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Your zip plus 4 changes. It isn't worth trying to know as it isn't supposed to be constlnt. If you send a lot of mail there is a discount for using it but you have to update everyone's address often (iirt at least 4x per year)

Any large company puts all their records in an accounting system so they can figure this out. It make take some time to run the right query, but they have the records. Of course this assumes they put the full breakdown in the system, if it is just the total cost of goods including shipping as a single line item they can't do this - but commonly they will have the break down in some system. (at the very least the shippers/importer will - and they have incentive to run this for you and give you the results - it is fairly cheap and generates goodwill)

That depends on how the tool is used. People who ask for a security vulnerability get slop. People who asked for deeper analysis often get something useful - but it isn't always a vulnerability.

Doctors have better tools than smell and consistency. However you as a layman don't normally have/use those tools.

Your house insurance will generally cover it. However they then mark you as a increased risk for claims and so your rates go up. Thus it probably isn't worth making a claim for something that is "only" a few thousand dollars. Insurance is a great idea for rare things so expensive that you couldn't handle the loss on your own, but for smaller value losses self-insure is likely a better idea in the long run.

Of course you would need an accountant to run the real numbers for each case. Most people would find a $3000 lens breakage something they cannot easially cover out of pocket, which is why many will even if in the long run it isn't the best use of money.


Depends on the numbers/specifics. Some homeowners policies may exclude high dollar items or limit the coverage to items in the premises (i.e. if it was stolen off the shelf in the house, that could be covered, but not necessarily other scenarios.)

A specific policy can still be cheap however; mine comes in at about 311$ of replacement value per dollar of premium a month, if you're traveling a lot or shooting at places where stuff can come up missing it's not the worst peace of mind.


That doesn't replace the pattern, it just does the pattern by a different name. Design Patterns was never about OOP - the publisher added OO to the title because that was the fad at the time, but the patterns happen in other systems as well, they are just implemented differently.

If there was some investment most of us could switch to public transit. The problems people have with transit are mostly around there isn't enough of it to be useful - when /where it is useful people use it.

That's not the full story, you're right that they "could switch", but would they actually?

Good, working and efficient public transit still means having significantly less comfort compared to having your private vehicle. Pretty much the only exception is using the metro in a congested downtown area at peak traffic (still, your metro experience will also be degraded by the peak traffic), or perhaps if parking your vehicle will be very difficult. And i say this as someone in a rather big city in Europe who is currently only using public transit. And there is a lot of stuff that i'd like to do but i can't do since i currently don't have access to a car or motorbike.

People don't just want "useful", at least the majority of people in developed countries also want "comfortable", and "nice", and "easy", and "enjoyable". A peak-hour metro ride or missing your tram by one minute is none of that.


I would settle for "available". Where I live, i have a 40 minute commute to work by car. I live in a suburb of a midsize american city.

When i bought my house, i looked into public transportation options. Instead of a 40 minute car ride, i could drive for 5 minutes and then take 3 hours (and 2 bus transfers) to get to my office by bus.

I would love to get some reading done on my commute, and would be willing to spend an hour on a bus or train instead of 40 minutes fighting traffic in my car, but it's just not really feasable. I think this situation is extremely common.


That is what I'm getting at. Most cities in the US don't have a useful transit system.

though your 40 minute by car commute is something that is unlikely something any invsetment will ever make reasonable.


If the next bus/tram isn't almost there when you miss the previous then it isn't nearly as useful.

there are things you can't do with transit. However nearly everyone is living in a family - so keep the truck to tow the boat, but get rid of the other cars that you won't need if transit is good. That is a much more reasonably goal that transit can aim for. A few like you won't own a car/truck at all, but most won't need to go that far


China is clearly gearing up for war for Taiwan, and it is highly likely the US will be involved if that happens. That is why both Republicans and Democrats are worried about China. I can't say what will happen in the future, but if you are not worried about this you are not paying attention.

It is also much more likely to use renewable energy. Data centers look at the local energy mix when planning where to put one. (though they are perhaps taking energy that would otherwise be shipped to a different city/state)

This is definitely not always the case[0], let's not pretend these companies give a fuck about the communities in which their data centers operate[1].

0: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/15/elon-musk...

1: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/09/texas-hood-county-cr...


Community has nothing to do with it. They are asking about energy mix because that is important to enough of their customers that it is worth looking at.

Those are a sunk cost at this point though. The business likely is better off having sold and got the money now - vs risking they will never get a refund.

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