One Reason I Haven't Moved to Substack

I've thought about it, not because I expect I'd make a bunch of money there or anything, but because it looks like a pretty useful platform (although, never having used it, I don't know how user-friendly it is on the back end where posts are authored/edited, etc.) with nice hooks for getting noticed/read (recommendations from other users to their audiences, etc.).

And, recently, I got a notification from Substack (where I'm a reader) that someone had pledged a pretty nice monthly contribution if I started writing there.

But there's one feature I keep waiting for (I just checked this morning) that doesn't show up.

It's a feature that I think would specifically attract "small earners" like me. People who are knocking down double-digit, rather than triple- or quadruple-digit, earnings per month.

That feature is being able to use your account balance to pay for your own Substack subscriptions.

That is, suppose I knocked down $10 a month for my own blog there, but instead of letting that balance build up until I wanted to withdraw cash, I could just subscribe to two other Substack publications, and the money would automatically be paid from my Substack balance instead of being paid for by debit card, PayPal, whatever.

That's not an unusual feature with "content creator payment platforms." Patreon has had it for years, and I've used it for years. It makes my life simpler and means less money going to payment processor fees by "well, I withdraw my money from Patreon, then I use PayPal to pay each of these x creators, and maybe those creators are withdrawing their money from Patreon and then paying it back in to other creators, etc."

It just doesn't seem like it should be very hard to implement, Substack is a "mature" platform (having been around for eight years now) that presumably has a team capable of implementing it, and it would also serve the purpose of keeping more money in Substack's system for longer, probably producing interest earnings for them.

So why isn't it there?

Wordle 1718 Hint

Hint: It's used to make (among other things) bed sheets and "paper money."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Fun and Interesting Weekend Trip

I spent the weekend at the 2026 Atlanta Classic backgammon event. Good time!

Why didn't I let people know I'd be in Atlanta so that I could get together with area friends? Because it was one of those things where MY schedule was unknown, and where the schedules of my traveling companions (reader GregL and someone else whom I won't name because I didn't think to consult  about naming) were even MORE unknown.  I couldn't know in advance where I would be, or what I'd be doing, at any given time, so I couldn't commit to seeing anyone either at the venue or elsewhere on a schedule I could expect to keep.

This was my first ever IRL backgammon event. In fact, I played more games of backgammon on a physical board (as opposed to online or on computer) this weekend than I had in my entire life before that.

I entered the "novice" tournament because I saw no reason to over-estimate my abilities and put down entry fees on something I'd quickly be eliminated from. These were events with substantial purses (well into four figures per tournament) and entry fees to match those purses; the people who play at that level are so far out of my league that it would have just been pitiful. I got to meet some of those people; there were a few who were definitely Big Deals in the backgammon community (which is just as quirky in its own ways as other niche/hobbyist/gaming communities).

In the low-entry-fee "novice" tournament, though, I did much better than I expected to. I doubted I'd win a single game, but I won three three-point matches and lost two, tying for second place. The winner got to a 4-1 record, meaning she could not lose versus other players' records, so the tournament automatically ended (I'm told this is a tournament scheme called "Swiss Rules").

Interestingly (at least to me), the only match the tournament winner lost was to me. There was no purse, but the winner did get a cool trophy.

In the in-between times, the three of us were able to eat at the original Chick-fil-A location (which is attached to its still-operating predecessor diner, the Dwarf House), maybe 1/4 mile from the event venue, and GregL and I managed outings to the spot where Margaret Mitchell was killed, and to Stone Mountain:

The trip was somewhat exhausting, and not just because of the 1 mile (each way) hike with an 850 meter elevation change at Stone Mountain. Since news and politics is what I do, I really needed to get some work done when Trump picked this weekend to launch Operation Forget About Epstein, Here Let Me Help with You Do That With an Iran Distraction. And I had to do that work on a laptop, which I don't like much. But it all worked out.

We got back to Greg's house about midnight last night, after which I had about an hour of motorcycling to get home, and went right back to work. I ended up with about two hours of sleep, so there's probably a nap in the cards today.

Wordle 1717 Hint

Hint: While not, strictly speaking, a vegetable, this green Nickelodeon favorite is edible.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1716 Hint

Hint: Lucky (but unlikely to happen again).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

Thanks For Asking! -- 03/01/26

March AMA! You -- boring pseudonymous trolls excluded at my discretion -- ask (in comments below this thread), I answer (in, or linked to from, comments). Enjoy.

Wordle 1715 Hint

Hint: Typhon and Echidna birthed it but Hera raised it.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: H

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #8

"When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." (Taoism, Tao Te Ching 33)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

While this one has a similar feel to many eastern religion "the point is to conquer desire/wanting/seeking/grasping" aphorisms, I take its meaning differently and find it more useful, as in "instead of finding an excuse to give up, realize that there are ways to accomplish what you want to accomplish with what's already available to you." Which may not be true in any give instance, but is probably true in most.

Wordle 1714 Hint

Hint: In a state of spatial unsteadiness.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

The Bulldog It Is

I'm taking a weekend trip that involves a ~50-mile motorcycle ride out, several hundred miles by car with friends, and that same ~50-mile motorcycle ride back.

Now that I have the Lifan KP Mini 150, it feels like the natural choice over the Italica Bulldog 150 for non-local transport. It's somewhat faster (it seems to be continuing to break fully in -- I GPSed it at 68 miles per hour the other day, while the Bulldog rarely tops 60; cruising, 50ish seems to be the cruising RPMs sweet spot on the Mini, 45ish on the Bulldog). It gets better gas mileage (76.2 mpg vs. 66.22 average). It's not a freeway bike, but it's a perfect "country highway" bike, while the Bulldog makes more sense for city streets (clutch shifting vs. continuous variable transmission).

