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What’s on your mind?
- Thread starter Gutwrench
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I’ll admit that what Wal-Mart did, what Amazon is doing and is successful because they bring lower prices and convenience to consumers while understanding that monopolistic entities can easily become a negative.
The thing about Amazon, acting like an on-line department store, they are not monopolizing their own product and it’s unlike ATT who was broken up as a monopoly, because they controlled a region of communication, as a department store Amazon has developing competition, but they are over a decade ahead of everyone and are not burdened by brick and mortar overhead. The bottom line is that they are successful because their marketing ideas have been a huge success with customers.
However, I do want to see Amazon get better competition.
Amazon has become more and more successful because they not only broadened their product lines, they also developed a strategy for getting the product(s) to the customer even more quickly than had been customary, thanks to setting up their own system of local warehouses and local deliveries. That appeals to the instant-gratification gene in all of us.
I can order a product one afternoon from the comfort of my computer chair and the next afternoon it is on my doorstep, ready for use -- no fuss, no muss. They also offer products which are not readily available locally, especially for those who do not live in urban areas. For those of us who do live in an urban area, sometimes a local store (such as Microcenter) will price-match Amazon. I can go to the Amazon site, decide that I want, say, a 2 TB Samsung T5 external SSD, print out the information page with pricing and the various numbers that identify that specific product, and then go to Microcenter, which is right down the road from me) and assuming they have the same product in stock (which I would've already checked prior to leaving home), buy the item there for what I would've paid at Amazon. Keeps the local store in business. Either way, my urge to have something and get it pretty fast is satiated.....
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Why would you still want to run Sierra? Are you using older software (32-bit)? I don't blame you for not wanting to plunk out money to use a VM, which can also add other complications. Any new Apple machine would not be able to go backwards in time and install an older OS such as Sierra, it would only be able to move forward from whatever is installed at the time of purchase.
I have never had any problems with touch responsiveness (or lack thereof) on any of my iPhones or iPads, and I have been using them since the beginning (iPhone, 2007, iPad, 2010). I have heard of that "touch disease" that apparently afflicted some models butI thought that had eventually been corrected and resolved...... Do you have screen protectors on anything? I have never used them, never felt the need, and always have had the suspicion that they would somehow impede the sensitivity of the capacitive screen because one is adding a layer over it.
As for Windows, I have never used Windows 10 but from what I have heard, Windows is somewhat less problematic than it was at the time I last used it -- way back to WIN XP -- and that the learning curve shouldn't be as steep as it used to be in the past when shifting from one system to the other.
I can order a product one afternoon from the comfort of my computer chair and the next afternoon it is on my doorstep, ready for use -- no fuss, no muss. They also offer products which are not readily available locally, especially for those who do not live in urban areas. For those of us who do live in an urban area, sometimes a local store (such as Microcenter) will price-match Amazon. I can go to the Amazon site, decide that I want, say, a 2 TB Samsung T5 external SSD, print out the information page with pricing and the various numbers that identify that specific product, and then go to Microcenter, which is right down the road from me) and assuming they have the same product in stock (which I would've already checked prior to leaving home), buy the item there for what I would've paid at Amazon. Keeps the local store in business. Either way, my urge to have something and get it pretty fast is satiated.....
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Yes, moving on from Apple. Received confirmation that VMs are the only way I could still run Sierra.
Not going to do that (Spend that $$$ for machine and then more to subscribe to VM software - nope).
Took me three years, but the decision is made.
And yay! this 8+ is developing touch irresponsiveness too, while mom's 6s+ has become unusable.
I accept this now, which was the biggest obstacle.
So much has changed for me in 3 years, I thought I couldn't handle my tech changing too. It's a good thing that one job is offering extensive Windows 10 training in two months, that is a sign.
Why would you still want to run Sierra? Are you using older software (32-bit)? I don't blame you for not wanting to plunk out money to use a VM, which can also add other complications. Any new Apple machine would not be able to go backwards in time and install an older OS such as Sierra, it would only be able to move forward from whatever is installed at the time of purchase.
I have never had any problems with touch responsiveness (or lack thereof) on any of my iPhones or iPads, and I have been using them since the beginning (iPhone, 2007, iPad, 2010). I have heard of that "touch disease" that apparently afflicted some models butI thought that had eventually been corrected and resolved...... Do you have screen protectors on anything? I have never used them, never felt the need, and always have had the suspicion that they would somehow impede the sensitivity of the capacitive screen because one is adding a layer over it.
