Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus

[EEVblog]

When a popular item starts at 99c it shows up in everyone's searches and pretty soon you have idiots nickle & diming each other to death days before the auction ends. It almost always sells for much more that way.

I've been doing this for about 20 years, it works. if you know an item will be popular then start is at 99 cents and watch them go nuts. I've never really been caught out by a low final bid price.
Not hard to research previous prices and bids for the same item.

[EEVblog]

I can give a first-hand report on two different Costos near me in the San Diego, California area.
Toilet paper and bottled water got hit hard over a week ago

You can't give away bottled water here. The shelves are full of it. Either that or the supply chains for water are incredibly good.

[Nusa]

I can give a first-hand report on two different Costos near me in the San Diego, California area.
Toilet paper and bottled water got hit hard over a week ago

You can't give away bottled water here. The shelves are full of it. Either that or the supply chains for water are incredibly good.

I don't really get it either. I keep a few bottles in the van for road emergencies, and some more in the freezer to put in coolers on road trips. At home I use a reverse osmosis filter to get good tasting tap water, although it's safe enough even without the filter.

[james_s]

I've been doing this for about 20 years, it works. if you know an item will be popular then start is at 99 cents and watch them go nuts. I've never really been caught out by a low final bid price.
Not hard to research previous prices and bids for the same item.

Yep, me too. I *always* start my auctions at 99c. If I have something that I know is worth something to the right buyer but doesn't have the same mass appeal then I just use BIN and set it at a reasonable price based on the actual selling price of similar items.

Ebay is an interesting study in psychology, as a buyer I can only shake my head when I see people getting in bidding wars when there's 5 days left to the auction. I *never* bid prior to the final day unless it's just to toss in a lowball opening bid to nix the BIN option if I want to gamble on getting a better deal. All the real action happens in the final seconds. Outbidding someone with days left accomplishes *nothing* except driving the price up and nudging them to spend more than they were originally willing. Love it as a seller but it's absolutely stupid and irrational behavior. I don't think older folks grasp the critical difference between online auctions that have a defined end time and live auctions that keep going as long as people keep bidding.

[james_s]

I don't really get it either. I keep a few bottles in the van for road emergencies, and some more in the freezer to put in coolers on road trips. At home I use a reverse osmosis filter to get good tasting tap water, although it's safe enough even without the filter.

I never understood the bottled water thing but maybe our tap water is better than most places. The bottled water tastes like plastic to me, tap water has no taste at all.

[SilverSolder]

I've been doing this for about 20 years, it works. if you know an item will be popular then start is at 99 cents and watch them go nuts. I've never really been caught out by a low final bid price.
Not hard to research previous prices and bids for the same item.

Yep, me too. I *always* start my auctions at 99c. If I have something that I know is worth something to the right buyer but doesn't have the same mass appeal then I just use BIN and set it at a reasonable price based on the actual selling price of similar items.

Ebay is an interesting study in psychology, as a buyer I can only shake my head when I see people getting in bidding wars when there's 5 days left to the auction. I *never* bid prior to the final day unless it's just to toss in a lowball opening bid to nix the BIN option if I want to gamble on getting a better deal. All the real action happens in the final seconds. Outbidding someone with days left accomplishes *nothing* except driving the price up and nudging them to spend more than they were originally willing. Love it as a seller but it's absolutely stupid and irrational behavior. I don't think older folks grasp the critical difference between online auctions that have a defined end time and live auctions that keep going as long as people keep bidding.

People can be terminally dumb at "real" bricks-and-mortar auctions as well, getting into bidding competitions and overpaying massively for what they buy.  Seen it many times!  Knowing when to shut up, is a lesson most people never seem to learn.

[Bud]

I can give a first-hand report on two different Costos near me in the San Diego, California area.
Toilet paper and bottled water got hit hard over a week ago

You can't give away bottled water here. The shelves are full of it. Either that or the supply chains for water are incredibly good.

I don't really get it either. I keep a few bottles in the van for road emergencies, and some more in the freezer to put in coolers on road trips. At home I use a reverse osmosis filter to get good tasting tap water, although it's safe enough even without the filter.

You take city water supply for granted. The point of having a bit of bottled water is an insurance against emergencies where tap water may be cut off.

