I use Orion for my daily mobile web browser and it works fine, the plugin support is generally very good in my experience and you can always post any bugs and they do get looked at. It's worth a shot anyway.
I keep trying Orion from time to time, but my experience is basically the opposite. Plugins rarely work, websites break and reported bugs just get ignored for years while the only activity in the forum posts are a bunch of +1. Basically at this point I don’t ever see myself switching to Orion.
I do pay for Kagi, which has been a wonderful service.
The most famous one in the UK was called FIST (Fantasy Ihteractive ?Stories? by Telephone or something) written by Steve Jackson (of Fighting Fantasy fame, not the American Steve Jackson)... premium rate telephone number got me into trouble more times than I can remember as a kid
I played them in and around the California Bay Area but I guess similar games were set up all over the US. They were free too. Every time I watch the movie Treasure Planet (2002) the narrator for the holographic bedtime story reminds me of the phone games.
Just to reiterate what's already been said - don't use tap water. We have a carnivorous plant expert/dealer local to us and he just collects and uses rainwater, as he says tap water will kill them.
Simple waterbutt attached to the drain pipe off the guttering and you get infinite free water for them
Was told the same thing, but my tap water works fine. If it’s true that it’s harmful I’d like to see some science (even citizen science.) Pretty sure it’s a myth.
It's water that builds up limescale that it's harmful for the carnivorous plants. The peat moss substrate that carnivorous plants like is acidic and the limescale neutralizes that.
Yes there is plenty of evidence that carnivorous plants die in alkaline or neutral soil conditions.
Read literally any book about caring for them. They like acidic soil. Rain water is slightly acidic.
It might take a year or more to kill a plant by slowly draining its soil of acidity. Just like it can take a year to kill a big plant via inadequate lighting.
Probably depends on the location. I've had a bunch of carnivorous plants in Spain, not exactly great tap water, and killed a bunch of them before switching to purchased distilled water.
Not just comparable, UK is actually a bit higher. The difference is the NHS doesn't cover anything cosmetic, so they are very healthy teeth but they look rubbish unless you're lucky.
> Consequently, you only ever really see this kind of blase delivery from Amazon
Sweet innocent child, so lucky never to have suffered (edit: the low cost UK courier) Hermes. Their definition of delivered to you regularly includes left in a bush 3 streets over at a random address
Your first paragraph is totally correct and I wish more people stopped wasting so much energy chasing couriers when it's not their job. However, there is a certain reality when people expect free or <£3 delivery costs
I lost my CashApp account because I ordered something with my debit card and it was delivered somewhere else who eventually handed it back and redelivered to the merchant who kept it.
I asked CashApp to step in and refund me and they said "Look chum, the FedEx ticket says DELIVERED".. and I'm like "Yes, but not to me" and they said "Yeah we get that, but our policy states if its DELIVERED it's over with. How about we just terminate your CashApp account for complaining?"
CashApp did nothing wrong in the original story, you have a complaint against the seller, and the seller has a complaint against their agent, who failed to deliver correctly.
With a debit card, chargebacks are not a legal right, but often platforms will do them for you. Not sure exactly why CashApp weren't happy with you for asking, but maybe they felt like you hadn't tried hard enough with the seller, or that you were trying it on.
That said, my understanding from general opinions about CashApp is that them terminating your account is probably a net benefit for you in the long term, rather than something to rue.
For electric and gas that works as it's all just accounting. Energy company A buys futures for has and electricity and it all gets provided via the grid.
For trains it's much harder - yes, there are two providers on the WCML, but they're not equal (one runs faster trains) and as such there's zero real competition.
These things are a choice though. The natural monopoly isn't the trains, it's the tracks. And it's not maintenance of the tracks, it's ownership of them.
So you have the government own the tracks, contract with a private company to maintain them. Then anyone can use the tracks, like anyone can use the roads. Private companies offer train service to the public. All they need is rolling stock and they can start selling tickets. You then get a market that looks like airlines, i.e. entering the market is a moderate investment (millions; buy rolling stock/planes) rather than needing billions to build the network itself. More popular routes get more suppliers, which turns into more frequent service. There is plenty of competition because rolling stock is mobile and can easily be reassigned according to customer demand.
Open access rail operators are not permitted to compete with franchisees (on the same routes/proposition) - there's a test that is applied before granting a license to ensure that the services will be "not primarily abstractive" - that is, that the operator will generate new revenue rather than simply taking away from the franchisee.
My (wealthy) father in law does this, he has a handful of people he can call upon day or night to do whatever he needs, anything from pick something up two hours away to put some additional overnight security on one of his sites/properties... most of them are ex-military Eastern European. I've no idea how he compensates them but they seem happy with him and stick around, and the couple I've spoken to over the years seem nice enough.
To be honest I wouldn't want to know more details, he's a dodgy fuck
My father in law (not so wealthy), has a few people near his beach rental that will do various different things. Including one handyman who will help with whatever.
There are whole management companies who do this type of stuff for vacation rentals. I’d bet there are similar ones for rich people’s primary and secondary homes.
Estate/house managers are a very real thing, especially at the high end.
It can vary from basically part time concierge work (get the beds made, and make sure that the fridge is full when I arrive), all the way to full-time management of a property including managing additional full-time staff (maids, chefs, gardeners, etc).
I only brushed against it in being part of the yachting world, but it is fascinating how much money people like this absolutely blow away on making their lives slightly more convenient.
Some years ago, I met a guy at a bar in New York who said that he was Donald Trump's personal courier. He rode a bike around the city, and he'd deliver things to Trump in person, who would always give him at least $100 cash on the spot. I didn't believe the guy's story, and it offended him. Maybe he was telling the truth.
This is not unbelievable. I don't even live in a coastal city and I still know a handful of active couriers. They're faster than drivers in congested areas and pretty much get a pass on all traffic control/regulation if they don't truly endanger pedestrians. Not to mention that they don't need parking, can carry their vehicles up stairs and into buildings etc.
Plenty of people know these guys exist and having someone known to you and reliable on speed dial is worthwhile. The $100 also makes sense because it isn't just a tip, it is the 'retainer' to make sure the calls get maximum priority.
IIRC the climax of the merger deal described in /Barbarians at the Gate/ essentially comes down to a bike courier race between various offices in Manhattan as last-minute bid adjustments got ferried about. Makes me wonder what the value of the truly fastest bike courier in New York would be to some large investment bank/PE firm/whatever. I imagine they are massively underpaid compared to the value they provide.
My father in law worked as a project manager for a locally big construction firm. Back in the 90s/00s they were basically sitting in a room with as many phones and fax machines as they could handle, with binders and Rolodexes of subcontractors spread around the tables.
Bid adjustments were a huge thing they had to optimize for and it created Seinfeld worthy situations.
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