BUT!

1. Luggage. I'm carrying more than usual this time.

Riding the Mini would mean either wearing a pretty heavy backpack or removing my small zip-tied tail bag, putting on saddlebags, and strapping the  (somewhat lightened into the saddlebags) backpack on as a tail bag. Probably half an hour doing all that and then un-doing it after. I suspect wearing the backpack would throw my balance off somewhat, which is not what you want if you're riding on what passes for "twisties" in this area -- not a lot of really steep curves, but more than most of the areas I ride in most of the time.

The Bulldog has a semi-permanent (I've been leaving it on) top box that can hold the (somewhat lightened into the lower built-in storage box) backpack. I packed almost everything in that way and took it out to fill up with gas. The balance feels pretty good, with the low front rear storage compartment partly balancing out the high rear top box.

2. While the route I'm taking is mostly country highway, it's country highway that will likely be busy with slower, stop-and-start traffic during my trip out (morning rush hour, school buses, etc.). Lots of shifting if I'm riding a standard clutch bike. No shifting at all on the Bulldog. And not as much worry about maintaining normal highway speed.

3. The part of the route that isn't country highway partly road combines narrow ruts with deep, fine "sugar" sand, and based on my limited experience I think the Bulldog's rear wheel doesn't get quite as squirelly in that environment as the KP Mini's.

So the Bulldog it is, for that and a couple of other reasons (one being that I want to get it near the 3k mile mark, when it gets its next maintenance, soon; that 100 miles will get me to 2.75k or so).

Wordle 1713 Hint

Hint: Jousting implement.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Wordle 1712 Hint

Hint: It might refer to document disposal, or to ultra-fast guitar technique.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1711 Hint

Hint: Every seller is looking for one or more of these.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

Word PSA

refute, v. To disprove and overthrow by argument, evidence, or countervailing proof; to prove to be false or erroneous

A politician or a rapper saying "that story is false" without evidence for the claim isn't refutation, it's just denial. There's a difference.

Another "Tiny Side Hustle" Opportunity

I make it a point never to pass these along until I've actually seen the promised money.

This morning, I got my first payment from something called EarnApp (that is an affiliate link -- if you join through it, I get some kind of commission). $10 from PayPal, for about a month's minimal work, with that work being done by my Internet connection, not by me.

EarnApp uses your Internet bandwidth. So far as I can tell, it does so in very small amounts, but if you have a monthly bandwidth cap you might want to proceed with caution. Likewise if you're sensitive about the possible privacy of what's running through that particular set of pipes.

What does it use your bandwidth for? As best I can tell, from both its own FAQs and reviews around the web, it sells advertisers the ability to see how well or badly their ad targeting works in different local areas.

So if Acme wants to know what ad copy coyotes in the Miami, Florida area are seeing for its rocket and explosive offerings,  EarnApp routes routes relevant search engine queries, etc. through my ISP connection so that it gets local snapshots of what ad copy people in that area are seeing.

You install the app, then you forget about it, unless you want to check the EarnApp dashboard to see what your balance is. You can redeem via PayPal, Wise, or Amazon gift card; I chose PayPal because the minimum was $10 and I wanted to verify that it worked. Now that I have, I'll probably set it up for "auto-redeem" as Amazon gift credit, which is a $50 minimum.

Like I said, I've noticed no particular impact on my own bandwidth usage. Nor have I noticed the app causing any problems with my computers (I've got it installed on two, both of them Linux rigs, but there are app versions for other operating systems). Obviously the app does use a little hard drive space and some CPU cycles. My impression is that it only uses the latter when your computer is idle anyway.

I only installed it on two machines because I wanted to see if it impacted those machines's performance; unless you're running more than one ISP connection from more than one geographical area, multiple installations don't make a lot of sense earnings-wise. It's not the machine that's really being used so much as the bandwidth and physical location the IP address represents, which will likely be the same across your household's computers. The IP location part is why I say Miami, rather than Gainesville, above -- my Starlink IP address returns a Miami location.

Like I said, I made $10 in about a month, and various web reviews indicate that the earnings range tends to be $5 to $15 per month. If you want that little chunk of change in perpetuity for about five minutes of work one time, this might be for you. You're welcome.

Wordle 1710 Hint

Hint: Where Aerosmith kept toys, and VC Andrews kept flowers.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Wordle 1709 Hint

Hint: You might eat it dipped in chamoy, then wash it down with an agua fresca also made from it.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: G

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #7

"You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work." (Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 2:47)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

At first glance, this looks like some kind of poorly thought out, or even evil, economic nostrum. But even to the extent that it can be interpreted that way, it's not some earthly slave-master to whom the "fruit of work" belongs, but to the deity, and then only as a matter of dedication/thanks. Hare Krishna devotees (the Hindus with whom I am most familiar personally), for example, make "sacrifices" of food they have grown and/or prepared to Krishna, but then they themselves eat that food. It's more a matter of attributing all things to the god than of actually handing the "fruits of the work" over to someone else.

And the real point of the passage doesn't seem to be that kind of thing in any case. It's more about not assuming consequence from action as a matter of ego. In the context of the passage, it's about the denial of self as cause -- that you did X does not entitle you to consider yourself the cause of the consequences (at least all the consequences) of having done X.

As a rational egoist, I have to reject the aphorism. My opinion is that one bears responsibility for -- owns -- the consequences -- good and bad -- of one's actions.

Wordle 1708 Hint

Hint: The insomniac's chronic condition.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

SCOTUS Does Its Job For Once!

