Search found 8862 matches

by Pointedstick
Fri Oct 07, 2022 1:22 am
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Linux, continued
Replies: 44
Views: 10767

Re: Linux, continued

Pretty much anything will be reasonably robust if you're barely using it, so you want a distro that minimizes built-in faults in its choice of package management. That's not Mint, as it the end, Mint always breaks upon upgrade, at some point. That's typically why people stop using it. I would probab...
by Pointedstick
Thu Oct 06, 2022 2:58 am
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Linux, continued
Replies: 44
Views: 10767

Re: Linux, continued

You want Kinoite, which is the KDE version of Silverblue. It is an experimental distro, but quite exciting.
by Pointedstick
Fri Sep 23, 2022 2:31 pm
Forum: Cash
Topic: More Money != More Inflation
Replies: 12
Views: 2932

Re: More Money != More Inflation

I meant feds as in the elites in Washington. It doesn't matter to me if it's the Fed or Congress, some people are allowed to create money out of thin air and distribute it as they choose. Those who are closest to the fount benefit the most because the money they receive is "fresh". They can spend i...
by Pointedstick
Thu Sep 22, 2022 1:40 pm
Forum: Cash
Topic: More Money != More Inflation
Replies: 12
Views: 2932

Re: More Money != More Inflation

So how do we feel about the money supply expansion during COVID-19? Was it money well spent? I know I received money when I didn't need it. I agree, me too. I would have been fine with some kind of means-testing. Of course the political problem with means-testing is that you get complaints from peo...
by Pointedstick
Sun Sep 11, 2022 3:22 pm
Forum: Cash
Topic: More Money != More Inflation
Replies: 12
Views: 2932

Re: More Money != More Inflation

The gap between excess demand and constrained supply showed up as sharply higher prices. Yeah, the money supply alone was always only part of the story; the balance of supply and demand determines inflation, with the money supply simply being a proxy for demand in most cases. The money supply can b...
by Pointedstick
Sun Sep 11, 2022 11:05 am
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: 2nd asset in tax deferred?
Replies: 17
Views: 4378

Re: 2nd asset in tax deferred?

I tried for many years to split assets across account types but ultimately found it much too complicated to integrate property into the PP concept because the different tax treatments interfere at rebalancing time, and the contribution restrictions in certain account types complicate your ability to...
by Pointedstick
Sat Sep 10, 2022 11:31 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

Honestly, I'm so divorced from the lifestyle of these people that I don't really know how they think. That much is pretty clear, given the caricature being painted of hypocritical hyper-consuming anti-work authoritarians who approve of centrally-controlled sources of energy production (???????). If...
by Pointedstick
Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:34 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

I've posted it before, but even if you still don't believe that global warming is happening, and that it's our fault...

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by Pointedstick
Thu Sep 08, 2022 5:31 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

Whenever environmentalists did total lifecycle cost analysis of fossil fuels and pointed out externalities like causing global warning (i.e. sea level rise, extreme heat waves and drought, stronger hurricanes and floods, etc), giving hundreds of millions of people asthma and other lung diseases, and...
by Pointedstick
Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:00 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

Every action has side effects. Life has side effects. If you don't want to potentially have any negative side effects on anything, you can always jump off a cliff--a suggestion as absurd as suggesting to account for every photon or gust of wind.
by Pointedstick
Wed Sep 07, 2022 8:06 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

At the moment EVs are not as good as gas cars for long trips. Used to be the bottleneck was the car but now that's mostly fixed with the current and emerging crop of long-range fast charging EVs, and now the bottleneck is the charging network. Tesla's is the best but it's still not as ubiquitous and...
by Pointedstick
Tue Sep 06, 2022 9:44 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

France went all in on nukes a few decades ago, which was a good geopolitical bet during a time when solar and wind weren't yet economically practical. And even today, nukes are great in the same way fossil fuels remain great: they have an absurdly high power to weight ratio. That's why both of them ...
by Pointedstick
Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:48 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?
Replies: 341
Views: 141447

Re: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?

Right, and that's true of all assets. But like the fundamental value of a stock is based on the value of its company, the fundamental value of a long-duration treasury bond is based the current interest rate compared to its coupon rate. And the future direction of "the current interest rate" is some...
by Pointedstick
Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:42 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?
Replies: 341
Views: 141447

Re: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?