As for Windows, I have never used Windows 10 but from what I have heard, Windows is somewhat less problematic than it was at the time I last used it -- way back to WIN XP -- and that the learning curve shouldn't be as steep as it used to be in the past when shifting from one system to the other.
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How is your mum doing?
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But Amazon cripple businesses by having multi warehouses.
We sell a product that lest say Amazon sell 100 a month across all of Europe.
We get orders for their 35 different warehouses. Because they pay us after 60 days and we have to pay our suppliers on 30 days we are already bankrolling them to the tune of a month.
They then have 90 days to decide if they want to return stock.
We have to pay shipping to Amazon and back when they return items.
They then continue to order say 1000 of the product where they only sell 100. So we try to reduce what we supply them. But they also penalise you got that!
You then pay them to market your product. Pay them a rebate to sell your product.
Get asked to reduce your price if there is someone selling it lower on Amazon marketplace.
It’s a scam. They aren’t giving you anything they haven’t taken from someone else.
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So you had some software that required Sierra? I've been running Mojave (10.14.6) and it's super stable, and I __really__ use my machine, dozens of apps, services/servers, VMs, never gets shuts off, always works as expected.
Funny enough, my iPX was getting a little less responsive - removed the old Tech Armor screen protector (it was a good 18+ months old), put on one of the wife's new 0.24mm glass protectors I got her for her iP11Pro, and *poof*, it's like a brand new phone
(Also got a new case, so it's nice and refreshed )
This is really interesting to hear the other side, the manufacturer/retailer, etc. -- I will admit that most of us do not give that a thought at all when deciding oh, we want [name the product] and we can order it from Amazon and get it tomorrow! Also, that seems rather unfair to the retailer if Amazon isn't even paying until 60 days out when the retailer has to pay his own suppliers in 30 days..... Ouch!
I'm sure the whole issue of returning stock also comes into play when a customer receives something from Amazon, and perhaps it is faulty, perhaps it is missing some component, includes the wrong component or [probably most often] they just don't like it, and so they initiate a return process.... Sure, in the end that is going to have an impact on the original retailer rather than Amazon.....along with the 90-day period of potentially returning stock anyway. Ouch, again.....
That definitely does not seem right that the retailer should have to pay shipping costs both ways...... Ouch, a third time!
Yes. I still need Sierra.So you had some software that required Sierra? I've been running Mojave (10.14.6) and it's super stable, and I __really__ use my machine, dozens of apps, services/servers, VMs, never gets shuts off, always works as expected.
Funny enough, my iPX was getting a little less responsive - removed the old Tech Armor screen protector (it was a good 18+ months old), put on one of the wife's new 0.24mm glass protectors I got her for her iP11Pro, and *poof*, it's like a brand new phone
I am glad your Apple stuff is running well. After so many iPads and iPhones having problems in 3 years, I just cannot trust buying a new Mac. There are other frustrations too. Now I know Windows 10 and PCs are not without issues, but after this second Air 3 went boom, I feel I have to try something else.
@Apple fanboy Mom is coming along slowly. She was in good spirits today (ate a lot) and her leg looks terrific (I am so glad that the Physical Therapy dept replaced wedge pillow she needs for her leg to heal straight. It was so great to see that. She laughed too).
Thanks for the info.
The video conversion software I use doesn't work past Sierra, it does work on Windows 10 though (The thought of Bootcamp freaks me out).
Sadly, touch irresponsiveness/touch disease has not been fixed. I wish it was.
Shrugs. It is all good.
@D.T. - video conversion Sierra software is Tuneskit. While I was writing for Shaw Brothers Studio's official site, taking screenshots from the iTunes releases was necessary (and Shaw Brothers encouraged me to do so), as their publicists rarely provided good imagery to work with.
More recently, I took screenshots to draw from since my film blogging seems to be dormant.
Tuneskit doesn't work past Sierra.
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A bar fight in Darwin, Australia I witnessed in 2000 between two Aboriginal women.
I'd add the "story group" who have also contributed to the mess, but at least The Mandalorian is a step in the right direction.
Thinking about the Tenet trailer.
