From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 10:40:10 -0800, Bobbie Sellers   
    wrote:   
      
   >   
   >   
   >On 2/15/26 08:55, Paul S Person wrote:   
   >> On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   >> Dorsey) wrote:   
   >>    
   >>> Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=   wrote:   
   >>>> On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> "A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars   
   >>>>>   worth of better hardware."   
   >>>>>       -- gus baird   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program   
   >>>> computers worth millions of dollars?   
   >>>   
   >>> Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write   
   >>> programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.   
   >>    
   >> Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?   
   >   
   >	Yes but the US Penny is being eliminated due to cost. Last I read was about   
   >     4.6 cents to make each penny.  And it is now mostly zinc so not a    
   >copper's worth.   
      
   That doesn't answer the question: shouldn't the number of pennies   
   programmers are paid be adjusted for inflation? May it's reached a   
   nickle by now?   
      
   Nickles, BTW, cost 17 cents to produce. Don't tell Trump.   
      
   The adjustment to a post-penny America is going wierdly, as might be   
   expected in a country run by petulant 5-year-olds whose planning   
   abilities are lacking. I currently am living with two systems:   
      
   1. Small stores, which (at least locally) are acting as if nothing has   
   changed.   
   2. The supermarket, which is rounding all pennies /down/ before giving   
   change.   
      
   The latter still takes pennies; presumably, these eventually reach a   
   Bank, which then issues them to stores that still use them.   
      
   Interestingly, when I used Bing, the articles on "rounding" all used   
   the normal rounding: down for 1,2,6,7 and up for 3,4,8,9. Of course, I   
   /am/ in Seattle, where things are sometimes a bit ... strange.   
      
   An article on another business that converted to the same rounding as   
   the QFC gave as /their/ reason that so few of their transactions were   
   in cash that they could easily stand the loss. And that is one   
   solution: everyone convert to using a card of one sort or another --   
   the problem being, of course, that not everyone /has/ a card (or a   
   card that can be used to buy whatever the user wishes, as opposed to a   
   gummint card restricted to, say, food and a few other items).   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)