Darrius Gothly

Over the years, I've been a small fish .. still am in fact. Even though I ache and hover over my "business" as if my RL income depended on it, I only use it for pocket change and thus only make sales in that range. Back in the heyday of In-World Search when I was actually selling in sizeable quantities, I still would cash out maybe every other week and often no more than $200US each time. (More usually it was every other week and no more than $100US) Being someone that analyzes processes for optimal outcome, I learned that the very best time to cash out was just before midnight SLT on Sunday night. That way I would almost always receive my money on or before Friday of that week. Cashing out Monday would often result in receiving my money Monday of the following week .. a full seven calendar days. But beating the midnight deadline Sunday meant that I generally waited no more than 5 calendar days. My monitoring of the LindeX would thus occur starting around 9PM SLT Sunday night and continue for several hours. I would choose a time near midnight when I saw the L$ amount for sale one point above LL's "wall" was low enough that I could ensure a full sale before the cutoff time. Watching the LindeX right now, I see no activity similar to what I have witnessed in the 9PM to Midnight window. So based on this time frame, your observations are correct. However the absence of the patterns I have observed late Sunday night does not mean they are not there; it simply means they are not there now. But that is not the only source of my conclusions. I have a number of contacts and friends that participate in being Hobbyist Merchants. We have often discussed when they sell L$, why they sell and what they do with the money. As mentioned above, almost all of them (in fact I'm pretty sure all of them .. i just can't say matter of factly) pay their rent in L$ to someone else. What they cash out goes further into an external account, again almost without exception through PayPal. I should also mention that there is a very large chasm between the Hobbyist cashing out small amounts and the Professional cashing out routinely in large amounts. The gap is so large and hard-edged that it's almost as if there are two separate monetary systems. I suspect that most observations are based on seeing only one or the other of the two groups. I do agree though, without being able to peek over LL's shoulder at the actual financials we will not be able to know for sure. But as it stands, based on the information I've gleaned from friends and cohorts, I'm pretty confident that I'm seeing a pretty reliable sample set and reaching very solid conclusions. But .. y'know .. sometimes I do have my head up my ... (Hello? Anybody in here?!?)

Phil Deakins wrote: Pamela Galli wrote: steph Arnott wrote: No one under thirty uses this "FIFY" it like putting a sign up that says "i am 50 plus years old" And? Thanks for the information but so what? You seem to think 30 is the epitome of intellectual development and fashion sense. PS Ask anyone over thirty if they would like to be thirty again. They won't. Speak for yourself, Pammy! I'd definitely like to be 30 again. For one thing, I wouldn't marry the woman I did marry On the other hand, I am older - much older - and very proud of my age For a small monthly stipend I promise not to tell her you said that. (Remember, she knows where you sleep! LOL)

Rya Nitely wrote: Darrius Gothly wrote: It might do well to watch the LindeX update every few minutes over the course of a few hours. You'll see that Linden Dollars placed for sale increments in small chunks: L$4000 to L$10,000. Every once in a while you'll see a big chunk hit, but those are not that frequent. I tend to believe those small chunks are the little fish you believe won't bother to cash out. But if they're selling L$4,000 worth at a time .. what are they intending to use the cash for? Buying back L$? I haven't really noticed this. It always looks to me like there's either nobody at 249 or just one seller in the L$100,000s, and I add to it. Then I watch it go through. Then there's nobody again, until another huge order comes in. But it might just be the time of day that I trade. Edit: Reading your post again, it's actually quite funny. You don't really believe that a lot of people are regularly cashing out $US15 to $US30, do you? :smileyvery-happy: Actually .. yes I do. Not "regularly", more "sporadically". More precisely I believe that a majority of cashouts are in the $20 to $100 range with a peak near $50. Remember that at $100 each on average, $60M is 600,000 cashouts. My suspicion is that most people cash out not because they need to pay bills but because they hit a psychological threshold. Those are typically at $20, $50 and $100. Cashing out at $20 with a $1 fee (plus fees for selling L$'s) makes that almost worthless, so a lot of people probably push that up to $40 or just wait until they hit $50. But the real kicker is how often they can hit those thresholds. The Merchants that garner the most traffic are by far the oldbies, have massive inventories and spend lots of time managing their business. But they are also rare in comparison to those Hobbyist Merchants that have a few (or a few dozen) items for sale, very low expenses and just cash out once every month or three cuz they can.

