Every time I buy something I seem to get injured. So I stopped buying things and I’m getting on a bit better :)

Tesla Model 3 with the autopilot.

As an added bonus, she’ll not have to worry about having her license taken away because it’ll drive itself soon enough!

Would you want to take the wheels off the bike when you put a single bike in?

Modern estates seem quite low in the back. Means you usually wind up having to remove one/both wheels :(

Try this first before you pay anyone to find anything: https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

Tesla Model X

What? It seats 7.

@aracer

For sure, if I was going to do it I’d use an RPi. I’ve got some lying around and prototyping would be super easy.

Which Linux libraries do you think OP would benefit from running on an RPi?

So far, the requirements we know are:

– Needs to drive LEDs.

– Wants to use a phone to connect to whatever is driving the LEDs.

@ndthornton

The sad truth is most people lack the motivation to actually follow through with building something once they have an idea.

@aracer

Micropython runs on a lot of devices these days. Could use an ESP8266 board and a breakout if you need network connectivity and a way to drive LEDs. I agree PiZeros are super cheap and would be a great way to prototype though.

Anyway, there are probably a million ways to do it, but OP is playing his/her cards close to their chest.

In startup school they tell you not to be afraid to talk about your ideas. Maybe I’m being naive though. Not like I’m Eduardo Saverin or anything.

+1 overkill for a Pi

Probably even overkill for a PiZero. It does make serving a webpage a lot easier for someone who hasn’t worked with microcontrollers though. Also has a nice range of PHATs and solder free headers to work with for not very much money. If you want to mass produce and prototype then that’s a different ball game, but for prototyping it’s hard to beat a Pi.

I’m assuming this is a consumer at home device he’s after. In which case it’d be as simple as serving up a webpage on the Pi which drives the GPIO pins via a Python script to turn on the LEDs based on user input on the webpage. Forward the port the Pi is listening to on your home router and it will work across the internet. Assuming you’ve used a mobile friendly web design then you’d not need even need a web app.

I think you could use something like the Blue Dot application for some of this on Android if you really wanted a phone app?

Ok, I think I see where you’re going with this.

I’m able to use unearned income to lock in a share price and profit from the decision. Else I’d have to front up the capital and be on the hook for the risk.

If that’s an adverse reaction to the PSA, then the data the Quinoa company collect can be used to manipulate TJ into ordering that instead.

TJ’s still being manipulated by advertising/marketing, just not by whom he thinks.

So you need a mobile application developer for the phone app.

You can use something like GPIOZero and Python to light up LEDs on a Raspberry Pi.

After that you just need the phone to be able to talk to your Raspberry Pi.

Not sure what value that adds instead of programming the Pi directly?

Fruit based interface?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS9qk9P21ok

I’d line a new job up. Put in a case for constructive dismissal and see what happened.

Either way, you’re wasting your time carrying on working for these people.

Years ago, I worked for a very abusive boss. It got so bad that I said I would leave if I wasn’t moved to a different client. My only regret is not speaking up sooner.

Control it to do what?

I’m starting to suspect OP’s post is part of a targeted marketing campaign to annoy TJ. For what purpose remains to be seen, but I’d think thrice about any purchases I’m about to make.

In the future once our Dataist overlords have all our data, your life will look like this.

TJ works late.

TJ’s iPhone tells local takeaway company that he is working late using its GPS.

TJ’s MyFitnessPal tells company he’s trying to lose weight.

TJ’s Fitbit tells the company he’s a little bit stressed.

Correlating TJ’s stress levels with how late he’s at work and his eating habits tells the local company there’s a 99% chance he’ll succumb to a cheap takeaway pizza given the right nudge. Using his browsing data they know he’ll always check STW just before leaving to go home. A bot posts a PSA with a 25% off deal on STW just as TJ’s about to go home.

Guess what TJ’s having for dinner?

I’m not sure I understand the posts saying “your relationship is with your son and not your ex”.

Once you have a child with someone your lives are inextricably linked whether you like it or not surely?

The point I was making is that the shares were bought with post income tax income. So you pay tax once, then you pay tax on the gain. If you made a capital gain, then you’d pay tax a 3rd time.

