the rent is too damn high
Matthew Leverton

... so I bought a house.

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Actually I just placed an offer on it, but I know it will be accepted as long as the title and everything is clean (e.g., no mortgages against the house that the bank didn't know about, etc...).

I look forward to the day I can sit on my porch with my shotgun, shooting at all the "squirrels" that walk past.

Arthur Kalliokoski

Don't forget the moose ("but first we get moose and squirrel!").

William Labbett

It looks exactly like the house I always dreamed of buying in America until my Mum suggested that I'll never get let in to America :(

Thomas Fjellstrom

Don't forget the moose ("but first we get moose and squirrel!").

Hey! :(

Arthur Kalliokoski

Actually it adds a whole new level to "get off my lawn" when it has some buckshot behind it!

Chris Katko

I look forward to the day I can sit on my porch with my shotgun, shooting at all the "squirrels" that walk past.

Where's your refrigerator?

Historical note: Refrigerators used to be placed on the front porches of houses because it was a sign of wealth, and therefor something to flaunt to your neighbors.

Trent Gamblin

Nice! Who lives in the part on the right?

Billybob

You're getting Dish Network!?!? :o

Arthur Kalliokoski
Quote:

You're getting Dish Network!?!? :o

No, the people he's buying from had it. That's why they have to sell the house.

Matthew Leverton

Where's your refrigerator?

I cannot afford one. You know why.

Nice! Who lives in the part on the right?

I dunno. The garage is plenty big enough for me.

William Labbett

It's got a chimney so presumably a fireplace - does it get cold in your part of the world ?

My Mum and her (second) husband were just in Chicago for 10 days. They had a good time. People told me it'd be cold for them but they didn't mention it.

Matthew Leverton

It has no fireplace. The chimney is just a vent for the central heating. I live northwest of Chicago, and yes it gets very cold in the winter.

piccolo

looks a little rough. I would re code the grapical interface.

i bet its huge on the inside though.

house are a bit to much over here. so i am tring to by an boat from the US and ship it here for me to live on.

these are the cheepes one i found in my price range so far.

http://www.ablboats.com/details.php?id=89489

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/1988-Carver-Mariner-97258985

http://www.yachtauctions.com/listing.php?vessel=5397

http://www.boatingbay.com/listings/1986-Carver-36-Mariner-65264.html

http://www.popyachts.com/Page/Site-Listing/174/Page.html?Registered

one of these will be the outLine for my space ship.

blargmob
piccolo said:

one of these will be the outLine for my space ship.

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Matthew Leverton
piccolo said:

i bet its huge on the inside though.

It was designed by Time Lords.

piccolo

It was designed by Time Lords.

My sister house is the same thing. those US houses are like ant mounds.

@Jesse Lenney
Im not kidding though. I need to get one of these boats before the import tax goes up again. it was 55% right now its 22.25%.

First I'm going to make it Selfsafisant then I'm going to invent a new type of palpation.

bamccaig

I kind of worry about piccolo. :-/ Also, piccolo! \o/ It's been months since I've seen him post!

I'm skeptical about ML buying this house... If it was cheap enough I could maybe see it I guess, but it doesn't look like much. Probably leaks a lot of energy and it's small anyway so you don't get a lot with it.

Matthew Leverton

It cost as much as a PS3, two glowing wand sticks, and a dusty keyboard. :-X

Neil Black

Bah, I've owned my own home for years. Poor ML will have mortgage payments while I'm sitting back and enjoying my huge, totally paid off lawn and my nice, totally paid off home. 8-)

Neil Walker

while I'm sitting back and enjoying my huge, totally paid off lawn and my nice, totally paid off home

Not when he starts charging membership fees for the site.

Nice house. I'd change the blue though, it's a bit of a gay looking shade. British Racing green would look nice.

Trezker

I'd go with purple.

Bob Keane

I like the color scheme. Don't go with purple. A house in my old neighborhood was painted purple, the only way to describe it was "purple gothic nail polish". The couple who painted it wanted to piss off the neighbors. The owners were a lesbian couple while the neighbors were Catholic priests.

Matthew Leverton

Poor ML will have mortgage payments while I'm sitting back and enjoying my huge, totally paid off lawn and my nice, totally paid off home.

Unfortunately I'm not getting a loan, but even if I were, the payments would be less than rent. Why? The rent is too damn high.

I don't want a large lawn. It just means more grass to mow.

I'd change the blue though, it's a bit of a gay looking shade.

Agreed.

Yodhe23

Looks like one of those "wooden" houses, which just seem like an overgrown shed from my English perspective.

Though there is no feeling in the world, like being able to close one's own door on it, so to speak...

Hope it works out well for you.

Arthur Kalliokoski

3M's purple looks suspiciously close to the Magic Oink! But British Racing Green? How about Corvette Yellow with a big fat black racing stripe? Vroom vroom!

Matthew Leverton
Yodhe23 said:

Looks like one of those "wooden" houses, which just seem like an overgrown shed from my English perspective.

I tried to get a straw house but they were all sold out.

Onewing

Congrats! I just bought a house two months ago and it's a great relief (except for the fact that I feel further chained to an area that I want to leave).

Matthew Leverton

I heard from the bank today, and they've verbally accepted. But it's a short sale, so they have to check out several other things to make sure they are in the position to make the sale.

I'm not worried about being stuck in the area because the only reason I'd move is if I had a great job offer in Chicago. And in that case, I'd just be renting an apartment in some high-rise downtown. I'd keep the house and use it as a weekend get-away. I could also rent out a room to a friend or relative to keep it from sitting empty the whole week.

OICW
Onewing said:

I just bought a house two months ago and it's a great relief

Does that mean that your home crisis is finally solved? If so, then congratulations Steven.

superstar4410

When I saw your title I thought about this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0

Onewing

But it's a short sale

Sweet, you probably got a good deal then. How long did the whole process take?

OICW said:

Does that mean that your home crisis is finally solved?

Thankfully, yes. That's one crisis I can check off.

Arthur Kalliokoski

When I saw your title I thought about this

ORLY? How astute!

superstar4410

Lool :P ;D ;)

I live in my own world you know, you should visit me sometime, life in good in this dimension.

Matthew Leverton
Onewing said:

Sweet, you probably got a good deal then. How long did the whole process take?

I only offered about 45% of what they owe on the house. But they owe more than the house was ever worth. Given that and the updates I will do before moving in, the offer is probably closer to 75% of what the house is actually worth. So I wouldn't call it a steal, but I shouldn't lose any money on it.

Normally short sales take a long time, but given the high number of bank owned properties, they are motivated to dump things as fast as they can. If everything clears, I'll probably close within 20 days of the offer.

OICW
Onewing said:

Thankfully, yes. That's one crisis I can check off.

As I said above, congratulations. And for the rest - fingers crossed :)

LennyLen
piccolo said:

then I'm going to invent a new type of palpation.

A new way of examining people's organs? Why?

Chris Katko

I was going some coding and this error message popped up:

{"name":"UxtQI.png","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/7\/b\/7b9c8467cc63f3b57b7fbf4253b1b902.png","w":248,"h":150,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/7\/b\/7b9c8467cc63f3b57b7fbf4253b1b902"}UxtQI.png

Samuel Henderson

Congratulations Matthew!

Welcome to home ownership. Feels nice doesn't it? ;)

superstar4410

So thats the overflow error you got?

I took an IQ test and the told me your IQ is too D_ _ _ high.

