Even in the UK/EU where merchant service fees are capped, once you start ordering in the 10's of thousands of Euro/Pounds... merchants start insisting on non-card payments because that 1% starts hurting at that volume.

Back in the day (early 00's) I ran a shop in Australia and I had to maintain accounts with my suppliers that needed to be paid off monthly. I did this via bank transfer (including a line of credit I could use for bank transfers). My card fees for sales would sometimes dwarf my staffing costs and this was 20+ years ago when a lot of people still used cash exclusively even when paying a few hundred bucks.

Most countries got rid of both problems years ago.

In the UK and many other developed countries a basic, fee free, bank account with a debit card is almost a human right. There is no law stopping you, in fact in the UK it's law that any resident has the right to open a basic bank account that must be free at the point of use (very few accounts have a monthly fee in the UK and those that do typically come with benefits that pay for it). No one here is unbanked except through choice. This is because a lot of transactions occur using interbank transfer (called "faster payments" in the UK) that again, is government mandated that everyone has access, free at the point of use. Your pay goes into your account using this system, bills, rents and repayments leave your account using this system.

Visa/MC hate it as they don't see a penny from this system.

The US is the only developed country I know of that does not have an inter-bank payment system that is free at the point of use. Although it seem the US is doing all it can to rid itself of its "developed" status.

Interbank transfer systems have all but eliminated cheques, I've never in 30+ years been paid for work with a cheque. The last time I received a cheque it was a refund from the DVLA after I sold a car (for the unused portion of road tax) and the last time I used a cheque was to buy a car in Australia in 2013 (Australia's interbank transfer system used to take 24 hours, it's now instant) and that was a banker's cheque, I've never used a personal cheque, given or received, in my 40+ years of existence and suffering upon the surface of this planet.

Unbanked is what we expect from developing countries... and cheques are an anachronism from the 50s.

Maybe it's proof of the existence of Afluenza and it's debilitating side effects. Doctor Payola recommends seeing two of daddy's contacts.

Aside from that, kids find way to game system. Not really anything new, I've seen this in the workplace for a few years. Some people use a marginal disability to openly skyve off work or shut down any criticism against them, it's a new move in a very old game though... People game systems, even when it harms a system that is meant to help people who genuinely need it. If you know a way to fix it without harming people who genuinely need help, I'm all ears.

It could be worse, a lot worse.

Imagine if those useless middle managers were tasked with doing something important rather than merely wasting the time of people capable of doing something important.

Probably stolen from the UK or Western Europe. Maybe even as far away as the US.

A lot of the UK's stolen cars end up in Eastern Europe, some even keep the UK number plates for that authentic feel.

LAG restrictions have been lessened or even gotten rid of in Australia and the UK. Air travel is not as bad outside the US.

Batteries are becoming a problem for airlines because people are entitled fuckwits and won't follow basic instructions (I MUST charge my phone no matter what people tell me) as they keep bringing damaged batteries on board which conflagrate. So they're getting banned at the insistence of airlines rather than governments.

You needed a handbook for that?

Anyone who ever went to a business meeting could've told you that.

By my experience, it takes only 4 things to make a meeting productive: a) someone is in charge of the meeting and moderation, b) that someone had time to prepare, c) everyone in the meeting has received an agenda with enough lead time to have read it and (if necessary) prepare their part, at least a bit and finally d) there is at least a simple protocol of the meeting for those who couldn't attend, those who dozed off in the middle, and those who claim next week that something else was agreed on.

>>Sorry Chief, I need a little extra time
>>a) putting out this house fire

"nope, if the crew can't put the house fire out in 5 minutes y'all have to walk away"

those people with really really shitty vision would be dealing with a disability too if there was no real treatment for it. autism isn't something you can just take a pill for

seriously, slashdot? It's 2025 and you still can't do the Euro sign?

Even so the prices are excessive. If I want to upgrade the SSD in the current MBP from 512 GB to 2 TB that's +750 â

Meanwhile, a Western Digital Red SN700 with 2 TB I can get for a bit over 200 â.
A Samsung 990 PRO 2 - 245 â (was just rated the best M.2 SSD on the market by Tom's Hardware).

Whatever exact chips Apple is using, they're not 3x as expensive as other high-quality SSDs.

Even if "locked in place" is your underlying assumption, anyone who's even heard of the real world from their mom who has a friend whose father once visited it should know that there is no rule without exceptions and even if that is perfectly true, a small number of those particles will not be locked in perfectly.

Subaru do a lot of things well - they're masters of all-wheel drive - but this is nuts.

I bought a VW Taos earlier this year with the usual trial subscription to Sirius XM. I was going to pull the plug when it expired but Sirius XM offered me a steep discount if I re-upped, so I did. They did it so readily that I wonder how many people are paying full price...

The bulk of my listening is two channels, Hits One and The Pulse.

...laura

Because for the past 30 or so years, it has worked very well for MS to keep their main products barely useable, rely on lock-in and chase the next big thing so they can get their dirty hands on it early and lock more people into more products.

That is exactly wrong. Beta versions are there to find bugs. If nobody complained about them, they won't be found. So if you try beta versions, please DO complain about bugs.