Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with trade

Help me choose a technical or trade college for IT administration.

loquacious — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:23:24 -0800

Help me research technical schools/colleges for IT, CS and systems administration. I'm looking for a technical school/college along the lines of ITT or similar schools that are affordable and offer financial aid application assistance.

I want to learn and brush up on computer/IT administration with a focus on systems/server administration. Specifically Windows Server 2008, Macintosh OS X as well as a side course in Vista and Windows 7.

I'm interested both AA and BA programs.

Please feel free to also name programs to avoid like the plague.

(For the record, I have about a decade of real world IT work and I am returning to school as an independent adult.)

Journal Of Tanzanian Meat Sciences

benzenedream — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:49:06 -0800

I'm looking for strange magazines to give as gift subscriptions. Ideas? Ideally these magazines would be moderately-priced and worth reading as an insight into other fields, even if the reader has no deep interest in the topic. Trade journals and academic publications are fine. I'm not interested in magazines that are trying to be outrageous in and of themselves.

Trade honda for diesel Benz?

toastchee — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:57:17 -0800

Thinking about trading my 97 Accord for 1980 diesel benz. My car: 1997 Honda Accord, 160k miles, stick shift, good condition. Blue book probably ~2000.

His car: 1980 diesel benz 300 sd turbo diesel. good + condition. No AC. Needs back seat replaced. Asking 1500 or trade.

I am interested in diesels and possibly bio/veggie conversion. Primarily this would be a safety issue as well. I have two little kids and if the Benz is significantly safer this would be a strong rationale.

Dollars and Rials and Bourses, oh my!

Juffo-Wup — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:18:25 -0800

What difference does it make to the United States economy whether oil is traded or denominated in the US dollar or in other currencies? I often hear it said that oil is globally traded and denominated in US dollars and that the US economy would suffer greatly if countries were to trade oil in other currencies. Is this true? If so, why and how would it harm our economy?

A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money ... but if it's a ship, money comes out?

coffeefilter — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:46:56 -0800

(Freighter experts) Does the world-wide shipping industry have hidden (or open) subsidies? Boats are expensive. Big ships must be really expensive.

So, how is the shipping industry subsidized, or costs externalized, so that it becomes preferable to manufacture or grow something on the other side of the world, and ship it to the US?

How much does it cost to build, maintain, and operate a superfreighter?

[I think everyone's familiar with the labor cost side of the issue, so let's focus on ships.]

How Do I Get Paid For My Podcast?

HostBryan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:02:25 -0800

How should I go about monetizing my podcast in a legitimate and professional manner? I've been operating my podcast for over three years now. In that three years, I've made a lot of new friends, met and interviewed some of my personal heroes, and just generally had a good time. We've since gone from just one main podcast to a soft launch of a network of podcasts on various topics, which I am pretty excited about.

Unfortunately, I've never really gotten anything in terms of financial compensation, which means I've been running it at a loss for three years. Now, it is not a gigantic expense and I am otherwise employed, but I'd like to make the podcast make at least a little money. I'm not looking to get rich, but if I could cover server and domain costs, give my co-hosts a little something, and maybe cover a few other bills I'd be ecstatic.

I've got some experience with radio sales but podcasts are a whole different beast, especially because it seems like I pretty much have to set up my own operation. I don't mind going hat-in-hand to potential sponsors but I also don't want to look like some shady character who's just going to take the money and run.

I plan on offering recorded ad messages and on-air mentions of the product/website/whatever, as well as banner and link space on the front page of the actual website. I'm mostly looking for cash, but trades of products or services for giveaways/reviews/whatever are also welcome.

So I guess I have a couple questions.

1. How do I go about making everything nice and legal and official? I want to make sure there's a paper trail and documents for sponsors to follow, also I want to be sure how to file taxes for this sort of thing. Plus, I don't want to look schlubby.

2. What would be a fair ballpark rate to charge for podcast advertising? We aren't a huge podcast but we get a large number of downloads for each episode, and we've been having a lot of luck with landing relatively big-name guests lately. I'm thinking of offering a tiered structure - sort of a Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum-type thing.

