The Flying Penguin wrote on Oct 4, 2024, 13:18:
... with a list of links to all my daily news sites (Blues being near the top)...

Blasphemy! Not at the top?!

BTW: What I've done for 25 years for a homepage, is basically just host a page on my server, with a list of links to all my daily news sites (Blues being near the top), some lesser used links, and also the current stats for my KF2 and Teamspeak servers, and for when I was more active in IT work a list of links for IT tools.

That way, no matter where I am, no matter what device I am using, even someone else's PC, I have all my bookmarks available, without having to carry around anything.

Don't care if it's public. Nothing there I'm ashamed of, or is any kind of security risk.

Cutter wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 16:04:
Those guys are already hella rich I'm always curious as to why they would do something like that when sales over the life of their copyright would likely make them - and their descendants - far more money in the long run. Elvis made way more money dead than alive.

Actually, this is a better option for their descendants & beneficiaries, rather than the nightmare of trying to manage the song rights - and constantly fight legal battles over copyright. You can read about the management nightmares the children of music superstars have to deal with in the news all the time. Also, sometimes your kids don't know how to manage that kind of estate. Look no further than at Lisa Marie Presley's utter mishandling of Elvis's estate, and her near financial ruin, and now her kids have messy estate to inherit, with a load of debt attached.

Be aware this sale is only the rights to the recordings, likenesses and names of Pink Floyd, NOT the song writing rights, which are potentially much more valuable (that's the reason for the seemingly low price of the sale). Song writing rights are usually managed by a music royalties licensing company like ASCAP. They handle the legal shit, and you get a check every quarter.

I can make the finances of this sale very clear by using my own investment portfolio as a guide - my wife's and my sole income nowadays is from our investments from the sale of our businesses. There was a time when managing those businesses was fun, but as we've gotten older, not so much. We live off the annual return of those investments, never touching the principle, which is about what my wife and I used to earn in salary. We also leave a tidy sum for our beneficiaries.

These are much bigger numbers than ours, but the return percentages are the same and scale up:

Assume they split the $400 mil evenly 4 ways: $100 mill each. If that $100 mill is put into a conservative, low risk, investment portfolio like ours, they can expect an easy return of $2,000,000 a year. That's not chump change, that's a $500k quarterly distribution check, if they choose to cash it out every quarter. That would go on in perpetuity as you'd never have to touch your principle. You also never have to worry about it. Let an investment manager handle it, come in and talk to him every 6 months (as required by law) to see how your accounts are doing, and you're done.

That's why a lot of artists do this in their later years. It offers a stable source of income for their kids, without the headaches of managing their music estate, and without the worry about the volatility of the value of that music. Will Pink Floyd's music catalog continue to rake in that kind of money in 20 or 30 years? Music tastes change, it's a fickle industry.

This comment was edited on Oct 4, 2024, 13:22.

bjack wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 21:36:
Yeah this area is not near the coast, and is next to mountains. Believed to be a "climate haven" but that has now changed.

Right. But when you live in a valley between mountains, where do you think the water is going to go? I find it difficult to believe places like this haven't always been trouble spots for flooding. Hence my confusion as to why more people don't have insurance. This certainly isn't the first time hearing about bad flooding in the eastern mountainous part of the US. The big difference here is how wide spread it is simply due to the size of the storm. But a good rain storm in any of these places will cause a problem.

i think it's one of the most charming ironies of life that real heroes don't know or consider themselves heroes. in fact they'd probably think less of themselves if they didn't do the heroic thing - do the good and right thing in the moment it was needed. she saved her community because to not do so was unconscionable. i'd buy you both a big fat steak if i could.

1badmf wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 22:20:
a miracle that a cell tower survived that wet hell. your sister is a hero (i hate using that word but she is) for going out to help her community. a lot of people would nail the doors shut and just look after their own.

There are a couple of cell towers high atop the mountains around her that have generators from what she tells me and they are running diesel up to them to keep them going.

I told her that I was exceptionally proud of her and she replied rather wearily "I know and knew these people. This is a small community. If it were me and your nephew that were missing, other people would be out looking for us. I can't do any less." But I will admit that she's pretty badass in my opinion. She's putting all the lessons we learned growing up in to practice during all of this.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 19:39:
My sister was able to get some video to me today of the devastation in her small mountain town in NC. There are no words. Places I have been to, sat down and ate in, or walked around in are just gone as if they had never been. Like the earth had been scraped clean. My parents' little town here in Texas dealt with Harvey parking over the top of them and dumping feet of rain, flooding out their town, and causing massive flooding but nothing like the devastation that my sister is living through. It's surreal.

