Those were the median in 2023:

Total loan costs, which include origination fees and discount points, also increased between 2022 and 2023, with faster increases for Hispanic white and Black borrowers. The median total loan costs for home purchase loans in 2023 was $6,684, up by 12.2 percent from $5,954 in 2022. The median total loan costs for refinance loans reached $7,329 in 2023, compared to $4,979 in 2022–a 47.2 percent increase. Notably, Hispanic white and Black borrowers experienced faster increases in the median total loan costs for home purchase loans in 2023 compared to 2022 than Asian and non-Hispanic white borrowers.

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_2023-mortgage-market-activity-and-trends_2024-12.pdf

Like any median, it's the 50/50 midpoint, so some payed less others more, but it is usually in the range of 3-6% of principal.

Most folks have already hit the highlights like Linux support, customer service, pricing, etc. another I haven't seen is the toolkit for devs and server hosts. I host a ton of game servers, and for most steam games it really is a trivial cookie cutter application of steamcmd to get a Linux dedicated server up and going. And because the devs built for the platform, the admin features all often use simple steam IDs for game permissions, making it easy to manage that functionality as well with a group of friends.

Basically, a ton of things just work consistently. Not to mention the pricing and early access fosters a lot of creativity. And my barotrauma, enshrouded, ut2004, TTT, prop hunt, vrising, etc servers are all basically an identical launch config with a slightly different appid and it all just works.

You don't get that from the pirated versions or from gog generally.

What you're saying is mostly correct but the conclusion that a 0.25% rate reduction could pay off in less than a year is overly optimistic for most any borrower in the US mortgage market.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/data-spotlight-the-impact-of-changing-mortgage-interest-rates/

Using their example:

As interest rates fall, millions of borrowers may be able to refinance and get more affordable payments. As interest rates eased down to 6.5%, about 2.5 million borrowers could already refinance and save at least 75 basis points (0.75%) on their interest rate, according to data from ICE Mortgage Technology. A reduction in rate from 7.25% to 6.5% would result in a $200 monthly savings on a $400,000 loan with a similar term. If interest rates fall to 5.5%, more than 7 million borrowers can potentially refinance, and over 5 million of these refi candidates got their mortgages in the past three years.

So a .75% reduction saves $200 a month on their example mortgage, meaning that to make a refinance break even in less than a year would require origination and other fees to be less that 12*$200 = $2,400, and that's with 3x greater reduction in rate than your statement.

Given that the 2023 median refinance fees were around $7,000, often ranging from 3%-6% of the principal, you would need a more substantial rate reduction to break even on 0.25 in one year, and in that range would likely have a 8-10 year break even.

Which is fine if you strongly expect to stay in the house for at least that long.

Note: while pre-approval letters didn't generally obligate you to use that lender, the general statement that a contract isn't a contract until money changes hands isn't correct as consideration under a contract can take many forms, so talk to a lawyer about your specific situation.

The rest of the advice is good. Shop around for mortgages, look at mortgage brokers and credit unions, keep your old payment to accelerate payment (though it might be better to invest the difference depending on rates), and to run the numbers for your actual mortgage as the refinance market changes is all sound.

Good on him for giving it an honest go. I do think that for fresh installs, laptops feel more likely to run into issues unless you are buying very mainstream hardware or using the OEM image with the driver bundles in the installer.

Also, using edge, native tools, and no cleanup or debloat is just painful. But I suppose the point is to highlight what you get out of the box, and if you used Titus Utils to dump all the quality of life things on the system you aren't really assessing the stock os.

I think there's times where they work better than others and really depends on the dish. If you make a nice vegetable soup with fixed potatoes, and toss in some twirly pasta at the end, then they will work well as a medley and each bring something a little different to the taste and texture. Same with a vegetable curry with potatoes over rice.

If you had potatoes au gratin, and somehow incorporated Mac and cheese, ignoring differences in cook time between the potatoes and pasta, I think you'd feel they were a bit redundant. Not bad tasting, but they aren't really bringing something that different to the party.

When I think about balanced food I always look to the mix of fats, acids, salts, and sugars with starches providing structure for those flavors. So I would look to mix starches that being a different type of structure to make an interesting dish.

He wasn't a cop that I see, and he did call 911. He called 911 then started driving around his block when he saw his daughter in the passenger side with a man who had been charged with raping her. He ran for office because of what he felt was corrupt handling of his case.

Some details I found with a quick search

No one can really say how much of an execution vs crime of passion this was because the video of the incident was lost by the sheriff's office. The judge probably dismissed the charge of second degree murder because the normal thing with spoiliation of evidence is to assume it is favorable to the other party. If he really did execute the guy the cops should have properly presented the evidence.

Cases have always been dismissed if the state mishandles them to a sufficient degree. So this isn't a new thing.

And the guy ran for sheriff after being arrested and charged because he felt the police were mishandling the case and corrupt. So it feels unlikely that they mishandled the evidence intentionally to help the guy. But without facts it's all conjecture either way.

Without the trial and the evidence the police lost we don't have all the facts. But the framing in the article makes it sound like he woke up to his daughter missing, went looking, saw her in the guys car, and pursued. The police argue that he had time to call them while chasing the guy rather than forcing his car off the road and shooting him.

The timing and little details can matter a lot so I don't want to make a judgement, but killing your child's abductor in a chase is a lot different than killing them in cold blood later out of the blue.

It was tossed by the judge because the police mishandled evidence. How is that a frightening precedent?

What a bitch...

I'll see myself out.

I mean, it'd be pretty harsh for them to publicly publish that the teams commit velocity was down and they were all PIP'd, lol. Not that I think that's likely, but there are lots of possible for cause reasons that shouldn't be shared.

If anything, I suspect the reason is the more pedestrian "moving in a different direction" from the wish list process.

I don't really know the details here as I can't find any other sources or articles, let alone statements by the affected parties.

But the statement that wikimedia is rich because it has 17 months of operating reserves and a profitable unit with $8.1M in revenue seems a bit naive when said about an organization with 650 employees (likely $50M annual payroll) and misses the point, if indeed the point is about union busting as the headline claims.

For me, I'm less interested in the financials and more about the story from the fired individuals. As a monthly donor, if the team comes out saying they were fired for unionizing, then I'm happy to cancel. But if it was more to do with business or operating disagreements, that's another story, even if I disagree with the specific operational decision.

But I tried following the links to the discussion pages and the solidarity pages. But most of the comments seem to be upset about the direction of the community wish list, the loss of the wishlist, and no direct statements about union busting. I then tried searching team member names and fired keywords, and couldn't find any sources or direct statements.

So I dunno. I'll wait for credible first hand statements from the team before I cancel my donation. Cancelling a community request team sucks, but union busting is a completely different ballgame.