Paypal has been doing this kind of thing for a while. I don’t know how much it saves exactly. But because of poor international currency availability, my payment currency (NTD) is always overcharged. I know this from checking out the off-island exchange rates. I ALWAYS exchange locally. But price gouging is a way of life online through these methods.
Newsbites
For small bits of news, quotations, odd videos, and flimflam.
Apple vs PC
For me, the priority in computing is perhaps familiarity, reliability, repairability and expandability.
So I have several PCs at home/work. If one breaks, I can get it repaired in my local shop pronto. All parts can be replaced. They’ll even replace or reinstall Windows for me. Apple can’t do that so fast.
With Apple, I’d need to have an extra machine lying around just in case it was away for several weeks or longer. For Win notebooks, this is more of an issue as well, but my current notebook is now out of warranty, so the PC store can maintain it without returning it to the store. Last time I updated the HD to an SSD, the PC store just handed me the drive from inside! New casing and it was good to go as an external. No fuss, no muss, and no reformatted drive! Like I said, I don’t think Apple can beat that for service.
All machines have reliability issues, some more than others. This is not unique to PC. But the machines I have run pretty smoothly most of the time. I know how to keep them running, and truthfully, Win 10 is a vast improvement in that respect over Win7/8.1/XP so much so that I’m quite happy to keep using it. When I run into software issues with Win 10, I typically can get it resolved myself… and I’m not a whiz by any means.
But for me, familiarity is probably the biggest advantage for staying in the Windows ecosystem. I know how it works, I know how to transition from one version to another because of the familiar approaches. Though Win8 was a dawg! I still don’t like that version. I think I could probably learn how to use a Mac interface, but seriously I don’t see any real need. Overall, I prefer the Windows experience because I can get things done quickly… I am sure many tasks would be just as quick on a Mac, though.
I also have an IPAD, my 2nd one. And I like that… though perhaps not as thrilling as the first one. The software on IPAD has improved immensely since version 5. But it is still a walled garden, and I find that frustrating at times. Things that should be easy to do aren’t. Or they’re impossible. Or Apple makes me run circles trying to do something. And the file manager is truly, truly pitiful even on IPADOS 14.x. Painful. Still I understand the paradigm is different. But it frustrates me endlessly.
As a result of owning an IPAD, I probably would never buy an Iphone. I have had three Androids and I find their philosophy and open design more useful to me. But I would never buy an Iphone: it tries to do in software a lot of things that should perhaps be left to hardware – like extra storage or a 2nd sim card. After wrangling with software niggles time & again, I can only say that I prefer hardware solutions because they tend to be more reliable for me. So give me an SD card slot so I can read my pictures onto my PC or pad… don’t make me connect wirelessly (it’s unreliable); give me an extra SIM card slot for a 2nd number; give me an onboard SD card on my phone so I can store more pix, don’t force me to upgrade at the huge Apple upsell price as well.
But I get it. Some people feel more comfortable using a Mac or IOS device. That’s their choice. For me, though… PC Yes. Android Yes. Ipad Pro Maybe or Yes. Mac Maybe. Iphone NO.
So I have several PCs at home/work. If one breaks, I can get it repaired in my local shop pronto. All parts can be replaced. They’ll even replace or reinstall Windows for me. Apple can’t do that so fast.
With Apple, I’d need to have an extra machine lying around just in case it was away for several weeks or longer. For Win notebooks, this is more of an issue as well, but my current notebook is now out of warranty, so the PC store can maintain it without returning it to the store. Last time I updated the HD to an SSD, the PC store just handed me the drive from inside! New casing and it was good to go as an external. No fuss, no muss, and no reformatted drive! Like I said, I don’t think Apple can beat that for service.
All machines have reliability issues, some more than others. This is not unique to PC. But the machines I have run pretty smoothly most of the time. I know how to keep them running, and truthfully, Win 10 is a vast improvement in that respect over Win7/8.1/XP so much so that I’m quite happy to keep using it. When I run into software issues with Win 10, I typically can get it resolved myself… and I’m not a whiz by any means.
