Bay 12 Games Forum

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Hello My fellow tech heads

I keep my computers for 8 to 9 years (longer if possible until the hard drives burn out or something) and I have a repeat history of that. It's a long term  investment.

So here's what I'm looking at:

I'm thinking one time Microsoft Office (NOT subscribing to 365 and paying monthly), and possibly expanding to more RAM.

Issues:
1.) I am concerned about the lack of optical drive. Is this a problem? The world going to flash drives and cloud?

2.) Is photoshop worth the $79? (and is that a permanent thing or a damn subscription?)

3.) Other considerations

This a a cyber monday thing, so I have to act fast actually to save the money.

Thoughts?

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Hi,

Nice to see everyone at 12 bay again. If it's ok, I have some cell phone questions I imagine you might help with? Hopefully, it might also be a basis for a nice conversation as well. Basically it's between LG G6 and S8 on Verizon. I currently have an unlimited data plan and need a device to use it on.

I care for and get extended life from electronics. Just bought an LG G6, and I have 14 days maximum to return it. I originally wanted an S8, but gave this a try.

A.) Battery Life:
Is it me, or do these new top of the line 2017 cell phones use batteries A LOT? Even the S8 has like 5 hours of screen time per full charge? G6 gets about 4 to 4 1/2 hours of screen time. I get that it's more complicated than that with several variables, but still? Basically, there are tons of features but no power to back them up? What is going on with these things? I'm also seeing some surprising results with battery life. I still have an old Motorola Razor that can do a fair deal for being 6 years old pretty much all day without concern for battery life (and it's been through a TON of cycles).

Can anyone help me understand the reasoning behind these seemingly difficult to understand things with battery.

B.) Charging:
"Rapid charging" and wireless charging seem to be major selling points. However, it seems that there are some fairly slow charging issues as well? If a full charge gets you maybe 5 hours of on screen time, and charging takes an hour, then isn't that a bit odd? Am I missing something here?

C.) Use and Power:
Similar to the "Battery Life" argument, it seems the devices drain very quickly when their features are employed. Am I missing something or is this a glaring flaw? Yes I get that more use = more power drain, but there has to be some measure to compensate for this, because it seems like even with the screen setting and usage low, these things just drain?

D.) Misc. Obligatory rant against AI:
I hate it. No one asked for Bixby, and it has a dedicated physical button on the S8. The G6 is thankfully lacking in on board AI with the exception of an optional Google Assistant. Even if you assume AI is good, nobody is going to outshine google with proprietary software with the possible exception of Apple's Siri (who I also don't like).

Do you have an opinion on which 2017 phone is better? I'm not personally looking for an Apple iproduct, but I imagine some of you out there like that type of phone. Maybe there are some others people favor?

Any thoughts on which is better between the S8 and G6? Battery? Charging? Features? Etc?

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I have a verbal job offer saying "it's official." I filled out paperwork for taxes, shook my supervisor's hand, looked at where I'll be working, parking pass application, passed the drug test, medical test clearance, and all that. I even have a start date

I just don't have a final written offer, and the same HR lady who said "it's official," told me that she'd try to send it this week. It's Thursday....

My supervisor knows all this and he's actually pretty awesome about it. We're both waiting on the actual written final letter....

I want to be a good person generally where possible and polite if I can. I also don't want to burn any bridges, especially for the other temps in the place I'm leaving. More or less, I don't want to be a jerk. I ... am not entirely sure what to put here. This is perhaps the only good thing to happen in my life in years and I don't want to be a jerk or anything.

I also don't want to end up screwed.

Honest suggestions?

...

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Please do not quote, thank you:

I have the possibility to get an actual real estate attorney job in house, which would rock. It would be the answer to my long nightmare that comes from having a conscience and ethics... and essentially turning in people for utterly atrocious behavior that got them convicted and jailed.

The problem, the HR person is a bit overzealous. I've noted privilege being a great big gag order I can't break. She doesn't seem to get it.

She doesn't seem to like that I said I've done over $100 Million in real estate transactions.... Start with the slow pitch

Look, if you sell 5 houses at $200,000 a pop, then that's $1,000,000.... Deed work, purchase agreement/land contract, easements, etc. I've done this stuff for years, and that's just single family homes. Apartment buildings easily sell for $1,000,000 (depending on number of units, occupancy etc).

Commercial buildings go for a few Million, and Industrial..... Yeah.

What I'm saying isn't hard to get really. I've probably dealt in transactions of well over that amount, if we're talking value of the property, easy.
Even if you want to talk about the amount of money I've generated in fees (sadly for my old bosses and not for myself), we're talking an absolute crapload. $100 / deed x 3,000 deeds a year was $300,000 I made him on deeds alone.... (and I got exactly nothing of that). That's just deeds, never mind the cases, or purchase contracts, or leases, or anything else. Off the deeds alone, if I made him $300,000 a year for 5 years, then that's $1.2 Million I made my boss over 5 years... just on deeds alone.

I absolutely have done everything I'm claiming to have done, but damned if I can show her proof of it, because a.) old boss has retired and everything, b.) annoying privilege (yeah, even the transfer papers for the house or building or whatever), and c.) Jesus, there's been so much of it over the years that tracking it all down and accounting for it would be a full time job right here.

What do I do with this HR woman? Do I draft up a report or something giving her generalities (because what else could I do)? Something else? I don't get her. I understand they've had some verification issues with other people in the past but really?

I just really want/need, and dare I say deserve this job.... I just can't sit there and brag about all I've done. That's kinda frowned upon.

What do I even do?

I am considering trying to go back into statistics. I did a TON of that stuff in college and won competitive scholarships no one else qualified for in years. An old and notoriously grouchy math professor demanded to know "why you didn't major in MATH!??" upon reading my competitive study. I did econ, among other things.

I would imagine being a lawyer who communicates well would help, but perhaps some recruiters don't. They might not see the connection between law and stats. They're wrong, because I can actually explain it incredibly well in plain English with superb public speaking skills and an intense knowledge of real world business and real life.

So I'm typing out a request to people here on 12 bay. I'm asking about possibly changing to this career field of numbers (changing back to it). I'm not as up to date on the software (though I remember how to use it from before). SAS, SPSS, Excel, etc. Modeling? Etc?

Tips? Advice? Please, anything would be helpful.

Life can be really hard, and feeling better would be good for everyone.

This is a thread for things that made you feel better today, including long term goals, ways you met certain needs, things that helped you get through a problem you had, and/or ways to get past problems and bad thoughts. (Bad thoughts are ones that make you feel bad here).

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