Backup Advice wanted

On 2014-08-25 19:39:05 +0000, nospam said:

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| As I said, these people generally only care about
| current gmail.
|
| you don't know that. you have no idea what users care about.
|

I do know that. These people are my friends and family.

invalid sample size.

| About 30% of the US either has no Internet access,
| only has dial-up, or doesn't want Internet access.
| What seems like the status quo among people in
| newsgroups is not the norm.
|
| wrong on that too.
|
| http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/te...nect-millions-
| who-live-offline-to-the-internet.html?pagewanted=all
| ...nearly 98 percent of American homes now have access to some form
| of high-speed broadband.

You're only looking at the headline.

nope. i read the whole thing.

That's describing how
many people could, in some way, get access to high speed.

that's what matters.

That's not the number who actually have it at home. A little
further down:
"roughly 20 percent of American adults who do not use
the Internet at home, work and school, or by mobile device"

that's their choice and it's actually about 15% (look at the graph).

it doesn't have to be 100%. not everyone owns a car. not everyone has
cable tv. not everyone has a cellphone.

Even among people with broadband there are gaps. I have
a brother in NH who gets all the latest gadgets, but his cellphone
has no bars at home and the only highspeed he can get is
satellite, which goes out often when it's cloudy. Someone
like that is not going to do online banking.

someone like that might do online banking, but from somewhere other
than home.

unless they never ever go out, they'll be where they can get access.

My only point
being that it's premature to think of most peoples' lives
being stored/conducted online.

it's not premature.

you're in denial.

Probably the biggest issue in
the US is the number of people living rurally. I wouldn't be
surprised if things like online banking are more common
in Europe.

very few people live in rural areas. that's why they're rural.

it doesn't have to be 100%.

If you call living 13 miles from Paso Robles, in the mountains between
Hwy. 101 and San Simeon rural. Then I live in a rural area.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_884.jpg

However, Charter Cable had the foresight to run a trench line the 13
miles from Paso to my neighborhood and lay a fiber optic cable. Prior
to that my only option was dial-up. I couldn't even get ADSL as we were
more than 3,800 feet from the nearest switching station in Paso and it
would have been no faster than dial-up. Service has been constantly
improving out here since 1994.

I just ran a quick speed check and got this result:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1295663/Fil...enshot_883.jpg



--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 8/24/2014 8:46 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , PeterN
wrote:


in fact, if you pay cash, it will be in the store itself so you'll be
paying sales tax, which is a fee, but to new york and not the card
issuer, so using a debit/credit card is *cheaper*.


Keep digging.
No sales tax if you pay cash, therefore a debit card is cheaper?

Bwhaaaaa

no sales tax if you pay cash??? where did you come up with that idiocy?

are you actually that stupid???

as usual, you are *wrong*.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/tax.jsp
Purchases in our retail and Used Equipment store are subject to an
8.875% local sales tax. This tax is not a VAT, and cannot be
recovered by non-USA visitors when you return home.


That was your statement, not mine. You are really looking for any reason
to argue.
Try deciding how many angles dance on the head of a pin, since you argue
like a pinhead.

--
PeterN

On 8/24/2014 11:57 PM, HerHusband wrote:
It's fairly easy to avoid the extra fees of debit cards

what fees? mine costs nothing to have and nothing to use.

If you withdraw cash at an ATM that is owned by another bank, you typically
get charged a buck or two by your own bank, then another buck or two by the
bank who owns the ATM.

But, I don't withdraw much cash anymore, and there are enough ATM's from my
own bank around that I don't need to use other banks machines.

Still, if you're traveling you don't always have a choice and end up
getting charged by both banks. While you can't always avoid it, you can
minimize it by taking out a larger sum of cash in fewer transactions.

Some stores also charge fees if you use a credit/debit card for a small
purchase (under $5 or so). I would rather buy something extra (a drink or
candy bar) than give the fee to the bank.

some even charge to mail bank statements.

Yep, ours started doing that several months ago. The price of progress.

