Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Edge Case

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I’ve been a customer with Bank of America for decades, and even though I’m content with the 0623-edgebrokers I already use, I decided to take advantage of their $600 bonus offer for their own firm, Merrill Lynch. The deal was that if you opened up a $200,000 account, and kept it there for 90 days, they’d give you $600. Free money – not bad – and I liked the convenience of being able to easily move funds to and from my checking account seamlessly. So I signed up.

Well, that was just one week ago, and I have un-signed up, transferring all my funds back. I’m willing to learn a new web site; I’m willing to deal with some imperfections; but one thing I can’t abide is products or services that are so littered with flaws as to render them almost unusable. (Long-time readers know that I have endless affection for well-polished products, such as those from Tesla or Dropcam, whereas I have little patience for their opposites). (more…)