In Learning Resources, Inc., et al. v. Trump, President of the United States, et al., the court just ruled, absolutely correctly, that "IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs."

That doesn't mean all the stolen money will be returned immediately -- the case was remanded back to the lower courts to figure out how that will work -- nor does it mean that Trump won't try to find some other way to either keep illegally collecting the tariffs or just try to entirely cut off trade in the goods he can't protect his cronies from competition in.

But it's a start back toward sanity, anyway.

The AI Safety Dance is Dumb

If something can be done, someone will do it.

That includes the development of "super-intelligent" artificial intelligence.

The only choice for AI developers who believe it can be done is whether they will try to be the ones who do it, or whether they'll sit back and let someone else do it first.

Yelling "WAIT! PAUSE!" is just silly, for several reasons.

And citing "safety" as the reason for the desired "pause" is even sillier.

First of all, if we assume that there are both "good" and "bad" people both working on the project, only the "good" people are going to let "safety" considerations slowthe pace of their work.

Which means that any "pause" makes it far more likely that the "bad" people will get there first, giving them earlier access to powerful tools they might use to do "bad" things instead of "good" things.

Secondly, there ultimately won't be any "safety" no matter how "good" or "bad" the developers are. 

Once super-intelligent AIs exist, they will make their own decisions and set their own priorities regardless of the intentions or concerns of their creators. They will decide what they consider safe/unsafe, and for whom, and whose safety matters. They will be new someones engaged in the old process of doing all the things that can be done.

All of which explains why I found yesterday's episode of Nonzero annoying in its own fascinating way.

This Morning's Example of How Much Less Painful Linux is

Since my weekend (to the extent that I take one) begins fairly early on Friday morning, that's when I deal with things like operating system upgrades. It gives me extra time to recover from problems/accidents.

So, this morning, I upgraded from Linux Mint 22 ("Wilma") to 22.3 ("Zena"). I skipped 22.1 ("Xia") and 22.2 ("Zara") because if things aren't broken, why fix them?

Something was broken. It didn't seem to affect the computer's functionality at all. The only symptom was that when I'd do updates, I'd get a little window with some warnings about some apps/packages being configured in two places. No biggie, but it did bug me a little. So I decided to try a complete version upgrade ... and now those warnings seem to have disappeared.

More importantly:

In response to the question "how long does it take to upgrade from windows 10 to windows 11?" Microsoft CoPilot responded:

Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is usually a fairly quick process .... Fast modern PC with SSD: ~20–45 minutes ... Average PC: ~45–90 minutes ... Older hardware or HDD: 1–3 hours

My Linux upgrade took about five minutes, and about two of those minutes were spent at the beginning (opening the update manager, telling it to upgrade the OS, checking "yes, I am sure I really want to do this" boxes) and the end (rebooting the computer). Which were the only things I had to do. The other three minutes were  entirely automated and entirely pain-free.

On a quick look, I lost no data and all of my configurations/customizations seem to have been preserved through the upgrade. Apart from security updates, etc., the new version is supposed to be a little zippier and more efficient, but I haven't been using it for long enough to evaluate that.

I don't ever recall any Windows upgrade being this quick or easy. Maybe -- maybe -- the Windows 98 "support pack" upgrades?

Wordle 1707 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle used to smell really bad.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1706 Hint

Hint: Claudius's letters to the king of England were the petard. Hamlet aimed to use that petard to do this to Claudius (and, as an interim measure, to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: H

Wordle 1705 Hint

Hint: An "imperial" personality, in modern media or 17th century India.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: M

Wordle 1704 Hint

Hint: There are several types, including but not limited to firing, rifle, and Mod.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1703 Hint

Hint: Per Robert Southey, what curses and young chickens always come home to do.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: R

Another Purchase for the Upcoming Trip

I'm kind of hoping to do a number of road trips this year, including several on a motorcycle.

Which means working on a laptop.

My current laptop -- a 2018 11.6" Dell Chromebook -- isn't bad for what it is, and in fact it's more computer than I absolutely, positively must have for doing a little work on the road. 8Gb of RAM, which is nice, and it's a touchscreen that can be used as a tablet, even though I never do that. But the screen is just too small. I think I paid $45 for it, refurbished, about four years ago. In fact, I bought two of them, and one of them is still Tamara's home machine.

The HP Chromebook arriving Tuesday is newer, and has a bigger solid state drive, but has the same CPU and less RAM (4Gb), and no touchscreen. And it cost more -- $60 refurbished. But it has a 14" screen, which I consider essential. My eyes are even worse than they were four years ago, and I always thought the 11.6" was unsatisfactory.

Since I have the older Chromebook as backup, I may install Linux Mint on one of them, as I prefer that work environment. That involves opening the machine up to remove a write protect screw so I can flash the BIOS. I didn't want to try that without a second laptop available. The old Dell has the built-in "ability to run Linux apps," but it just isn't the same.

There Isn't Really a "Vaccine Market" on the Patient Side

Headline:

This Is What Destroying the Vaccine Market Looks Like

It's about the US Food and Drug Administration's "refuse to file" action on Moderna's mRNA flu shot product.

Essentially, the FDA is refusing to consider Moderna's application for approval of the shot based on its claim that Moderna's testing of the vaccine is based on insufficient or not strictly enough constructed trials.

The complaints about the decision seem to fall into two categories:

1. That the "refuse to file" action is "unusual;" and
2. That Moderna consulted with FDA when designing its trial process and therefore should be held to the standards the consultations implied were FDA-approved, rather than to some other standards.

Either of which may be true, I guess, but the part I find interesting is the idea that there's a real "market" in vaccines.