[Nusa]

I can give a first-hand report on two different Costos near me in the San Diego, California area.
Toilet paper and bottled water got hit hard over a week ago

You can't give away bottled water here. The shelves are full of it. Either that or the supply chains for water are incredibly good.

I don't really get it either. I keep a few bottles in the van for road emergencies, and some more in the freezer to put in coolers on road trips. At home I use a reverse osmosis filter to get good tasting tap water, although it's safe enough even without the filter.

You take city water supply for granted. The point of having a bit of bottled water is an insurance against emergencies where tap water may be cut off.

Well, yes I do take the water supply for granted as it's not THAT kind of emergency. But if the water did go away I have: 40 gallons in the hot water tank, 3 gallons in the reverse osmosis tank, several cases of beer, about a case of bottled water in various places, at least ten 2 or 2.5 liter bottles of various things, and three bottles of orange juice. I think I'd be ok on fluids for a while.

[Bud]

Flushing the toilet, washing the dishes,  hands and body washing, cooking, all takes water.

[james_s]

Flushing the toilet, washing the dishes,  hands and body washing, cooking, all takes water.

And you're going to do that with bottled water? That seems like an awfully inefficient way to store that much water. If the city water supply fails we are pretty much all screwed, I mean just look at how people are handling this virus, it seems like everyone is in a panic.

[Nusa]

Flushing the toilet, washing the dishes,  hands and body washing, cooking, all takes water.

Now you're confusing emergency life with normal life. Water is mostly reserved for drinking until the emergency is resolved. One should go into camping mode for an extended outage.

First flush is in the tank, but flushing can often be delayed. It also doesn't require using potable water. Pond/lake/ocean/stream/waterbed water is fine. There are also alternative toilets entirely, such as bucket and plastic bags.
Washing dishes...not important. Let them pile up for the duration or use paper products.
Hand sanitizer where required, some sponge bathing, but forget about regular baths or showers or hair washing. You may not feel as clean as you like, but you won't die.
Cooking is optional, but if one does one saves leftover water for a second use.

[rcbuck]

You take city water supply for granted

Being over 70 years old and never having seen city water cut off I guess I do take it for granted. And the chances of it being cut off are probably 0.000001%. I don't understand the bottled water syndrome. Tap water is perfectly drinkable and 100% lower in cost. I think the people who buy bottled water have the same mindset as people who pay $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks that you can get for $1 at the Circle K store.

If you don't like the taste of tap water, buy a water pitcher that has a replaceable charcoal filter. It is still close to 100% cheaper than bottled water and environmentally friendly. The biggest pollution problem we have is disposable water bottles.

Edit: If tap water is shut off I will just take a couple of 10 gallon jugs over to Lake Pleasant and fill them up.

[Sal Ammoniac]

All of Silicon Valley is now officially on lock-down. No one is allowed to travel except for "essential activities", which are narrowly defined to include visits to healthcare services, grocery shopping, and a few other things. All restaurants are closed except for take-out and home delivery. All other non-essential businesses are shut down for the duration. This runs through at least April 7th.

My company is shut down, but the nature of our work means that everyone took home whatever boards and equipment they need to do their jobs and will continue working from home.

Anyone interested in reading the text of the order can find it here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/16/read-shelter-in-place-order-from-six-bay-area-counties/

[rgarito]

All of Florida:  ALL bars and nightclubs closed for 30 days.  That is gonna be a metric shit-ton of people out of work.

Apparently the feds are talking about a $1000 check being mailed to most Americans, but that wont last long and by the time it gets through all the red tape, it'll be amazing if much is left.

[bd139]

SFA here. Business bail outs and direct loans to stop laying people off but absolutely fuck all for anyone else really.

[james_s]

A loan is just a loan, even if the interest is zero it's still a loan and doesn't make up for the lost profit due to inactivity. Sooner or later it's time to pay the piper.

[Stray Electron]

Apparently the feds are talking about a $1000 check being mailed to most Americans, but that wont last long and by the time it gets through all the red tape, it'll be amazing if much is left.