Bob Keane

We have something called "homesteader's insurance" in Ma. If you fall into financial trouble, it helps. You should look into it. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/rod/rodhom/homidx.htm

Sevalecan

I don't want a large lawn. It just means more grass to mow.

That's why instead of having a large lawn, you get some farm land and let somebody farm it for you. Depending on the location and the price of the crop, the amount of money you get should just cover the property taxes. Or you can get a house somewhere where there isn't some silly local ordinance saying you have to mow your lawn, then you can just let part of your yard grow up.

Also, if had seen that house in Saginaw, I'd say you were getting closer to the bad part of town.

bamccaig

On a related note, it seems that an apartment has finally opened up for me. I saw it yesterday and it looks good. It's a small one-bedroom, but the layout is nice. My brother has the adjacent apartment and when you walk in his door you're looking at the kitchen, which is little more than a row of cupboards and such. The entrance is little more than a thin "hallway". In [soon to be] my apartment, when you walk in the door you are looking at the living area. The kitchen is to the left in a corner.

Approximately mine:

 _____________________
|              |      |
|      LR      |  BR  |
|              |      |
|   _          |  _   |
|    |         |  _|__|
| K      ___       WR |
|____|  /   |__|_|____|

(Imagine the counters/appliances because there's no space to draw them)

Approximately his:

 _____________________
|      |              |
|  BR  |    LR        |
|      |         _   _|
|   _  |        | | | |
|__|_           | |K| |
| WR            |_| |_|
|____|_|__________   _|

I'm rather satisfied with it. It will be the first place of my own.

They're just fixing it up now. They're going to try to get the carpets cleaned. If that works out then I should be in in about two weeks. If the carpets can't be cleaned then they'll be tearing them out and putting in hardwood floors (I think). Additionally, they'd redo the tiling in the bathroom and kitchen, so I wouldn't mind if they took that approach, but I'm not going to explicitly ask for it. Rent seems reasonable at CAD$650 (CAD$675 if they redo the floors).

Expect a number of threads in the near future to help pick out things to fill it up. :P Early must haves will be a computer desk, entertainment stand, and bed. :-/

I've been looking into Tempur-Pedic beds because I want to be comfortable (and not suffer from an inability to sleep or soreness, etc.). They are unfortunately rather expensive. It seems Sears has queen-sized bed for $CAD2200 ish. :-X It seems like a lot, but then everybody else I know that has bought a bed say they can't sleep and they hate it... A queen-sized bed barely fits in the small bedroom in these places, but it seems having a double would be awkward to share with someone else. :D

I'm also interested in getting some exercise equipment. I'm leaning towards a bow-flex, but those are quite expensive too. It seems Sears has one model on sale for CAD$1000, but I'm not sure how much it's capable of doing, let alone whether they actually work yet. I would love to work on muscle mass and toning and such. That said, it would also be nice to work on cardio and stamina... I just can't afford two machines to handle everything and even if I could I wouldn't have space for them. Already, I'm going to have to be careful about what I do get to make sure there's space for it.

Months ago I was going to get a pool table, but it seems that there just won't be space. Besides, if I actually manage to buff up then I'd be more comfortable spending all night at a bar and playing pool there. :P

I'd like to get a gaming PC that is capable of running anything modern easily so eventually I'll probably buy a liquid cooled Falcon-Northwest. It looks like it'll be between CAD$2500 and CAD$3500 for that. I'll have to try to hold off on that to see how much savings I still have left. I'll probably wait until Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and/or Portal 2 are released, but I doubt that I'll be able to wait any longer (unless I find myself terribly afraid of affording to live on my own by then). :P

I'm planning to get a Roomba robot vaccuum so that I don't have to physically make time to vacuum the apartment. One that can run automatically on a schedule, perhaps when I'm away at j0rb, would be nice. They're not cheap though either. It seems you can get cheaper models for USD$300 ish, but their capabilities are very limited, forcing you to still do some of the work. It seems the USD$600-700 ones can pretty much do it all by themselves.

Advices/experiences with these specific items/brands and/or life itself appreciated. :)

Matthew Leverton

$675 for one bedroom! I could rent an entire five bedroom house for that price, and I think that's too damn high. :o

$700 for a vacuum cleaner is hilarious. I spend about 5 minutes a month vacuuming.

Arthur Kalliokoski

I spend about 5 minutes a month vacuuming.

You must never go outside to get your shoes dirty.

piccolo

meh its all nothing compared to the house prices over here.

This is why i am getting a boat so i can went until the cost of houses goes down like it did in the
USA.

Matthew Leverton

You must never go outside to get your shoes dirty.

I don't wear dirty shoes in the house...

Arthur Kalliokoski

I don't wear dirty shoes in the house...

If they're obviously dirty you bang them together outside, but ordinary sand from the driveway builds up after a while too.

Bob Keane

If they're obviously dirty you bang them together outside, but ordinary sand from the driveway builds up after a while too.

Or leave them in the entry.

bamccaig

$675 for one bedroom! I could rent an entire five bedroom house for that price, and I think that's too damn high. :o

That's cheap around here. The only thing cheaper is renting a room in an actual crack house. Fortunately, the place that I'm renting from is actually pretty nice.

$700 for a vacuum cleaner is hilarious. I spend about 5 minutes a month vacuuming.

It's not just a vacuum! It's also a robot! I seem to remember reading about the more advanced models actually being remote controllable too. ;D

I think you pretty much have to vacuum about once a week around here to keep the place free of lint and dust build up and such. Besides, I wear baggy clothes, so I do track dirt in pretty regularly. It would be a pain to have to remember to take time out every week to vacuum. If a robot just automatically did it for me when I was away that would be great.

LennyLen
bamccaig said:

On a related note, it seems that an apartment has finally opened up for me.

I have literally just finished moving all our stuff to our new apartment. We're now in a two-bedroom apartment configured like this:

 _______ __________
|                  |
|                  |
|  LR         DR   |
|                   
|______            |
|     |            |
|     |      ______|
| BR  |            |
|     |            |
|             K    |
|______            |
|        __________|
| BR  |  |    |    |
|     |  |    |    |
|_____|  |    | L  |
|             |    |
|     WR           |
|_____________|____|

The wall between the kitchen and the dining room is only half height, so the whole lounge/dining/kitchen area is pretty open-plan. The bathroom is huge, as is the laundry area, which is going to double as storage.

It's going for $370 (USD 280) p/w, fully furnished. We're in the same building we were already in, so we're still right in the centre of the city.

OICW
LennyLen said:

We're in the same building we were already in, so we're still right in the centre of the city.

That's what I was going to ask you. If it's bye bye nice old look building or not. Hm, anyway I'm not really fond of open space involving kitchen not separated from living room. I don't really need to smell my meal by my working desk.

Anyway, I'm still waiting till we manage to finally reorganise our flat so we can fully utilize a room that's left after my grandmother.

Trent Gamblin
Quote:

USD 280

You bastard! >:(

Matthew Leverton
Quote:

USD 280

That's reasonable rent. Not quite too damn high.

bamccaig said:

I think you pretty much have to vacuum about once a week around here to keep the place free of lint and dust build up and such

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work.

Bob Keane

I think he's paying thrice that. Calm down, Trent. Rents will drop because people are worried about forclosure. Mortgages might (stress might) drop because banks don't want to own properties. There is a federal plan to help distressed owners restructure thier loans. Right now, as a renter, you are in the driver's seat.

bamccaig
LennyLen said:

It's going for $370 (USD 280)

I guess rent is high here because there is limited housing. Prices don't seem to have been affected much by recent economic events. I'm sure they just charge a lot because they can (not a lot of competition to keep prices down). :-/

LennyLen said:

p/w

Meaning? :-X

I suppose I should mention that my rent includes all utilities, but I don't expect that you change anyone's mind. :(

Thomas Fjellstrom
Bob Keane said:

Right now, as a renter, you are in the driver's seat.