AGG != TLT. Corporate bonds are affected by a lot more than interest rates and often behave in a very stock-like manner in their actual performance. There's a reason the PP focuses on long treasuries, and not medium duration bonds of all sectors.
by Pointedstick
Sat Sep 03, 2022 4:47 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe
Replies: 76
Views: 8329

Re: Scarce and high priced energy in Europe

Seems like pretty bad. I have two colleagues in the UK who say their energy bills have quadrupled recently. Quadrupled! A German colleague is kicking himself for replacing his oil boiler and tank with a new one a few years ago instead of the heat pumps I recommended at the time. Now he's looking int...
by Pointedstick
Sat Sep 03, 2022 4:27 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?
Replies: 341
Views: 141447

Re: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?

As an asset class on its own, long treasuries are uniquely terrible when interest rates are going up, which should be quite obvious. As part of a PP, you could still conceivably harvest some gains from them with tight rebalancing bands as they oscillate up and down within their general long-term tra...
by Pointedstick
Tue Aug 30, 2022 5:53 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Maintaining Coding Skills During Break
Replies: 24
Views: 7470

Re: Maintaining Coding Skills During Break

I'm willing to put up with older, frozen software if it means I don't have to worry about updating everything other than once every 2 years. Bugs are always reported to Debian first, where they can deal with upstream if appropriate. Although more often I find I'm filing Debian bugs to have some ups...
by Pointedstick
Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:25 am
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Maintaining Coding Skills During Break
Replies: 24
Views: 7470

Re: Maintaining Coding Skills During Break

You're welcome! Though... honestly I don't recommend Debian Stable for KDE. They freeze on old versions that are out of support by KDE, meaning they take on the burden of support themselves. And in my experience they are not currently resourced to handle it. I've become the primary bug triager for K...
by Pointedstick
Mon Aug 29, 2022 10:00 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Maintaining Coding Skills During Break
Replies: 24
Views: 7470

Re: Maintaining Coding Skills During Break

PS: you still doing work for KDE? How's it going/how was it? Still doing it and it's going very well. KDE is entering a period of rapid growth, which can always be a bit uncomfortable as old ways of doing thing are challenged and resources are stretched thin, but I think the results have been very ...
by Pointedstick
Fri Aug 19, 2022 8:33 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Any Mac Users here?
Replies: 66
Views: 5031

Re: Any Mac Users here?

I haven't used Macs in a while, but the last time I did, it went like this: 4. Go to file> save as in the app 5. In the open Finder window that shows the folder you want to save into, drag the proxy icon the titlebar into the Save dialog's main view 6. Done. This works in all document-based apps, to...
by Pointedstick
Thu Aug 18, 2022 6:03 pm
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer
Replies: 131
Views: 60885

Re: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer

I think you're over-analyzing. :) What you end up with is never going to perfectly match your calculations and predictions. At a certain point you just have to take the plunge, if it's something you actually want to do. My take? - Get a 6 kW system for a bit of wiggle room (always build in wiggle ro...
by Pointedstick
Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:42 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?
Replies: 341
Views: 141447

Re: Are most people here sticking with Treasuries?

I personally cannot buy into the long deflation arguments, if only because I think our politicians and central bankers would throw any amount of money they could at such a situation in order to keep prices moving upwards. Plus we do have a citizenry who (although they claim they hate higher prices)...
by Pointedstick
Wed Aug 10, 2022 9:59 am
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer
Replies: 131
Views: 60885

Re: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer

I already have a metal roof, but it required Tesla to send a contractor out here to tell me they don't install onto my type of roof. That kind of discouraged me from the whole thing. Is that just some lame Tesla policy and I should find a better solar contractor? I actually did have another solar c...
by Pointedstick
Wed Aug 10, 2022 9:57 am
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer
Replies: 131
Views: 60885

Re: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer

My house orientation is exactly opposite optimal. Rather than having the more desirable north / south roofs, I have east / west roofs. The west is slightly more tilted toward the south than the east but I'm going with the east because it has almost no shading while the west has some. Therefore a 6....
by Pointedstick
Wed Aug 10, 2022 12:00 am
Forum: Other Discussions
Topic: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer
Replies: 131
Views: 60885

Re: Renewable electricity sources are now a no-brainer

Atypical indeed! Very impressive. I used to aspire to that level of power frugality but had to throw in the towel after my kids were born. Our consumption is still very much below average, but not like what you're doing! With such a low level of consumption, I'm surprised that you're shopping for a ...