Oh looking forward to watching The Mandalorian when it finally comes here. I am happy Dr. Who is back on track and looking forward to the Picard Star Trek series as well.
They needed a chief storyteller to direct the films. The sequel trilogy is clearly three stories reacting to the events of the previous.
I will say, for all the hate, TLJ is actually a fantastic film. Easily the best directed and written of the trilogy. I'm not sure I liked Johnson's character choices, though.
Celebrating the new year a bit late, but better late than never. Work related stuff kept me busy most of the days around christmas and New Years, so now that I finally have some days off it's time to unwind with a couple of glasses of Calvados and just take it easy. Maybe a good movie as well, but first some good tunes.
Thinking about booking a trip somewhere in the near future. So many places I'd like to visit and a couple of people I'd really like to take with me so the logistics of it all need to be figured out first.
I hope the new decade has been treating everyone good so far, and that it continues to do so!
Thinking about booking a trip somewhere in the near future. So many places I'd like to visit and a couple of people I'd really like to take with me so the logistics of it all need to be figured out first.
I hope the new decade has been treating everyone good so far, and that it continues to do so!
Sigh
Several things on my mind: mom opened up a can of worms loaning our car to an acquaintance who now has the gaul to ask to borrow it every week for a job. This puts even more stress on me. What if mom needs the car? Or help from this person at that time? What happens if there's an accident? I just emailed this person saying no, I am not comfortable doing this, but I will talk to mom as it's her decision.
The complaints about miscommunication at this rehab mom is staying are, sadly, very accurate. Our relationship has become strained as a result of mom's stubbornness trying to control me and everything else. At least the physical therapy is working for her though.
My new hours (work and real life) are a lot longer than I thought they would be.
Going to try to get another hour sleep now.
Hope everyone is well.
Several things on my mind: mom opened up a can of worms loaning our car to an acquaintance who now has the gaul to ask to borrow it every week for a job. This puts even more stress on me. What if mom needs the car? Or help from this person at that time? What happens if there's an accident? I just emailed this person saying no, I am not comfortable doing this, but I will talk to mom as it's her decision.
The complaints about miscommunication at this rehab mom is staying are, sadly, very accurate. Our relationship has become strained
as a result of mom's stubbornness trying to control me and everything else. At least the physical therapy is working for her though.My new hours (work and real life) are a lot longer than I thought they would be.
Going to try to get another hour sleep now.
Hope everyone is well.
Parents can be stressful. As can being unable to do things you used to.Sigh
Several things on my mind: mom opened up a can of worms loaning our car to an acquaintance who now has the gaul to ask to borrow it every week for a job. This puts even more stress on me. What if mom needs the car? Or help from this person at that time? What happens if there's an accident? I just emailed this person saying no, I am not comfortable doing this, but I will talk to mom as it's her decision.
The complaints about miscommunication at this rehab mom is staying are, sadly, very accurate. Our relationship has become strained
My new hours (work and real life) are a lot longer than I thought they would be.
Going to try to get another hour sleep now.
Hope everyone is well.
I’m sure things will be fine once she’s back home.
As for the car thing. Give someone an inch they take a mile is often the case.
Exactly. Mom may not realize she can be sued or worse.
Anyway, thanks for the insight and common sense.
Hope all is well with the house renovations.
Sigh
Several things on my mind: mom opened up a can of worms loaning our car to an acquaintance who now has the gaul to ask to borrow it every week for a job. This puts even more stress on me. What if mom needs the car? Or help from this person at that time? What happens if there's an accident? I just emailed this person saying no, I am not comfortable doing this, but I will talk to mom as it's her decision.
The complaints about miscommunication at this rehab mom is staying are, sadly, very accurate. Our relationship has become strained
My new hours (work and real life) are a lot longer than I thought they would be.
Going to try to get another hour sleep now.
Hope everyone is well.
Commiserations on your mother woes.
I can empathise to a considerable extent.
It is very difficult for someone who was independent and capable to accept not just that they are no longer capable, independent or autonomous, but that they can no longer do what they used to be able to do, and that their health is not what it was.
It is even more difficult for them to accept that those whom they reared are no longer answerable to them, or no longer need to take instruction from them, and that, in fact, if anything, the old child parent relationship has been inverted to a certain extent, - sometimes dramatically - whereby the child now instructs the failing elder, and has shouldered the enormous responsibility of the caring role for someone who was once the lodestar of your life, and around whom you orbited, a satellite to a larger more powerful and awesome planet.
