I know I’ve got a punch card sorter around here somewhere.
I know I’ve got a punch card sorter around here somewhere.
The slit in the back is called a “vent” for a reason.
Private equity spent most of the 90’s destroying Montgomery Ward and Eddie Lampert held Sears/KMart under the water until the bubbles stopped so he could cry to anyone that would listen that the retail business was failing while he made a fortune selling off the company’s real estate.
Probably because old habits die hard. Kaspersky used to have a pretty good reputation as far as AV software. In the past, I used TDSSKiller to resurrect many PC’s where other antivirus software failed.
Unfortunately, the whole Russia being a malicious actor negates any reasons to continue using Kaspersky.
President Convict also had their top general assassinated which did not exactly help diplomatic relations.
✅ Build a bunch of airplanes that can randomly fall out of the sky.
✅ Leave astronauts stranded in space.
✅ Become laughingstock of aerospace industry.
☑️ Malign workforce that builds your products.
Either management at Boeing doesn’t understand the cost of reputational damage, or they’re just actively working to destroy the company. If they don’t want to face their own demise then they’re going to have to rectify this series of collosal fuckups and they’re going to need a highly skilled, highly invested workforce to do it.
This is one reason why I don’t think I could ever be president. Or in politics in general. Making ethical compromises almost becomes a necessity. At the minimum, you’ll inevitably find yourself having to make decisions that involve choosing from a list of bad options. I have a hard enough time doing that in my personal life, much less for an entire country.
Mainline Protestant over here just munching on my popcorn
If you knew how much of the critical infrastructure in the US is held together by Windows Server and duct tape, you would be very concerned.
Tarantula Hawk
Wasp equivalent of an A-10 Warthog
Captures tarantulas in a way that resembles Tony Soprano disposing of a body
Doesn’t know what the fuck you’re staring at and doesn’t really care enough to stop what it’s doing
Neither AI nor OpenAI’s management are capable of understanding irony.
I think there were some legitimate concerns about the potential nuclear threat as well as uncertainty regarding Russia’s actual capabilities.
Now we’ve seen that Russia’s claims don’t hold any more water than a strainer, the west should be more aggressive with its assistance. The Ukrainians have already demonstrated that they are not just going to take it laying down and they’re the only reason Russia hasn’t moved on to invading other former Soviet states. I think we owe them all assistance we can give.
Now bury a whole sit of wrenches standing straight up in a row, out in the middle of a random field and call it “art”.
You’re absolutely right. You, the client, don’t get to see what goes on the backend so it’s often impossible to know up front who is going to represent your interests and who is going to be more interested in padding their own commission. Zillow reviews are basically useless because all it means is that the reviewer liked their realtor. That’s great and all but “likeability” and quality of work are not the same thing.
There was a lot of media speculation that the recent court case and settlement with the National Association of Realtors would bring commissions down and make terms more favorable, especially for sellers.
I don’t believe that has happened at all. In fact, it’s just helped make an industry known for its opaqueness and underhanded tactics even more opaque and underhanded. As usual, it’s the client who gets the shaft.
If you want to find a good realtor, or avoid a bad one, there are a few things you can do.
Beware of realtors that aggressively push you toward certain vendors (banks, title companies, etc). If you’re looking at your third house and they’re now asking you for the fifth time if you’ve applied for a mortgage at a specific bank, that’s a red flag. Kickbacks are illegal in both banking and real estate. But some people like to treat those pesky laws like suggestions.
Beware of dual agency in general, but especially Realtors that are very persistent about it. With dual agency, the same realtor represents the buyer and the seller. It’s not a guarantee that your realtor is going to do something unethical, but let’s be real. Collecting commission from both sides in a real estate transaction is a very clear conflict of interest. But it’s a conflict of interest that is considered acceptable as long as The buyer and seller both approve. You do not have to approve. But you may have to find another realtor depending on who your initial realtor was representing first.
If a realtor has been in the business for a long time AND is willing to show you rentals, that’s actually a positive sign. Rentals pay shit. Around here if you get $300 - $400, that’s a good rental commission. As the agent you get to keep maybe half of that. Depends on what the split is with your broker. Agents who sell more can negotiate a better commission split. So the rental commission is dog shit and on top of that, landlords and property Management companies are notorious for trying to either weasel out paying the commission or they will drag their feet on it as long as possible.
As the agent, you could easily spend many many hours showing rentals and lose money doing it because rentals are not profitable for agents. Agents that are relatively new to the business will do rentals just to help build up their client portfolio. But if you get an agent who’s been in the business for a while, doesn’t try to pawn you off on another agent, and will take the time to actually show you rentals, they’re not doing it strictly for the money even if they do hope that you’ll remember them if If you ever need to buy a house.
A good realtor is worth every penny you pay them and in addition buying or selling your home will:
The problem is that a lot of realtors are good at “shaking hands and taking names” and terrible at everything else or they’re just plain unethical. Unfortunately, that’s the vast majority of realtors in my experience.
Source: wife is a realtor who tells me all kinds of “you’ll never believe the shit [other realtor] tried to pull today” stories.
I don’t think I’ve seen this meme template before. I like it
My opinions are mixed. I like living here in general. I don’t like the extremely rapid transformation of Benton & Washington counties into a vast sea of urban/suburban sprawl.
We also have tons of serious social problems that get very neatly painted over by the relentless construction and “newness”.
I’m sure when Tom and Steuart have spent hundreds of millions of Jim’s money to transform this area into the “biking capital of the world”, all our problems will be solved. …ha ha.
As an Arkansan, I appreciate the thumbnail photo of Jim, Alice, and Rob Walton who earned their wealth the good old fashioned way. By inheriting it from their dad. They spent a decent chunk of it gentrifying the Northwest corner of the state to the point that if you were born here, you can no longer afford to live here.
Got-dangit!
If you’re not spending half your day testing vacuum tubes one at a time, are you even a real engineer?