I've got a similar situation but with no bad blood. Some managers just can't get it together. My last job was a good place to work up until the few months before I decided to leave, and due to the number of projects I had going on and an abundance of respect, I put in 4 weeks' notice. Boss managed to convince me to…

I agree with that. That's why I always start with the assumption that I am being scammed, and see what evidence I can find that disproves that.

Intelligence is the ability to learn things and react to them. Continuing to be complicit in a scam after you know it's a scam is the exact opposite of intelligence. To quote a wise man, "That's pride fuckin with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps."

And I realize that it's trivial to make a really professional looking site in a few hours. Many phishing scams rely on exactly that trust. It's good for perceived professionalism to be one part of your litmus test, but just one part out of several to determine trustworthiness.

I guess I am a data/logic guy through and through, with emotions or feelings only coming into play when the data doesn't make a good suggestion one way or the other. I treat anyone who wants my cash or valuables as an adversary - I hear the pitch, and then immediately start poking holes in it if there are any to be…

It seems like it would be different for every individual's situation. Let's say that your IRA (or other investment vehicle of choice) pays interest of 8%, and your student loan interest is 5%. Wouldn't you be better off in the long term by contributing as much as possible to the IRA, and just making the minimum…

This is a well-done paper (kudos on the "Lock Stock" reference), but it still boggles my mind that people who aren't legitimately mentally handicapped fall for these tactics.

Same here, and you can also use a hidden volume/partition with TrueCrypt so the container isn't even visible.

Seriously. When I first saw the headline, my initial response was covered by the last paragraph of this article. Your phone has a calculator on it if you can't figure it out yourself and it takes less than 30 seconds in most cases (including fishing your phone out of your pocket, clumsily dropping it in the basket,…

From a Barnes & Noble in NYC before I drove out here, actually - not sure why it was on the shelf there, but it sure was convenient. It's a pretty thick spiral bound book, and I'll try to remember to comment back when I look at exactly what it is so you can get a copy. I was having trouble finding a single…

Thanks for the tips. I'm in Colorado where studs are legal year-round. Here's a nice summary of laws by state. I was surprised at how restricted Alaska is, especially with how bad the ice can get near the coasts.

The best cure for that is to read more things in your down time that are well-written and/or by respected authors - books or at least research-length articles - as opposed to blogs and bite-size articles with limited vocabulary meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator of readers.

Same here. I keep a US highway map and a street-level map of Colorado in my glove box for that purpose. When I'm going somewhere completely unfamiliar to me, I'll pull it up on the GPS and verify on the paper maps, with the paper maps obviously coming in handy should the electronics shit the bed.

I'm seeing on a lot of other forums that modern non-studded winter tires perform better than studded tires from just a few years ago. True/false/other? My driving time is split about 85% paved highway, 10% side streets usually paved, 5% unpaved driveways* so I'm on the fence as to whether studs are even worth the…

Is there any specific maintenance advice to be had for those who use studded tires or have to put on chains fairly regularly? I'm about to purchase a set of winter tires this month for my first snow season in the mountains. I'd also be interested in any input about studded vs standard for a front-wheel drive car (not…

There are some companies (thankfully I'm employed by one) that will subsidize or even comp public transport costs, or possibly car pool costs - you'll have to provide mileage data. I think it depends on if they get some sort of environmental responsibility tax write off or similar - and there is an upper limit, so a…

What's more depressing is considering that anything over 40 hours should technically be billed at time and a half or more. If your salary is $50K and you work 60 hours a week, you're making 50,000/52/60 = $16/hour, right? Nope!

What's the typical arrangement - do you just let it go on good faith, do you require a deposit or anything like that?

Yep. I and the people I work with make solid money, but several of them are forever broke - but they buy coffee most mornings and go out to lunch literally every single day. If we say it's $5/coffee and $10/meal, and there are about 20 working days in a month (for simpler math), they are out easily $300 each month…

I do mental calculations like this all the time, even for small stuff. For example let's say I could buy a couple cases of beer at my neighborhood joint 2 minutes away for $25, but the place 20 minutes away has them on sale for $15. Do I actually save $10 (gas etc), and are my net savings worth me losing 35 minutes…