Johnathan Padar wrote: <snip> I don't even understand how this was any of my fault.. It wasn't your fault and you shouldn't suffer it staying there either. Use the "Flag Review" button under the review and select "off-topic" (or whatever it's called) as the reason. LL will almost always remove it. (I've not heard of them refusing to remove such a comment but .. they do make the final decision)

Pamela Galli wrote: But Darrius, we cannot count on getting older. That is why every day this side of dirt is a precious gift. (Something a thirteen year old may not have figured out). Ahhh .. true dat. But I'm pretty certain that once I make that transtion, I'll not be so worried about things like politics and food on the table. (at least I bloody well hope not! LOL)

Steph, One bit of wisdom I've gained over the years is "Aim your anger at the true source of the irritation, not at innocent others." You are clearly angry at me for suggesting you use the spell checker, yet you took out that anger on someone else. Was that wise?

Wow! That's a pretty open-ended question. Sort of like asking "My car won't start. Anyone know what's wrong?" It could be a whole bunch of things. Are you sure the gestures are set to Transfer capable? Do you have them properly listed in the VMM folders in your Viewer? Have you filled in all the blanks and settings including choosing the proper Category? It might help if you could post a screencap of the Listings page just before you submit the listing. We might be able to spot what's amiss from there. (It's a pretty long page, so it will probably take 2-3 screencaps to get it all.)

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Darrius Gothly wrote: I couldn't read it. I don't know how to log in ... Nor do I. But all you need to know is before the fade. Here's another story about the story... http://www.fastcompany.com/3057690/fast-feed/american-workers-rank-last-in-problem-solving-skills-with-technology Indeed .. a fast read. And terrifying at the same time. All I could think of was those sedentary, obese, lay-abouts populating the ship in the movie Wall-E. Is that our future? (Here's where I step on toes .. hang on) America is hot in the middle of a political war between the past and the future. The two camps take positions based around jobs that have been shipped overseas. I understand the need to have a job, not only to put food on the table but also to provide that all important self-image. When I worked manual jobs, I knew that if my body was tired, my physical skills and stamina were not up to par, or I had the misfortune of getting older .. I would be out of a job. But when I transitioned into a mental job I knew that I could tune my skills faster, retain my edge longer and would improve every day just by reading and listening. Our economy is struggling in the same transition .. and our leaders seem intent on slamming us back into jobs that get harder, less profitable and more impossible as we age. If there is one thing that typifies the American worker, it is our advancing average age. So doesn't it make sense to spend more money on building those requisites that improve with age, rather than on those that disimprove? After all, the one thing we ALL can count on is .. we will get older. (subtle poke elsewhere) Just askin ...

I couldn't read it. I don't know how to log in ...

DejaHo wrote: Several engineering students are taking a final. One of them is cheating and brought a slide rule to the exam. “Hey,” the student next to him whispers. “Can you help me? What’s 3 × 6?” The cheater reaches for his slide rule, and after a few seconds he replies, “19.” “Are you sure?” asks the other. The cheater again reaches for his slide rule, and after another few seconds he replies, “You’re right. It’s closer to 18… 18.3, to be precise.” And thus was born Apollo XIII ... .. or was it Hubble?

Madelaine McMasters wrote: DejaHo wrote: I would bet a nickel that you (probably one of two on this forum) know how to 'work' a slipstick aka slide rule? Once again, go figure. Yep, I still have Dad's Post slide rule around here somewhere. I also had to learn the "whiz wheel" to get my pilot's license. And yet the majority of modern science can't seem to believe the Antikythera Mechanism is an early ancestor? Go figure that one too!