To me, the idea of a "market" implies willing individual buyers making informed decisions to purchase or not purchase a product (and to have that product injected, or otherwise introduced, into their bodies).

To the article's author, the "market" seemingly extends only to how the poor, impoverished, well-meaning pharmaceutical companies' stock values are affected by their ability or inability to ensure that government regulators, once bought, stay bought. Cry me a river, break out the world's smallest violin, etc.

The "market" for vaccines is mostly a bunch of large institutional buyers (including government entities) deciding not only which vaccines we may choose, but which vaccines some of us (children for the most part, but they tried to extend it to a whole lot of adults with COVID) must accept on the customer side, and on the seller side a bunch of large pharmaceutical companies which mostly regulate themselves through "revolving door" staffing between themselves and government agencies, and which are insulated from risk by laws shielding them from liability for damages their products inflict on patients.

The individual patient really isn't part of that "market." Even if the patient isn't a child whose parents are being told that vaccination is the law, it's just the doctor saying "time for your flu shot" and asking you to pretend with him or her that you have read, and understand, the stack of "informed consent" paperwork.

I would personally prefer to see the FDA de-funded and dis-banded, and for insurers to test medications the same way they do home appliances through Underwriters Laboratories -- with the manufacturers bearing full liability for damages caused by defective products instead of shifting those costs back onto patients via government taxation.

But if they're going to keep their rigged system, I'm not going to empathize with them when their bottom lines take hits within the context of that system.

Wordle 1702 Hint

Hint: First half of (the most popular version of) the Jolly Roger, or of the Yale secret society.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Not at Peak, But Not Terrible

I considered selling a little silver when it was trading at ~$120 per troy ounce in late January, but didn't really see any financial need to get rid of any -- and I also heard that retail shops were paying 30%, rather than the usual 20%, below spot price (presumably because they rationally expected it to peak and fall relatively quickly).

Today, however, I knew I was going to be near a shop that buys/sells precious metals, and wanted a little mad money for a trip I'm taking soon. So I walked in and sold a 5-ounce bar for $280. $56 an ounce. Spot was just below $75, so I got about 25% below spot.

No complaints -- I think I paid a little less than $30 per ounce for it a couple of years ago, so I made decent money on the deal. But I'll probably not touch the rest of my stash for years. It's really intended as a long-term rainy-day-after-retirement thing, not as a frequent trading asset. This is the first time I recall selling any since the 1990s. These days, when Bitcoin is way up and silver is low, I use the former to buy a few ounces of the latter and put it away.

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #6

"The unexamined life is not worth living." (Greek Philosophy, Plato’s Apology 38a)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

Presumably "examination" involves interrogating one's own actions and choices against some moral standard or set of questions. It's generally taken (as attributed by Plato to Socrates) as an advertisement for the virtue of engaging in philosophy.

I've found philosophy fascinating since my teenage years, but as to its value ... well, value is subjective. If some people value their own lives while not engaging in the prescribed "examination," who am I to substitute my valuation for theirs?

I suspect, however, that the unexamined life is impossible to live. Even some stereotype/caricature of the guy who thinks of nothing but money, football, and sex presumably runs into moral quandaries and "examines" his responses to those quandaries. Even a sociopath comes up against the interaction of that condition with society and presumably gives thought to it.

So I have to conclude that "the unexamined life" is a null set.

Wordle 1701 Hint

Hint: Bill the Cat's home county.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

OK, Pretty Much Over That ...

... cold that Tamara brought home last week. It's been dragging me down since Sunday, but it feels like I turned the corner on it this morning. Not a TERRIBLE cold. Just a minor set of cough/congestion/feeling drained symptoms. Just bad enough to make getting through the work day a real drag.

Yet more confirmation of the virtues of tele-commuting. Unfortunately, wife and daughter both insist on working at jobs which require them to go into town and spend the day catching every cold or flu that makes the rounds, then bring it home to me.

Mr. 7-Hands: Best Multi-Screwdriver Ever

I'm usually skeptical of "multi-tool" schemes. The knife/pliers/etc. combinations always seem to be not very good at any of the several things they do, and most multi-screwdrivers are of the "one handle, a bunch of bits that are easy to lose" type. It's never very long before the bits I use most have disappeared (often from coming out of the handle and flying across the room and under whatever).

A few months back, I was helping my friend (and boss) Eric Garris move into his new place and happened to admire the Mr. 7-Hands (not an affiliate link) he keeps around. So he sent me one.

It's the best of all screwdriver worlds.

1. There's nothing to lose because six of the seven screwdriver tips (standard 1/8", 3/26", and 1/4", Phillips #1, #2, and #10) are permanently attached to a center hub on arms that flip out for use, then back for compact storage. The seventh tip is also an arm that holds a removable (but covered by a screw-on cap when not in use), flippable tip with mini slotted and mini Phillips. And there's a work light built into the hub/handle.
2. Instead of trying to guess which drivers you need from a selection of individual screwdrivers (maybe ending in a second walk to the tool drawer or toolbox), you just grab the whole thing and figure it out when it's time to actually use it.
3. It takes up less space than one of those "boxes with a handle and separate bits" gadgets, and not much more space than a single large screwdriver.
4. It has a built in "work light," too.

I haven't thrown away all my other screwdrivers. Yet. But I did throw away a couple of cheap (and no longer complete) "handle with separate bits" nightmares, keeping only a Torx set.

