Narses2's Blog - or what I'm slowly making progress on

[Gondor]

If you switch to Venmo be aware the transactions are visible to anyone. You can select to be private but you have to know to do that. Don't ask me how I know.

Am I missing something ?

Is that a drink?

[scooter]

If you switch to Venmo be aware the transactions are visible to anyone. You can select to be private but you have to know to do that. Don't ask me how I know.

Am I missing something ?

Is that a drink?

No, it's a payment app.  A certain former US Congresscritter was caught doing naughty things because he paid form them on Venmo.

[zenrat]

If you switch to Venmo be aware the transactions are visible to anyone. You can select to be private but you have to know to do that. Don't ask me how I know.

Am I missing something ?

Is that a drink?

No, it's a payment app.  A certain former US Congresscritter was caught doing naughty things because he paid form them on Venmo.

I looked it up.  It has a "social media" aspect because apparently that is what you want to do - share all your spendings with your circle of "friends"...

...a bit like the "My stash grew again" thread.   

[NARSES2]

I looked it up.  It has a "social media" aspect because apparently that is what you want to do - share all your spendings with your circle of "friends"...

...a bit like the "My stash grew again" thread.   

For billionaires 

[NARSES2]

Meanwhile progress continues. The H 75 is ready for its paint scheme and I now have a set of major sub-assemblies for the Fw 187.

[NARSES2]

My home town of Croydon has been twinned with Arnhem since just after WWII, mainly because one of the Para battalions that took exceptionally heavy casualties had a lot of Croydon lads in it. We were taught about it at school and indeed we visited Arnhem as part of a school trip when I was 14/15. 

Anyway Croydon still has a church service on the Sunday of the battle and an exhibition in the town hall, but I found out today that in Arnhem they still commemorate it for a month. Well done to them

This is the Dutch programme of events of the weekend it'self, but the flags are already flying.

https://www.airborne-herdenkingen.nl/programma/2025/SAH_ACF-commemorations-program-2025.pdf

[Weaver]

That cockpit looks good Chris. Like you say, the level of detail is impressive. Another thing is that 3D printing can do stuff that injection simply can't, like detail inside detail inside detail, or huge undercuts. We might get that "unmoldable" TA-4SU rear canopy set yet! (Just as soon as they work out how to 3D print in clear).

On cheque books, my current one was first used in 2014, and the last three cheques I wrote were all in 2024: to pay Airfix for the postage on Flying Hours orders! 
The one before that was to officialdom in 2020 in respect of managing my late aunt's affairs.

There's been talk of the banks introducing a system where you pay a cheque in at home, without having to go to the bank, by just taking a good quality photo of it with your phone and letting Optical Character Recognition do the rest (which is all that the paying-in machines do anyway). Makes sense and it'll be convenient for people dealing with the elderly and hold-outs, but on the other hand, it's probably another nail in the coffin of high-street branches.

On paying for stuff over the counter, a few years back they tried a completely unmanned shop in California somewhere. You had to give it your card details to get in through a turnstile, then it RFID'd anything you were carrying as you left via an airport-style scanning arch and debited you card accordingly. It shut down after a month or two due to "operational issues" (widely believed to be people finding ways to scam it), but the intention and direction of travel was there for all to see.

Personally I NEVER use self-service tills in any shop, insisting on waiting in line, however long it takes, to be served by a human with a job. I once explained this to a till boss who was trying to "encourage" me to use the self-service, pointing out that it was her job I was trying to save. That got a small round of applause from the queue, and after she'd gone away, three other members of staff silently mouthed "thank you" at me...

[zenrat]

What do you do H when there is no staffed till, just someone supervising the self checkout area?
I try to do as little shopping as possible at the big chain stupidmarkets.  I go to independents instead - with no self check outs.

...On paying for stuff over the counter, a few years back they tried a completely unmanned shop in California somewhere. You had to give it your card details to get in through a turnstile, then it RFID'd anything you were carrying as you left via an airport-style scanning arch and debited you card accordingly. It shut down after a month or two due to "operational issues" (widely believed to be people finding ways to scam it), but the intention and direction of travel was there for all to see...

Shield the RFID chips in the products from the scanners.  Insulated shopping bags have a mylar liner.  Would that do it?

[Weaver]

What do you do H when there is no staffed till, just someone supervising the self checkout area?

Stand patiently at the staffed tills until they open one. If they won't (extremely rare), walk out, leaving them a basket of stuff to put back, after first telling them politely why.

I try to do as little shopping as possible at the big chain stupidmarkets.  I go to independents instead - with no self check outs.

Same, but it's difficult when the supermarkets can get healthy stuff that you need for your diet, but the independent butchers and greengrocers either can't or don't open for the same days/hours.

Shield the RFID chips in the products from the scanners.  Insulated shopping bags have a mylar liner.  Would that do it?

That was my first thought as well. Of course they could stop that by having security guards who didn't let you in with your own bags, but then that would defeat the object of making the store unmanned in the first place. They'd have to have somewhere secure for you to leave bags they wouldn't let you in with too. Non of that would go down well in California, where there's a marked reluctance on the part of security, police and courts to even catch and convict conventional shoplifters these days.