Psychologically, this is - or can be - very difficult to handle; in the early years of her decline, there were times when my mother - a capable, intelligent, independent woman, - found it hard to take any such instructions, found it hard to accept that she was becoming increasingly dependent on others, and sometimes challenged medical advice, and treatment and indeed, medication.
My father was an excellent patient. However, in the early days of her decline, my mother, frightened, upset, aware of some element of deteriorating cognitive function (and always proud of her fierce intelligence) was not. As she declined, and her condition increasingly claimed her, that improved.
Re the car: This does bring back memories. My mother had a few such 'friends' who behaved in a similarly entitled fashion, and with whom she found it difficult to set (and enforce) boundaries, especially once my father had died, and the need to attend to his needs no longer existed.
Instead, I became the - pretty fierce and strict - enforcer of such boundaries (and, will add, that once my mother's deterioration meant that she was no longer of any use to such people, people whom she had supported with friendship, sympathetic shoulders, advice, endless time, coffees, trips to shops, dentists and doctors - placing herself and her car at the disposal of such individuals - they disappeared from her life, never to re-appear, not even at her funeral).
However, my advice would be - especially, should your mother wish her acquaintance to have access to the car - to set strict boundaries or conditions on such usage; i.e. they do not get to have it as of right, rather, they get it as an occasional favour, and to maintain control of - and to set conditions of - both access to and use of, the car.
Instead, suggest that they may have access to it for occasional errands, but always as a favour, - the car is yours after all, not as a right, especially not weekly or otherwise regularly, or as something that they may come to believe (and attempt to argue) that they have the right to, or have become dependent on, and have accordingly arranged their life to expect to have unconditional access to.
The trouble with such people, is not just their often outrageous sense of entitlement (nor that they would ever dream of reciprocating, let alone offering anything by way of support, even in the smallest imaginable way), but that they have little respect for you or what you do for them, for your time, person, or goods.
Thus, set boundaries. And conditions (such as "this does not suit me at this particular time"), and - if you - or your mother - wish to offer some support, phone or email with a suggestion that you are heading to the shops now, and does she wish to come, or can you get anything for her while there; doctor's and dental trips are sufficiently irregular to be able to offer to do that without preconditions (unless you are otherwise busy or committed), but - unless she is an exceptionally close friend - making the car available on a weekly basis - strikes me as a bit much to ask.
Not long after my father died, my mother asked my opinion on whether she should make herself available to take one of these "friends" to church at a set time on a weekly basis. I counselled against it, pointing out to my mother that she would never ever again be free for herself at those times, - not free to take up spontaneous invitations somewhere - that those times would henceforth be set in stone, that the woman in question (who was brilliant at getting others to offer to do things for her) would come to depend on it, arrange her life around it, and would (very subtly) make her feel less of a friend if she would be unable to be available for any reason, but that we could offer to get things for her when out shopping for ourselves, - which we did - and were free to drive her to medical and other necessary (but irregular) appointments, which was something we also did.
Anyway, good luck with it, and you are perfectly right to register your unhappiness with this arrangement.
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Best wishes in dealing with these challenges and arriving at positive outcomes. Borrowing a car weekly for work sounds more like giving the car away. You are right, liability could become an issue.Sigh
Several things on my mind: mom opened up a can of worms loaning our car to an acquaintance who now has the gaul to ask to borrow it every week for a job. This puts even more stress on me. What if mom needs the car? Or help from this person at that time? What happens if there's an accident? I just emailed this person saying no, I am not comfortable doing this, but I will talk to mom as it's her decision.
The complaints about miscommunication at this rehab mom is staying are, sadly, very accurate. Our relationship has become strained
My new hours (work and real life) are a lot longer than I thought they would be.
Going to try to get another hour sleep now.
Hope everyone is well.
How old is your Mom? Does she have dementia?[automerge]1578496544[/automerge]
I could survive in a Windows exclusive environment, I’m in it every day gaming. But I have the luxury of affording and preferring the MacOS. I believe it has less issues, and I prefer it, but the fact is that the MacOS is a luxury for many people. Apple really needs to get their Mac hardware affordable for the masses, although from the start it has been a high end product. My impression is that it’s IOS that keeps Apple relevant, not MacOS.Yes, moving on from Apple. Received confirmation that VMs are the only way I could still run Sierra.
