Random randomness

[hitbyambulance]

too bad about Fry's Electronics - it was a fun place to shop whenever i could deal with the bus trip to Renton. but from what i've heard/read, they dug their own grave. there's not really many places to go to browse computer components anymore (big understatement)...

but we do have REPC which is a fantastic recycled computer component shop/computer museum:

http://www.repc.com/aboutus.html

[LordMortis]

I didn't even know Fry's was still around until one of their vendors sent us this weird supply chain email about them today. I have no idea why. We have no partnership with Fry's, though we do have a partnership with this common vendor.

[Daehawk]

Called my home insurance place. I usually get a bill give or take a couple days around this time. But this month I got nothing. I dug out last months bill and saw yes I paid last month and it lists future installments as April and May as my next ones. YAY I get to skip 2 months.

But after a bit it started worrying me. That didn't seem right. So I called them and sure enough it came due on the 22nd.....2 days ago and they had started cancellation procedures. TWO DAYS and they were canceling me with no letter no call no warning just bam f u sir.

They said the bill had gone out earlier in the month. I didn't get one. Im very serious about bills. She said she has had that happen to herself. Why no warning at least?? I paid over the phone and they said Im all ok now. That the cancellation letter is already on its way but I can ignore it. I asked for email bills along with mailed ones and they dont even do those. Fuck...its 2021.

May look for a new company after a full year of them. I cant believe that instead of contacting me that they simply start to cancel me after 2 days late.

[Jaymann]

too bad about Fry's Electronics - it was a fun place to shop whenever i could deal with the bus trip to Renton. but from what i've heard/read, they dug their own grave. there's not really many places to go to browse computer components anymore (big understatement)...

Had not heard that, but it was inevitable. Last time I visited in the before times, it was completely empty and one cashier on duty. I remember when the line was out the door with a 20 minute wait. Definitely the end of an era.

[Daehawk]

I watched videos over the last 2 or 3 years of dead Frys still open with empty stores and dust covered items still not on sale. The employees blames it on a stock dispute..yaaaaa.

[Daehawk]

Golden Corral dinner starts at 4pm and the food changes and the prices jump up. Couldn't you arrive at 3:50 and pay the lunch rate and then stay into the dinner menu time?

[Isgrimnur]

Golden Corral dinner starts at 4pm and the food changes and the prices jump up. Couldn't you arrive at 3:50 and pay the lunch rate and then stay into the dinner menu time?

Does that include crab legs?

[Smoove_B]

[dbt1949]

Got a scammer just now. I could tell it was an Indian even tho he spoke clear and distinctly.
Any rate he was very good telling me Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol would be stopping by tomorrow to give me 2.5 million dollars and a Mercedes Benz car. He confirmed my address and gave me my confirmation number and had me write it down.
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and then it came.....I had to give him a CC number so I could pay 1% of the taxes.
I yelled out with glee "I knew it was a scam! Three times, laughing all the time. The guy on the phone even started laughing. I said you're very good but I knew it was a scam. And then I hung up on him.

[dbt1949]

Another way I can tell it's a scam is my wife's maiden name is Campbell and the phone is in her name. So the scammers always call me Mr Campbell.
Works good for her bill collectors too.

[pr0ner]

Obviously this is something you should be watching or Facebook wouldn't have given you the ad. Listen to Mark Zuckerberg - he knows what's best for you. Time to set the DVR!

Spotify does the same thing. I use it to listen almost exclusively to extreme metal, yet I invariably get ads for "the latest release by rapper XYZ". I'm sure those ads probably hit everyone equally, but it always makes me laugh when one comes up.

Ads on Spotify? What are those?

[Skinypupy]

Obviously this is something you should be watching or Facebook wouldn't have given you the ad. Listen to Mark Zuckerberg - he knows what's best for you. Time to set the DVR!

Spotify does the same thing. I use it to listen almost exclusively to extreme metal, yet I invariably get ads for "the latest release by rapper XYZ". I'm sure those ads probably hit everyone equally, but it always makes me laugh when one comes up.

Ads on Spotify? What are those?

Never subscribed to Spotify. I don't use it much because their system screws the artists over so badly. I much prefer to buy albums so at least the band gets something from it.

I typically only use Spotify if I want to give an album a "test drive" before picking it up.