Not here. Rent didn't go down much over all. Heck, my rent went up this year.

bamccaig

It's not that I'm happy paying CAD$650 a month, but I'm happier than I would be paying CAD$750 or CAD$850 (even happier still that I don't have to pay for utilities). :-X

Thomas Fjellstrom

Yeah, utilities aren't included in my $490/mo. Nor is taxes or anything else. Since I'm just renting the small plot of land for that $480, I think its a bit high.

When I moved in 5 years ago, I was paying $360, or something around that.

LennyLen
OICW said:

Hm, anyway I'm not really fond of open space involving kitchen not separated from living room. I don't really need to smell my meal by my working desk.

I have my desk set up in the second bedroom. :D

Bob Keane said:

There is a federal plan to help distressed owners restructure thier loans.

Trent is Canadian, so I don't think they're going to help him. ;)

bamccaig said:

I guess rent is high here because there is limited housing.

What we're paying is considered reasonably high, but demand for apartments in these heritage buildings is high. For the price we're paying, you can rent a three bedroom house with a yard in most parts of the city.

Quote:

Meaning?

p/w = per week.

Quote:

I suppose I should mention that my rent includes all utilities, but I don't expect that you change anyone's mind.

If I add power and internet (we're not getting a phone), then it's around $410 (USD 310) per week.

bamccaig
LennyLen said:

p/w = per week.

LennyLen said:

If I add power and internet (we're not getting a phone), then it's around $410 (USD 310) per week.

:o

Trent Gamblin

Oh damn, I thought that was per month. That sounds about on par with rent around here I guess.

ImLeftFooted

$1500 for a reasonable studio around here.

Partially I believe the prices are propped up by the city's regulations against building tall buildings.

Matthew Leverton
LennyLen said:

If I add power and internet (we're not getting a phone), then it's around $410 (USD 310) per week.

$1200/month for a city apartment is okay if you don't have to own a car. Otherwise, it's too damn high.

LennyLen

Partially I believe the prices are propped up by the city's regulations against building tall buildings.

That's part of the problem here as well, though it's not due to regulation but due to the fact that the city is sitting on top of a massive reervoir of water which is very close to the surface. We can't build tall buildings as the foundations for them would be below the water table.

Neil Walker

I paid off my mortgage last year and I've never felt safer knowing no matter what happens I'll still have somewhere to live.

I feel sorry for people in UK (no idea about elsewhere) as the cost of houses, the lack of mortgages and the need to have a high deposit (upwards of 50-£60k) means new starters simply cannot get a house.

Bob Keane
ML said:

$1200/month for a city apartment is okay if you don't have to own a car. Otherwise, it's too damn high.

My mortgage is $1500. For $300 extra I get to own the house in twenty years. So what if Trent is Canadian? That still entitles him to the same rights and priviledges as any other American.

bamccaig

I paid off my mortgage last year and I've never felt safer knowing no matter what happens I'll still have somewhere to live.

I assume that means that you have full fire, flood, etc., etc., insurance? ;)

Neil Walker

Actually, isn't insurance void for 'acts of god' and terrorism?

bamccaig

Actually, isn't insurance void for 'acts of god' and terrorism?

I should hope not... It still isn't your fault and you've paid your share.

Trezker

Does your insurance cover act of dog and other acts?

type568

$1500 for a reasonable studio around here.

That's the kind of prices after the collapse of the estate market?!

miran

Jesus F Christ! :o Those numbers are completely totally insane! In my part of the world rent for a typical flat is around 250-350€ per month. Back when I was living in a rented apartment the rent was 420€ per month, which included everything except for internet (that's electricity, heating, water etc.) and the place was huge! 3 bedrooms and about 115 square meters (that's about 1250 square ft for Americans)...

Trent Gamblin

Ya, rent prices in Canada are a real bummer. I guess beggars can't be choosers though. I get free money, just enough to pay my parents to rent out their basement suite and buy food and a few extras. All in all it's not too bad.

Neil Walker

Surely prices are based on location? I imagine buying a studio apartment in New York is treble the cost of a five bedroom straw built house in Ohio?

Here in the UK, after the recent spending review, people are up in arms that those on benefit will be thrown on the street because they are planning on capping the amount of rent paid for by the government (i.e. me) to those on benefit to £400 a week.

That's a monthly free handout of upto £1200 or almost US $2000 :o per month. Where I live you can get a mansion for that price (or a mortgage equivalent of a house worth about £400k).

type568

In other words UK Gov, plans to place a cap on how much can an apartment be given for rent for, bypassing the free market? This will result in property to be simple unavailable for rent anymore :-/.

Samuel Henderson
bamccaig said:

That's cheap around here. The only thing cheaper is renting a room in an actual crack house. Fortunately, the place that I'm renting from is actually pretty nice.

I don't think that's that cheap. When my fiance was renting her apartment she was paying $480CAD/mo for a single bedroom, with utilities included (electric & water). Her apartment was kind of crappy though.

The two bedroom apartment where I used to live two years ago is going for 710CAD/mo today.

bamccaig said:

I'm planning to get a Roomba robot vaccuum so that I don't have to physically make time to vacuum the apartment. One that can run automatically on a schedule, perhaps when I'm away at j0rb, would be nice. They're not cheap though either. It seems you can get cheaper models for USD$300 ish, but their capabilities are very limited, forcing you to still do some of the work. It seems the USD$600-700 ones can pretty much do it all by themselves.

Advices/experiences with these specific items/brands and/or life itself appreciated. :)

We have a Roomba that was given to us by my parents. It's one of the higher end models that is supposedly self reliant. You set up a schedule (specify which days and what time it should vacuum) and it does the rest. It goes about it's business and when it's done it returns to it's dock and starts recharging.

Sometimes however it gets itself stranded under the couch, or tangled up in an overhanging blanket, or stops because it's dirt bin is full. It also doesn't like stairs, but if you get a good model it should come with two virtual walls which act as barriers. I'd recommend using one of the virtual walls to cordon off your entertainment system, the roomba can easily get caught by cables/wires.

For the most part we are pretty happy with it. Though like Matthew, it wouldn't take me that long to manually vacuum so I don't think I would ever actually buy a Roomba.

Edit: Fixed double negative!

bamccaig

It also doesn't like stairs, but if you get a good model it should come with two virtual walls which act as barriers.

I think they're supposed to detect stairs automatically. I think they have sensors in the front that they use to look down with and measure the distance. I can't say if that's a new feature or if it actually works, however. I was also looking into the little bit of competition that there is so many I'm confusing brands...

Have you actually seen it go over the stairs or what? :P

I'd recommend using one of the virtual walls to cordon off your entertainment system, the roomba can easily get caught by cables/wires.

Yeah, seems like a good idea. :)

Though like Matthew, it wouldn't take me that long to manually vacuum so I don't think I would never actually buy a Roomba.

Double negative alert!

I would guess that it would take at least 45 minutes to vacuum your house, if not twice that. :o

Arthur Kalliokoski

the roomba can easily get caught by cables/wires.

I have trouble with cables/wires when vacuuming myself. Tie them into bundles with twist ties.

Samuel Henderson
bamccaig said:

Have you actually seen it go over the stairs or what?

