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Things I still can't do in November 2014

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Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#41

Post by k-mcgrady »

estebank wrote: post #31

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers Am I the only one finding this insulting, disgusting and backwards? People can be overweight for a multitude of reasons, some of which are: * Genetics * Medication * Health conditions * Smoking * Enviromental reasons * Lack of sleep…

I can see something like this making a little sense in a country with 100% free health cared paid by taxes. If you have a disease you've caused yourself (by smoking, taking drugs, eating badly) why should everyone else have to help you through their taxes? That's not my opinion though, I don't think that's how it should work but I guess that's how he's looking at it.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#42

Post by ue_ »

crdoconnor wrote: post #35

"Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers" This argument seems to be pretty common among the glitterati from Wall Street. I wonder why they don't see the incredible irony.

Not that I agree with the quote but, can you explain the irony?

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#43

Post by swombat »

S4M wrote: post #21

> 6. Get somebody to come to my house, pick up my dry cleaning and drop it back off the next day (Amazon "Clean"). Isn't this what HomeJoy is doing? If not, I have a friend who tried that, but failed. I'd be happy to forward his details. > 9. Send $10,000 to my caretaker in France and have her get the cash and withdraw it from an ATM that same day. Within Europe, you can. > 10. Get investors for my startup by adverti…

> Isn't that what KickStarter does?

And a whole bunch of other crowdfunding sites in the UK - Crowdcube, Seedrs, etc. I don't know what the equivalents are in the US, but I'm sure they exist...

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#44

Post by Beltiras »

Much of this list is things you can do with a little ingenuity.

ER problem is US specific. Scandinavian countries don't have that problem (to name 1st world countries that have "solved" HC).

What does he want to test via blood? There are a lot of specific solutions available.

Some would argue he should buy a Tesla and that's that on the car front.

And then there's just the stupid stuff like "call FD with an app"..... cuz 911 is soo hard to remember. And the gross misunderstanding of Bitcoin. The value fluctuates. That's any currency, not just Bitcoin. Even the value of the dollar is volatile (inflation).

He couldn't find a physicist to teach him GR? That's so amusing it brought me to tears. Did he try .... a local university?

The invasion of privacy he calls for is .... disturbing.

If he can get MRI's done @ 100$ per pop, he's got a business to run and money to make. Go do it!

I could go on tearing that list to shreds.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#45

Post by jboynyc »

ue_ wrote: post #42
crdoconnor wrote: post #35

"Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers" This argument seems to be pretty common among the glitterati from Wall Street. I wonder why they don't see the incredible irony.

Not that I agree with the quote but, can you explain the irony?

Wall Street's irresponsible behavior -- several orders of magnitude more irresponsible than making the wrong dietary choices -- cost the American public quite dearly around 2008, remember?

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#46

Post by k-mcgrady »

S4M wrote: post #21

> 6. Get somebody to come to my house, pick up my dry cleaning and drop it back off the next day (Amazon "Clean"). Isn't this what HomeJoy is doing? If not, I have a friend who tried that, but failed. I'd be happy to forward his details. > 9. Send $10,000 to my caretaker in France and have her get the cash and withdraw it from an ATM that same day. Within Europe, you can. > 10. Get investors for my startup by adverti…

>> Isn't that what KickStarter does?

No you can't offer a % of your company as a reward on Kickstarter. I think AngelList is probably closest with syndicated deals.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#47

Post by BjoernKW »

fphhotchips wrote: post #5

I remain frustrated that world financial systems are unable to handle instant money transfers between institutions. There seems to me to be no good reason that I shouldn't be able to transfer money between my accounts without waiting until midnight for the funds to clear. Worse, the routine seems not to run on weekends. Why is this? Is power unavailable on Saturday night?

Apart from the reasons usually given (fraud protection etc.) the main reason quite simply is that those systems are arcane and Byzantine.

We're talking about AS/400 mainframes here with software written in COBOL and RPG (which actually was created for use with punch cards but still is actively used today). The preferred mode of inter-systems communication on these platforms is exchanging fixed-width files via FTP or socket services.

Not only are these systems difficult to maintain or update, connecting modern systems isn't exactly easy either.

That said, there's a whole lot of money to be made in this area in the next 10 years or so because everyone who still knows COBOL, RPG and AS/400 stuff in general is likely 50 years or older, which means there won't hardly be anyone to maintain those monstrosities any more 15 years from now.

Many banks are currently migrating these systems to modern languages and frameworks, which for banks and finance in general mostly means Java. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean things will get better. There are many stakeholders in this game and their interests don't always align with the customers'.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#48

Post by netcan »

18. Invest $10,000 in Uber in the secondary market by buying some shares from an existing shareholder -- with just a few clicks.

If this one gets solved, it would be weirdly ironic. That's supposedly what public markets are for. This BTW, is one an entrepreneurial government could tackle.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#50

Post by jotm »

S4M wrote: post #21

> 6. Get somebody to come to my house, pick up my dry cleaning and drop it back off the next day (Amazon "Clean"). Isn't this what HomeJoy is doing? If not, I have a friend who tried that, but failed. I'd be happy to forward his details. > 9. Send $10,000 to my caretaker in France and have her get the cash and withdraw it from an ATM that same day. Within Europe, you can. > 10. Get investors for my startup by adverti…

On 9. - you can't just send or withdraw $10,000 - you need to go to the bank, declare the purpose of this transfer, sign some papers and then wait a few days for it to be cleared. The limit varies between countries. Money laundering laws and all that.

Some banks actually decline large withdrawals (but not transfers) if you have a weak/suspicious reason ("I want to buy five 3D LED TVs today" :-)).

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