[Sudy]

I wish it were fairer. I wouldn't mind paying more. But I don't have the disposable income to listen as broadly as I do on the platform either. I guess it feels better than file sharing, but not by much. It's the same way I feel when I order from Uber Eats et al.


In other news... moustaches, man. I love them in concept, but I just don't get how you live with them. I've been at least lightly bearded for the majority of my adult life, but I don't usually let my moustache grow longer than my lip due to the tickling, the hair getting in my mouth, and the messy eating. It got long enough for me to wax it once, which helped with the food issue, but then it's a pain to take care of properly. Which I guess is the price you pay for affectation. But it's annoying. (I decided to try growing it out again since I haven't trimmed the rest of my beard since last April.)

[Madmarcus]

I've had a walrus mustache for a number of years now. It does bug me a little but it goes in cycles. As certain hair reach certain lengths they start to get in my mouth or tickle me. But normally it isn't long before they fall out or get pulled out when I use some wax. For a while I was trying to use wax regularly in an attempt to tame it into the English style but I've tended to let that slide since Covid because the tips don't work well with masks. Besides, I'm not bothered by it enough to really care if I have it neatly waxed in place.

[stessier]

Never subscribed to Spotify. I don't use it much because their system screws the artists over so badly.

From all the research I've done, they do better on Spotify than they do on the competition (terrestrial radio).

[Sudy]

That's an interesting point and one I haven't heard before, but I think most people are using Spotify as a replacement for buying CDs/records/MP3s from Amazon, Apple, Bandcamp, etc.--not as a replacement for radio. Radio drives people to buy albums so they can play the songs they like on demand. With Spotify and its competitors, you already have that. Sure, there are a few limiting factors. But not any that make a difference for 95% of its users I reckon. And then of course, the fact that you'd lose access to this massive library is motivation to never stop subscribing (or at least, to switch to a similar service).

I think there are definitely good points, but there's no way it's not depriving artists of money. Even someone like me who used to buy the vast majority of my CDs used--I would still frequent shops looking for deals on new albums, and occasionally pre-order my favourite artists. Though the other reality is that I hadn't been buying many physical albums since around 2005. I did have a monthly subsrcription to eMusic, but those downloads (mostly indie; much cheaper per track than Apple etc.) couldn't have been making the artists a ton more money. (The other counterpoint is that I just wouldn't be listening to some of these artists if I couldn't check them out so easily, which is true--it's like the software piracy argument that most of those downloads wouldn't have been sales, anyway. The potential additional benefit is it is making more likely to consider going to those artists' shows or buying their non-album merchandise, but I really don't do those things very often.)

While I love what Spotify et al. offer, the music industry has done a poor job of monetizing streaming in a way that benefits artists. Because of course, they're mostly just licensing. Similar to how the TV and film industry has done a phenomenally crappy job of getting on board with streaming in general. Spotify has found a way to make file sharing largely obsolete... I guess those pennies are btter than nothing. While file sharing and illegal streaming is still the only way to get some major chunks of film/TV content digitally. And I understand why; it's just stupid when the barrier is in no way the technology.

[ImLawBoy]

In other news... moustaches, man. I love them in concept, but I just don't get how you live with them. I've been at least lightly bearded for the majority of my adult life, but I don't usually let my moustache grow longer than my lip due to the tickling, the hair getting in my mouth, and the messy eating. It got long enough for me to wax it once, which helped with the food issue, but then it's a pain to take care of properly. Which I guess is the price you pay for affectation. But it's annoying. (I decided to try growing it out again since I haven't trimmed the rest of my beard since last April.)

Biting into a sandwich and yanking out a mustache hair or two was the worst part of my facial hair era (3/2020-12/2020).

[stessier]

That's an interesting point and one I haven't heard before, but I think most people are using Spotify as a replacement for buying CDs/records/MP3s from Amazon, Apple, Bandcamp, etc.--not as a replacement for radio. Radio drives people to buy albums so they can play the songs they like on demand. With Spotify and its competitors, you already have that. Sure, there are a few limiting factors. But not any that make a difference for 95% of its users I reckon. And then of course, the fact that you'd lose access to this massive library is motivation to never stop subscribing (or at least, to switch to a similar service).