Madelaine McMasters wrote: I got a bad grade in "Compiler Design" in grad school because I cheated. ...<snip>... I'm willing to break the rules to get where I want to go. My success might come (as might yours) from wanting to go to the right places. That's cheating in the very best "Kirk Tradition" .. at least in my book. Tests aren't just to prove you can write down the right answer, they are supposed to prove you understood the material and can manipulate it into more than the ink or pixels devoted to the facts. In fact that's one of my tests for Intelligence. When I see someone stepping beyond the a,b,c..x,y,z and creating zebra,rainbow and cantankerous, that's when I know they've made the leap from rote fact into understanding. IMO far too many students are taught that they only need to memorize facts and sequences and never told that their real goal is to go beyond that point. Leaps of genius occur when someone takes two or more unrelated concepts then slams them together to create something never before conceived. And they sure didn't get there by coloring within the lines of "book learning". The chef that throws ingredients in a bowl that no one had ever thought to mix before .. and creates a delicacy. The artist that glues three buttons and a hunk of yarn to a piece of wood and creates a beautiful nymph. The accountant that sees how numbers coming from three reports can be recombined to yield new insight. The writer that puts words and their meaning into new light and turns ink into tears. The mechanic that welds two pipes and some blades onto a cylinder and creates a new form of engine. Those are the geniuses that get it. FWIW: I see genius in lots of people .. LOTS of people. But I also see a concrete shell poured all over them that makes them believe they are stupid because they can't add fractions or remember which elements make water. That's one of the reasons I find STEM programs so .. stilting. They try only to measure people against their ability to do rote calculations or remember banal facts. None of the STEM programs I've encountered (so far) try to teach students the essence of the Science or the Math or the Engineering (and especially not the Art or Music) that are so important to making something better. STEM is a good start IMO. But it's like giving everyone a pair of Loafers .. but never explaining why Penny Loafers are so much better.

Yup .. heard you loud and clear. *smiles and waves*

Rhonda Huntress wrote: Darrius Gothly wrote: 1980? Oh yeah, I remember 1980. I don't. From 76 to 86 is all a disjointed blur I can't quite put into chronological order. I'm pretty sure it was a fun year, tho. I think I married my first husband then. Or was that Jack (different Jack (who is actually Jackson) than my current husband; Mad Jack, Wait! Oh dear lord, I was working at a factory that made 8 1/2" disk drives. So I was living with Chris before we got married. Why would you make me remember that!? Sheer evil meanness? Mwaaahahahaaaaa!!! *wink*

Qie Niangao wrote: We'll probably never know whether they really intended this to generate more revenue. True dat .. not for sure anyway. But in those cases where the true meaning cannot be known, I prefer applying "Best Logical Reason" methods. And considering that Ebbe did mention that improving cashout times might result in extra income for LL, I tend to lean toward that reason. After all, they are in business to make money ... I hope! LOL (Now .. where did I leave my mind-reading helmet ... ??)

Pips Fetid wrote: Is that for withdrawing USD from your account, or selling L$? The account I'm speaking of is a tier 2 business account - can sell $20,000 USD in 30 days, but still can only withdraw $10,000 per transaction. If that's the limit for withdrawing USD, it makes it even harsher for those of us with lower limits. Oops! I got it wrong. (blasted old-man memory!) I'm just a Basic account, not a Business account. Here are the numbers I see on my LindeX Exchange: Sell L$ page: 

steph Arnott wrote: You read a lot into my posts that is not there and as UK English is my forth language then a few misspelt words do not worry me in the least. The sentences are readable and understandable, still maybe we should go back to words like "yore" or "onuppan" and "nary" for correctness, hmm? So you're saying that what you write is devoid of content or worth ... and that you refuse to use a very simple tool designed to help you be understood better? Or did I get that wrong? Personally, I understand you even when you grossly misspell words. But most folks stop listening, stop reading .. and most important stop caring when they have to spend time deciphering your meaning. Writing is a discipline that requires thought, care and practice to get right. I do it a lot and I get it wrong .. a lot. If you care enough to write, and clearly you do care to write a lot, then you should also care that you are being properly understood. If you feel that people should spend time trying to understand your proper meaning then you are too self-absorbed and need to get a better grip on yourself. If you feel that you are often misunderstood and that people don't get your meaning a lot (and that does seem to be the drift in a lot of your rebuttals) then you could help get your meaning across better by taking some time to assure what you've written is proper English. Remember that people are not here just to hang on your every word, they are here to learn and discuss. Your goal should be to add to that pastime. Instead of insisting others spend time reading your broken language, try meeting them halfway and doing your best to make your posts clear, succinct and valuable. Or not. Ultimately it's your choice. I'm just offering some advice that might help you enjoy this time more. Unless you enjoy battling and yelling at people ...