But for me, familiarity is probably the biggest advantage for staying in the Windows ecosystem. I know how it works, I know how to transition from one version to another because of the familiar approaches. Though Win8 was a dawg! I still don’t like that version. I think I could probably learn how to use a Mac interface, but seriously I don’t see any real need. Overall, I prefer the Windows experience because I can get things done quickly… I am sure many tasks would be just as quick on a Mac, though.
I also have an IPAD, my 2nd one. And I like that… though perhaps not as thrilling as the first one. The software on IPAD has improved immensely since version 5. But it is still a walled garden, and I find that frustrating at times. Things that should be easy to do aren’t. Or they’re impossible. Or Apple makes me run circles trying to do something. And the file manager is truly, truly pitiful even on IPADOS 14.x. Painful. Still I understand the paradigm is different. But it frustrates me endlessly.
As a result of owning an IPAD, I probably would never buy an Iphone. I have had three Androids and I find their philosophy and open design more useful to me. But I would never buy an Iphone: it tries to do in software a lot of things that should perhaps be left to hardware – like extra storage or a 2nd sim card. After wrangling with software niggles time & again, I can only say that I prefer hardware solutions because they tend to be more reliable for me. So give me an SD card slot so I can read my pictures onto my PC or pad… don’t make me connect wirelessly (it’s unreliable); give me an extra SIM card slot for a 2nd number; give me an onboard SD card on my phone so I can store more pix, don’t force me to upgrade at the huge Apple upsell price as well.
But I get it. Some people feel more comfortable using a Mac or IOS device. That’s their choice. For me, though… PC Yes. Android Yes. Ipad Pro Maybe or Yes. Mac Maybe. Iphone NO.
Sometimes you just have to fire a business associate!
Linkworth used to be a fairly reliable advertising partner on InvestorBlogger… but then they forgot to pay up for their share. I’m pretty sure they kept the money from the client, but just ‘forgot’ to pay their partner. …
In past years, I would just send them a ticket… but nearly 75 days have passed since the last ticket… no answer. Ticket #2 was posted with everything. 48 hours passed… no answer. While you might think I was hasty, this is in fact money outstanding from 2017 and even 2016. So really tardy!
But I’m not the only person having trouble getting paid from them, too.
“Thank you for taking the time to read this update. Unfortunately, I have decided to withdraw my site(s) from LinkWorth’s market because the invoices are overdue by 180+ days. There is no point so I have canceled the advert, and removed the site from your directory.
I have double-checked the monies received columns @ Paypal and can now confirm that 70+ days have passed since my initial query regarding outstanding payments from 08/10/2017 for
****-31 120961 $ 33.19 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 08/10/2017 View Invoice
“Posted on: 05 April 2018 04:59 PM Account ID: 6**6 Account Username: ***—————————— I’m chasing up missing payment of $33.10 from last year. ****-31 120961 $ 33.19 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 08/10/2017 View Invoice Todate this amount has not been forwarded to my paypal account for this account. Please advise when this can be done… etc.etc.”
In other words, the payment is now 10 months overdue. To you perhaps, $33.10 is a small amount of money; but to me, it represents an unwillingness to honor the terms of your agreement with me.
On further research, I discovered that there is an additional payment of $45.00 also outstanding from either of the following (NOT BOTH)
****-30 119044 $ 47.50 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 11/10/2016 View Invoice
****-29 118751 $ 47.50 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 PayPal 10/10/2016 View InvoiceA payment was made on 11/11 to my paypal account, I don’t know which of these invoices it is in respect of. It doesn’t matter because there is a further invoice outstanding as well.
So for the total of $80.69 outstanding, I now demand immediate and full payment. I would like to resume our business relationship, but your choice to defer payments without adequate explanation or excuse suggests that you’re not in a position to.
Do me the courtesy of advising me whether payment is possible or not.
Yours Kenneth @ InvestorBlogger”
There is little leverage I have right now except to share it on my site. I don’t have the legal means to chase $80, so I have to let it go. But it is a reminder that in business, whoever takes the money late takes the biggest risk.