If I’d bought the shares outside the scheme, I’d just pay tax on the gain over the CGT allowance.

The BIK is the 15% “discount” you get on the scheme I guess. Would be fair to pay tax on that. Or are you suggesting the ability to have the lookback is the BIK?

Sure, holding the shares is a risk. But why not tax it when the gain is crytallised in line with how CGT is taxed?

If the value of the shares went up and I was liable for CGT when I sold, then yes, I would pay tax right? Meaning I’d pay tax a 3rd time.

But if the value fell and I made a loss when selling, then I’m out of pocket for something I never had.

If I’d bought shares outside the scheme, then I’d only pay tax when I crystallised the gain/loss under CGT. At least, that’s my understanding of it.

Either way, it kinda sucks to pay tax twice. Once on the purchase and once on the gain. I guess we pay VAT which is a “double tax” anyway.

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;”>Why would you be able to do that?</span>

Because I’ve paid tax on an unrealised gain?

You can offset losses against CGT, so it *seems* fair you should be allowed to in this case too.

Messaged.

What if shares fall in value after you’ve paid tax on the gain? Can you reclaim the tax already paid?

Also, 2 day settlement period and the wire transfer seemed to reach me right on time.

And the markets bounce back a bit! Lambos to the moon people!

Wait… is it Tesla Roadsters to Mars now?

Didn’t work this time unfortunately.

I do have another question though.

What happens if the share value falls? Can you reclaim the tax on the gain?

Also, if you sell at a point in the future, will you be on the hook for CGT in case you’re over the allowance? Seems a bit unfair. I guess you could offset it by increasing your pension contributions, but that seems like a pretty drastic measure.

I’ll bite.

Nearly 10 years since I smoked a cigarette. Every time I see Don Draper light one up I wish I had one. Play with my Zippo every time I come across it when rooting for something. Smoking adverts and placements in media definitely have a pull on me.

I see a Tesla and I want it. Probably due to virtue signalling in part and in part because it seems like a cool car. Other cars, not so much.

Bikes. Not sure why, but I’d like to own an Ibis one day. Is it Brian Lopes? Or maybe because my mate Colin rides one? Who knows. There’s just something about them.

Cameras. I see a beautiful photo and look for the EXIF data. I desperately want a Canon 5D or 1D someday.

Social media, probably not as much as it used to. I thoroughly recommend reading “Hooked” by Nir Eyal. It really helps understand how they keep us engaged with the product, and products in general. I have a pretty bad compulsion to check certain websites several times a day. Maybe in part to feel connected to society and in part to just consume information/entertainment.

So yeah. Marketing works on me. It probably works on everyone. Only difference is some people are more aware of it than others I guess?

Sea Of Love – Cat Power

Most likely because I’ve watched Juno too many times.

Don’t think you’re wrong there.

The tech has huge potential. At the same time,  just because it’s a bubble doesn’t mean there’s no money to be made. You need some discipline and a planned exit in addition to your entry.

I feel lucky I entered far enough in advance and was disciplined enough to take profits when they were there. I think once the SEC hearing is over, there will be an uptick in prices. The days of 100x growth on your stake may be over if they decide cryptos are securities and need to be regulated as such.

The decision I need to take now is should I take my gains and run, or should I ride it out? It’s tempting to take the money out, but I entered thinking of this as plan of a longer term investment period. To exit now would be a panic move. Maybe, there’s a medium to be struck?

In the past during downturns and bull runs I’ve been a passive observer. It’s more exciting to be more invested in it. I’m learning a ton of things!

The pro roadies you’re seeing are probably media trained to within an inch of their lives. Maybe they come across as more articulate because of that?

MTBers always sound a lot more relaxed and their interviews seem a lot more “real”. Pro cycling teams like team sky give interviews that are a lot more like footballers “the boys did really well today, and at the end of the day 3 points is 3 points” type stuff. I know whom I’d rather listen to!

I always thought MTBers came across quite well in interviews. The Athertons, Tahnee Seagrave, Manon Carpenter, Danny Hart, Aaron Gwin etc., they all have interesting stuff to say. At least for me.