I've never seen ours actually fall down the stairs but I have seen it go right to the edge when we accidentally forgot to replace the virtual wall after moving.

Quote:

I would guess that it would take at least 45 minutes to vacuum your house, if not twice that.

I can do upstairs in about 10 minutes, about 5 minutes for the main floor, and about 10 minutes for the basement. I'm not a cleaning fanatic though. I don't vacuum every square inch of floor regardless of it is dirty or not.

Arthur Kalliokoski

I'm not a cleaning fanatic though. I don't vacuum every square inch of floor regardless of it is dirty or not.

But then the pattern doesn't match (as in the special way they mow the baseball fields). It won't show up unless you have a fairly shaggy carpet, though.

[EDIT]

The carpet in my bedroom isn't shaggy at all, but you can still easily see where the vacuum traveled. Of course, moving bar bell weights around to vacuum underneath still shows the depressions where they were originally.

Neil Walker

I don't have any problems with cleaning or vacuuming. I have a wife who does all that :P

Bob Keane

We have a Roomba that was given to us by my parents. It's one of the higher end models that is supposedly self reliant. You set up a schedule (specify which days and what time it should vacuum) and it does the rest. It goes about it's business and when it's done it returns to it's dock and starts recharging.

Does it use a litter box, or do you let it out? Obviously you have to use a dustbuster or similar to do the stairs, or are they uncovered? That kind of defeats the purpose of a Roomba?

23yrold3yrold

The two bedroom apartment where I used to live two years ago is going for 710CAD/mo today.

Just to throw more prices around, my 2-bedroom apartment in Calgary is $1200/mo. I split it with a roommate, but it's not much more square feet than my old $450/mo bachelor suite in Winnipeg. Decent place, mind, but still $1200/mo. :-/

Mark Oates

My place is $600/mo not including utils. The cheapest non-ghetto place (and Albuquerque has a pretty crime-ridden ghetto. They used to constantly be on COPS until the city had to ban the show from filming here.) is going to be around $580/mo. My last place was in the 'student ghetto' and cost $300/mo utils included. That was a very lucky circumstance that would have normally cost $475 utils included. And it was still the worst-looking house on the block.

And that's too damn high.

Samuel Henderson
Bob Keane said:

Does it use a litter box, or do you let it out?

It has an internal bin that it sweeps and sucks dirt into. When the bin gets full the Roomba stops in tracks and (quite loudly) says something like "Dirt tray full! Please empty dirt tray!". It does that for a few minutes and then it shuts off. When you turn it on again it repeats the message.

Quote:

Obviously you have to use a dustbuster or similar to do the stairs, or are they uncovered? That kind of defeats the purpose of a Roomba?

Yeah, it doesn't do stairs at all. We have a hand held dustbuster for them. We only do the stairs one a month or so...

bamccaig

We... we... we...

Do your parents know? ;D :-X

Arthur Kalliokoski

It has an internal bin that it sweeps and sucks dirt into.

Somehow I read that as "It has an internet bin that it sweeps and sucks dirt into."

Mark Oates

Somehow I read that as "It has an internet bin that it sweeps and sucks dirt into."

I read an article yesterday about how "Postal 2" was too violent, dismembering people and burning bodies. I read it as Portal 2 and got pissed for about 30 seconds.

ImLeftFooted
type568 said:

In other words UK Gov, plans to place a cap on how much can an apartment be given for rent for, bypassing the free market? This will result in property to be simple unavailable for rent anymore .

Rent control has well known issues.
http://www.google.com/search?q=rent+control+issues+-represent

Edit
I've heard some horror stories from down in Santa Monica. This dude owns a 5 unit complex and was renting them out. One of his tenants appealed to the city to get their rent lowered -- claiming structural damage.

The day before the government inspector came he ran the hose inside his unit, flooding the whole place destroying both the floor and outer deck area.

Now he's "out of the renting business." Or in layman's terms, he's on the black market -- the hoards of people desperate to find a place to live end up paying much higher rates.

Quote:

The natural consequence in a free-market economy is a reduction in supply and consequent shortages. Tucker has argued that rent control has the perverse effect of creating less affordable housing.

[1]

Neil Walker
type568 said:

bypassing the free market

I don't think so, what they're saying is currently there is no cap on how much money they give people to live 100% subsidised by the state and that has to stop.

As I said, that much money is enough to pay for a mortgage on a massive house almost anywhere in the country and so the average income person is being hugely penalised to pay for those who do not work and live on benefits.

Bob Keane

Speaking of home ownership, I need a new furnace. My sister in law's uncle's brother in law just looked at it and gave me a few options. A 90% efficiency furnace would cost about $3000, not sure if it includes labor. The duct work would also have to be replaced, no price on that. An 80% efficiency furnace may cost about $500 less, but I would probably have to install a clay liner in the chimney. The joys of home ownership. ::)

Arthur Kalliokoski

Just make a campfire in the middle of the living room with your old code listings, it'll be fine.

Bob Keane

Wishful thinking. I'm a wannabe programmer. BTW, this happened less than a mile from my home, and we have gas heat. I was sitting in my den when I felt the house shake. Spare change anybody?

Arthur Kalliokoski

That can happen if the relief valve on your water heater gets clogged. Stop being a wussy.

Bob Keane

You're not going to say "Gas heat is a booming business in my neighborhood."?

Arthur Kalliokoski

I can't think of everything :) Thanks!

Matthew Leverton

If you get a 90%+ efficiency gas/oil furnace installed by the end of the year, you get 30% back on parts and labor from Uncle Obama in forms of tax credit (maximum of $1500).

  • 90% = $3000 * 0.70 = $2100

  • 80% = $2500

Not sure which one I'd do. ???

Bob Keane

I'm guessing $6000 installed. The 90% furnace will lower gas costs better, plus the advantage of not needing a chimney liner(?), and is impressive when I sell the house. I rent a couple of rooms so expenses like a new furnace or even a lightbulb are a write off. I think I only get a 25% allowance for that though. The problem is getting thte cash to replace the furnace. I think I can take a loan from a pension, but the money will not be available until next month.

Mark Oates

you get 30% back on parts and labor from Uncle Obama

Socialist. Why should I have to pay for your furnace? >:(

Matthew Leverton

Socialist. Why should I have to pay for your furnace?

Economically, programs like that are stupid. The market is able to determine what is more cost effective by itself.

There is no incentive to lower the cost of a high-efficiency furnace if the government pays the difference. Thus prices stay artificially high. Also, it introduces a false, bubbled demand that will disappear on January 1.

Arthur Kalliokoski

Bubble to save $500? I've lived in a couple places here in North Caroline (not terribly cold) where the monthly heating bill was $400.

Thomas Fjellstrom

The market is able to determine what is more cost effective by itself.

If that were true... I wish it was. No what the market determines is what is best for the investor behind the companies. Which is usually "Rape the customer till they are broke and dead".

Arthur Kalliokoski

No what the market determines is what is best for the investor behind the companies. Which is usually "Rape the customer till they are broke and dead".

Pics or it didn't happen.

Mark Oates

Pics or it didn't happen.

602623

No what the market determines is what is best for the investor behind the companies.

I think this is true. Consumer interest isn't always driven by product quality (a driving theory of an ideal free market.) It has more to do with popularity, and popularity can be bought.

