100% = 314%

Ready to get your mind blown?

% is Percent, or Per Century, or Per 100. There's also two zeros in the % symbol, as you can see, and it's signified as 0/0, as in # over #.

is Per Mille, or Per Thousand, or Per 1000. There's three zeros in the symbol, to signify that it's per 1000 vs. per 100.

is Per Myriad, or per thousand (or basis point). It's pretty neat how this works!

Sheiky-Baby posted...

So, if people get cancer, they will cover the surgery costs?

Probably not.

DarkAssassin89 posted...

Old age looks awful. Unless they can help with mental health too I never want to get close to 100. I watched my 94 year old grandma succumb to dementia and decided I was going to die well before then because no way am I going through that. A billion dollars would not have helped her one lick.

What if dementia is curable / preventable?

burns112233 posted...

Metal Gear Solid 3 - The ladder

https://youtu.be/vgaYe4ZYYyY?si=7Fkpa_F1gEAPTzK9

Was that just an elaborate loading screen hidden with a ladder, or was there an actual reason why that ladder took fucking forever? And that reason better not be just to get the player to listen to the Bond-wanna-be song.

Umbreon posted...

How do you hold them accountable if they're wrong?

You can sue them when you die before 100 years old, duh.

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

Wat?

Yea, it's nuts how high the freakin' school tax is here:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9cd2a2f3.png

archizzy posted...

You bought two extra houses and cover bills for two sets of parents just to compensate them for watching the kid?

Kind of. Theyre reasonably sized, at around 1,500 sqft each, and they gifted us some funds for the downpayment. Our two sets of parents needed help in their golden years, so we lended them a hand in exchange of them helping us out too. Its a win-win; we get to help our parents, they help us. Cant just leave them on the streets

boomgetchopped3 posted...

Daycare is a lot more than that for us. Luckily our school system gives us free pre school when the time comes. I say free but we pay up the ass in school tax.

I wish our school system had free preschool we pay $12k/year in school taxes for just our house! Our property taxes (which are separate from school taxes) are only like $3k/year.

And women will still pick the bear.

MrResetti posted...

I pay $190 a week for a two year old

How many days a week? If 4 days = $48/day, and if 5 days = $38/day which seems cheap. And I also assume thats before any federal and state tax credits.

We've had luck in having our parents watch our child (in return, we bought each of them a house and take care of their finances (medicare and social security)), but with her becoming 3 years old next year, figured it's time to get her on a waitlist for pre-school, so I called around and set up tours, interviews, and information sessions.

I called four different locations, and costs are $45, $49, $51, and $65 per day. Given that pre-school runs September to May (standard school year), and given that there's about 25 days of no school due to holidays, spring and winter break, consider that about 8 months of schooling. Kindergarten runs 3 days a week, so I'd like pre-school to have the same tempo, and have our parents continue to watch her for the remainder of the 2 days a week (the weekend = us, of course).

Math:
$45/day * 3/days a week * 4/weeks a month * 8 months = $4,320; or at $65/day = $6,240. Subtract $1,050 in federal child tax credits and another $1,050 in state tax credits = ~$2k to ~$4k a year.

I've heard horror stories about childcare costing like $2,000/mo, so color me surprised when I found out it's "only" ~$300/mo.

We have two places scheduled for this Thursday (5/9), and the other two places next Wednesday (5/15).

/blogfaqs

I hope all these expelled students take up on their offer to see just how tolerant Iranians and Yemenians are.

We have a pair of Oral B Series 9, one black and one white:
https://oralb.com/en-us/products/electric-toothbrushes/io-series-9-electric-toothbrush-black-onyx/

Bought the two-pack from Sams Club when it was on clearance for like $100. It feels like just from dentist clean.

BucketCat posted...

as a cat fanatic, this is how i'd approach things

number one, give the delinquent cat a space that nobody can get to. not you, not your little one, and not the other cat.
ideally this is when one cat is smaller than the other, simply make an opening where the larger cat can't enter.
alternatively, if your cat is a percher, give it somewhere to perch. if they're a burrower, give them a new space to burrow.
you can also do things like have the normal behaving cat wear a bell around their neck, and have your baby do the same. this way the cat will know the baby is coming and can leave the situation before getting mad.

number two, cats can get jealous. if you've had them since they were little, and now they're 10. they might think you're deliberately giving more attention to the new addition to the house. try to spend some time playing with them, go out of your way to feed them treats

number three, get some cat calming pheromone diffusers and put them throughout your house. they are fairly expensive, but they work. i have a rescue cat that was very, very aggressive towards my other cat. now she's still a jerk, but she's chill about it. like she will hiss and walk away rather than go on the offensive.

number four, if the cat is pooping outside of the box, they're trying to tell you something. could be sick, could be pissed, or most likely, could be extremely stressed out. have you taken them to the vet?

number five, Vetoquinol Zylkene. it's an over the counter mood stabilizer you can give your cat. if you take them to the vet and they determine that it's simply acts of aggression, they will most likely give them this to try. I would still consult with your vet prior to buying it on your own.

number six, exposure therapy. in tandem with some of the above, bring the cat into a room that it doesn't mind staying in and have it be a room with the pheromone diffusers.
take some warm butter (NOT HOT) and dip your cats paws into it. the cat will start to be 100% focused on cleaning themselves, generally speaking they only clean when they are comfortable. as they are cleaning, sit in the room with your baby and don't acknowledge the cat. just show the cat they can be vulnerable in the presence of the baby.
then work your way up to getting the cat okay with playing while the baby is nearby, etc. just show the cat the baby is not a threat or something that will impose on them.

number seven, do you have any close friends or family that the cat has gotten along with in the past? I would ask them to adopt the cat before taking it to a shelter.
even a no-kill shelter, you have no idea their standards. you have no idea what kind of person will adopt your cat.
I would give the cat to a shelter as a 100% last resort when you have tried everything.

Im not putting a bell on my baby.

Ive actually tried Feliway diffusers and cat attract powders for litter, but neither helped much.

I did bring the cat to the vet ~1.5 years ago when these things started and showed no signs of slowing down, and they didnt see anything physically wrong with the cat. I havent been to the vet for either of the cats since then though (have, instead, gone to Vetco for yearly vaccines).

Vetoquinol Zylkene: why not. I just bought it. Lets see if that helps.

As for having the baby with the cat- shes a toddler now. She absolutely will not sit still and let the cat get used to her lol. Shes been equally pissed off and angry at the cat; both of them do not like each other. The other cat and my child really likes each other though.

kingdrake2 posted...

10 years is beyond the tipping point in which a cat can die at any time

That is also kind of the reason why Im dealing with it, seeing how she could just die in the next few years or so. Just let her be here until she passes away.

Heres the other cat, freshly shaved lol:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/72564296.jpg

My search history before I even posted here out of frustration:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e6f0b8f7.jpg