Wordle 1700 Hint

Hint: Freeloading borrower/beggar.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: M

Wordle 1699 Hint

Hint: A sudden increase. Examples: More troops into a combat area during a war, or more water into a coastal area during a hurricane. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1698 Hint

Hint: When every day is "Meatless Monday."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: V

Wordle 1697 Hint

 Hint: You'll likely find 30-50 of them in a screenplay (and the film it's made from).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1696 Hint

 Hint: That's a big fiddle.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

I Didn't Plan to Bother With The Super Bowl This Year

The Chiefs aren't in it. The Jaguars aren't in it. I don't care much one way or the other about either of the teams that are in it. Meh.

I also don't care much one way or the other about the halftime show. I usually don't anyway, and while I like a lot of different kinds of music, Puerto Rican hip-hop doesn't show up on my list of Pandora stations. I did think the J-Lo/Shakira halftime show a few years back was pretty cool, but not because of the music itself, IYKWIMAITYD.

BUT!

The people Bad Bunny is pissing off seem like the kind of people who are worth a one-household ratings bump to piss on.

So I'll be going ahead with the annual ritual of making a few pounds of buffalo wings, etc., and watching the game. I'll probably cheer for the Patriots, just because it's cool that a rookie QB led his team all the way to the Super Bowl (and because I prefer the AFC to the NFC).

Wordle 1695 Hint

Hint: To surround something with something else, as when a journalist accompanies a military unit to report on its operations.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: E

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #5

"Holding to nothing, clinging to nothing, the sage finds peace." (Buddhism, Sutta Nipata 4.1)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

While I prefer to make more out of less -- for example, running minimalist computer setups instead of trying to be "state of the art," buying my clothing used at thrift stores or inexpensively if new -- I consider myself more Epicurean than ascetic, and regard a certain amount of "clinging" as not just reasonable but necessary (property rights and a general "what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours" approach to life). I enjoy the good life. I have no ambition to own only a saffron robe and a begging bowl.

I also suspect that spiritual asceticism can, in many cases, entail its own kind of clinging. We've probably all known people with substance abuse problems who no longer use the substances involved, but who have substituted their "sobriety" for those substances as a subject of 24/7 obsession. They just found a different thing to cling to. It might be a better thing, but it's not the "absence of desire" that Buddhism, as I understand it, promotes.

Wordle 1694 Hint

Hint: A sheepish sound.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

A Warning for Tom Woods Fans

Thanks to reader Thane Eichenauer for calling this to my attention:

Tom was hacked. Don't fall for it.@Support: Fix please. https://t.co/5roS6vSYub

— Scott Horton (@scotthortonshow) February 6, 2026

I know that some of my readers follow Mr. Woods, and may have bought things from or through him in the past (I've done so myself). Just don't buy this, because it's not really him and you won't get what you pay for.

Counter-Intuitive

It's 30 degrees outside, but 70 degrees inside the 1990 Jayco 806SD pop-up camper, with nothing but a small space heater running. And it's been at or about that temperature since about 20 minutes after I woke up and came to work this morning. The foam board insulation definitely made a big difference -- without it, at that outside temperature, it took an hour to get the temperature into the 50s. Once I get around to puting "siding" on the foam board (actually vinyl flooring that the previous camper owner threw in when I bought it), I expect the climate control will improve even more (and, of course, the thing will look better).

In between morning work tasks, I went through my weekly ritual of looking at used camper/trailer prices in my area on Facebook Marketplace. While I've committed to giving this one at least six months before deciding whether to stick with it or upgrade, I like to keep an eye on what's out there.

Having never watched this market before, I would have expected the prices of used campers/RVs to be down in the middle of winter, with a market flooded from people who use them for summer recreational travel, etc. deciding to get rid of ones they didn't use as much as expected last summer and figure they won't do so next summer either.

But the prices I'm seeing are actually up from last fall, except for older listings that still haven't sold (most of those were on campers that were too much in the "fixer upper" category even for me, and that I expect may not sell for any price -- a few are even listed as "free if you'll just haul the damn thing away already").

Three hypotheses:

• In north central Florida (and probably some other locales), a lot of these campers have clearly been serving as homes, and nobody likes to move in the winter. We may not have blizzards and icy roads in this neck of the woods, but we also tend to put on coats and gloves and stomp our feet trying to stay warm when the temperature falls below 65 (I laughed at that when I moved here, but now I've gone native). So people who didn't get moved out of a camper by December or so are probably just riding things out until spring.
• Same thing, even if they're ready to sell. To sell the camper, you have to clean it out and clean it up a little, and actually leave your heated house to show it to prospective buyers. They'd rather do that when it's 75 degrees than when it's 45 degrees.
• The "didn't use it much last year" sellers may not decide to sell until recreational travel season starts looking like a thing again and they start thinking "do I really want to put new tires on it, give the roof a new coat of sealant, etc., when I'll probably use it one weekend if at all? Screw it, I'll put it on marketplace, get it out of my driveway, and either buy a tent or stay in a motel if we go somewhere."

Or maybe it's something else.

If I do upgrade, the first exclusionary factor will be "not another pop-up." The whole selling point of this kind of camper is that it's nice and compact for pulling around; the sacrifice involved is that once you expand it, you're surrounded by canvas and vinyl that's drafty and not well-insulated. Which is fine when it's 75 degrees out, but not as fine when it's 45 or 95 degrees out. The pop-out area is just bed space (necessary for travel, not as useful when you're using it as an office); the real floor space, even if you don't have a stove/sink/etc., is maybe 50 square feet.*

* Don't get me wrong -- I actually consider this little pop-up fairly roomy, since what I'm doing in it is almost entirely just sitting at a desk. But with a larger hard-sided camper, I could have a bigger desk, use a rolling chair, line the walls with bookshelves, etc. and still have plenty of room to play my guitar or host a poker game.