3. Would I instead be better off just accepting donations?

Thanks for your help, hive mind.

Help me find websites that trade or sell gently used cosmetics.

scazza — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:06:08 -0800

Help me find websites that trade or sell gently used cosmetics. Found this thread from 2006; is there anything other than Makeup Alley? Ebay is not the best. I'm looking for a specific very expensive moisturizer. I saw that Makeup Alley has some bad reviews of this product and I wonder what those people did with what they had left. I'm not worried about sanitary issues, this has a very sanitary container.

Thank you!

Old Cartoon filter: Looking for "Kitchen of the Future" style parody cartoons.

toekneebullard — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:08:26 -0800

Old Cartoon filter: Looking for "Kitchen of the Future" style parody cartoons. OK, when I was a kid there was a certain kind of cartoon that I REALLY loved. I BELIEVE it was related to Warner Brother's in some way, but I could be wrong.

The cartoons I'm thinking of always parodied the "Kitchen of the Future" style films from the 50's. The trade show films that would show a car with a record player, or really early versions of washing machines and whatnot. That's a horrific description. I hope people just know what I'm talking about.

So anyways, I'm looking for the cartoons that PARODIED those films. Is there a certain artist or director that was known for those cartoons? I've been doing some digging, but it's hard to google something that parodies something that you can't even describe well.

Thanks for any help!

Limit, stop, stop-limit on the TSX with Questrade

omair — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:47:23 -0800

I am having trouble contacting Questrade to ask them this question, and am hoping someone familiar with TSX trading rules can answer this for me: I bought shares at 45 dollars. If the price of my stock is 60 dollars right now (and going up), and I want to put a stop (or stop-limit) at 57 dollars because I am afraid there is some bad news coming and the stock will plummet suddenly, when the actual price reaches 57, it should trigger my order and sell, right?

However, apparently, on the TSX, stop orders are not allowed, but stop-limits are, but the limit price has to be set equal to the stop price.

1) What is the practical difference, then, between a Stop and a Stop-Limit order if TSX forces the limit price to be set equal to the stop price?

2) If issuing a Stop-Limit on the TSX, will the order be sent to the market when the stock price reaches the value I set for stop/limit, or will it send the order to the market right away because it is not purely a stop order, but actually a stop-limit?

3) What happens if, at the end of the day, the price is still at 60 dollars, but during after hours trading it hits 57, and continues to go down, say to 50 dollars. And then, the next morning, it opens at 50. Does my order get triggered at 50 and that's the price I end up selling at?

Thank you!

As a freelance Canadian consultant/faciliator, what are the legalities of taking on US clients?

ManInSuit — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:45:03 -0800

As a freelance Canadian consultant/faciliator, what are the legalities of taking on US clients? I’m a Canadian Citizen, living in Canada. I do some work organizing and facilitating conferences and meetings. I’m starting to get some interest from potential clients in the US, with a possible small gig pretty soon.

I’ve been trying to find out a few things about the legalities of all this, and it’s been surprisingly hard. What I’m trying to figure out is:

- When I'm going to the US for a few days to do some work for the client, what do I say at the border? Is there a specific visa I need to apply for?

- Are there specifics of how I need to invoice the work that are different from invoicing here. (eg- I assume they don’t care about my GST number…)

Some things about me, and the work,

- My business is just me. I’m not incorporated.

- I’ve been doing this sort of work for a few years, and I have a BA, so I could possibly make the case for myself as a “Management consultant” under the free trade rules, if that helps.

- It seems like one way to do this is to say the visits are for “meetings” which aren’t paid for. But in my case, at least sometimes, it seems pretty undeniable that the thing I’m being paid to do is to go to the US and facilitate a conference or meeting.

- I really want to be completely honest in how I do this stuff. A few people have advised me to just say I’m going to the US on vacation, or for unpaid work, but I don’t want to do that.

Any help on this would be much appreciated!!

Interstate Wine Shipments

Steve_at_Linnwood — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:51:50 -0800

Can I have wine shipped interstate to Minnesota? Free The Grapes, a website for a wine trade association, says that Minnesota allows direct shipments. But Wine.com says they can not ship to Minnesota because of state regulations. What is the law in MN?