Arthur Kalliokoski

dammit!!! Mark always sees through my small schemes... :P

[EDIT]

Mark edited, so I'm editing (drunk). I could have sworn I wrote a post about some import car commercial where all it showed was some hot chick grinding on the seat of a car to some currently popular tune, but no actual reasons for buying this car were evident. In other words, people would associate the brand name with the good feeling of seeing this hot chick. Therefore, consumer interest is driven by emotion, not facts.

I used the Allegro search as well as google this time.

Bob Keane

Socialist. Why should I have to pay for your furnace?

Because a more efficient furnace lowers demand for gas which in turn lowers prices.

Arthur Kalliokoski
Bob Keane said:

lowers demand for gas which in turn lowers prices.

Prices for gas? No. Just no. If you can't convince people to buy it, why would you raise prices?

Thomas Fjellstrom

If you can't convince people to buy it, why would you raise prices?

Huh? You raise prices when demand is up, thats one of the rules of supply and demand. If demand goes down, you want to lower prices to hopefully entice people to buy.

Arthur Kalliokoski

Huh? That's what I said :P.

Thomas Fjellstrom

Huh? That's what I said .

Thats what he said, so I was confused as to why you said what you said.

Arthur Kalliokoski

Oops! I guess I'm still drunk! Well, either that or he edited...

decepto

$675 for one bedroom! I could rent an entire five bedroom house for that price, and I think that's too damn high.

I pay $650 for a studio! I'm moving soon though, thank god.

Matthew Leverton

Bubble to save $500? I've lived in a couple places here in North Caroline (not terribly cold) where the monthly heating bill was $400.

Yes, it creates an unrealistic demand by moving sales from the next two or three years into this one. People can get up to $1500 for putting in energy efficient windows, furnaces, etc.

Obviously nobody will do work on something that still has lots of life time left, but people who have things with one or two years left of life will replace them early (if they have the money to do so.) e.g., Instead of getting the furnace replaced next year, they'll rush to get it done this year. That doesn't increase total demand of new furnaces, it only moves money from next year into this.

So it looks good on paper for the politicians because they can claim their program "created" jobs and so forth. But there's no real net gain if you look at the total sales over several years.

A monthly heating bill of $400 in NC is ridiculous. To heat the entire house I'm currently living in, it cost less than $900 for the entire winter. So using a more realistic number of $1000...

If you gain 10% efficiency, you are saving about $100 per year. If you get 25 years out of your furnace, that's a minimum saving of $2500. If the price of whatever the furnace uses as a fuel source goes up over time, then you'll be saving even more. Now if the difference in cost is really only $500, it shouldn't take government intervention to get people to buy the more efficient furnace. :P

Ironically, the credit applies to home owners ... who are already likely to buy efficient furnaces. The slumlords are the ones with no incentive to buy efficient furnaces, since their tenants are paying the fuel costs.

The only way government programs like this are effective if there's only a benefit when everybody works together. i.e., If the positive isn't seen until the entire community updates, then there may be good reason to stimulate demand.

Thomas Fjellstrom

I'd really like to get a new furnace. Its original to the house. Probably >= 25 years old, and horribly inefficient. Also the gas valve is failing. I'm surprised it still works.

Sirocco

Welcome to the club.

I'll have my mortgage paid off complete in ~5 years. That's a somewhat happy thought in my otherwise bleak existence. Keeping up a house is a total pain, but I love the place to death.

Arthur Kalliokoski

A monthly heating bill of $400 in NC is ridiculous.

They don't insulate anything worth a carp here because "it isn't terribly cold".

Matthew Leverton

Maintaining a house gives you something to do. ;)

The cost of it isn't too bad, especially if you aren't paying a mortgage. But the property taxes and extra / higher utility fees compared to renting is what I find annoying.

They don't insulate anything worth a carp here because "it isn't terribly cold".

Obama is giving you $1500 toward insulation as well!

ImLeftFooted

Obama is really generous with giving away his money. He must be working night and day to earn all that money he's giving away.

Matthew Leverton

And things like solar panels carry over to future years. If I were to put $50,000 of solar panels on my house, I'd not have to pay any taxes for the following years until the $15,000 credit was worked off.

So he'll even be putting in overtime after he is out of office. :-X

Arthur Kalliokoski

Obama is really generous with giving away his money. He must be working night and day to earn all that money he's giving away.

<sigh> If only it were true.

type568

Obama is really generous with giving away his money. He must be working night and day to earn all that money he's giving away.

I think he prefers to leave that part to you :P

Bob Keane
ML said:

If the price of whatever the furnace uses as a fuel source goes up over time, then you'll be saving even more.

I'm not sure I understand that. If your usage is constant, but the unit price goes up, doesn't that eat into your savings?

ML said:

The slumlords are the ones with no incentive to buy efficient furnaces, since their tenants are paying the fuel costs.

Unless the landlord is paying utilities, an incentive to rent in a down economy. Plus the utilities can be written off on your taxes.

Matthew Leverton
Bob Keane said:

I'm not sure I understand that. If your usage is constant, but the unit price goes up, doesn't that eat into your savings?

It doesn't really matter what the unit price or usage is. If the total cost goes up, the total savings increases.

            Year 1   Year 2   Year 3
Standard     $1000    $1200   $1400
Efficient     $900    $1080   $1260
------------------------------------
Savings       $100     $120    $140

Obviously you still spend more, but the amount you save relative to what you would have spent with the standard model goes up.

And why do you manually specify a name and bogus source to your quotes? :P

Bob Keane

I can't find the automatic quote button. And you edited your post! I talked to the furnace guy again, The $3000 was complete, parts and labor. One less headache.

Neil Walker

Here in the lovely UK, we've always had the option of free insulation (loft and wall), paid for by our generous government.

As for solar panels, I've worked out that the money you save would take about 30 years to get back. So while I'm all for sustainable energy and looking after the planet, I'm not forking out £10k up-front to wait until I die before I reap the benefits.

Matthew Leverton

> I can't find the automatic quote button.

or

<quote>I can't find the automatic quote button.</quote>

Becomes:

Bob Keane said:

I can't find the automatic quote button.

And you edited your post!

No I didn't. :P

As for solar panels, I've worked out that the money you save would take about 30 years to get back.

That's assuming they still work after 30 years. >:(

bamccaig
Bob Keane said:

I can't find the automatic quote button.

type568

>Becomes:

Let's see..

Append:

Nope, '>' Doesn't replace the

As, <quote>Becomes:</quote>

Becomes:

bamccaig
type568 said:

Let's see..

Append:

Nope, '>' Doesn't replace the

It's "> ", not '>'. ;) It's the same convention used on mailing lists.

type568

I'm using the ANSI C convention instead :D (please don't correct me saying it's a pointer when I use "").

bamccaig
type568 said:

I'm using the ANSI C convention instead :D (please don't correct me saying it's a pointer when I use "").

I didn't mean the quote characters. :-[ I meant the space after the '>'. :D

Bob Keane

You kids with your fancy doodads and flashy quote tricks. Back in my day, we didn't have an internet. We had to wait for Al Gore to invent it. I think I prefer manual quoting. Yes you did.

Arthur Kalliokoski

Bob Keane said (and I quote) "I think I prefer manual quoting. Yes you did." (unquote)

ImLeftFooted

The custom jss done broke my a.cc. http://www.castopulence.org/js/acc.min.js be no dern good.

bamccaig

The custom jss done broke my a.cc. http://www.castopulence.org/js/acc.min.js be no dern good.

Fixed. After I changed Web servers I held off on setting up Apache because I wanted to run a Java server. That hasn't really happened yet and so my Web site has been down for like 2 months... I have had acc.js on the server, but at an improvised location.