Not going to do that (Spend that $$$ for machine and then more to subscribe to VM software - nope).
Took me three years, but the decision is made.
And yay! this 8+ is developing touch irresponsiveness too, while mom's 6s+ has become unusable.
I accept this now, which was the biggest obstacle.
So much has changed for me in 3 years, I thought I couldn't handle my tech changing too. It's a good thing that one job is offering extensive Windows 10 training in two months, that is a sign.
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Amazon speed of delivery is a milestone of their business model, accepting a lower per item profit for huge gains in volume sales, an innovation that now has every one else scrambling.
Sigh
Several things on my mind: mom opened up a can of worms loaning our car to an acquaintance who now has the gaul to ask to borrow it every week for a job. This puts even more stress on me. What if mom needs the car? Or help from this person at that time? What happens if there's an accident? I just emailed this person saying no, I am not comfortable doing this, but I will talk to mom as it's her decision.
The complaints about miscommunication at this rehab mom is staying are, sadly, very accurate. Our relationship has become strained
My new hours (work and real life) are a lot longer than I thought they would be.
Going to try to get another hour sleep now.
Hope everyone is well.
I agree with SS and others that it is time to set boundaries on this acquaintance who wants to borrow the car every week for a job..... Definitely this is setting up the potential for all kinds of not-so-good things to happen, including, yes, that the person is involved in an auto accident, which would then put your mother's car out of commission altogether for your own use as well.
As for the situation at the rehab place -- quite a few years ago a neighbor was in the hospital for surgery and then afterward was in rehab. She was a difficult person anyway, very demanding and although she and her daughter were close, it was clear to me that the daughter did everything in her power to keep her mother happy, she would jump through all kinds of hoops for her mother, etc., with the result that the mother only became even more demanding and more convinced that she was the center of everyone's universe. Anyway, the daughter worked full-time but was self-employed and thus able to schedule her own hours, which was a good thing because she spent rather a lot of time at the rehab place speaking with the administration and other staff about the best ways to help (and deal with) her mother.
I visited a few times and so on more than one occasion I saw for myself how unpleasant and downright rude my neighbor could sometimes be to those who were simply trying to help her -- yes, she was in pain, yes, the food probably was lousy, yes, she wanted to just go home, etc., etc., but this woman really made things worse for herself and everyone else around her by the attitude she had. She expected everyone to hop-to the minute she wanted something, and that just wasn't always possible. She also was not very cooperative and willing to work while in her physical therapy sessions, doing the minimum she could, whining that it hurt too much, it was too hard, etc. Well....to make a long story short the upshot of this was that eventually she wound up in a wheelchair full-time anyway. The old adage of "don't use it, you lose it" seemed to apply in her situation. (Of course there were undoubtedly things of which I was unaware, especially in her medical diagnosis and prognosis, which would have come into play as well.). One thing which did develop over the next several years was, yes, dementia, and so it is possible that it was already in the early stages at that time.
At any rate, yes, it can help to speak with the administrator of the facility or the head of nursing, or the head of the PT dept or your mother's PT, to offer suggestions as to what seems to work better with her in terms of communicating effectively with her, but there is only so much one can do in these situations. Hang in there!
Thanks everyone for the kind words and solid advice.
After talking to my sister and several colleagues and reading everyone's wonderful answers @Scepticalscribe @Clix Pix @Huntn I told these acquaintances no they cannot borrow the car for this or anything going forward.
Mom doesn't have dementia (but the medications are making her more loopy than usual).
Anyway, time to up my skills in google docs.
Again, thanks everyone for the thoughtful, long replies. I may not be able to respond directly, but I do truly appreciate the time and advice you shared. I will definitely save some of them
After talking to my sister and several colleagues and reading everyone's wonderful answers @Scepticalscribe @Clix Pix @Huntn I told these acquaintances no they cannot borrow the car for this or anything going forward.
Mom doesn't have dementia (but the medications are making her more loopy than usual).
Anyway, time to up my skills in google docs.
Again, thanks everyone for the thoughtful, long replies. I may not be able to respond directly, but I do truly appreciate the time and advice you shared. I will definitely save some of them
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