Confused about comparative advantage, specialisation and trade.

obiwanwasabi — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:22:28 -0800

EconomicsNewbieFilter: I'm confused about absolute advantage, comparative advantage and specialisation. Particular example inside. I'm doing a Master of Management, which means I have to cram for microeconomics. Hah, I thought - I remember all of this from high school - scarcity, supply, demand, elasticity, PPCs. Then I hit Chapter 2 of Frank and Bernanke's Principles of Microeconomics and groan - frickin' advantage and specialisation.

So I learn about the difference between absolute and comparative advantage. I see that just because somebody has an absolute advantage for producing two goods doesn't mean they can't benefit from specialisation and trade. Specialisation good. Trade good. Everybody wins. So far, all OK.

At the end of the chapter there's an exercise:

Ted can wax a car in 20 minutes or wash a car in 60 minutes. Dan can wax a car in 15 minutes or wash a car in 45 minutes. Who has an absolute advantage in washing cars? What is each man's opportunity cost of washing a car? Who has a comparative advantage in washing cars? Can Ted and Dan benefit from specialisation and trade? Explain.

I figure that Dan has an absolute advantage in washing cars (and waxing, too). Each man has the same opportunity cost for washing a car - three wax jobs. This would seem to mean that neither has a comparative advantage in washing cars, and this in turn would seem to imply that there's no benefit for Ted and Dan to specialise and trade.

Up until now, though, the text has given a pretty consistent message that specialisation and trade are always a good thing, so I think I've missed something. I've compared their PPCs (Ted's lies entirely within the 'inefficient' zone of Dan's - but doesn't this just mean Dan has an absolute advantage for waxing and washing?) and checked what would happen if each specialised in waxing or washing over a 6-hour day then traded (they get more washes but less waxes, or vice versa).

Where have I gone wrong?

Are Safeway organics really organic?

biwa-shu — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:24:34 -0800

Safeway: regular brands and house brands out the wazoo. It says organic, but is it? So Safeway and other stores too have their regular supplier brands, in regular and organic varieties, as well as their own house brand in varieties organic and not.

Today we bought organic Driscoll berries, but they looked just like the non-organic ones, except for the label on the container. After watching some videos on Driscoll's site, it seems that they get their berries from a number of sources, which might indicate that their organic berries only come from organic producers. But the container and the contents were totally identical--only the label differentiated them.

Then the eggs were even worse. The best endorsement a Safeway egg had going for it was "Laid by uncaged hens." Ok, great! You take them out of their cages before they lay eggs.

I asked the manager at the register about all this, and she gave me a glassy-eyed schpiel about how she had asked the same questions and was totally convinced that the answers she got were satisfactory. But it's so easy when it's the same company that writes your paycheck...

So where's the beef? To what extent can we trust the labels and the signs?

What useful trade can I learn to survive a collapsed economy?

sportbucket — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:05:03 -0800

What's a trade I can learn now, as a hobby, that will be useful if/when the economy collapses? Carpentry? Beer/wine making? Animal husbandry? This isn't totally reactionary fear-mongering, I was thinking about this before everyone started talking about the economic apocalypse, but now it seems a little more timely. Is there a useful trade I can learn in a year or so and practice as a hobby, maybe make some side money, that would be useful to be in a collapsed economy?

Nevermind for a minute that economic collapse isn't exactly an imminent threat -- I just want to learn some practical and marketable skills, if only to gain peace of mind knowing that if I lost my job I'd have something to offer the world.

Buy. Sell. Trade.

sixcolors — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:31:58 -0800

Interested in buying and then selling stuff. I am running into two (and I assume, very common) problems. 1. The high quality stuff I find tends to be too expensive to buy. 2. The cheap stuff I find is really crappy. I know in order to make money, you need to buy low and sell high. But, this seems a LOT easier in theory than in practice! What am I doing wrong? I am interested in selling video games, dvds, CDs/tapes/records, magazines, and books. I am also interested in selling vintage collectibles and jewelry.