[scooter]

There's been talk of the banks introducing a system where you pay a cheque in at home, without having to go to the bank, by just taking a good quality photo of it with your phone and letting Optical Character Recognition do the rest (which is all that the paying-in machines do anyway). Makes sense and it'll be convenient for people dealing with the elderly and hold-outs, but on the other hand, it's probably another nail in the coffin of high-street branches.

My bank does have a physical location, but it's in San Antonio.  I've been banking with them for close to 20 years, and have deposited almost all my checks electronically - first through a scanner(!), then through the phone.  I still have to mail them any check that I get that's over 10k (only happened after my sister and I assumed our late parents' annuities).  AFAIK, most US banks aren't planning on closing their brick and mortar locations since they're still useful for cash deposits, talking to loan and bank staff, ATMs, etc.

[Weaver]

There's been talk of the banks introducing a system where you pay a cheque in at home, without having to go to the bank, by just taking a good quality photo of it with your phone and letting Optical Character Recognition do the rest (which is all that the paying-in machines do anyway). Makes sense and it'll be convenient for people dealing with the elderly and hold-outs, but on the other hand, it's probably another nail in the coffin of high-street branches.

My bank does have a physical location, but it's in San Antonio.  I've been banking with them for close to 20 years, and have deposited almost all my checks electronically - first through a scanner(!), then through the phone.  I still have to mail them any check that I get that's over 10k (only happened after my sister and I assumed our late parents' annuities).  AFAIK, most US banks aren't planning on closing their brick and mortar locations since they're still useful for cash deposits, talking to loan and bank staff, ATMs, etc.

Yeah, but then the banks are also agitating at high level to phase out cash too. They know they can't get away with it right now, but it's very definitely where they want to go. They have the ear of government too: "just imagine if all those off-the-books transactions and private sales were all recorded so you could tax them... Maybe at alater date you could even restrict what kind of things people spend money on in order to "guide" them to buy the "right" things..."  

To an extent, this is already happening. If you sell more than £x on Ebay in a year in the UK now (sorry, can't recall the exact figure), Ebay automatically snitches on you to HMRC (tax office) and they send you a "polite enquiry" about your "trading" to "help" you pay the right amount of tax.

[PR19_Kit]

My bank does have a physical location, but it's in San Antonio.  I've been banking with them for close to 20 years, and have deposited almost all my checks electronically - first through a scanner(!), then through the phone.  I still have to mail them any check that I get that's over 10k (only happened after my sister and I assumed our late parents' annuities).  AFAIK, most US banks aren't planning on closing their brick and mortar locations since they're still useful for cash deposits, talking to loan and bank staff, ATMs, etc.

At one stage I had a bank account with Wells Fargo in Minneapolis because I was over there so much. 

They had a big problem with my 'Zip Code' because our Postcodes here are all letters. Eventually they used my Passport no. as the 'Zip Code' for my checque book there. 

[Weaver]

My bank does have a physical location, but it's in San Antonio.  I've been banking with them for close to 20 years, and have deposited almost all my checks electronically - first through a scanner(!), then through the phone.  I still have to mail them any check that I get that's over 10k (only happened after my sister and I assumed our late parents' annuities).  AFAIK, most US banks aren't planning on closing their brick and mortar locations since they're still useful for cash deposits, talking to loan and bank staff, ATMs, etc.

At one stage I had a bank account with Wells Fargo in Minneapolis because I was over there so much. 

They had a big problem with my 'Zip Code' because our Postcodes here are all letters. Eventually they used my Passport no. as the 'Zip Code' for my checque book there. 

Two-thirds letters anyway...

I used to have two accounts at Amargerbanken in Denmark. Why? because I used to work for a Danish company and took them up on their staff shares offers (almost nobody else in the UK did, despite the fact that they were heavily discounted and as near a sure bet as shares ever will be). Eventually the company got bought out by Airbus and the shares were compulsorily purchased, at a profit of serveral thousand pounds, and exactly zero effort on my part.

Mind you, trying to actually get the money out of them was like pulling teeth. They wanted photo ID and I didn't have any (jealously guarded old-style driving licence), so I had to apply for a card scheme usually used to allow young-looking 18 years olds to buy drinks, then find somebody to witness it all. Speaking of pulling teeth, it turned out that my dentist was the only one on the list of "approved persons" who would do it, with very poor grace and much complaining, "only because you're a very long time patient". Then a few years later they sent me a letter telling me to go private or **** off, so I did. Go private. With another dentist...

[scooter]

To an extent, this is already happening. If you sell more than £x on Ebay in a year in the UK now (sorry, can't recall the exact figure), Ebay automatically snitches on you to HMRC (tax office) and they send you a "polite enquiry" about your "trading" to "help" you pay the right amount of tax.

This sort of happened in New Jersey.  You were supposed to "voluntarily" estimate how much you spent on online purchases and add that amount to your income tax return.  But no one did, so now virtually every online retailer charges you the 6.625% sales tax - including intangible things like digital content.  Now, they just want you to compute your out of state purchases for the sales tax.

[Rick Lowe]

Personally I NEVER use self-service tills in any shop, insisting on waiting in line, however long it takes, to be served by a human with a job.

Fully agree with this - my usual M.O. also.