True that. But then pretty much everyone caring to voice an opinion on the OP's question has answered it in multiple posts already. The rest of this .. it's like those miles of extra tiny print on the bottom of prescription drug ads in magazines. (Do you suppose they'll report us for going off-topic? j/k)

Basic accounts are limited by default to $2,500.00 USD per 30 days. You have to apply to increase that limit. LL is well known to run folks through the ringer to get that increased.

Qie Niangao wrote: None of this really matters to me, but I'm sort of obsessed with financial statistics, so I can't help myself: Maybe there's somewhere that shows the true distribution of cash-out transaction sizes, but without such data I would guess that the median is much less than the mean: That is, I'd expect a few Anshe-level folks to cash out huge amounts (like $20K/mo each), and a whole lot of creator types to cash out smaller amounts. (Even still, though, I can't imagine: who would ever bother to cash out a mere $100?) There won't be many of the "high rollers" -- but it doesn't take many to account for a big share of that $60m / yr total volume. <snip> I think your view of the Merchant base is skewed Qie .. or maybe mine is. You said "mere $100"? For a vast majority of people, cashing out is mostly for pocket money or to fill in a hole here and there. Those that have a positive cash flow in SL are not making BIG positives. They are mostly getting ahead of their expenses by maybe L$5000 to L$20,000 per month. It took approximately L$26,000 to make a full $100 cash out after fees (selling and cashing out). My perception of the Merchant population is that those making L$26,000 in one month .. above their expenses .. are what we'd call the Upper Middle Class. There are a good number of them but not near as many as those falling behind expenses (and luxury expenses such as the stuff they want to buy). Put together though, the number of Upper Middle Class and lower income Merchants far outnumber the High Rollers. I think the net effect will actually be to shift the cutoff line higher. A lot of those barely able to cash out once every 2-3 months will no longer do so, they'll just spend the money in world. Those cashing out more often will cash out less often so they can climb above the $3.00 minimum. Those above the cuttoff line that are now cashing out more often .. will do their best to not only reduce their fee payments, but will do what they can to keep more money out of LL's pockets as a negative reaction to LL's money grab. It might do well to watch the LindeX update every few minutes over the course of a few hours. You'll see that Linden Dollars placed for sale increments in small chunks: L$4000 to L$10,000. Every once in a while you'll see a big chunk hit, but those are not that frequent. I tend to believe those small chunks are the little fish you believe won't bother to cash out. But if they're selling L$4,000 worth at a time .. what are they intending to use the cash for? Buying back L$?

Madelaine McMasters wrote: I like Ms. Hamilton's story about sussing out the program that was commented in Latin and Greek, getting it to spew answers in... Latin and Greek. I'll add her to my list of smarties, along with Hedy Lamarr, Grace Hopper, Rosalind Franklin, Ada Lovelace, Amelia Earhart, Abigail Adams, etc, etc. Ahhh .. Hedy. A lady that can titillate both heads! *swoon*

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Darrius Gothly wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: <snip> ... I've never even once used... goto. Okay .. NOW you've just pegged yourself as one of those most reprehensible types called "The Formal Fool". (ducks behind the tape racks) When I feel the urge to "goto", I sip root-beer until it passes. And I can hurl the empty bottle over a tape rack with ease. I can't hardly be a "Formal Fool", I've written self-modifying code. There's nothing formal about that, it's pure foolishness. ;-). BONK! Owwwchhh!! hehehehe... See .. there's your issue .. not enough caffeine. LOL Yeah, self-modifying code was "fun" alright. Until those fun-killers invented Protected Segment Memory that prevented writing into code space or executing instructions from data space. Totally ruined a very useful kludge technique. I did come off rather uppity .. and thank you for taking the time to toss the bottle. I've spent so many years .. no wait, WASTED so many years .. trying to explain to people that "Perfect Code" doesn't exist because it's writtten by humans. I've watched so many supposedly smart people destroy products, schedules and budgets because they couldn't find the balance between "Perfect" and "Deliverable". I've spent a lot of my years in the trenches, making things work when needed, on short notice and with as much care as possible. But also realizing that what I'd shipped would have errors and doing my best to assure that when they cropped up, I had added enough error catching code that the sytem would try and fail gracefully. And parked by the phone or next to the computer when it didn't. Hubris is a painful thing to watch in action. Over the years I've seen it most often from those that prided themselves on writing "Proper" code that eschewed such things as Goto ... even to the point of writing extremely tortured and undecipherable code. When the design and schedule and budget allow, writing proper code is important. I do so not because of doctrine but because I've learned that it makes future work with the code base much easier. But I've also had to learn the balance between the two extremes. It's the strict adherence to recommendations as religion that has tanked far too many otherwise good products and projects. And that's why I bristle when I hear those words "...I've never even once used... goto".