I search thrift stores and pawn shops, and have little luck in finding quality items. When I do, it is too expensive. I don't know much about garage sales, is there a way I can find out who's having one? Are there any other places that I should check? Any other methods I should use? Any other items I should try selling?

I'd prefer to sell things through ebay, but craigslist is an option also. I heard of people selling things through resale shops, but I heard that it is really hard to make money that way.

I want to be out of dollars, but not poor

Rafaelloello — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:07:56 -0800

I would like to know the best way to turn actual US dollars into foreign currencies... I'm very liquid, but want to protect the majority of my liquid assetts from deflation of the dollar. How do I get my dollars into Australian dollars, Swedish Kronos, Swiss francs, and Japanese yen and still have the best control over my assets?

How would I go about buying gold?

muthecow — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:02:07 -0800

How would I go about buying gold? It has long been a fantasy of mine to buy some gold when I have a bit (lot) of spare cash. However I do not intend to buy it to trade on the commodities markets, rather I would like it delivered to my house. Right now this is a purely theoretical question, but in practice how would you go about doing this? Who would I ask to buy me a bar of gold and how would I go about getting it delivered to my house?

Furthermore could this then be extended to, say, buying a barrel of oil and having it shipped to my front door? How about wheat? Metals?

How should I go about selling my laptop?

Chamunks — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:37:17 -0800

I'm looking to sell my old toshiba P30 laptop its about 3 years old. Its got a 3.4ghz p4 in it with hyperthreading or w/e a gig of ram and a dedicated 128 meg video card which still seems plenty for most things what would be the best price you think i should sell it for and how i should approach doing this because i want to try to get a newer but more mobile laptop than a big honking 17"

Magic money?

Solomon — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:34:53 -0800

I loan an amount on Kiva. Lets say it's $25, which at the time of lending is £12 GBP. When I get the money back 6 months later, I get £13 GBP back. Where does the extra £1 come from? Bonus question: Could I theoretically make money by putting it in different banks around the world and then withdrawing it to the UK based on how much the £ was worth at a given time?

I know next to nothing about international trade, and the value of the EUR vs the USD vs the GBP etc. Please bear this in mind when responding. :)

"Please don't start a similar business to mine elsewhere. It would hurt my feelings."

divabat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:01:38 -0800

Can you really hold copyright to a business model/idea/concept, and disallow others from duplicating it? If not, then how is The Sampler able to do so? On The Sampler's (a company that collects samples of arts & crafts and distributes them to buyers who buy a random box at a time) FAQ, one question goes:

I love the idea of the Sampler! Can I create my own Sampler!?

The crafty community is full of all kinds of swap programs! Certainly you are welcome to create your own sort of swap, but please don't copy the Sampler outright! Using our concept and simply changing the name is still copying! Especially when you say things like "I'm starting my own Sampler" it's SORT OF A TIP-OFF.

The business model of the Sampler is something unique and something I've worked very hard to create, maintain and also very hard to defend! Though the Sampler is wicked fun and super friendly, please remember that it is still a business, and, as such, will be subject to and will appeal to all the laws that are applicable to defend it. The Sampler name, logo and the combination of the two are subject to US trademark laws.

Then in the Craftster forums, someone asks about starting her own Sampler to increase access to sample subscriptions, the original founder shows up and states that doing another Sampler would hurt her feelings as she said she "worked very hard" on the concept.

Does she actually have a right to be the only owner of a Sampler-type business? There are many companies doing gift-sample businesses (and The Sampler has provided gift bags for people like MTV), and there are many different types of fast food, of book stores, of hairdressers, etc etc. All essentially providing the same service. (One poster in that thread argues as such.)

What makes The Sampler different? Is it because it is in a relatively close-knit (excuse the pun) community where the target audience for such a product would be familiar with the original? Does Marie (The Sampler's founder) actually have any right under the law to sue anyone else that does a Sampler-type business? Does she legally have any leg to stand on?

What if I start a Sampler to, say, create and distribute samples for Malaysian crafters. Malaysians can't buy Samplers (they ship to limited countries) and there isn't such a thing here, so I start one. Would Marie be able to sue me considering her Sampler isn't actually in competition to mine?