I disagree with the comparison. Buying a CD gives you a license forever. Streaming only gives you the song for as long as you subscribe which is much more similar to radio. And, similar to radio, someone gets paid every time you listen to the song - so if you listen to it 9000 times, that someone does much better than if you bought the CD. And that someone is almost never the artist - for either the radio or streaming. But that's a different post.

[Skinypupy]

Never subscribed to Spotify. I don't use it much because their system screws the artists over so badly.

From all the research I've done, they do better on Spotify than they do on the competition (terrestrial radio).

99.99% of the music I listen to would never be played on any radio station, so I don't listen to that much either.

[stessier]

Never subscribed to Spotify. I don't use it much because their system screws the artists over so badly.

From all the research I've done, they do better on Spotify than they do on the competition (terrestrial radio).

99.99% of the music I listen to would never be played on any radio station, so I don't listen to that much either.

Then those people are doing infinitely better on Spotify!

[pr0ner]

In other news... moustaches, man. I love them in concept, but I just don't get how you live with them. I've been at least lightly bearded for the majority of my adult life, but I don't usually let my moustache grow longer than my lip due to the tickling, the hair getting in my mouth, and the messy eating. It got long enough for me to wax it once, which helped with the food issue, but then it's a pain to take care of properly. Which I guess is the price you pay for affectation. But it's annoying. (I decided to try growing it out again since I haven't trimmed the rest of my beard since last April.)

Biting into a sandwich and yanking out a mustache hair or two was the worst part of my facial hair era (3/2020-12/2020).

How long did you keep your facial hair to be able to do this?!?

[Sudy]

That's an interesting point and one I haven't heard before, but I think most people are using Spotify as a replacement for buying CDs/records/MP3s from Amazon, Apple, Bandcamp, etc.--not as a replacement for radio. Radio drives people to buy albums so they can play the songs they like on demand. With Spotify and its competitors, you already have that. Sure, there are a few limiting factors. But not any that make a difference for 95% of its users I reckon. And then of course, the fact that you'd lose access to this massive library is motivation to never stop subscribing (or at least, to switch to a similar service).

I disagree with the comparison. Buying a CD gives you a license forever. Streaming only gives you the song for as long as you subscribe which is much more similar to radio. And, similar to radio, someone gets paid every time you listen to the song - so if you listen to it 9000 times, that someone does much better than if you bought the CD. And that someone is almost never the artist - for either the radio or streaming. But that's a different post.

I suspect most users subscribe to streaming services indefinitely though, and use it as a personal library. The radio doesn't let you pick what you're listening to. That's where there compairson falls apart for me. For me, it's a CD changer with several million CDs. I'm sure someone's done a breakdown of what artists make from a CD sale compared to streaming (it's going to vary widely by distribution, popularity, and contract... but for most, one stream is a fraction of a cent--$0.00437 to be exact), but I'm pretty sure small and indie artists would rather have the $8 Bandcamp sale 100% of the time. $8 is 1,832 streams.

But compared solely to radio, sure. It's better for the vast majority of artists. I'm just saying for many it's an album replacement as well as a radio one.

[ImLawBoy]

In other news... moustaches, man. I love them in concept, but I just don't get how you live with them. I've been at least lightly bearded for the majority of my adult life, but I don't usually let my moustache grow longer than my lip due to the tickling, the hair getting in my mouth, and the messy eating. It got long enough for me to wax it once, which helped with the food issue, but then it's a pain to take care of properly. Which I guess is the price you pay for affectation. But it's annoying. (I decided to try growing it out again since I haven't trimmed the rest of my beard since last April.)

Biting into a sandwich and yanking out a mustache hair or two was the worst part of my facial hair era (3/2020-12/2020).

How long did you keep your facial hair to be able to do this?!?

I just stopped shaving as of lockdown and did no maintenance - the point was to be lazy.

[LordMortis]

From clean lip to mustache interfering with food intake is about 2.5 weeks of no grooming. 1.5 months of no grooming will see mustache hair occasionally getting caught in my teeth. three months (maybe less) of no grooming will see my mustache covering my lower lip and sometimes velcroing to the soul patch area of my beard.

[stessier]

That's an interesting point and one I haven't heard before, but I think most people are using Spotify as a replacement for buying CDs/records/MP3s from Amazon, Apple, Bandcamp, etc.--not as a replacement for radio. Radio drives people to buy albums so they can play the songs they like on demand. With Spotify and its competitors, you already have that. Sure, there are a few limiting factors. But not any that make a difference for 95% of its users I reckon. And then of course, the fact that you'd lose access to this massive library is motivation to never stop subscribing (or at least, to switch to a similar service).

