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wdn

122 karma · joined September 18, 2017

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wdn··on The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be
Are you sure it is Windows not Chrome?

If you closed the lid while Chrome is running, it prevents Windows from sleeping.

https://techjourney.net/chrome-prevents-windows-from-going-i...

wdn··on How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]
The title should replace "Money" with "Currency".

It's the Venezuelan Bolivar is worthless. If you use gold or silver, I am sure they will be more than happy to accept it.

wdn··on Introducing Multi-Leg Options Strategies
Actually, it doesn't work like that.

If a stock is volatile, as TSLA is, the out of money (OTM) options will take that into consideration and the premium for it will be very very high.

A OTM straddle options trade probably a very bad choice. Like you said, if TSLA don't make a big move, you will lose. Even if they do make a big move, you will still lose because you are opening a trade on both directions.

My personal opinion on options is this: 1. Find stocks that move 2. Buy in the motion options 3. Expiration at least 6 weeks away, prefer to be longer. If price move into your target, great, take profit early.

wdn··on I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare
Protected or not, the defendant still have many out of pocket cost and distress for defending a lawsuit. Lawyers don’t care. They will get pay. The judge usually don’t read the case until the time of the trial but your expenses is up front and no guarantees of outcome.

I was sued and I pro-se to defend myself. Although the plaintiffs know the lawsuit is frivolous but that doesn’t matter. He said if I don’t apologize and I win the case, he will just spend more money appeal the case and make my life miserable. I apologized and he dismissed the case.

It probably caused him some money, but it had caused me a lot of distress and time reading up the laws.

wdn··on WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free
Namesilo.

Cheap and transparent pricing with free WHOIS privacy.

wdn··on Andy Rubin Puts Essential Up for Sale, Cancels Next Phone
Microsoft made a bad decision. The 950 was too expensive. They should have take a loss at the 950 and get the phone to customer's hand. No phone no developers.
wdn··on Amazon’s Fake Review Economy
Amazon can fix this, but they have no incentive to. It doesn't matter who make the sales, they get 15%. If the seller uses FBA, Amazon get a cut there too.

An example of a fix could be take into account of reviews to sales ratio and flag those products with high reviews to sales ratio.

wdn··on California to become first U.S. state mandating solar on new homes
With the mandate, it will take even longer for the homeowner to breakeven on the solar panel. Another reason why it paid to invest in politicians.
wdn··on Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online
This is a step in the right direction. I hope they push all medical services and drugs to publilsh their prices. This way, customers can have the option to pay cash or go through insurance.
wdn··on Medium suspended our account and blocked access to all our published stories
Can you write a how to guide on this?
wdn··on Ask HN: How have you dealt with taxes (U.S.) and algo crypto trading?
You only pay tax on net gain.

As with anything to do with tax, you should consult with an tax accountant or EA who 'specialize' in trader taxation.

wdn··on Chuck Feeney: a billionaire who gave it all away
He is the one who ask the right questions.

Yes, there are smarter people than him but how many of those people have Vision he has plus the ability to execute it?

wdn··on Unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially (2015)
There issue is two folds here.

1. Medical liability. Doctors must cover their basics or will get sue.

2. There is no cost relationship between doctors and patients. Doctors and patients work with 3rd party call health insurers. Worst, a lot of people (medicaid recipients) have no skin in the game.

Obama could have fixed item #2 with a universal health care that require (1) doctors to list the price of their services and (2) cover major catastrophic health expenses, such heart issue, cancer, long term care, etc. Prevention care should physical, cold should be out of pocket for the first 5 or 10 visits of the year, then it is covered.

I know some may called foul because poor cannot pay. Paying $20 per visit, at 10 visit, it is $200 out of pocket. They have have skin in the game. This will cut down a lot of abuse.

wdn··on How inflation swindles the equity investor (1977)
Bank no longer need customer’s money.

If I record correctly, bank can borrow from the Fed and turn around and leverage up and buy bonds and notes. Basically risk free money for banks.

wdn··on A Democrat is running for president on a platform of Universal Basic Income
I see this as another welfare program and we already have too many welfare programs.

If we all see that automation is or will be a problem for the labor market, isn’t it makes more sense to get the labor market ready to embrace the automation era?

Instead of making our youth going through college, why not have them sent to learn a craft or skill set?

I personal think only those who are good with school and like school should go to higher education. For the rest of us, a 4 years experience with no debt is far better 4 years education with 50 to 100k in student loan debt

wdn··on Can Washington Be Automated?
This is because our politicians don’t even read they law they passed or objected. A Democrat will always object a Republican law and vise versa. They will support their own party’s law

The only time you see the politicians opposed their own party is when the party have enough votes AND the politicians is from a state dominated by the other party. For example, a Republican from California.