I just don't see how it's possible for her to claim that The Sampler, nice idea that it is, is totally hers and no one can go and make their own Sampler deal. For one thing, I can't buy her Sampler, so if I want one I'd have to make my own! It also seems ridiculous to put a limitation on expanding the Sampler concept when there are also limits to who can contribute and which countries can purchase.

Have any other companies/industries gone through the same issues in terms of holding claim to business models? How has it been for them?

Should I trade my PC Laptop for a Macbook?

monkeyagent — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:32:21 -0800

I was talking with a friend who owns a Macbook. She was talking about how she doesn't really use it for much and is looking for something newer. I mentioned that I just got my laptop but that I didn't like Vista and have been interested in Macs. Long story short, we came to the conclusion that we might each like to trade out laptops. I'm wondering if this sounds like a fair trade: My computer:
Acer Aspire 5050
AMD Turion 64 Processor MK-38 (2.2GHz, 512KB L2)
14.1" LCD
80GB HDD
DVD Burner
1 GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 Integrated graphics (variable GRAM depending on how much of it you assign from system general system RAM)
Has Vista Home Basic
It has internal wifi and is in more or less perfect condition.

Her computer:
Macbook
Intel Core Duo 1.8 Ghz processor [L2 Cache (per processor): 2MB]
LCD slightly smaller, though I don't mind that
34.22 GB HDD (? I couldn't figure out how to determine the full capacity - this amount reflects how much is "free")
DVD (i assume) burner? (not important, as I use my desktop for such tasks)
512 MB 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
OSX Version: 10.4.10
Also, while the case is scuffed up a bit on the outside, it seems to work fine and would clean up well. The speakers don't work, but the headphone jack work fine.

My only needs for my laptop are Internet accessibility, word processing, and basic multimedia playing functions. Everything else I do on my self-built PC. I know very little about Macs, but have been wanting to learn about them. Does this trade make sense? Are there any other things I should consider?

Who was the player to be named later?

faustessa — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:55:58 -0800

In baseball trades, how can I find out who the "player to be named later" ended up being? For example, last year, Atlanta traded Ryan Langerhans to Oakland for a player to be named later or cash. Then, three days later, Oakland traded Langerhans to Washington. What did Langerhans end up being worth to Atlanta?

I never saw where anybody named the player, or whether it was determined to accept cash instead. I know that teams use the "player to be named later" designation when the teams can't agree or when the player isn't eligible to be traded yet. Is there a website for this kind of (greatly) delayed curiosity?

Swap MacBook Pros?

Lauram — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:10:47 -0800

How can my friend trade his 17" Macbook Pro for a smaller laptop? A friend of mine was given a 17" MacBook Pro, which he does appreciate, but he needs to cart his laptop around a lot and it's just too heavy. He'd prefer the equivalent in 15" or maybe even a 13" MacBook. I suggested he sell it on ebay and buy a smaller model, but that's a bit of a hassle, what with shipping and worrying about whether the replacement computer is defective or not as recent a model. What's the easiest/safest way for him to trade his MacBook Pro for a smaller one?

Books on the economy

mooza — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:14:05 -0800

Can the hive recommend books on the global economy? I'm pretty clueless so I'm looking for stuff that's easy to read, a la The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Ultimately I want to understand what's going on right now, with the declining US dollar, subprime something or others, trade deficits, how China fits in, how climate change fits in, and bonus points for how it affects the Australian economy.

I'm sorry, I absolutely do not know where to begin, so please excuse the vagueness. I just find what I'm hearing on the radio and in the paper really quite fascinating...just the other day I heard a bunch of economists talk about how the world is heading into a depression. Frightening.

Help with Display Panel

CollectiveMind — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:10:44 -0800

I have a panel display system where the bottom edge of one of panels curls away such that the magnetic strip won't hold it against the frame. Does anyone know how to make the material smooth out so the panel will affix to the frame again? I picked the system up at a thrift store for 30.00. Of the four panels, the other three firmly attach with their magnetic strips to the frame. Only the bottom edge of one panel won't.