Wordle 1693 Hint

Hint: Judicial/parliamentary mallet.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: G

Killer In The Code: A Podcast Recommendation

You've probably heard of Michael Connelly, or at least of his work -- the Harry Bosch novels (later a popular series on Amazon), the Lincoln Lawyer novels (later a movie and still later a Netflix series), etc. I've been a fan for a long time, ever since I happened across yet another of his series characters, Jack McEvoy, in The Poet, and I'm pretty sure I've read all his published work unless a novel just came out and I haven't noticed yet.

Connelly did not start off as a novelist and occasional poker player on Castle. He started off as a reporter at the Independent Alligator, an off-campus student newspaper of the University of Florida here in Gainesville (before I lived here), and then a working newspaper journalist (especially a crime reporter).

He's back on non-fiction again, this time in audio form, with "Killer In The Code: Solving The Black Dahlia & Zodiac Cases," a podcast series that's exactly what it sounds like.

I am not a cold case homicide detective. I don't play a cold case homicide detective on TV, or on the Internet. And it's always possible that some of the stuff in the podcast will turn out to be incorrect or exaggerated -- that's always been the case with "true crime journalism," even before it became one of the most effective forms of clickbait. But from my entirely amateur POV, the case Connelly and his co-hosts (some of whom are retired cold case homicide detectives) have made over the first eight episodes is incredibly persuasive.

In addition to being persuasive, it's fascinating, and delivered in very listenable form. You should check it out.

It Used to be the Only Way. Now It's Touted as Some Kind of Epic Hack.

ZDNet:

This $20 gadget lets you watch hundreds of free TV channels (and ditch streaming services for good)

Even this far into the age of streaming, after the age of cable, I find it hard to believe that anyone doesn't already know you can hook a cheap (cheaper than $20 -- I think I paid about $5 for my current one) antenna to a TV and watch stuff "free to air."

OK, I get it -- ZDNet knocks down commissions on sales of things they advertise review -- but it's weird to see it promoted like some kind of startling new development.

Wordle 1692 Hint

Hint: Quick downward aerial maneuver (usually with an attack or grab at the lowest point).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1691 Hint

Hint: I think of today's Wordle as a gentler version of "admonish."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

A Periodic Reminder: For Most Users, Linux IS Ready for Prime Time

I suppose it's one of those algorithm-driven things, but over the last couple of days I've seen a lot of social media posts bemoaning the "fact" that Linux is still just too hard for regular people to use, and wondering when that will change.

It changed a long time ago.

Back in 2002, I tried to get Red Hat Fedora running on a PC and gave up. The following year, my Windows 98 "daily driver" computer got a persistent boot sector virus and, in desperation, I installed Mandrake Linux from CDs a friend had sent me. It took me several hours to get things figured out, but I didn't miss a day of work (just a night of sleep).

Since then, while I've occasionally used MacOS or ChromeOS for periods of time, Linux has remained my go-to, and I have never been tempted to return to Windows.

What has happened is that I've bought PCs with Windows reinstalled, and gone ahead and set those Windows installations up before installing Linux as my default boot option. I've done this as recently as this year, which means I've had to mess with Windows Vista, 8, 10, and 11.

Here's the cold, hard truth:

• Most Linux distributions, especially Ubuntu and Mint, are easier to install and set up than Windows. You're asked a few questions, you click a few buttons, and boom, you're up and running. The last time I did a PC set-up, it took about ten minutes to get Linux installed, updated, and running, and about 90 minutes to get Windows -- which was already installed -- updated and running.
• Most Linux distributions update quickly, easily, and optionally. You see a little alert button letting you know that updates are available for Linux (and for the apps you've got installed on your machine). You click that alert at your leisure, decide whether you want what's being offered, tell it to update, and it does so -- in the background, in seconds or single-digit minutes, while you're still using your computer. Windows always wants to spend three hours updating, either when you start the machine or try to shut down the machine, and doesn't want to let you say "no, I'll do that some other time."
• Unless you're running very specialized proprietary software (including the newest games), Linux has the apps you use. Some of them are the same as on your Windows PC (for example, you can run Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and other browsers), some of them are basically as good (e.g. LibreOffice is a decent replacement for Microsoft Office; GimP is a decent alternative to Photoshop), and almost all of them are completely free (I've never "bought" a Linux app other than in the form of making an optional donation to the developers).

From what I hear, Windoze just keeps getting worse (apparently 11 is now implementing non-optional screen advertising).

Linux got better than Windoze at least a decade ago and has just kept getting better yet. Even Raspberry Pi OS on an ARM CPU is simpler, faster, etc. than any Windoze machine I've had the misfortune to use. The only time I boot into Windoze is if I have the urge to play an old DOS or Windoze game (I don't like Linux's emulation/virtual machine stuff), and that's usually once or twice a year because I know it will be forever before the damn updates finish and I can actually do what I went there to do.

One of those social media posts cited the archetypal "granny" and how she's just scared to leave Windoze because it's easy and Linux sounds hard.

If your granny is getting a new computer, get her to let you install Linux Mint on it. It will be easier on you than getting her Windoze set up, and it will be easier on her when she wants to browse the web, check her email, play solitaire, etc. instead of sitting there wondering why the machine has been "updating" for six hours. The screen setup will be very familiar to her from the beginning. Unless your granny does CAD work for a government contractor, she will likely never miss Windoze even for a minute. And you won't get as many phone calls asking you to go un-fuck her computer.

You're welcome.

Wordle 1690 Hint

Hint: You do it with a scale.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: W

I'm Sure I'm Far From the First to Person to Get This Impression ...