If politicians have to do their own tax return, I can guarantee you the tax code will be a lot simpler than the 70,000 pages we have.

wdn··on NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg
The problem is not the pay, it is the pay grade. If you are a GS 11, you will get a GS11 pay regardless of your responsibility. And since this is union, you performance has nothing to do with what you will be paid.
wdn··on Google used a tax loophole to shelter $19.2B
This is actually good thing. I don't know about you, I would rather Google keep more money and invest with it than handed the money to any government. What would the government do with your money? They most likely wasted it with 0 accountability.

At least when Google failed, they go bully up. When government failed, they get rewarded with more money and resources.

wdn··on A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance
This is not limit to Apple iOS.

Android has this problem too. If you upgrade your 2 years old phone with the latest Android (if your phone manufacturer did happens to provide update), your phone is not responsive at all. I know, few years ago I updated my Note 1 to Lollipop and it was completely unusable. The good thing is the Note 1 has unlock bootloader and I was able to restore the older software.

Unfortunately, you cannot downgrade iOS. I wish I can as I am on 11.2 and the battery drain is crazy. 10% on idle. FU Apple.

wdn··on Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures
Without adblocking, the web is unusable for most sites. Full page ads, video ads that follow you while you scrolling, popup, malwares, bitcoin mining, tracking, etc...

TBH, the only solution is browser makers put out an ad acceptable standard. However, with Google's revenue base on ads, I doubt there will be any change to it until someone come along and disrupted the browsers.

wdn··on Please Don't Show Us Another “Typical Family Earning $270,000 a Year”
Beside if you live close to NYC, there is no 1 bedroom cost 3k a month.

Stop acting paying 3k is the norm.

wdn··on Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life
Have your android get any update after a year? Doubt it.

If you do, are they even functional after the upgrade? Mine became couldn’t do anything because it is so slow after upgrade.

Only good thing was I had an unlocked boot loader and able to flash the original Android back

Please don’t act like Android is anything better. It is not.

wdn··on How Cuts in Basic Subway Upkeep Can Make NYC Commutes Miserable
The biggest problem here is MTA is government run. Return the subway to the private sector. Get rid of the union.

The union took the city hostage many times. Enough is enough.

wdn··on The Google-Facebook Duopoly Threatens Diversity of Thought
Microsoft biggest crime was they didn’t spend any money lobbying. Apple doing the same thing Microsoft did and worst, you cannot even change the default, yet no anti-trust on Apple. Different is Apple one of the biggest spender on lobbying.
wdn··on Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit Breaker
Margin is a two edged sword.

Beside, margin in futures mean different think than margin on stock.

Yes, futures tax treatment is great. Index options also get the same tax treatment

wdn··on Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle Says ‘Avoid Bitcoin Like the Plague’
What he probably means is if you missed the boat, it is too late to get on.

Sure, it may still double or triple in the next few months. Or it can loss 50% over a matter of days

wdn··on The Problem of Doctors’ Salaries
The issue here is we don't directly pay for the services. It is handle by 3rd parties, AKA health insurance companies. Health insurance company is not true insurer. They pay for everything. I meant, do you call your car insurer to pay for oil change?

Since health insurance companies merely handle the payment and get a cut for this services, they have the incentive for the cost to go up. High cost equals to higher profits.

Insurance company should be insure on highly unlikely illness, such as cancers.

wdn··on Amazon Sellers Brood as States Come Calling for Taxes
I thought the law is the buyer is response to pay for usage (sales) tax for item they purchase online.

Now, it is the seller's responsibility when the sellers don't even live or ship from that state?

wdn··on Massive Government Report Says Climate Is Warming and Humans Are the Cause
Can we just give Al Gore and his buddies 15 trillions and settle this issue?

For Christ sake, the Earth has been warning before human was here. There are a lot of extra factors that we don't know yet. At the very least, have a debate about it. This is not settled like the government funded research tell you.

If there is a solution, it will not be more government regulations. Just look the past 20 years in the financial markets, how many scandals were there and have SEC and their regulations prevent anything?

wdn··on Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
Microsoft got a chance to steal market shares and established themselves as an alternative to iOS and Android when they introduced Lumia 950 and 950XL. I really think the device were great. However, they made the fatal mistake on this, the price point.

They priced the 950/950XL same as iPhone and Android flagship phones. Yes, I do understand the 950 and 950 XL have flagship hardware, however, you do not priced it as your phone is in high demand.

If they priced the phones at 300, it would sell a lot more. Developers do not want to develop for an OS with no users.

Not only the hardware price was bad. The fees to developer was also bad. If I recalled correctly, they also want to takes the same amount of fee as Apple and Google. If I was Microsoft, I would not charge developer any fees for 3 years just to get them on board.

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