steph Arnott wrote: Rev you up. your the one with the " i need to learn English attitude". As for the rest, i not own companies for you to tell me what the cost of code writers are. I already know what it is and.India write code for a fraction of the cost and faster, they now wriite code for the USA and EU military. All companies now have to have class "A++" security clearance. This is not 1980 its 2016. LOL I never suggested that you learn English. I suggested you use the Spell Checker built in to the message entry box. FWIW: A vast majority of people I've known over the centuries years that are ESL'ers are very particular when it comes to getting their grammar and spelling correct. They take pride in writing well .. as they should because learning more than one language is tough. (Especially for those without the opportunity until they're in adulthood). You've never come across as an ESL'er though. Rather I see your mistakes as those of someone rushing to post, emotionally over-charged .. and so defensive that you hit back before you've been hit. I may be wrong but .. until proven otherwise it's an opinion I'll hang on to. 1980? Oh yeah, I remember 1980.I wrote my first production level system that year, including printed manuals. Learned a lot that year .. mostly by running into walls at high speed. Ouch! LOL

2020

steph Arnott wrote: Happy with my calculator that says India write bulk code that works at 100th of the West costs and at 100th of the time, so money in my bank account is far more important than a spell checker. If you're trying to rev me up .. fail. But you did bring up a story from my past. Now that I've watched the series finale of Mythbusters ... I've got time to write. An absolute genius I worked with years ago wrote a "Server" system that was at the core of our main product. It was a genius design that basically did nothing more than message passing. How it was implemented, how it worked, how it was configured and how it could be applied in so very many ways was its genius. It turned what had been weeks to months of setup and configuration (on the old server) into about 20 minutes of copying a few files and editing some configs ... made it beyond profitable. And then the India-based programmers of our largest customer got hold of it. They spent about two years writing their interface for it. Within days of their first release we had their management crawling up our backsides complaining how pitiful the system performed. I was flummoxed because I knew the performance levels they were citing were impossible .. if not just simply fantasy on their part. The author was enraged .. as he should have been .. at their claims of how crappy was his code. After a few months of wrangling and requesting logs of their system implementation in action, we got the logs and found the cause. They had captured every single message, rewritten all of them back into the front-end after pre-processing them .. and essentially created a feedback loop that literally drowned the server in an exponentially increasing flood of the same data .. over and over again. Only the fact that the server had its own safety checks and governors prevented a total system crash. But what did happen was after they connected their interface, the system rapidly slammed into the cutoffs and then ran at 100% utilization continually. Amazingly when we turned off their interface, the server cleared the backlog and returned to its normal load. The author of the server left our company and took a better paying job doing much more important work about a year later. I spent three years trying to convince the India office of our customer to rewrite their interface so that it used ONLY the output and did not feed everything back through again. I failed. They insisted to the end that their method was the only method possible. Before I left that company, I wrote an interface for them that did their entire workload, was a drop-in replacement, did all functions theirs did .. and ran at just 4% over the idle server load. They tested it once and terminated the India office. (Gosh! I have no idea why.) I wasn't a genius by any stretch either. The man that wrote the server was the real brains and star of that show. I simply followed basic guidelines and common sense. But when you say to me that India programmers write 100 times better code at 100th the cost? I have personal experience to the contrary. Just sayin ...