Lights on for 2022 (Also 5th year anniversary!!)

[WhiskeyJack]

I could check out amazon i suppose. I wonder if it is something I could redirect certain types of files for uploads to for storage. I feel like anything is possible. I should see if it is possible through phpbb. good advice @vomitHatSteve

Yep! Someone made the plugin: https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/extension/aws_s3/

I work in cloud these days, so let me know if you have any questions about it. (Some of the authorization stuff is weird and unintuitive)

That is brilliant. I will sit and have a dig into that this weekend? I wonder if it would migrate all the old stuff over to the new storage??

I may take you up on that offer of assistance but I will have a read thru first. good one VHS!!!

[WhiskeyJack]

I've chucked a few dollars your way @WhiskeyJack. I come around to catch up every now and then, wouldn't want the place to go under.

Cheers bub!!

[rayc]

Let's no go near Amazon...economics is important but I've avoided Amazon, thus far, for the obvious reasons.

[vomitHatSteve]

Let's no go near Amazon...economics is important but I've avoided Amazon, thus far, for the obvious reasons.

Well... there's also Microsoft Azure I guess... But I can't really help with that.

I've always felt a little bit of cognitive dissonance around the idea of avoiding Amazon. Yeah, their business practices are evil when it comes to product sales. But also, that's not really where they make their money. The real money maker is their cloud services where chumps like me give them 10s of thousands of dollars every month.

Not sure why they feel the need to be evil in their warehouses when they make such better margins on software anyway.

[rayc]

Yeah, their business practices are evil when it comes to product sales.

Treatment of staff, union busting, treatment of staff, Bezos Rockets, treatment of staff.
Yeah, the fact that they need not be such an evil empire but do actually says it all. It's not economics, it's not business. It's bastardness.

[Greg_L]

I like Amazon. They really have revolutionized shopping. I still buy local when I can but most of the stuff I buy from amazon is not stuff I can just run out and find locally. Amazon is priced competitively and relatively fast. Their return policies are amazing. They've bridged the gap between going out and buying something in person and waiting a week or more for more traditional shipping times. A lot of amazon stuff will show up the next day.

I have little sympathy for their employees. I don't want anyone to be mistreated but I think it's mostly overblown. Surely not everyone is happy working at amazon, and not everyone is unhappy. It's probably the same as anywhere. You probably have several dick middle-management fuckers being an ass. But there are probably just as many or more regular folks just punching the clock, doing their job. That's any workplace anywhere. And in today's job climate in the USA it's not like you have to work there. Everyone everywhere is desperate to hire. The workers hold all the cards right now. Go find a better/different job if you work at amazon and hate it. Let's be real...working in an Amazon warehouse is not a skilled position. You don't need any education or experience to work there. You just have to be a warm body that can lift a few boxes. Everyone makes fun of burger flippers and fry cooks but really those jobs require more skill than entry level amazon employees. That doesn't mean anyone should be mistreated but let's be real about the work involved. I've never heard of any no-skill job that doesn't fucking suck for someone.

[JD01]

The main problem with Amazon is the cunts barely pay tax. I probably pay more tax than that fucking prick.

They're undercutting everyone by not paying tax, pricing people out of the market and creating a monopoly... and all they have to show for it is a wannabe space-cowboy and a dick shaped rocket.

[Greg_L]

The main problem with Amazon is the cunts barely pay tax. I probably pay more tax than that fucking prick.

They're undercutting everyone by not paying tax, pricing people out of the market and creating a monopoly... and all they have to show for it is a wannabe space-cowboy and a dick shaped rocket.

That's all true, but you know what? It's not his fault he doesn't pay taxes. I don't know how it works elsewhere but Amazon uses the many loopholes and end-arounds to get out of their tax liability in the US. Most corporations and rich people do the same thing. That system was set up by politicians. No one would pay taxes if they didn't have to. No one. And the tax laws for the rich in this country are easily side stepped with slick accounting. If Google and Amazon actually paid their share....well I don't even know where that money would actually go.

[vomitHatSteve]

The main problem with Amazon is the cunts barely pay tax. I probably pay more tax than that fucking prick.

They're undercutting everyone by not paying tax, pricing people out of the market and creating a monopoly... and all they have to show for it is a wannabe space-cowboy and a dick shaped rocket.

Didn't the UK just sign a treaty a few months back that would keep companies like Amazon from using Ireland as a tax haven? How badly am I misremembering that?

[Lt. Bob]

The main problem with Amazon is the cunts barely pay tax. I probably pay more tax than that fucking prick.

They're undercutting everyone by not paying tax, pricing people out of the market and creating a monopoly... and all they have to show for it is a wannabe space-cowboy and a dick shaped rocket.

That's all true, but you know what? It's not his fault he doesn't pay taxes. I don't know how it works elsewhere but Amazon uses the many loopholes and end-arounds to get out of their tax liability in the US. Most corporations and rich people do the same thing. That system was set up by politicians. No one would pay taxes if they didn't have to. No one. And the tax laws for the rich in this country are easily side stepped with slick accounting. If Google and Amazon actually paid their share....well I don't even know where that money would actually go.

it's not ALL true .... a LOT of the stuff they ship actually comes from smaller businesses that use Amazon to reach customers they'd never reach otherwise.