  The problem with mailing everyone a $1000 check is that most of them will take it and blow it within a few hours on a big screen TV or other non-essential.  Also many will travel somewhere to spend it.  This is not the time to encourage people to go out shopping. I would much rather the government simply apply a $1000 credit to everyone's tax bill so that they effectively keep their entire pay check and/or unemployment check and that the credit will get paid out gradually and not all at once which would simply encourage people to waste it.

[SiliconWizard]

All of Silicon Valley is now officially on lock-down. No one is allowed to travel except for "essential activities", which are narrowly defined to include visits to healthcare services, grocery shopping, and a few other things. All restaurants are closed except for take-out and home delivery. All other non-essential businesses are shut down for the duration. This runs through at least April 7th.

Something similar over here.
Oh and now you need to carry some kind of declaration with you in which you state the date, what you're out for and you need to sign it.

[james_s]

I don't know that I'd even notice $1000, it would cover almost 2 weeks of my mortgage, and that's if they didn't take taxes out of it first. If I found myself needing to find a job it wouldn't buy much time. It's a nice gesture I suppose but it's a bit like seeing someone in a boat with a large hole in the hull and tossing them a roll of duct tape.

[SilverSolder]

It would be reassuring to know that billions are being spent on developing a vaccine!

[rgarito]

Apparently the feds are talking about a $1000 check being mailed to most Americans, but that wont last long and by the time it gets through all the red tape, it'll be amazing if much is left.

  The problem with mailing everyone a $1000 check is that most of them will take it and blow it within a few hours on a big screen TV or other non-essential.  Also many will travel somewhere to spend it.  This is not the time to encourage people to go out shopping. I would much rather the government simply apply a $1000 credit to everyone's tax bill so that they effectively keep their entire pay check and/or unemployment check and that the credit will get paid out gradually and not all at once which would simply encourage people to waste it.

I think that the problem there also is that the inconvenient truth is that many types of people are not eligible for unemployment so taking out of your taxes on unemp check doesn't help everyone.  And in many states (like Florida) unemployment is about enough to buy a cup of coffee.  Won't even put a tiny dent in 1 month's rent.

[rgarito]

I don't know that I'd even notice $1000, it would cover almost 2 weeks of my mortgage, and that's if they didn't take taxes out of it first. If I found myself needing to find a job it wouldn't buy much time. It's a nice gesture I suppose but it's a bit like seeing someone in a boat with a large hole in the hull and tossing them a roll of duct tape.

Yeah...  It would cover less than 1/2 of my rent.  And my rent is actually low for South Florida.  Many of the newer apartments are $2500-3000 a month even for a small closet.  (we are trying to compete with NYC).

Luckily, I am FAR from unemployed and if they could clone each of us, they would.  We are having to get really creative to even handle the load, but then again, just about every mid to large business on the planet uses us for work from home and a LOT of medical uses us for other things too (including nursing stations).

[rgarito]

It would be reassuring to know that billions are being spent on developing a vaccine!

Problem is that money only goes so far to "speed up the process." 

[Stray Electron]

  We've been very lucky in that a number of well heeled people have stepped up and donated millions of dollars to to medical research as soon as they heard about this. If the researchers had had to go through their usual sources to ask for funding and then wait till their next budget was approved then it would have been far far too late.   This video mentions the donors several times and the last segment talks exclusively about some of the donors.

https://externalmediasite.partners.org/Mediasite/Play/45a9a74f18ec45deb338e00ac4cf4e281d

[Bud]

You take city water supply for granted

Being over 70 years old and never having seen city water cut off I guess I do take it for granted. And the chances of it being cut off are probably 0.000001%. I don't understand the bottled water syndrome. Tap water is perfectly drinkable and 100% lower in cost. I think the people who buy bottled water have the same mindset as people who pay $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks that you can get for $1 at the Circle K store.

If you don't like the taste of tap water, buy a water pitcher that has a replaceable charcoal filter. It is still close to 100% cheaper than bottled water and environmentally friendly. The biggest pollution problem we have is disposable water bottles.

Edit: If tap water is shut off I will just take a couple of 10 gallon jugs over to Lake Pleasant and fill them up.

I am totally fine with the taste of tap water, i just chimed about the reasoning why people  buy bottled water today.  As you may
have guessed, only a few of them have a liberty of filling their water canisters up from Lake Pleasant.