What made matters worse was that I had two diverging development trees that weren't merging happily and so I just left them for like two months. :P In any case, I finally merged them (hopefully gracefully) and have quick-fixed the site for these scripts.

There are occasions when my server goes down though (either at my hands, TF's, or the host's :-X) so you basically have to choose between:

  • Pulling from my server and accepting occasional downtime, which drastically slows down A.cc while the browser's request for my script time's out; but getting automatic updates as I consider them stable.

  • Copying the source directly into your custom JS settings, which avoids downtime, but requires manual updates.

Note that there's currently no minified version as I don't have the closure compiler installed right now.

Thomas Fjellstrom
bamccaig said:

There are occasions when my server goes down though (either at my hands, TF's, or the host's )

Now that the Xen kernel bug is fixed, there will be far less downtime at my hands or the servers. I haven't actually seen any real downtime at the hands of the host.

So things should be a lot more stable, at least on my part. I probably won't do another kernel upgrade for some time. Probably not till full xen dom0 support hits the linux kernel proper.

bamccaig

Apparently the super expects my apartment to be finished on Wednesday. So I might be able to get the keys either Wednesday or Thursday. :D

Bob Keane

I hope you didn't pay a full month's rent. Meanwhile, I'm still accepting donations for that furnace.

bamccaig
Bob Keane said:

I hope you didn't pay a full month's rent.

I'm paying a half month (which still means that I'm paying for ~3 days that I won't even have the keys, but it's negligible). Additionally, I pay for my last month up front, so all together it's CAD$975 for my first payment, but will be CAD$650 after that.

Neil Walker

I was watching a TV quiz programme (Qi) the other day that said (obviously generalising) that despite how stupid it sounds one of the biggest causes of house price devaluation (upwards of a third of the value) in America is if it's known to be haunted.

That could be one way of getting the house/rent cheaper ;)

Mark Oates

Leverton, since you're so loaded, you should slip me a couple bucks for being an allegro.cc content provider. ;)

Matthew Leverton

If you rent one of the bedrooms, I'll give you a discount. 8-)

bamccaig
bamccaig said:

Apparently the super expects my apartment to be finished on Wednesday. So I might be able to get the keys either Wednesday or Thursday. :D

Today I showed up to pay rent (early, to get it out of the way) and the super was completely surprised. It seems that she was under the impression that I would be coming in next Saturday to pay, which is also still when the apartment will be ready (instead of Wednesday/Thursday, which was the last I heard from my brother). Additionally, instead of CAD$975, it was only ~CAD$500. Don't ask me how, as I thought it was supposed to be first and last month's rent, the last month's rent being presumably CAD$650 all by itself, but I wasn't going to argue with her... :-/

So the good news is that I still have $500 of my money that I thought was gone, but the bad news is that I have to wait 3 more days than I expected (and I'm not really sure about the whole last month's rent thing...). I will have to talk to my brother tomorrow to see if he can make sense of it... :-/

Today I went shopping with my mom's help and bought most of the essentials. Kitchenware, shower and bathroom accessories, etc... :-/ I still need more, but this was the most of it, I think. That came to almost CAD$600 though... Shopping with my brother probably would have been nicer to my wallet, but I can't say for sure what the sacrifice would be... Shame my mom was with me as the Walmart cashier was pretty cute. :-/

Matthew Leverton
bamccaig said:

Shame my mom was with me as the Walmart cashier was pretty cute.

If you drop $600 on silverware, it doesn't matter if your mom is with you.

bamccaig

I have officially moved into the apartment[1]. :) Unfortunately, all of the various things that you "need" for a place of your own is costing quite a bit... I've nearly cut my savings in half and it's only been 2 days. I hope that pattern stops or I won't make it.

I still have a few odd things to get, but otherwise I should be done shopping, which is a relief. Unfortunately, I still have to go grocery shopping, and I'm not looking forward to it.

The entertainment stand that I bought sucks ass. It was really hard to assemble (3 people) and in the end got a hole punched through it while trying to join two pieces. Apparently it was hollow inside. So now it has a hole in the side which happens to face the door (due to the poor location of the phone/cable jacks). I might be tempted to try to return it or replace that piece, but it literally took us like 7 hours to assemble (we haven't even assembled the drawers yet...) and all of the doweling has been glued so it isn't coming apart gracefully. It's also a large and heavy SOB so I'm not really anxious to carry it out of the apartment. I think I'll just live with the hole, which should be mostly cosmetic (it's currently supporting its own weight, plus my 40" LCD TV, PS3, PS2, and HD PVR). I'm not at all happy about it, but I think going to the trouble of replacing it would only make me even more miserable (not to mention, if we have to assemble another one then it might break too).

I also broke my microwave stand in a mostly cosmetic way, but it's far less noticeable. It seems that everything that they make these days is garbage (albeit, that microwave stand was a lot cheaper than the rest).

I'm pretty satisfied with the computer desk that I chose. I wanted an L-shape, but my brother convinced me that it would take up too much space in such a small apartment (especially if I want to fit a BowFlex in it someday). The desk I got is still pretty large, which was what I wanted so there would be space for my huge mouse pad, keyboard, monitor, a phone, and probably a computer or two on it all at the same time without being a cluttered mess. It was a lot easier to assemble and aside from a little asymmetrical snafu, assembly of that went well.

Neither of my parents has come to see it yet. :( I'm a little bit regretful for spending so much money so quickly, especially on the garbage that broke, but hopefully it all works out in the end. My bed should be delivered tomorrow (the most expensive single purchase so hopefully that one works out OK).

:-[ :'(

References

  1. Well, not officially: I still have to change my registered address and such...
type568
bamccaig said:

I hope that pattern stops or I won't make it.

You've mentioned a j0rb few times.. Hence you can gets a credits. I'd never suggest that to anyone, I hate credits, but.. The USD is cheap as it never was, assuming you'll return it within half a year.. The credit will be virtually free(I suppose you to pay less than 1% extra).

bamccaig
type568 said:

You've mentioned a j0rb few times.. Hence you can gets a credits. I'd never suggest that to anyone, I hate credits, but.. The USD is cheap as it never was, assuming you'll return it within half a year.. The credit will be virtually free(I suppose you to pay less than 1% extra).

I'm still a ways away from needing credit[1] and should be pretty well done spending significant sums of money for a while (I hope). Now I just need to figure out my monthly expenses and try to budget my income to satisfy them with some savings left over... I imagine that will be nontrivial for somebody new to living on their own.

Today I got my router working. The "cable guy" was confused that it wasn't working... Turns out it was configured for PPPoE, which didn't care much for my cable Internet... I'm not sure what cable uses so I just set it to "DHCP automatic". ;D I then got wireless working again and setup my PC. Then I cleared a path to the bedroom and cleared the bedroom in anticipation of my new bed scheduled for delivery tomorrow. That means I shouldn't have to sleep on this busted ass-couch any longer. :D

Currently I have to run an Ethernet cable across the floor to reach my PC, which is rather annoying. I'm not sure whether it is worthwhile to get a wireless NIC for my PC. Doing a wireless speed test on my netbook earlier I got something like 19 mbps down and 0.9 mbps up [append:] with a 100 ms lag. Doing a wired speed test with my PC got me something like 25 mbps down and 0.7 mbps up [append:] with a 70 ms lag. I'm sure it varies somewhat dramatically with cable, but the speed loss over wireless doesn't seem so dramatic that it should affect gaming (append: after all, I used to play over DSL). So I guess that I could get a wireless NIC for my PC and not have to worry about running Ethernet around the apartment... It wouldn't be a problem if the modem and router could be on an outside wall, but for some stupid reason all of the communication lines are fed into the central wall of the apartment on the outside of the kitchen wall...