I disagree with the comparison. Buying a CD gives you a license forever. Streaming only gives you the song for as long as you subscribe which is much more similar to radio. And, similar to radio, someone gets paid every time you listen to the song - so if you listen to it 9000 times, that someone does much better than if you bought the CD. And that someone is almost never the artist - for either the radio or streaming. But that's a different post.

I suspect most users subscribe to streaming services indefinitely though, and use it as a personal library. The radio doesn't let you pick what you're listening to. That's where there compairson falls apart for me. For me, it's a CD changer with several million CDs. I'm sure someone's done a breakdown of what artists make from a CD sale compared to streaming (it's going to vary widely by distribution, popularity, and contract... but for most, one stream is a fraction of a cent--$0.00437 to be exact), but I'm pretty sure small and indie artists would rather have the $8 Bandcamp sale 100% of the time. $8 is 1,832 streams.

But compared solely to radio, sure. It's better for the vast majority of artists. I'm just saying for many it's an album replacement as well as a radio one.

Your math is wrong for the mainstream distribution method (I don't know about Bandcamp).

With the advent of downloading music online, watching music videos and social networks, the music industry has been turned upside down and record labels have had to get creative in how to market to this ever-evolving industry.

Considering over 90% of released recordings fail to make a profit, this is a high-risk business. Independent labels as well as major labels are now very careful in where they put their money and what artists or bands they sign. That being said, indie labels are able to promote their recordings for far less than the major labels, allowing them to turn a profit much easier. This is the reason that there are so many start-up independent labels surfacing and major labels are signing fewer and fewer unknowns.

When an artist is signed to a record label, the label gives loans to artists (advances) for costs that will be associated with producing a CD and for promotion. Major label artists can easily spend from $100,000 to nearly $1 million producing their album. Independent artists and bands will not spend even half of that. Many very successful artists never see a dime of their first and second albums, even if they are successful, because the label has to recoup the moneys spent before the artist gets their percentage of the profit.

Obviously, the record label pays for manufacturing of the record, materials and packaging. Most will pay approximately 50 cents per CD if they purchase more than 100,000 per year. The cost rises dramatically for the independent label who purchases less than 10,000 units per year. They have to pay over double what the major label pays which is $1.20 per unit. Again, these costs are paid by the artist’s advance and are recouped by the label before the artist makes any money at all.

Add to all of the above royalties that have to be paid and sometimes you wonder how anyone can make any money in this business. Two royalties have to be paid: first to the performing artist or band and the second is the mechanical royalties paid to the composers and the publisher. The amount of percentages of who gets what is always spelled out clearly in the artist’s contract.

For major record labels, their promotion costs are about 20% of the total amount that is invested in each artist or band. Independent labels spend about half that amount which is 10%. This number includes press kits, music videos, radio and TV promotions, public relations, etc. Again, paid by the artist’s advance but never recouped by the label if the artist doesn’t make any money.

So how in the world with all this money being spent, do labels turn a profit? Record companies will gross approximately $10.00 for every CD that is sold. If they are good at what they do, many of their artists will sell a million units which is $10 million. When everything mentioned is paid, the record label stands to make nearly $6 million on that artist, who by the way, owes them their $1 million advance! In this example, the artist would pocket approximately $300,000.

So 1 million CDs nets $300,000 - or $0.30 per CD. Or, if there was no advance, $1.30.

[Sudy]

I'm not talking about the mainstream distribution method. At least, not entirely.

OK, so for a mainstream artist who can expect to sell a million albums, they can expect to see $0.30/$1.30 per album sold. There are a lot of figures flying around online; they vary by service and by year. But if we stick with the earlier $0.00437 figure, one traditionally sold album equals 69/297 streams. Let's assume the average album has 10 tracks? So you'd alternately have to stream a whole album 7 or 30 times to pay the artist the same value. Back when I was buying albums, I doubt I listened to the average one 7 times. 70 individual tracks? Maybe. But 300 tracks? Not most of them.