Anthony Watson
www.mountainsoftware.com
www.watsondiy.com


I had a frank discussion about that with a senior VP at my bank. As a
result they do not charge me any fees. If I use another bank's ATM, then
I only pay fees to the otheer bank.


--
PeterN

On 8/25/2014 12:11 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , HerHusband
wrote:

It's fairly easy to avoid the extra fees of debit cards

what fees? mine costs nothing to have and nothing to use.

If you withdraw cash at an ATM that is owned by another bank, you typically
get charged a buck or two by your own bank, then another buck or two by the
bank who owns the ATM.

But, I don't withdraw much cash anymore, and there are enough ATM's from my
own bank around that I don't need to use other banks machines.

Still, if you're traveling you don't always have a choice and end up
getting charged by both banks. While you can't always avoid it, you can
minimize it by taking out a larger sum of cash in fewer transactions.

like i said, use a bank that refunds that nonsense.

Some stores also charge fees if you use a credit/debit card for a small
purchase (under $5 or so). I would rather buy something extra (a drink or
candy bar) than give the fee to the bank.

they are not allowed to have minimum purchase limits or fees for using
a card. report any merchant who violates that.


Explain what you mean by "not allowed."
Is there such a law?
dy cares if it bothers you

however, they can discount cash, which is the same thing as charging
more for credit cards. i never understood how that's acceptable when a
surcharge is not.


There is no real difference. It's a disclosure issue that must be posted.


anyway, none of that is specific to a debit card.

Nobody said it was.

some even charge to mail bank statements.

Yep, ours started doing that several months ago. The price of progress.

doesn't bother me. if i need a statement i access it online. it's a lot
easier.


Nobody cares if it bothers you or not.


--
PeterN

On 8/25/2014 12:13 AM, HerHusband wrote:
These are not receipts I send to the IRS. They're receipts for
materials I need to keep in case I'm audited. There's no
way I'm going to scan all those in, just in case there's
a fire.

The alternative is to store stacks of receipts somewhere, in a box, file
cabinet, or whatever.

Unless you're making lots of little purchases, I doubt you have so many
receipts you can't scan them in.

Besides, I haven't been audited in 30+ years. While it is always a
possibility, it's not something I worry about on a daily basis.

I'm not talking about using the cards at ATMs. I'm talking about
using them for debit purchases. There's a merchant fee for every use.
Last I heard I think it's something like .65.

Merchant fees are paid by the merchant, not the consumer. The actual rate
depends on the bank or payment processor.

Obviously, the business normally passes this cost on to you in the form of
higher prices. However, I have never received a discount for NOT using my
debit card. It's just factored into the cost regardless of how you pay for
the item.

Dependingon the item, I have negotiated a lower price for cash. Depends
on the merchant, and how close it is to rent day. If you go on a rainey
day, and there are few customers in the store, and you plan a major
purchase, you have a shot. Especially if its during the last or first
week of the month, and the rent is due.


The only time most businesses will charge you directly for using your debit
card is if you make a very small purchase (typically under 5 dollars or
so). I carry cash for those small purchases, but these days very few
businesses charge those fees anymore, and it's hard to spend less than $20
anywhere these days.

Anthony Watson
www.mountainsoftware.com
www.watsondiy.com



--
PeterN

On 8/25/2014 9:44 AM, Mayayana wrote:
\\

snip


I was audited once. If you do get audited I don't think
it's a great strategy to say, "Oh. Receipts? I assumed I
wouldn't be audited."

Nor is it a good idea to hand the auditor a shoebox full of unorganized
receipts.