Oh well. My computer desk is looking pretty sweet and slowly the place is taking shape. Maybe I'll be able to find a digital camera around to take some pictures soon.

References

  1. As a general rule, I believe that you shouldn't buy something if you don't already have the money in hand. Houses and/or cars might require exceptions to this rule, though one might be justified in saying that you just can't afford those things if you can't pay cash. Of course, saving up hundreds of thousands of dollars is somewhat unreasonable for most people and you probably don't want to drop your entire savings account on a car so I guess these items remain exceptions, but exceptions that I intend to tread lightly around...
BAF

Ditch the entertainment crap, wall mount the TV, and get a small shelf for the cable box/PS3/whatever.

jhuuskon

{"name":"602693","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/6\/b\/6bdf71ca8746fa0bcc9b1a10ecb888a5.png","w":1035,"h":430,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/6\/b\/6bdf71ca8746fa0bcc9b1a10ecb888a5"}602693
I pay 260€/month (+ 32€/mo for water, heat and electricity and 10€ for a parking spot) for a studio apartment in this wonderful soviet-style block and it's too much for the following reasons:

  • The apartment has no balcony

  • The apartment looks the same as it was when it was built in 1975, i.e. horrible colors in the kitchen with black inset plastic door handles, toxic green bathroom with green plastic wallpapers, horrible ugly plastic flooring etc.

  • The apartment is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. The windows face south but they also leak.

In a bigger town that would be a reasonable rate, hell, down in the centre of this one it would be reasonable but not in a soviet-style mass produced concrete mass housing unit at the outskirts of the town. But because of the shortage of small apartments apparent everywhere with less than 30 minutes of commute to major cities, nobody's in a hurry to make these concrete block rent cells more humanely habitable.

miran

What are you complaining about? In this picture it looks almost nice. :) :P

jhuuskon

Yeah, In a disgusting Le Corbusier kind of way. :P

type568

@bam

Regarding the credit, I agree with you absolutely. That's virtually the thing I think about about going in debt and especially going in debt and paying interest rates. However, there are two "but"s:

1. Every single USD(and vast majority of all other currencies), is actually taken in to debt by someone, and someone has to pay interest rate for it.

2. With the current state of economy in the U.S(and the western world as whole), there is an issue of people "unwilling to buy", and U.S. production abilities standing(not sure when did I check that last time, a month or so ago) at around 70% of their abilities(vs ~85% considered "normal"), which is because there's more supply than demand. So what the country wants from people, is them actually to buy. For that purpose it has made cheap USD(you can take cheap credit, which won't be too expensive to pay off, if returned relatively fast). So, by taking a credit to buy stuff you can kinda feel good about yourself helping the world to overcome the crisis + you can enjoy the benefit of cheap money for yourself. Kind of, it's a good time to "allow yourself more than you can afford".

@jhuuskon

Awesome place. I envy you, though it maybe just my love for the northern nature.
I've no idea what's the prices are, but relatively cheap overall. However, various cute places like this, which are near big cities, often cost same or even more than places in these cities themselves. P.S: We're paying 3 000 ILS for a ~110 square meters in an apartment in a 120 000 people city, which is actually cheap(it's a good place in that city, but terrible apartment).

Append:
3000 Israeli shekels = 824.53800 U.S. dollars
110 (square meters) = 1 184.03015 square feet

(c) Google

bamccaig
type568 said:

2. With the current state of economy in the U.S(and the western world as whole), there is an issue of people "unwilling to buy", and U.S. production abilities standing(not sure when did I check that last time, a month or so ago) at around 70% of their abilities(vs ~85% considered "normal"), which is because there's more supply than demand. So what the country wants from people, is them actually to buy. For that purpose it has made cheap USD(you can take cheap credit, which won't be too expensive to pay off, if returned relatively fast). So, by taking a credit to buy stuff you can kinda feel good about yourself helping the world to overcome the crisis + you can enjoy the benefit of cheap money for yourself. Kind of, it's a good time to "allow yourself more than you can afford".

I'm not so sure that I agree with that. That sounds like the artificial solution to sweep it under the rug and pretend that things are fine. It might have a positive affect on the economy (though I have my doubts), but I imagine it's at the consumer's expense still. I would be slow to enter into any such deals anyway. Make sure there are no strings, etc.

The main problem with credit is that you're spending money before you have it. That's true regardless of interest rates. The problem is that once you do have that money it's already been spent. Either you go without for a while to pay your debts or you pay off your old debt and take on a new one (or you take the approach that too many seem to take and you take on a new debt without paying off the old debt...). I think it's better to just go without up front, save up the cash, and spend it when you're sure that you want to. You avoid spending extra on interest and other fees and get to decide to spend the money when you have it in hand. Otherwise, you could end up finding something better to spend the money on, but it will be too late because you've already promised it to a creditor.

type568

Well, of course. I agree with it, as I stated before. Although spending before you have it, will also bring the pleasure of using something before you can afford it. It won't necessary be useless the time it's paid off, more than that in most cases the idea is it to be available and at your service still.

Although it's clearly more pleasant to pay cash, rather than go in debt. I'm just pointing out, that the alternative is more seductive today than ever before(and probably after).

Append:
1. It doesn't mean I encourage anyone to take credit.
2. Money that is spent, isn't necessarily gone- e.g. purchase of a long-living item, means you still have that wealth you spent on buying it. Yet, assuming you do not pay much extra, you enjoy using that item earlier, and overall it'll serve you longer(in certain cases, e.g: a bought home).

Matthew Leverton
type568 said:

there is an issue of people "unwilling to buy"

Don't worry, bambam doesn't fall into that category.

bamccaig

Don't worry, bambam doesn't fall into that category.

You might want to sit down. :-X I finished off the bed with Tempur-Pedic pillows. :P Those were each about $215. :( I only have 5 days to decide if I want to exchange those. They do seem pretty comfortable though so hopefully I won't have to... :'(

I'm done spending money now. I promise. :-[

type568

Well, looks like ML knows you fairly well.. Way better than do I at least(and taking into consideration I only know you're a dark/night elf, I don't know much about you)..

bamccaig
type568 said:

Well, looks like ML knows you fairly well.. Way better than do I at least(and taking into consideration I only know you're a dark/night elf, I don't know much about you)..

ML just remembers all of the "poor" purchases I have made in the past:

  • ~$500 + tax for an OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner, which was supposed to be a completely free hardware/software cell phone platform, but the hardware was imperfect and lagged behind modern offers and the operating system never really became stable. This is probably the worst purchase I have made[1].


  • ~$500 + tax for an EeePC 1000, which is a netbook that runs a custom Linux distribution. It works fine and is occasionally very convenient (in particular, it came in handy when I was dog sitting for my aunt/uncle), but most of the time I don't use it so I could have gone without it and wouldn't have missed it.


  • ~$700 + tax on a Yamaha DGX-530 keyboard. I don't really consider this a waste of money as I do occasionally play with it and enjoy it very much and I would very much like to learn to play it. Having it is better than not having it and if it lasts me years of enjoyment then the money will be insignificant.

