If I wanted to poke at my phone, I'd stay home.
Like I tell my kids, phones have no place at the table.
Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to know that a human actually cares about my presence.
I've left restaurants for this single reason. If you want my money, be fucked enough to greet me with a menu.

> What change in a business makes it's value go up 3% one day and down 6% the next. NOTHING CHANGED!

You're right that (probably) nothing changed in that particular company's operations, but things change all the time in the world. Most notably, the Fed, which is always full of surprises. When these bureaucrats decide to cut rates just a bit more than the consensus expectation, stocks go up. This is rational, as the Fed is essentially creating artificial inflation, which the market then anticipates.

I am fairly certain that Mr. Buffet appreciates this, too.

For every lock, there is a key. For every human, there is a scam that works.
You wouldn't fall for this one, but there is certainly a way to hack your brain, too. We've all been scammed, one way or another.
Trust me, you are not immune.

Teach a man to fish, and he'll be unemployed as soon as we build an AI-controlled fleet of fishing drones.
And we'll all eat forever.
This old adage may need some updating.

All good points. Cash isn't frictionless, either.
I wonder if anyone has ever done a cost comparison to the 2.5-3% that is normally charged for credit card transactions. Bear in mind that, if a store's margin is, say, 10%, then this fee amounts to more like 25-30% of profits.

Right... because that never ever happens with credit cards.
Oh wait, it does. The difference is that, when your credit card details get stolen, you can spend the next few months sorting out the subsequent disaster.

- Transactions are unhackable. No need to worry about who stole your credit card info every time a retailer suffers a security breach.
- Transactions not stored in any bank's database forever, to be sold to unknown third parties at any time in the future, for any purpose.
- No middleman taking a percentage of every transaction, cleverly hidden from the consumer, generating a 2% drain on the economy.
- Does not rely on any network or other technology - works even when the internet goes down.
- Always know exactly how much money you have and how much you are spending, and never be in debt.
- Fast as pulling a bill out of your wallet. Never wait for an overloaded network.
- And, obviously, cash is private and anonymous. Your transactions are nobody's business but yours and your counterparty's.

15 times???

Yes, and so many more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
May the 90s never die!

To be fair, I was never a fan... but I just can't resist a bad dad joke.

Seriously? Am I just old?
I can't believe I had to be the one to make that joke. Come on, people!

Thanks, I'll definitely keep Mint in mind for when Microshit breaches the obnoxious threshold. I suspect that won't be long now.
I'm an old IT guy, but not an OS geek. I do want things that "just work", and Ubuntu was just too much pain.

Yes, I should try again, I suppose. The last time I installed Ubuntu, I was unable to get it to see my networked drives. I gave up.
Of course, those drives are running on a Windows server, but Samba should be usable anyway, right? I must be doing it wrong...

Silly me. I thought Windows was an operating system!
How foolish of me to expect to own my own computer. Well, since we all all property now, I might as well give up and buy a Mac.
Or maybe switch to Linux, when it stops sucking.

Thank you for doing the work. I had exactly the same thought.
Pfft... science reporters, mirite??? Probably majored in basket weaving, got a job as a reporter, and got randomly assigned to the science column.