Hacker News: PopAlongKid

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Private Equity Bought America's Essential Services"

PopAlongKid — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:12:23 +0000

>It's like taking out a mortgage on a house, but letting the house owe the debt.

Isn't that a non-recourse loan, which in some states is the default for the initial loan to acquire the housel

New comment by PopAlongKid in "How to convert between wealth and income tax"

PopAlongKid — Sat, 23 May 2026 13:49:02 +0000

> living primarily off the unrealized gains on their home equity.

How is that paying for food? Insurance? Electricity? Gasoline? Health care? Gifts and charity? Or even taxes?

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Age Shapes the Adoption of New Technologies"

PopAlongKid — Tue, 19 May 2026 23:57:59 +0000

From the article: "As older people take up a greater share of society, the likelihood that society as a whole will adopt new technologies more slowly may increase"

Age Shapes the Adoption of New Technologies

PopAlongKid — Tue, 19 May 2026 23:57:31 +0000

Article URL: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/swipe-or-tap-how-age-shapes-the-adoption-of-new-technologies

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48201277

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels"

PopAlongKid — Mon, 18 May 2026 14:01:20 +0000

It's odd that you confuse a massive capital investment with maintenance.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Points are a weird and inconsistent unit of measure"

PopAlongKid — Sat, 16 May 2026 14:10:44 +0000

From the title I thought this was going to be about basis points, as used in finance. (A basis point is one hundredth of 1 percentage point).

New comment by PopAlongKid in "You can reverse much of the damage alcohol has done to your body, science says"

PopAlongKid — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:09:33 +0000

>Research often defines heavy drinking as more than 40 grams pure alcohol a day for women and 60 grams a day for men. Translated, that’s 1.4 ounces of liquor for women and 2.1 ounces for men.

To clarify this muddled statement (it's not clear that by "liquor" they mean "pure alcohol"), in the United States, a standard drink has 0.6 ounces (14 grams) of pure alcohol. That's a 12-oz 5% beer, or a 5-oz glass of wine.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Poland is now among the 20 largest economies"

PopAlongKid — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:01:39 +0000

>This is something I tell people I am generally politically/socially align with (liberals/progressives) when they start talking about “handouts for red states.” California and other areas were not developed on their own, they required years of sustained federal investment and interest in the area.

If they were to ask where you think this "federal investment" funding came from, what would you reply?

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Fidelity Won't Let Fund Holders Donate to Southern Poverty Law Center"

PopAlongKid — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:41:39 +0000

DAFs (U.S. tax law) were never meant to benefit charities, they are a way to give donors a tax break today by putting money in the hands of for-profit entities like Fidelity in exchange for a vague promise to maybe someday donate to an actual charity.

https://blog.charitywatch.org/the-dark-side-of-donor-advised...

I wonder if Fidelity is putting a similar restriction on those age 70 and above who wish to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from their Traditional IRA to Southern Poverty Law Center. This would be even worse, since it is not Fidelity's job to audit the charitable deductions made via QCDs.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing"

PopAlongKid — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:03:32 +0000

It also helps to spread your lifetime Soc Sec benefits over more tax years, thereby lowering the total tax you pay (because pushing higher payouts into fewer tax years by delayed filing will typically increase your marginal tax bracket).

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing"

PopAlongKid — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:58:50 +0000

> the monthly payment is about 1/4 of what I was paying for health insurance before I was eligible.

Maybe not, if you take into account the >$500/month subsidy of your Medicare Part A benefits (assuming you had the minimum number of calendar quarters paid in). And your Part B payment (the one usually deducted from your Soc Sec payment) is also partly subsidized unless your income is high enough to trigger IRMAA adjustment.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975"

PopAlongKid — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:12:08 +0000

Unlike Pournelle, Niven is still alive (87 year old), but I don't think he is writing new science fiction these days (although he has collaborated on some stories this century and has made guest appearances at some conferences in the last few years).

https://larryniven.net/

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"

PopAlongKid — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:27:10 +0000

I too prefer POP. I don't read email on my phone, I alternate between a desktop and notebook computer for that (and most everything else), and simply copy my Thunderbird profile back and forth (using robocopy) when I switch. I have four primary mail identities, and use the Thunderbird unified folders to easily manage it all.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "A dot a day keeps the clutter away"

PopAlongKid — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:42:43 +0000

>Time turns out to be a great universal organizer, just like how a photo collection is wonderfully organized by date more than by any other single dimension.

I have found this same thing to be true. I even tell my family that if for some reason they need to access all our critical info on my computer, the most recent files in each directory are almost always the most interesting ones.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "DoorDash Tasks"

PopAlongKid — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:29:42 +0000

>launched in the 99% of the US

>excluding California, New York City, Seattle and Colorado.

I question your basic math skills if you conclude that those jurisdictions amount to only 1% of the U.S.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Blocking Internet Archive Won't Stop AI, but Will Erase Web's Historical Record"

PopAlongKid — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:07:45 +0000

I don't understand how LLMs can ask questions at a press conference.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "Just Put It on a Map"

PopAlongKid — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:22:52 +0000

I was waiting to read about what these "wildly incorrect intuitions" were, but it's never explained. The maps correctly matched my own intuitions.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "How to defer US taxes"

PopAlongKid — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:11:33 +0000

Most of the time 1245 property is not real property, it is personal property, which is why I didn't mention it in this context.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "How to defer US taxes"

PopAlongKid — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 20:00:44 +0000

>Death is a popular escape from deferred taxes. When you die, your obligations to the government vanish. Your heirs inherit assets/property at market value. Their assets depreciate from new cost bases.

The article only addresses a subset of economic activity. The larger portion of the adult population are wage earners or retirees, not business owners. For them, large investments in Traditional IRAs or 401k plans are most definitely not able to escape upon death the income taxes that were deferred.

New comment by PopAlongKid in "How to defer US taxes"

PopAlongKid — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:52:54 +0000

>People sometimes get into trouble with this if they rapidly depreciate real estate and then sell it. Even if you sell for less than your purchase price it is possible to owe taxes.

But in the U.S. you can't rapidly depreciate real estate, it is generally straight-line over 27.5 or 39 years (residential vs. non-residential). The gain on real estate due to depreciation is technically referred to as Section 1250 gain, and if there is no gain (which is calculated against your adjusted basis, not purchase price), then it follows that there is no Sec. 1250 gain (often mistakenly called "depreciation recapture").