Recent content by daedalus

^Those are perfect for road trips with routine access to utilities, or for short camp outings. Awesome if you're the frequent weekend-getaway-to-touch-sand-and-granite type. The biggest limitation when going off grid is water. It's easy enough to carry enough propane and gasoline to last...

Why stop there? With 2-way data, in theory Sacramento could brick your car remotely based on extended O2 sensor readings or if you don't get that check engine light or recall sorted quickly enough. I'll keep holding on to my 1991 Honda and my kit car just in case....

It's a tradeoff. For just a couple days out a big camper is not worth the effort and stress required to get there and back. I've never had to change the sheets on a sleeping bag or vacuum a tent. Backing a large trailer down a driveway in a residential neighborhood is a skill I'm developing...

My low tech tent is peppered with tiny holes where floating embers from the nearby campfire landed on it after the wind shifted a bit. How would an inflatable tent handle that? Can't say how many nights I've spent in a 1-person pup tent (nylon coffin) while camping with the Boy Scouts, yet...

Google says ~400 miles per tank. I remember last year they had an absolutely amazing deal on those...a floor-clearing initiative, losses be damned. I looked into it just because I love a good deal, and the closest refueling station to me was a couple towns over. I drive maybe 800 miles a year...

Probably just means they'll be overvalued by $3.4T rather than $1.7T. :D

They're hardly a monopoly. High barriers to entry, yes, but they're not the only game in town. Rocket Lab, for one, is nipping at their heels and enjoying the spacex mania boost in their stock price. The real question is what's in their future as a revenue steam? Because if I make some...

Long term cap gains rate after one year. No extra credit given for holding longer than that. Buy on the rumor, sell on the news? Can't shake the obvious parallels to 1999. And of course things got even more stellar in 2000...for a couple months at least. I had a stock that was up over $100...

Sell in May and go away?

I thought everyone in Irvine only has to pay taxes on their cash-bought houses? Easy! The conclusions can't be taken as anything more than a relative cost index. I bet a lot of work went into pinpointing those exact #s, which become less meaningful once you start factoring in the conditions...

I had a very similar plan once. Unfortunately it was March of 2000 and my plans were pegged to the Nasdaq. I became insolvent before the market stopped being irrational, and long before it became rational again. It scarred me and I've been too conservative ever since. Being "all in" when the...

Money panic makes people do stupid things. I remember at the height of the 2008 gas price crisis I read an article about a guy who was flipping 1990s Geo Metros because they got 50+ mpg. These were previously $500 shit cars on a good day that, after a quick spit-shine, people were paying $7000...

So basically a brand new used 2013 Leaf with a bit more range, less certainty about the company's future prospects and aftermarket support, and at 5x the price. ETA: LOL, after reading the article a little closer I came across this line: "So sure, $20k is still a ton of money for a microcar...

I'm flattered, but like most folks, I wasn't born with a wrench or a taping knife in my hand. You're "willing" to pay that much because you can. But what happens when AI removes jobs from your field, and the labor supply relative to available jobs goes up? In line with what Momo said, wages...

The problem (or good thing, depending on your POV) is that there's a ready substitute for blue collar labor. I long ago gave up trying to find competent "skilled labor" to do what I needed to have done, and quickly realized I could do most things myself. It takes some research to look up...