@mudshark

I had a multiplier based on what I wanted out of it. It caught and ballooned up way more than that. I was greedy and let it run and sold on the way back down to lock in some profit. Nothing complex. Definitely some FOMO in there too!

There’s more complex analysis that can be done. For example there’s a crypto called Dentacoin. It’s market cap was above the value of the market it was trying to disrupt (dentistry). At that point it would be overvalued I guess.

with ETH nobody knows what the market for smart contracts could be. So much harder to assign a value. Mine was no better than a finger in the air guess if I’m honest.

Hard to watch it crash at the mo.

seeing people call the bottom at $5000 for BTC. Alts are anyone’s guess. I dumped 25% of my ETH because I felt it was overvalued. Wondering if I should dump my XRP too and buy back in later. Let’s see.

Echoing what others have said.

If I felt I was a qualified applicant and they couldn’t look past a degree qualification from 20 years ago then I’d not want to work there anyway.

@FuzzyWuzzy

Just automate everything and say “the code is the documentation man” :D

If you’re moving everything to the cloud and you’re doing it the “right” way, i.e: using things like Terraform to spin up your environment then you could even automate your documentation to a large degree.

Arguably, you could do this even for on-premise installs if you’re moving to infra as code.

Also, OP doesn’t say if head of IT involves heading up application development too and not just infrastructure.

Can’t help you out much without knowing what industry you’re in.

If you were in a tech company, I’d look at what competitors are doing, what market advantages they have compared to my product and talk about that.

I’d also check out what reviews for my company were like on sites like Glassdoor, and maybe Payscale data too. Maybe there are some conclusions to be drawn there about company culture, maybe morale as well?

What is the industry as a whole tending to do? In my industry, there is a trend towards automation. You can’t linearly scale headcount while scaling the business so you have to automate. Unfortunately. finding people with the right skills is difficult. Maybe you can identify skills that are in demand for your team and speak on how you’d develop/teach them to your team.

Small teams in themselves are not a bad thing. How workloads are managed is what’s important. Is there a disciplined work intake process, or is it more informal (e.g: Agile/Kanban vs “my manager told me to do this so I’m dropping everything else and doing it”? Is there a single point of failure in the team? Maybe you’re unlucky enough to work with some obsolete tech and all of the knowledge about it is stuck in a single team members’ head. How will you deal with that? What’s turnover like? How would the loss of a team member affect you?

Good luck.

EDIT: I think @johndoh is being a little bit harsh. Sometimes you have to YOLO an application and see if you can do the job. It’s low risk, and if you’ve got an interview then chances are they think you have the skill. It’s whether you can come across as competent during the interview which matters. Oh, and don’t forget an interview is a 2 way thing.

If I had the time, then it would be base miles like ^^ above said.

But I don’t. So I’m focusing on strength training, hour long blasts of my local trails on flat pedals to focus on technique a couple of times a week, and keeping an eye on my weight.

Looking doubtful that I’ll get any meaningful ride time in this summer either though. Oh well, in 16 years I’ll have as much time as I want to do it.

Can’t find the longer thread.

What’s everyone doing during the current downturn? Cashed out some profits earlier this year so feeling good about that. Now trying to see if I should diversify into some other coins and ride out the downturn.

Still up on my initial investment. Just dithering on what to do long term. Anyone else?

A small notepad for me.

So toast them and then add milk and microwave them?

Coup

@ericf

Good idea. I’ve used them in the past for transfers and they’ve been pretty good. Didn’t think to look at them this time, but I’ve got more banking to do from the US so I’ll open an account.

you don’t happen to have a referral code do you? 😉

It’s not tax free. The amount you “invest” comes out of your net pay. Not your gross pay.

You then pay tax again (PAYE rate) on the gain. Being able to use your CGT allowance on the gain would be nice.

@jimdubleyou

Thanks for a great response! I’m assuming you can send in the foreign currency to a UK bank account and the intermediary will handle the conversion for you before it shows up in your account?

Looks like my options are SWIFT or a currency cheque where they convert the currency for me. Cashing a cheque in USD is a 0.5% charge, so the 1.5% the US bank charge on the rate seems acceptable.

What I can’t figure out is if there’s a possibility of a charge from the sending bank to mine. All very confusing.