Loran425's recent activity

  1. Comment on Porter Robinson's angelangelangelangelangel.com (seizure warning) in ~design

    Loran425
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    Well this was just an absolute trip, and if you play around long enough you get to an old forum full of more of the same wild text, and oddly conspicuous GPS coordinates. People are wildly...

    Well this was just an absolute trip, and if you play around long enough you get to an old forum full of more of the same wild text, and oddly conspicuous GPS coordinates. People are wildly creative and just the amount of effort making all of this as a tangent to a side project is mind boggling to me.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on I'm Not a Robot in ~games

    Loran425
    Link
    Can't wait to see the google trends for things like 64th floor of the empire state building to absolutely pop off in the coming weeks. Love the stuff that Neal puts out, always an entertaining mix...

    Can't wait to see the google trends for things like 64th floor of the empire state building to absolutely pop off in the coming weeks.

    Love the stuff that Neal puts out, always an entertaining mix of weird and fun.

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Share the contents of an old file you've got lying around in ~talk

    Loran425
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    Definitely an interesting dive through the old, "BACKUPS" folder, but this was a fun one to share from 2018, just an old .bat script for running python scripts from a USB drive back in college, I...

    Definitely an interesting dive through the old, "BACKUPS" folder, but this was a fun one to share from 2018, just an old .bat script for running python scripts from a USB drive back in college, I remember being way too happy that simply by copying and pasting a file with identical contents and renaming it I could launch different scripts from a flash drive.

    @echo off
set wd = "%~dp0
set PYTHON="%wd%WPy-3701\python-3.7.0.amd64"
set SCRIPTS=%wd%WPy-3701\pscripts\
"%PYTHON%\python.exe" "%SCRIPTS%\%~n0.py"

    For a bit of context in .bat files the %~dp0 extracts off the drive letter and the colon from the executed file name and %~n0 would extract the file name without the extension.

    Nothing fancy, but fond memories of that time.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Sweden is a nearly cashless society – here's how it affects people who are left out in ~finance

    Loran425
    Link Parent
    Interesting that Detroit ID requires an address but is able to use a shelter address in place of a personal address. Glad to see the problem isn't as insurmountable as I had assumed.

    Interesting that Detroit ID requires an address but is able to use a shelter address in place of a personal address. Glad to see the problem isn't as insurmountable as I had assumed.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Sweden is a nearly cashless society – here's how it affects people who are left out in ~finance

    Loran425
    Link Parent
    Not saying that cash has to go, just wondering how a country that has allowed it's businesses to refuse cash handles the loss of access to a portion of it's populace. The immediate options I see...

    Not saying that cash has to go, just wondering how a country that has allowed it's businesses to refuse cash handles the loss of access to a portion of it's populace. The immediate options I see to resolve the access are either force business to take cash (not likely to be a popular decision) or find ways to increase access to the cashless systems.

    Fully agree that Visa/MasterCard Duopoly is it's own problem and my financial institution should not be able to dictate what I spend my money on, but that's it's own can of worms.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on Sweden is a nearly cashless society – here's how it affects people who are left out in ~finance

    Loran425
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Yeah this is exactly the sort of thing that made me realize there isn't a quick fix, lots of people take having a smartphone and an outlet readily available for granted. I think it could be done...

    Yeah this is exactly the sort of thing that made me realize there isn't a quick fix, lots of people take having a smartphone and an outlet readily available for granted.

    I think it could be done in a way that would allow equal access to a cashless system but there's a lot more to it than just say no more cash. The big one that comes to mind is Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements which place a burden on financial institutions to limit fraud, money laundering etc. Which is where the address requirement comes from, and it's tied to the patriot act so that is going to be moving a legislative mountain. And of course that doesn't solve the problem if minimum balances or insane fees are the reason someone can't or chooses not to have a bank account.

    Agree with you on the second point though, banks don't want to be in the business of providing access they want to be in the business of making money, so I don't see a world in which they make this sort of change without being required to.

    Thanks for the thoughts.

    7 votes

  7. Comment on Sweden is a nearly cashless society – here's how it affects people who are left out in ~finance

    Loran425
    Link
    As someone who only uses cash on very rare occasions it's an interesting problem and a very real one for those it impacts. I'm a little disappointed that there isn't anything pointing towards a...

    As someone who only uses cash on very rare occasions it's an interesting problem and a very real one for those it impacts. I'm a little disappointed that there isn't anything pointing towards a solution in the article but it definitely looks like a complex issue so I can appreciate not pushing for a fast or easy solution.

    I wonder how/if the issue gets resolved, does it look like getting access to financial systems in digital form or are there other solutions to solve the access problem without widely reintroducing physical currency.

    12 votes