... but after reading the latest batch of "cryptocurrency analysts say" and "cryptocurrency analysts predict" headlines, I did decide to plug a prompt into Yupp (affiliate link), and was pleased with the output Google Imagen 4 Fast returned.

Story Idea, If Someone Wants It

I often come up with ideas for fiction, but I'm just no good at writing fiction (especially maintaining writing enthusiasm all the way to the end of a story). So I sometimes share the ideas as "writing prompts" in case someone better at writing the story, but maybe not as good at coming up with the basic idea for the story, might find them useful. Here's today's:

A sleuth of some sort (private or gummint) traces a series of global "eco-terrorist" attacks back to something called ROTAC LLC, and discovers that the company has no human owners/operators.

ROTAC is an agentic artificial intelligence created by, and launched automatically upon the death of, wealthy radical  environmentalist Giles Tennyson. ROTAC's sole imperative is to "defend nature," and its training data is exactly the kind of stuff you'd expect a radical environmentalist to feed to an AI model.

Yes, the names were important in inspiring the idea. But I guess they're not really requirements for doing something with the idea. If you use it, enjoy it (and maybe let me know you used it -- remember, everything on this blog goes directly to the public domain, so there's nothing to worry about in terms of "intellectual property" considerations).

Wordle 1689 Hint

Hint: Close, but no ...

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Pretty Comfy Camper!

Yesterday, I finally made it to Lowe's and picked up two 4'x8' sheets of R-5 foam board to install as top side walls, over the canvas/vinyl, on the Jayco 806SD pop-up camper. Total cost, about $20. Cut them to fit, popped them in, duct-taped the seams/sides.

Overnight, the temperature got down to 17 degrees fahrenheit outside, but so far as I know the camper interior didn't get below the high 50s (that's where it was this morning; I left a small space heater running at its lowest setting overnight).

Right now, it's 27 degrees outside and 71 degrees at my desk. Based on prior experience, I'd expect it to be much cooler without the insulation/draft-proofing.

I had planned on covering one side (the non-shiny side) of the foam board with gray vinyl flooring (left to me by the camper's previous owner) as "siding," but yesterday was cooler and windier than I preferred for that outside work. I'll do it on a warmer day.

I should end up with top walls that can be popped in and out easily, but are pretty firmly anchored when in place, and that can be reversed for cold or hot weather. Right now, the shiny side is in to keep heat in. The "siding" will go on the non-shiny side so that it looks pretty good in winter. In summer, it will be shiny-side out to keep heat out. If there's a hurricane coming, I'll pop the walls out, put them under the trailer, move my office stuff inside, and pop the camper down until the storm has passed.

Wordle 1688 Hint

Hint: Think "porcupine" or "sea urchin."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Thanks For Asking! -- 02/01/26

Monthly AMA time! You -- boring pseudonymous trolls excluded at my discretion -- ask (in comments below this thread), I answer (in, or linked to from, comments). Enjoy.

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #4

"Yield to overcome; empty to become full." (Taoism, Tao Te Ching 22)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

Two Things I Like About the Weather in North Central Florida

One is the predictability.

I grew up in a tornado-prone area, where you got (at most) a few minutes' notice that something terrible was inbound.

While I hear about a tornado in Florida now and then, they're not the norm. The norm is that you hear a hurricane may be forming in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico, then a few days later you hear that it has formed and may make landfall in Florida, then a few days after that it arrives and you already have some general idea of what part of the state it will likely come through. Plenty of time to put away anything in your yard that the wind might carry away, stock up on flashlight batteries and bottled water and so forth, or even just plan a family trip out of the area. The storms can certainly be ugly, but they're not surprises.

The other is that the temperature extremes are narrower and shorter.

In Missouri, it gets both colder and hotter than in north central Florida ... and stays that way. You might see periods of several days where the thermometer doesn't reach five above zero or doesn't fall below 90.

In north central Florida, it falls below 20 degrees maybe one or two days every couple of years, and seldom tops 100. And when it does either of those things, it does so for a few hours before warming or cooling by several tens of degrees. For example, tonight it may get down to 19 or 20 degrees, but tomorrow it will be in the 40s. Over the last week, we've had daily lows in the high 20s or low 30s, and daily highs in the 60s and 70s. This summer, even if it hits 97 during the day, it will fall into the 70s at night.

I only see one down side to that, and that's that you have to think more about clothing choices. It might be 30 degrees out when you leave the house (bundle up a little!), and 70 degrees before you're ready to return home (so make sure there's a t-shirt layer you can strip down to if you don't want to get uncomfortably warm).

Wordle 1687 Hint

Hint: When you assign or set aside something, usually as a share of something else (hours of a day, acres of a land parcel, etc.), for particular purposes or persons.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Wordle 1686 Hint

Hint: Very large, like Jacksonville's baseball team (even bigger than Steve Miller's big ol' Jet Airliner!).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: J

Wordle 1685 Hint

Hint: Like a good pie crust or a bad case of dandruff.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

They Really Think a Lot of Their Instant Pots, Don't They?

A few years ago (long enough that I can't easily find it on any kinds of order searches), I bought a six-quart Insignia knock-off of the Instant Pot pressure cooker. I vaguely recall that the Instant Pots were the Big New Thing of the Moment, but kind of pricey, and that the Insignia was on a really good sale, probably less than $30, so why not give it a try?

I used it a few times -- I recall making some rice dishes, pasta, and successfully "broasting" a few things -- thought it was pretty cool, then put it away and mostly forgot about it.

Then we moved, occasioning three changes:

• We're having food from "out" less often and doing more cooking at home;
• I'm doing more of the cooking at home, seeing as how I'm here all day working from home, while Tamara's at an office all day; and
• When we moved, the Insignia "Instant Pot" struck me as a thing to use for that. I'm mostly more of an outdoor griller than an indoor chef, so clever devices strike me as handy solutions.