Lol ..... buggy whip manufacturers went out of business and their families suffered which is why you need to be a country that's not a prick to the unemployed or needy.
But I find the handwringing non-useful and not overly realistic.

The world is changing in basic ways and it's gonna keep changing more and more and eventually every single one of you is gonna die and everything you thought was important won't be .... being consigned to the dustbin of history.

My era used to think owning a house was the basic point of life ..... now it's becoming less and less so.
Railing against any of this is a waste of time and is basically old-man think.

I may be old but sometimes I seem more progressive and accepting of change than some of you youngsters.

[WhiskeyJack]

That's all true, but you know what? It's not his fault he doesn't pay taxes. I don't know how it works elsewhere but Amazon uses the many loopholes and end-arounds to get out of their tax liability in the US. Most corporations and rich people do the same thing. That system was set up by politicians. No one would pay taxes if they didn't have to. No one. And the tax laws for the rich in this country are easily side stepped with slick accounting. If Google and Amazon actually paid their share....well I don't even know where that money would actually go.

it's not ALL true .... a LOT of the stuff they ship actually comes from smaller businesses that use Amazon to reach customers they'd never reach otherwise.

Lol ..... buggy whip manufacturers went out of business and their families suffered which is why you need to be a country that's not a prick to the unemployed or needy.
But I find the handwringing non-useful and not overly realistic.

The world is changing in basic ways and it's gonna keep changing more and more and eventually every single one of you is gonna die and everything you thought was important won't be .... being consigned to the dustbin of history.

My era used to think owning a house was the basic point of life ..... now it's becoming less and less so.
Railing against any of this is a waste of time and is basically old-man think.

I may be old but sometimes I seem more progressive and accepting of change than some of you youngsters.

Benjamin Buttons over here dropping truth bombs. But no you do ear make a few points i haven't ever considered before Lt.Bob. You aren't at all wrong about anything there.

I still want to own my own home and not buy shit on amazon for my own reasons though.

@Greg_L Amazon is great for those hard to find things. I'll always try to find something somewhere else first but in those rare instances I can't get it elsewhere I'll grab it off Amazon. It's always my last resort though.

[CrowsofFritz]

I gave some freedom dollars

[Lt. Bob]

I still want to own my own home and not buy shit on amazon for my own reasons though.

and that's fine .... everyone should hew to their own values ...

I still like my music on physical media and I still say yes ma'am and yes sir and I'm way older than the people I say it to.
lol

I'm just saying that equating a company that simply successfully gave customers what they wanted, which was cheap and quick and unlimited inventory, to evil is missing the big picture.

It's consumers that have made Amazon what it is.
I'll tell ya' what ....... I never bought a thing from Amazon until maybe a year ago .... for the very reasons ya'll have mentioned.
But you know what?
Not single one of those small businesses I'm supposed to support sent me a card when my dad died ..... and of course not ...... they're not my friends ...... I don't even know them.
I DO support the businesses I personally know even when it costs more.

But otherwise I don't care that much ..... I don't know them anymore than I know Amazon.

And YES THE BASTARDS SHOULD PAY FUCKING TAXES ...... lol.
But also all the other huge companies that don't pay much which is all of them.

[vomitHatSteve]

Huh...
@WhiskeyJack, any idea why I got this email?

paypal the heck.png

[WhiskeyJack]

Huh...
@WhiskeyJack, any idea why I got this email?

paypal the heck.png

Yes!!

I just sent out a a bunch of personal thank yous via Paypal to all who had the "reply to this transaction" feature appear on their donations. A few folks did not have that so @Alison and @Armistice won't get that notification, but everyone else who did will see that for sure.

Seeing my full name in big black bold letters like that makes me fee llike iam getting the full wrath of my mother right now. I feel scolded.

[vomitHatSteve]

Seeing my full name in big black bold letters like that makes me fee llike iam getting the full wrath of my mother right now. I feel scolded.

Interesting. I logged into my account on the desktop, and it didn't show anything about messages, but I got a notification on the phone app with the full text.

[JD01]

Do I need to read this message for any reason - I'm not even sure I know how to log into Paypal messages.

[CrowsofFritz]

Do I need to read this message for any reason - I'm not even sure I know how to log into Paypal messages.

THE MESSAGE CONTAINS CRUCIAL INFORMATION THAT WILL DETERMINE WHETHER RECORDING REBELS WILL STAY UP OR NOT.

Or it doesn’t...

But now you’re left wondering if that’s a really possibility.

[Lt. Bob]

Do I need to read this message for any reason - I'm not even sure I know how to log into Paypal messages.

ummm .... just log in to Paypal

[WhiskeyJack]

Do I need to read this message for any reason - I'm not even sure I know how to log into Paypal messages.

ummm .... just log in to Paypal

I like the part where our resident fossil knows more about how to use paypal than the younger users.