I've also spent a lot of money on PlayStation products, especially PlayStation 3 products, but I don't consider those a waste as I get lots of enjoyment out of them, even though they can be expensive at times. I got an original North American/NTSC 60 GB model for something like $550 + tax approximately one year after the original release. Since I have bought two extra controllers for it (~$50-60/each), replacing malfunctioning ones, one ~$70 Bluetooth keyboard w/ trackpad, one ~$60 [official] Bluetooth headset[2], two ~$60 Move wands, one ~$30 Move navigation controller, one ~$40 PlayStation Eye, one ~$20 Blu-Ray Disc remote, one ~$10 10 foot (~3 m) USB -> mini-USB cable for charging, and one ~$30 Move charging dock. That on top of about 10 ~$60 games. Gaming is an expensive hobby, but it's worth it over all. I've spent a lot of time playing PlayStation 3 and enjoyed nearly every minute of it. I've unfortunately bought into a couple of not-very-good games this generation, but at least they weren't complete losses.

I think that's about it... Ish... :-X Well, not counting all of my apartment purchases, but those are practically necessary (the entertainment stand went less than perfect, but still performs its functions). I could live without them or could spend a lot more time shopping around for them, or at least could live with less expensive alternatives, but I think (read: hope) that the convenience and comfort of having them will pay off.

References

  1. Or at least the worst public one. :-X
  2. Technically the headset was "free", but it came with SOCOM: Confrontation, which is a poor excuse for a SOCOM game (was made by a different studio) and has therefore not been played since release.
Matthew Leverton

Would you like to be the first person to pay for a premium a.cc membership? It costs $19.95/month. You get access to free support via forums and a custom moniker ("sucker"). 8-)

I might hit the Black Friday sales and try to score myself a few discounted appliances. BAF, if you'd like a discounted premium membership, let me know. You just have to camp outside Sears for a few hours and secure an oven or two.

Arthur Kalliokoski

Would you like to be the first person to pay for a premium a.cc membership? It costs $19.95/month. You get access to free support via forums and a custom moniker ("sucker"). 8-)

Sell him a license for the Allegro library for a mere $100, with $50 upgrades for minor version increases.

type568

@kabam
What's ur salary?
@ML
I thought the library's licence said it was free..

Append:
@bamca

You said 20USD for a blue ray remote (o0), means you're watching movies.. So get over here and suggest me somethin' to watch.

Thanks.

BAF

BAF, if you'd like a discounted premium membership, let me know.

:P

So, I can score you Black Friday deals to get a Black Friday discount on a.cc premium? Can I turn around and sell that discount to bambam? *cough*

Matthew Leverton
type568 said:

I thought the library's licence said it was free..

In a nutshell, Allegro 5's license only prohibits you from claiming you wrote the software and removing the license text from a source distribution. So I could easily rename al_ to ml_, create a binary version of the library, and sell it for $1,000 to bambam. 8-)

Note to self: do that.

But anyway, I was offering him a premium membership on a.cc, which has nothing to do with any of that.

BAF said:

So, I can score you Black Friday deals to get a Black Friday discount on a.cc premium? Can I turn around and sell that discount to bambam? cough

Well, I was thinking about giving you $1 off per month. You could maybe sell that to him for $5/month. :-X

BAF

Rename it to AllegroPro. He'd buy it up in a heartbeat. 8-)

Arthur Kalliokoski

I'm writing a program to load WaveFront OBJECT files for 3d models, and just yesterday learned that .
Facebook is going to trademark the word "face". Now I have to rewrite the damn thing. :'(

Mark Oates

You know, I can understand Apple tradmarking the lowercase 'i' followed by uppercase something in all their iStuff - it's a unique brand identification.

but what the hell would Facebook do with "Face"? Facechips? Facephone?

Arthur Kalliokoski

You know, I can understand Apple tradmarking the lowercase 'i' followed by uppercase something in all their iStuff - it's a unique brand identification.

Years ago computer whiz Robert Collins was getting harassed by Intel (e.g. i80386) for using lowercase 'i's on his web pages.

bamccaig
type568 said:

@kabam
What's ur salary?

None of your damn business.[1] >:(

References

  1. xV> ?@E D2=2C:65[ 3FE x >2<6 23@FE rpsSb____^J62C[ xx#r]
van_houtte

Hi BAF, how are you doing today?

Thanks

Neil Walker

I'm writing a program to load WaveFront OBJECT files for 3d models, and just yesterday learned that .
Facebook is going to trademark the word "face" [news.yahoo.com]. Now I have to rewrite the damn thing.

It's only in the context of social networking though, e.g. to prevent someone setting up their own social network site called 'facedonkey.com'

type568
bamccaig said:

xV> ?@E D2=2C:65[ 3FE x >2<6 23@FE rpsSb____^J62C[ xx#r]

Any hints.. Starting points?

Vanneto

I bet its ROT n. You're guess is good as mine as to which n it is. :P

Arthur Kalliokoski
type568

No Arthur, it certainly isn't it.

BAF

Hi BAF, how are you doing today?

I waited in line all night, in the sleet and rain, in exchange for an a.cc premium membership. Anyone interested? I'll let it go cheap.... bambam?

Arthur Kalliokoski
BAF said:

I waited in line all night, in the sleet and rain

Was there a discount for Black Friday?

bamccaig

Today my brother noticed that Canadian Tire was selling relatively high end Roomba models at half price (~225 instead of ~450). I rushed over to Canadian Tire (after spending 45 minutes clearing the snow storm off my car), but alas I was too late. They were sold out and not accepting rain checks. I came home and told my brother the news and starting looking online for competitors' deals on the same model, but none of them had it. Then it occurred to me to try ordering from Canadian Tire online. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear like they do that, but we did manage to convince a remote store to order some in and sell them to us at the sale price. ;D In about two weeks I should have an automatic vacuum for only $225. :D

jhuuskon

I paid 30€ for my vacuum cleaner and it takes me only 5 minutes to vacuum my apartment. It also came with scented dust bags so my bachelord pad smells ominously fresh after vacuuming. :-*

bamccaig
I said:

Today my brother noticed that Canadian Tire was selling relatively high end Roomba models at half price (~225 instead of ~450). I rushed over to Canadian Tire (after spending 45 minutes clearing the snow storm off my car), but alas I was too late. They were sold out and not accepting rain checks. I came home and told my brother the news and starting looking online for competitors' deals on the same model, but none of them had it. Then it occurred to me to try ordering from Canadian Tire online. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear like they do that, but we did manage to convince a remote store to order some in and sell them to us at the sale price. ;D In about two weeks I should have an automatic vacuum for only $225. :D

OK, fuck Canadian Tire then. They're reneging on the deal. >:(

Matthew Leverton

Say goodbye to too damn high rent. >:(

The closing date is set for Tuesday. :-*

type568

Noo.. The month old thread can not leave us :(

Arthur Kalliokoski

Not to fear! The Minecraft Halloween Update thread is still going, and the poll still asks for who will win the soccer game.

type568

and the poll still asks for who will win the soccer game.

;D ;D ;D

Too bad Spain has really won though, otherwise it would've been really nice to see it suggesting a wrong team. I had to check in wiki who was the champion though -.-

Trezker

Don't forget Mah Sekrit Projact, I think it'll survive two months.

On a completely different issue, why am I not getting a marker in this textbox? This is the second time it happens and it's pretty weird to type in my text without it.

gnolam
jhuuskon said:

toxic green bathroom

video

Matthew Leverton

I finally closed on the house today. :-*

Just need to stockpile a little more cash, and I'll be set for early retirement. >:(

bamccaig

Congrats. \o/

decepto
Chris Katko
decepto said:

title=hot-chicks-room

Yes!

Thread #605412. Printed from Allegro.cc