So, I think I might be a nerd.
@SDF.ORG is running a BBS called bitzone. On this BBS they have a door game called LORD (League of the Rare Dragoon (not to be confused with Legend of the Red Dragon, of which it is clearly a knock-off)).
The fact that I'm playing this game in the first place is kind of nerdy, but wait, there's more.
In said game you have a character with various stats. One of these stats is "charm", which seems to get you discounts in the shops. Unfortunately, there's nothing to say exactly how this relationship works. So I've decided to try to reverse-engineer it with #emacs #org-mode.
I've created a table to track my purchases. It tracks my charm at the time of purchase, the list price for the item, and the price I actually paid. There's also an additional colum that calculates the actual discount, but that's trivial.
Anyhoot, I'm adding some code to this file that reads the values in the table and computes the simplest polynomial function that satisfies the equation:
$$price_{actual}=f(charm,price_{list})$$
This is done with the aim of predicting how much I'd actually spend on an item before actually buying it. It of course assumes that the equation being used is a polynomial equation, but I'm hoping it'll at least be able to approximate with a large enough set of data points.
Am I doing this because it's reasonable?
No.
I'm doing it because it's an interesting challenge... and I'm a nerd.
CC: @tob
Plutarch
in reply to Em • • •fraggle
in reply to Plutarch • • •@plutarch in the UK the Tories pulled this amazing stunt several years ago where they did a one-off slight raise to the minimum wage and renamed it "the national living wage"
It's not actually a living wage of course. But it shut down all the actual discussion which was exactly what they really wanted
Paul Rietschka
in reply to Plutarch • • •Dave Rahardja
in reply to Plutarch • • •Nicole Parsons
in reply to Em • • •Billionaires spent a lot of money on AI, and on buying corrupt Suprene Court Justices, to make housing unaffordable.
dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/5/…
propublica.org/article/clarenc…
multifamilydive.com/news/antit…
inman.com/2024/06/07/clarence-…
bisnow.com/news/national/multi…
therealdeal.com/texas/dallas/2…
Trump's GOP adores rent-fixing AI
politico.com/news/2025/12/14/t…
npr.org/2025/11/25/g-s1-99331/…
Harlan Crow Bought Property from Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal.
Justin Elliott (ProPublica)ZZ Bottom reshared this.
Craig Stewart
in reply to Em • • •I would argue that this doesn't go far enough.
The maximum rent for a one bedroom flat should be tied to the minimum benefits that an individual who is not working through choice, not incapability, can expect to receive, such that this individual can afford enough basic food and fuel (electricity, gas, etc) to have a meaningfully balanced and varied diet, and be able to survive. Survival in a civilised society should not be a struggle.
firebreathingduck
in reply to Craig Stewart • • •@pmb00cs
I think if we simply lock the relationship between minimum wage and housing, we only shift which set of oligarchs rip us off most away from the employers towards the landlords.
I think we need legally protected housing communes.
Em
in reply to Craig Stewart • • •Azad
in reply to Em • • •This is a bandaid solution, workers need to own whatever they produce.
We do not need masters like Bezos and neither do we need negotiations in wage slavery, its will still be modern age slavery. The state and Epstein class will still have too much power and neither produce anything.
🤠 Sam Chavez (she/they/hey)
in reply to Em • • •💯 I was just in Montana and people are working 3 jobs to pay rent...IN MONTANA!
Imagine what it's like in the rest of the U.S.
Kevin Ashworth
in reply to Em • • •Ok.
Another good idea: Minimum wage tied to executive wage. Every raise they get directly increases the wage of their employees.
Epic Null
in reply to Kevin Ashworth • • •Mobility Matters Bham
in reply to Kevin Ashworth • • •Marta Threadbare
in reply to Em • • •A.Minion
in reply to Em • • •When I was young the minimum wage was a living wage. That's how it was implemented. On my meager wage of $1.25hr 40hrs got me an apartment, food, transpo (The basic living needs) and a beer after work. Even some medical cost.
I also got much of my first 2 years of college at the same time. No debt. Jr college cost $5.00 for a student ID and books. Then we got Nixon and it all went away by the time we got Reagan, gone. Coincidence?
Nazo
in reply to A.Minion • • •@A_Minion I don't know. I don't think minimum wage should require a 40 hour work week to barely survive with only just enough to get drunk to try to forget that your entire life consists of doing work. Especially since companies sign people up for 39.9 hours a week to avoid providing benefits.
Ok, really I feel like humanity *requires* UBI as a thing, but, putting that aside, we need to have enough non-working time to live in addition to having enough money to live.
Em
in reply to Nazo • • •xlv
in reply to Em • • •morton
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to morton • • •rk: it’s hyphen-minus actually
in reply to Em • • •I know both Paris and Tokyo both try to varying degrees to make this work.
And while I am generally opposed to the argument that “regulations make housing prices go up,” they do sometimes. In a lot of cities, high density housing (including SRO) is essentially illegal in a lot of cities.
The Drop Bear 2.0
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to The Drop Bear 2.0 • • •MiaK 🏴 🇵🇸
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to MiaK 🏴 🇵🇸 • • •Eowyn
in reply to Em • • •@stevewfolds
in reply to Em • • •Epic Null
in reply to @stevewfolds • • •Betterthanlast
in reply to @stevewfolds • • •@stevewfolds I’m at around 24%, but median rent in my neighborhood is almost exactly 50% more than what I pay. So basically, this place is not great, but I can’t move at least unless they raise my rent by a lot.
People used to pay less for other things too (like healthcare), so if they’re up to 50% in rent they must be in an awful spot overall.
Mike McCaffrey
in reply to Em • • •Walid.Family🍉
in reply to Em • • •My family urgently needs $100 to buy food and survive. Every donation, no matter how small, makes a difference. If you can't donate, please share our campaign. 💔🇵🇸🇵🇸
chuffed.org/project/149031-giv…
Give Waleed’s Family a Chance to Live
Chuffedai0101
in reply to Em • • •Em
Unknown parent • • •Nuno & Lua
in reply to Em • • •Em reshared this.
C.
in reply to Nuno & Lua • • •@ncrav
It's my understanding that this fact is behind the recent rise in anti-tourism sentiment? Because short-term rentals for tourists (and to a lesser extent expats / "digital nomads") are pricing the locals out of the housing market?
AirBnB etc are evil and destructive.
Em
in reply to C. • • •Nuno & Lua
in reply to C. • • •@cazabon Yes, but apart from housing there's plenty of other reasons like the remaking of cities for tourists, where gift shops, high price restaurants, fake traditional places, took away plenty of the actual traditional cafes, small shops, etc from city centers.
Also focusing the country's investment in tourism helped maim a big part of our industries that resulted in plenty of people no longer having the opportunity to work the jobs they are skilled in.
There's also laws that fiscally benefit nomads more than locals with the excuse of attracting talent when our own talent has been mostly leaving for decades, and something similar for foreign retirees.
All of this contributes to a dislike of tourism by many, especially those that do not benefit anything from it.
Michael 🇺🇦
in reply to Em • • •Homepage
Geschäfts- und Informationsstelle für den Mindestlohn c/o Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und ArbeitsmedizinEm reshared this.