--
PeterN

On 8/25/2014 10:00 AM, Mayayana wrote:
| Uh, if the only data they care about is their gmail, their data is in the
| cloud, like I said above.
|
As I said, these people generally only care about
current gmail. So, yes, that data is in the cloud,
but more to the point is that they simply don't have
digital data. Their life is not "in the cloud" in any sense.
They don't store records, do online banking, keep
photos at Dropbox. They don't use cloud for any of
the things we've been talking about. And they don't
care about non-recent gmail.
I do know people using Carbonite backup, but that's
only because their tech support person set it up. They
don't actually know what it is. Again, most of those
people do not have their "lives in the cloud". To a
great extent their lives are not even on their computers.
The closest thing to life in the cloud that I see among
people I know is Facebook. But that's like the gmail:
It's current communication, but it's not using a computer
or cloud services for practical needs like file storage or
bill paying.

About 30% of the US either has no Internet access,
only has dial-up, or doesn't want Internet access.
What seems like the status quo among people in
newsgroups is not the norm.

There's a story in the NYT today about online
storage companies. Amazon and Google are in
a price competition that's threatening companies
like Box and Dropbox. The cost of storage is getting
close to zero. Box and Dropbox risk going out of
business. That could result in something similar to
webmail: A hokey, free, ad-supported service wherein
your ownership of your own property becomes hazy.
Or if Dropbox goes out of business people might get
a brief period of time to download their files. Data might
even get lost. Why would Dropbox care? They're a fairly
new, seat-of-the-pants business that's now going out
of business... I'd say the cloud as future is not yet a fully
baked idea and may never be. At this point, cloud is
a moneymaking strategy more than anything.



Nothing wrong with that, if a pervieved value is given.


--
PeterN

In article , PeterN
wrote:

in fact, if you pay cash, it will be in the store itself so you'll be
paying sales tax, which is a fee, but to new york and not the card
issuer, so using a debit/credit card is *cheaper*.


Keep digging.
No sales tax if you pay cash, therefore a debit card is cheaper?

Bwhaaaaa

no sales tax if you pay cash??? where did you come up with that idiocy?

are you actually that stupid???

as usual, you are *wrong*.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/tax.jsp
Purchases in our retail and Used Equipment store are subject to an
8.875% local sales tax. This tax is not a VAT, and cannot be
recovered by non-USA visitors when you return home.


That was your statement, not mine. You are really looking for any reason
to argue.

actually i'm laughing at how utterly stupid and illiterate you are.

you set a new level of stupid with your posts above.

Try deciding how many angles dance on the head of a pin, since you argue
like a pinhead.

you have that wrong.

i am arguing *with* a pinhead, namely you.

In article , PeterN
wrote:

Some stores also charge fees if you use a credit/debit card for a small
purchase (under $5 or so). I would rather buy something extra (a drink or
candy bar) than give the fee to the bank.

they are not allowed to have minimum purchase limits or fees for using
a card. report any merchant who violates that.

Explain what you mean by "not allowed."

the merchant agreement with the bank does not allow it.

Is there such a law?

yes, contract law.

did you fail that in law school? did you even go to law school?

dy cares if it bothers you

the stores certainly care if the bank pulls their merchant account
after becoming aware of being in violation of a legally binding
agreement.

typically the store will comply rather than lose their account, however.

either way, they do care.

however, they can discount cash, which is the same thing as charging
more for credit cards. i never understood how that's acceptable when a
surcharge is not.


There is no real difference. It's a disclosure issue that must be posted.

it's bull**** to disallow a surcharge but allow a discount.

anyway, none of that is specific to a debit card.

Nobody said it was.

the discussion has been about debit cards.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| Even among people with broadband there are gaps. I have
| a brother in NH who gets all the latest gadgets, but his cellphone
| has no bars at home and the only highspeed he can get is
| satellite, which goes out often when it's cloudy. Someone
| like that is not going to do online banking.
|
| someone like that might do online banking, but from somewhere other
| than home.

Yes, you're probably right. Why didn't I think
of that?

i can think of a lot of reasons.

"Honey, I'm going over to the library 20 miles
away to do my online banking. If there's no
line for the PC I should be back in a couple of
hours."

more like they're already *at* the library for other reasons.

or they're at work.

or they only need to go to the corner of their street where the signal
is a little stronger because the house is on a hill.

or many other possibilities.