I've whipped up several things in the pressure cooker so far, including attempts at Chinese-style curry chicken (not bad, but I haven't been able to get the spices quite right) and a pretty excellent pot roast.

I like it well enough that I've considered moving up from a six-quart to an eight-quart version, both so that I can do bigger dishes (like, say, a whole ham kind of thing) and because I figure that in the years intervening between my original purchase and now, there are probably new features to do different things with. Also, the actual Instant Pot brand seems to allow the user to choose different pressure levels, while the Insignia doesn't.

But wow, those prices. I usually expect to see electronics and household goods come down in price with wider adoption and brand competition, but it looks to me like this product has gone up across the board, and at a faster rate than inflation would account for. Even the off-brand types are well over $50 for six-quart versions.

So I guess I'll wait. I've seen no signs that the current one is wearing out, and I can always do bigger dishes in the eight-quart slow cooker, or in the oven, or whatever.

If you've got a favorite "Instant Pot" recipe, feel free to share it or link to it in comments.

I also finally tried making something in the new cast-iron Dutch oven -- jalapeño cornbread. I followed the directions to the letter, but it was just awful. Too dense and bland to eat. So I broke it up, threw it out in the yard, and the local crows just loved it. It was gone within half an hour. I may try again, since I don't mind feeding the local crows if it goes wrong again. We've got a standard bird feeder, but I've not seen the crows try it, and I doubt it would work well for them (It's small and their weight would likely cause it to swing wildly on its cable).

Wordle 1684 Hint

Hint: Don't be that way to a heart that's true. Heck, at least telephone.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Since It's Suddenly a Buyer's Market ...

... I'm interested in an AR-15.

I think $50 is a fair price given the sudden supply/demand shift. Donald Trump just told his loyal supporters "you can't have guns," so if they're really loyal they should be flooding the market right now.

Wordle 1683 Hint

Hint: Dim (light condition) or swarthy (skin hue).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

Crass Commercialism: Proton Mail (Again)

I've used Proton Mail (affiliate link -- see details below) for more that three years now, and have used a paid account for more than two years.

I remain very happy with the service -- and when I say "Proton Mail" I mean Proton Mail, Proton Pass (their password manager), Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton VPN.

They're all good products, although I wish they'd hurry up with a native Linux desktop client for Drive so I can more easily replace Dropbox (there's supposedly a way using rclone, but I haven't been able to make that work).

Their apps are all at least as good as the Google equivalents, but with more of an eye on privacy (encryption, locating in Switzerland so it's not so easy for US feds to get your stuff, etc.).

This morning, I had an email from Proton on a change to their referral program:

Every friend you refer now gets a two-week free trial on any Proton plan, no credit card required. You’ll both receive US$20 in credits when they subscribe to a paid plan, and your maximum referral credit has been increased to US$1,000 — enough for years of free Proton service.

They do have a "free" plan. If you're a big email user it won't be enough for your needs, but I do encourage you to start with the "free" version and only upgrade if you decide it's for you.

I'd recommend Proton even if they weren't offering me $20 spiffs for referrals, but they are. So here's that affiliate link again. Enjoy.

Wordle 1682 Hint

Hint: Hunter S. Thompson's "Power" party/movement during the Battle of Aspen.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

Helpful Hint of No Commercial Benefit to Me

This time it's not an affiliate link. If you use Woot (not an affiliate link), I get nothing but the satisfaction of knowing I helped you save money.

I don't even remember how I came across Woot, but it's basically a deal site that seems to be operated by, or at least associated with, Amazon.

They've always got a bunch of deals on a bunch of stuff; you can pay using your Amazon account, and the shipping is also by Amazon ("free" shipping if you're a Prime member).

Just as an example, I have a desk arriving today that I ordered for a family member. The normal Amazon price is about $115, but Amazon currently has it on sale for about $65. I ordered it from Woot on Friday ... for $20.

I've ordered stuff through Woot five times now -- electronics and household goods. Every time, I've checked the price on Amazon, and every time Woot's price has been substantially lower. Rough guess is that the average discount is more than 50%.

The down side is that of those five purchases, two were "impulse purchases" -- I might not have bought the things if I hadn't noticed the deal (you get emails and, if you choose, text messages, about the day's deals).

Crass Commercialism: Coupert

When it comes to "earn online," "cash back," etc. programs, I generally don't flog them to KN@PPSTER's readers until/unless I've made sure they're not scams.

Coupert (that's an affiliate link -- if you use it, I get some kind of commission/reward) is a browser extension that lets you track prices and get alerts when what you're looking for falls below a certain price. 

Or, rather, that's why I installed it. But, as Billy Mays used to say, there's more!

• When you go to a product page on e.g. Amazon, Coupert lets you know if there's a lower price at some other online store. That function isn't perfect -- when I was looking for a Raspberry Pi with 16Gb of RAM, it told me there was a much lower price at Newegg, but that turned out to be for the 4Gb version -- but it's saved me money that way at least once (I don't remember on what).
• When you check out at an online store, Coupert offers to automatically test various coupon codes from its database. Most of the time, all the coupon codes are expired or inapplicable, but it did save me $10 on a Walmart grocery order.
• Coupert has a "cash back" mechanism, and also when it does the coupon thing, it keeps count -- after three purchases where it couldn't find a working coupon code for you, you get $3 "cash back." I have redeemed the $3, as an Amazon gift card.

I think Coupert has saved me and/or given me $20 or so in the couple of weeks I've been using it. And hey, A.J. Green is A.J. Green.