OpticalMoose

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

Using a phone sounds inconvenient to me. I usually just pull my card out of my wallet, wave it over the terminal until I hear a beep and that’s it. Worst case scenario, I have to insert it into the chip reader or God-forbid swipe it through the slot like some kind of Neanderthal.

I’m kidding, but seriously, that’s easier than screwing around with a phone, to me.

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

Same here. I guess I should have pointed out that I’m not really much of a phone guy to begin with. I don’t install many apps, and I stay logged out of Google. To me, losing a phone really just means losing my pictures and videos. The most expensive phone I’ve ever had was $200.

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

Obligatory: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDxmpmln-CI

Words just mean whatever these folks want them to mean.

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

Friggin’ sweet! One of these days I’m going to look into building a shifter and clutch pedal because I’m too cheap to buy a whole new set.

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

I’m slightly pissed about the shrinkage, but really pissed that they don’t come in packages anymore (at least not where I live). It’s bad enough I have to scan my own groceries, but now I have to scan 8-12 individual eggs in a row. What’s next?

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

I pirated a certain ‘crash cars and shoot’em up’ game because, even though I own it on Steam, the gameplay (especially the launcher) absolutely sucks.

No more automatically downloading online content when I don’t even play online and no more updates breaking my mods. It’s worked out so well that I’m looking at pirating other games I already own.

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

I hit my all time high when semiconductor stocks peaked a few weeks ago, and they’ve pulled back since then. But Q1 earnings season is coming up in a few weeks, so the roller coaster continues.

I’ve been out of work for the better part of a decade, caring for family members with dementia, but I’m looking forward to going back to work soon, just for a change of pace. It did give me a chance to do a test run of my FIRE plan - I’ve been living off my pension, and was able to work occasionally and still contribute to my Roth.

Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade to a better house before I retire. I’m seeing lots of new homes in my city, but it’ll be a while before prices actually start coming down.

OpticalMoose, 1 month ago

Well, I retired from the military, and my sister was already taking care of my parents, but she needed help, so I decided to do that instead of finding another job. Caring for them in their home was wayyyy cheaper than a nursing home. Then, once my parents passed away, my brother started showing symptoms of dementia, so I looked after him during the daytime so his wife could go to work.

I’m only now realizing that I’ve been suffering from depression. I’ve probably always had it, but work was the only thing that kept my mind off it. So, I’m going to go back to work, and hopefully start therapy soon. My brother recently got approved for adult-daycare, so there’s no need for anyone to watch him at home during the day.

I’m still reassessing the retirement plan. It seems like people in my family start developing dementia after they stop working, so my best hope is to try to stay as active as possible. I’m going to start drawing Social Security as soon as possible and live life to the fullest before the cognitive issues start showing up.

But money-wise, I’m ok. I’d like to buy a house before I retire, but if worse comes to worst, I have a rental property that I can move into.

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago

I really hope those patches make their way into the other distros. I’ve got a few Linux machines and the Steam Deck is the only one that wakes from sleep without locking up. It’s also the only one that allocates VRAM for the iGPU automatically when a game needs more.

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago

Prove you are cat: Select all things that can be pushed off a table.

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago

Ollama supports more AMD cards than AMD’s ROCm does. rocm.docs.amd.com/…/system-requirements.html#supp…

I’d love to buy an AMD card, but it just feels like they’re not even trying to meet us halfway on this. ROCm needs to be better.

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

Sounds like a good deal. I’m pretty sure I don’t have the discipline to work from home - too many distractions. I think eventually companies will come around to the idea of it. Right now they look at an empty cubicle and think “I’m paying for that space, someone needs to be in it.”

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago

I just came across an alarming statistic: 1 in 4 Americans don’t know how much they have saved for retirement.

Just last week I was talking to my sister-in-law. She’s a teacher and contributes to a 403b, but doesn’t know what’s in it. I have more research to do, but I’m pretty sure there’s an account somewhere she can log into and see what’s going on. It would suck to reach 65 and learn that you’ve been invested in treasury bonds for the last 40 years.

I get the feeling that people think late 40’s-early 50’s is the time to start planning for retirement. I’ve been talking to my nieces and nephews about opening IRAs and I just get that deer-in-the-headlights look from them.

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago

Reminds me of an old commercial I saw. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1gMkw6WDXE

To be clear, I DON’T advise anyone leaving their money in a bank, there are way better places to put it. Stocks, real estate or whatever, I just hate when people put their money away and have no idea what it’s doing.

OpticalMoose, 2 months ago

After years of making extra payments and trying to get out of debt, it’s tough to get used to the idea of carrying debt again.

So, long story short, my siblings and I inherited my parents’ house, and I took on the job of paying off the solar panels. I didn’t have enough to pay the balance in full (maybe half) so I just paid extra principal every month. Anyway, several years later, it finally dawned on me that the money I had invested had grown to more than the balance on the loan. The loan was only at 4% which would be a steal in today’s economy, but I was so debt averse that I was paying extra on it instead of investing that money.

So now I just pay the bare minimum on it. Heck, even a money market would give me a better return.

OpticalMoose, 3 months ago

Thanks for the info. I’m not on Windows, so I can’t try it. Doesn’t work offline? That’s what I was afraid of.

It’s a great proof of concept. Hopefully we’ll see more text-gen-webui extensions soon.

OpticalMoose, 3 months ago

It’s a great milestone. I wish I’d started tracking my net worth back when I was young. I don’t even remember the first year my portfolio made more than I made in earned income.

I’m trying to convince my nieces and nephews to save and invest, but they think it’s hopeless because they’re starting out with nothing. I started out with a negative net worth (student loans + brand new vehicle).