My nephew's biggest complaint? He can't connect to my Plex server. Outside of that, he's having a ball. No school for at least another week at the earliest.

She's been volunteering with a local SnR group because she knows those mountains like the back of her hands. The things they've been finding are both grotesque and enormously tragic. She's like me in that she's level and stoic and even she was getting choked up describing them to me.

a miracle that a cell tower survived that wet hell. your sister is a hero (i hate using that word but she is) for going out to help her community. a lot of people would nail the doors shut and just look after their own.

Mr. Tact wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 19:49:
I was just reading that something like only 2%-6% of the people affected by the floods from Helene have flood insurance. Apparently it was a consensus opinion it wasn't needed in those locations. So, if your house washed away and you don't have flood insurance. Tough luck. The max you can get from FEMA for home damage is just over $42k, and not many people manage to get that much.

Red states shouldn't get sweet FA. You hate "big" government and "welfare"? Well there you go, here's your opportunity to show the rest of us how you pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

Mr. Tact wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 19:49:
I was just reading that something like only 2%-6% of the people affected by the floods from Helene have flood insurance. Apparently it was a consensus opinion it wasn't needed in those locations. So, if your house washed away and you don't have flood insurance. Tough luck. The max you can get from FEMA for home damage is just over $42k, and not many people manage to get that much.

Yeah this area is not near the coast, and is next to mountains. Believed to be a "climate haven" but that has now changed.

I was just reading that something like only 2%-6% of the people affected by the floods from Helene have flood insurance. Apparently it was a consensus opinion it wasn't needed in those locations. So, if your house washed away and you don't have flood insurance. Tough luck. The max you can get from FEMA for home damage is just over $42k, and not many people manage to get that much.

My sister was able to get some video to me today of the devastation in her small mountain town in NC. There are no words. Places I have been to, sat down and ate in, or walked around in are just gone as if they had never been. Like the earth had been scraped clean. My parents' little town here in Texas dealt with Harvey parking over the top of them and dumping feet of rain, flooding out their town, and causing massive flooding but nothing like the devastation that my sister is living through. It's surreal.

My nephew's biggest complaint? He can't connect to my Plex server. Outside of that, he's having a ball. No school for at least another week at the earliest.

She's been volunteering with a local SnR group because she knows those mountains like the back of her hands. The things they've been finding are both grotesque and enormously tragic. She's like me in that she's level and stoic and even she was getting choked up describing them to me.

That is actually quite cheap for Floyd's work. David Gilmour said in an interview that he does not really need the money but is just happy that all discussions with Roger Waters about new editions and re-releases will end with the sale. He really hated having to deal with Waters and his representatives over the rights to the Floyd music.

I'm another about: blank too.

Those guys are already hella rich I'm always curious as to why they would do something like that when sales over the life of their copyright would likely make them - and their descendants - far more money in the long run. Elvis made way more money dead than alive.

D&D group therapy? Not with the groups I used to play with.

Goddamn, I love vertical farming! Wish I had the dosh to setup a major operation myself. I'd love to build a vertical farm skyscraper in a major city. I'd love to see a business case study on the viability of something like that. I'd far rather live in a building with a hothouse than swimming pool. That should be a thing.

Water may not save you from a hangover but it helps. That and eating well prior to boozing it up.

Hah, that RoP comic is spot on!

Old enough to still have a "morning paper" habit, young enough to not actually have a newspaper subscription delivered to my house.

Here's a code for Steamworld Heist on GOG. It expires in a few hours, so grab it quick.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 13:22:
Wait, you guys have homepages?

I have tabs open that are old enough to drink, I think. At the very least old enough to vote.

Mine is about:blank

Wait, you guys have homepages?

I have tabs open that are old enough to drink, I think. At the very least old enough to vote.

Jivaro wrote on Oct 3, 2024, 12:47:
I am making Blue's News the homepage for my browser at least until the election is over.

I solved that problem a couple of decades ago by making my home page "about:blank" -- seriously been that for at least 20 years.

I am making Blue's News the homepage for my browser at least until the election is over.