Half the artists I listen to aren't selling anywhere near a million records though. That's why I mentioned Bandcamp, which only takes 10-15% commission as I understand it. So if you sell your 10-track album for $8, you're making a heck of a lot more than you likely are on Spotify. Yeah, you probably had to produce it out of pocket. But if we're specifically talking about profit per unit, Spotify is not going to be the preferred earning method for any artist who might have otherwise sold an album.

[pr0ner]

In other news... moustaches, man. I love them in concept, but I just don't get how you live with them. I've been at least lightly bearded for the majority of my adult life, but I don't usually let my moustache grow longer than my lip due to the tickling, the hair getting in my mouth, and the messy eating. It got long enough for me to wax it once, which helped with the food issue, but then it's a pain to take care of properly. Which I guess is the price you pay for affectation. But it's annoying. (I decided to try growing it out again since I haven't trimmed the rest of my beard since last April.)

Biting into a sandwich and yanking out a mustache hair or two was the worst part of my facial hair era (3/2020-12/2020).

How long did you keep your facial hair to be able to do this?!?

I just stopped shaving as of lockdown and did no maintenance - the point was to be lazy.

Yeah, even when I let mine go for a while, I get annoyed with it and trim it back long before it ever gets to the point where I might potentially eat my own hair. I get what you're going after, though.

[Zarathud]

My kids definitely stream
Albums more than 7 or 70 times for their internet meme songs.

[Blackhawk]

I went from a horseshoe/Fu Manchu mustache to a hoolihee. Pulling my mustache out of my mouth after a bite has been part of my life for decades!

[Daehawk]

Golden Corral dinner starts at 4pm and the food changes and the prices jump up. Couldn't you arrive at 3:50 and pay the lunch rate and then stay into the dinner menu time?

Does that include crab legs?

Looking at their online menu, no. There was a China buffet near me around 2009 that me and my wife loved. Long gone now. But they had crab legs. Good too.

And DBT - Just tell them to take it out of your winnings

[Sudy]

My kids definitely stream
Albums more than 7 or 70 times for their internet meme songs.

Children are not considered humans and therefore do not contribute statistically.

[Holman]

A quality Indian take-out place just opened a block-and-a-half from my house. It's the one thing my neighborhood has been lacking.

My needs are now entirely met.

[Anonymous Bosch]

A quality Indian take-out place just opened a block-and-a-half from my house. It's the one thing my neighborhood has been lacking.

My needs are now entirely met.

That depends on your preferred style of Indian cuisine. Because if you aren't careful and you happen to enjoy phall, vindaloo, and jalfrazi curries, your household may require a mini-freezer in which to store your bog roll at temperatures suitable for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

[Daehawk]

Strangely enough I got my home insurance bill in the mail today...2 days after I told them I hadn't gotten it and they claimed they sent it out near the beginning of the month...and after they started cancellation proceedings. Very shady. Im going to tell my agent about this and see about finding a new place perhaps.

I cant prove when it was mailed either because there is no post mark on it.

[ImLawBoy]

Mail is having issues these days. We went two weeks without receiving mail, and it's currently hit-or-miss whether we get mail on a given day. We've received things months after they've been sent. The most likely explanation is either that it just took that long to get to you or that they re-sent it after you called. The likelihood that they're trying to trick or scam you is exceedingly low.

[Daehawk]

Wonder why no post mark?

[Unagi]

Wonder why no post mark?

My first thought was that they hand delivered it.

[Daehawk]

Wonder why no post mark?

My first thought was that they hand delivered it.

That was my thought..but it was with the normal coupon day stuff. Shrug. Maybe they found it laying on the ground. But its nice and clean and not roughed up.

Still going to speak to my agent and see if all insurance places are like that...make perfect payments but miss a day and they start to cancel you. They could give a friendly call to check. Maybe I forgot...maybe it was like this and no bill ....but maybe I was in the hospital due to a car wreck or something. It would be so much easier than all the hassle I and my agent would have to go through to get new insurance not the mention the crap my mortgage place would give me.

[Daehawk]

Well spoke to my agent. She said that that company is being dropped from their network at the end of the year due to so much oddness and things she didn't mention. She is looking for me a new better one. But she also said mine comes up for renew in July so its probably better to wait as at that time theres a discount for getting an insurer ...better than dropping then trying to find one. So thats what I will probably do.

[dbt1949]

I think they need to redesign beds. They always seem to get harder to get out of than to get in to.