tbirdz (u/tbirdz) - Readit News

tbirdz commented on Fun Fact: I own porn I can't watch foone.tumblr.com/post/705... · Posted by u/pzb

danbruc · 3 years ago

I have always wondered if it would be possible to build a generic reader for magnetic tapes that essentially just scans whatever tape you throw at it and then it is up to some software to decode the content. I know close to nothing about the details of magnetic recording on tape, so maybe this is just not possible with reasonable effort, i.e. you could but you would need SQUIDs to make it work or something like that.

tbirdz · 3 years ago

For VHS there's the VHS-Decode project that's trying to do something similar. I don't think they work by scanning the tape itself with some custom hardware, but rather by recording some kind of internal RF drum head signal inside the VCR itself. Then they have a software stack to decode the VHS signal into actual video. Looks pretty cool, but I've never used it.

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

tbirdz commented on I Bond’s variable rate will rise to 9.62% with the May reset tipswatch.com/2022/04/12/... · Posted by u/hnburnsy

nullc · 3 years ago

When i-bonds have a fixed rate of zero they are guaranteed to under-perform inflation since you still must pay federal income tax (not even LTCG) on their increase in nominal value.

An i-bond needs to have a fixed rate of at least 0.27% to cover the interest on the 2% target rate of inflation, assuming a 12% income tax rate. If inflation was sustained at 9% the i-bond fixed rate would need to be 1.2% to make it not lose value.

I-bond is an interestingly alternative when you'd otherwise just hold cash, but with the fixed rate of 0 it's not that exciting. Other than cash few other investments are guaranteed to lose money relative to inflation.

I would avoid buying I-bonds with a fixed rate under 0.5% and certainly under 0.2%.

... and that's entirely without getting into the argument that the government systematically underestimates inflation e.g. by CPI-U having an open-loop correction for substitution.

tbirdz · 3 years ago

It's worth noting that I bonds are exempt from state income tax, and you pay federal income tax at the time you redeem the bond, not at the time you get interest, so it's federal income tax deferred. You could potentially hold onto the I bond for up to 30 years before being forced to redeem, so you could wait until you're in a lower tax bracket, which makes it better.

tbirdz commented on I Bond’s variable rate will rise to 9.62% with the May reset tipswatch.com/2022/04/12/... · Posted by u/hnburnsy

koolba · 3 years ago

When they’re paying 9.62% it certainly does.

You’d have to do it preemptively though as the last opportunity to over is via a Jan 15th estimated tax payment. You can’t retroactively overpay, the money needs to be there before you file your taxes.

tbirdz · 3 years ago

You don't have to make an estimated tax payment. You can also file an extension, and when you do that you can make a payment with IRS direct pay as well. Also just because you filed for an extension, that doesn't mean you have to file your tax return later, so you can just file your tax return when you would regularly payment. You can file for an extension much later than Jan 15th, I think the deadline is sometime in April.

tbirdz commented on Ask HN: What do we do with cash now that inflation is a risk? · Posted by u/soferio

tbirdz · 3 years ago

buy some I bonds from the US treasury at treasurydirect.gov. They are guaranteed to match inflation.

tbirdz commented on U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub secretservice.gov/newsroo... · Posted by u/perihelions

danuker · 4 years ago

Try saving for retirement. At 2% inflation (the target rate), after 20 years you'd lose 1 - (.98 ^ 20) = 33.2% of the purchasing power of your savings.

But right now, inflation is 7.5% year-over-year. And that's the official measure, which uses "owners' equivalent rent" based on a survey, instead of actual rent prices.

In the past 20 years (Jan 2002 - Jan 2022), the CPI went from 177.7 to 281.933, or a 58.6% increase. This means a 2.3% average inflation rate.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/owners-equivalent-rent....

tbirdz · 4 years ago

Then buy I-Bonds

tbirdz commented on Ask HN: Quit caffeine? Before and after anecdotes · Posted by u/rubicon33

tbirdz · 4 years ago

I was never a huge caffeine user, my peak was maybe 3 or 4 cans of coke zero a day. Since I quit I've seen my level of general anxiety go down, my moods are more stabler (like less feelings of irritability, stress, feeling overwhelmed), and I feel like my sleep has improved. I haven't noticed any real change in my performance after quitting. Maybe I don't feel as "sharp", but I'm still getting the same amount of things done at the same quality as before.

One thing to note is that once you quit you will not be able to really use caffeine effectively at the same level you are currently using it.

I recently had some caffeine, and after being off it for so long, it was actually very unpleasant. I felt like a cpu that got overclocked and was overheating. It didn't really make me any more productive, it just made feel like wow I'm really up right now, too far up and I want to be back to normal, but I can't until the caffeine passes through my system. And just that feeling of being trapped in the "high" and being unable to get out was very disturbing to me personally.

tbirdz commented on A simple system I’m using to stay in touch with hundreds of people jakobgreenfeld.com/stay-i... · Posted by u/jakobgreenfeld

tbirdz · 4 years ago

I love this idea! I can't tell you how many friendships I've lost in the past (or ones that could've taken off but prematurely died) from getting stuck in the "I think they don't want to talk to me"/"They think I don't want to talk to them" cycle. Then you end up with neither person initiating contact, and the whole thing just kind of ends. Many if not most people these days don't want to initiate, including me, so if you wait on them to reach out to you, they simply never will, even if they want to talk to you, or would enjoy a conversation.

I've been making steps toward being the person who initiates all contact, and so far it seems to work better than my previous strategies of "never initiating contact", and "initiating 50% of contacts and assuming they're not interested if they don't initiate". The only problem is I'm really not a natural at reaching out, so if left to my own devices I wouldn't do it often enough to maintain the relationship. I like OP's idea of externalizing it with a tool, that makes it a lot easier to maintain the kind of consistency needed to grow a relationship.

To all those saying this is forced or inhuman or robotic or whatever... Listen it would be great to have some kind of easy natural friendship where both people would do half the work, think of each other regularly and reach out in an easy non forced manner, but in my life experience that kind of relationship seems to be very hard to find, if not impossible.

In the real world it seems to me like the choices are be lonely and alone, or to do all the work (especially in initiating). In the past I chose to be lonely and alone, maybe holding out for that kind of unicorn, ideal friendship that people in this thread are talking about. I don't think it was a good choice. I switched, I'm doing the other approach and now I have people I can talk to. I do feel kind of resentful for having to put in way more effort initiating than the other person in these relationships, but it beats being alone and lonely, so I'd still say it's a net positive overall.