Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
I drive a 2014 Fiat Punto
I have nothing positive to say about the car
it is functional so I can get around, that's about it
for context I should mention - driving is expensive around here. taxes and import costs mean that every car, and I mean every car, usually goes for around 110% of it's equivalent US price. and we dont get a break on gas either, with prices averaging around $7 a gallon
I bought that car secondhand in 2018 for $9000, and that was a genuine steal
I would love to get a new car but it's just impossible for me to afford one
Didn't Tesla recently have something where people found out that their cars were mechanically capable of higher performance, but they had to pay extra to access it?
Quick google search shows that ya they 100% lock performance behind software and last year a company figured out how to crack the software and sell the upgrades at a discounted price. I have to imagine Tesla took them to court, but fuck this dystopian future.
It was bound to happen at some point and it finally did. A company hacked Tesla’s software and it is now offering some of its performance upgrades at a discount.
For a few years now, Tesla started selling vehicles with upgradable software-locked capabilities, like 75 kWh battery pack software-locked at 60 kWh or higher power outputs enabled through software updates.
The most recent example is offering a $2,000 ‘Acceleration Boost’ for the Model 3 Dual Motor.
It unlocks roughly 50 hp in the Model 3 powertrain and shortens the 0 to 60 mph acceleration to 3.9 seconds.
Ever since Tesla started releasing these features people speculated that some hackers could unlock them without paying for them.
Now it has not only happened but it has been turned into an actual company.
pretty much anywhere with nonexistent or poorly executed/funded public transit --eg the flyover states, eg Texas-- because of an increased requirement for time management. everything is spread out and doesn't offer much travel choice, typically due to less methodical or aggressive re-/zoning (and, as always, racism), or placement of services planned around the responsiveness in private car ownership, what could go wrong. more charitably, topography also plays into it.
For urban counties, [expansion and densification] have an increasing trend up to the 1930s. After 1940, expansion increases markedly until the early 2000s but decreases notably during the past decade. Densification has varying trends since 1930: It levels off for a short time, increases between 1940 and 1960, then decreases until the 1980s, and since then, increases sharply until 2010. Counties in the urban stratum have significant variability indicating wide ranges of expansion and densification values, likely found in different regions.
The rural stratum shows continuous increases in both measures, steepest for densification between 1910 and 1960 and for expansion between the 1940s and 1980s, somewhat temporally offset to densification. Both measures remained relatively constant between 1980 and 2010. [citation provided] etc etc
Austin is a congested city, and even being the capitol, it is well behind on fixing its transit issues; that's with strong bike and environmentalist cultures (despite insufficient infrastructure support.) let us not speak of Dallas or Houston.
but small towns can be just as hard if not harder. as an example, if you work inside, maybe you're lucky and generally healthy enough to walk there within twenty minutes, and have allowed time to clean up the sweaty or other unpresentable/uncomfortable state you've acquired on the way. but you live real rural, or live in town and work out in the fields or mines or parks or whatever job site, the time investment increases.
food deserts exist in urban, suburban, and rural landscapes; regardless of locale, hauling groceries across town in your backpack ain't easy in 100+ heat or icy weather, and god forbid you had anything else planned for your day or many mouths to feed. the corner grocery / dairy / shop / bodega / market / mom-and-pop largely doesn't exist in flyover country. and that's just one errand!
for most people, affordable housing with a short commute to work and affordable food sources is hard to manage outside of large cities, and even in urban spaces, only less challenging. in Austin, i had restaurant coworkers on the bus for literal hours when it was a direct 15-20 minute drive in moderate traffic.
I find the idea of subscription features in cars profoundly upsetting.
I know I'm not the only one but GODDAMMIT HOLY SHIT
It has certainly cemented my decision to not own a car.
Too bad I can't say the same. Owning a car is required in small town Texas
Same up here in Maine. Public transportation is fairly useless unless you live right in Portland. It doesn't stop me from driving something completely useless in Maine winters though...nothing plows through the snow like a 2010 Beetle.
Mattresses are a good thing to spend money on. You use them a lot.
I always feel better about a capitalism if it's for something I know I'm going to spend a lot of time using.
I've been trying to psych myself up for shopping for a new computer chair at home, and the only thing that makes a dent in the sticker shock is reminding myself that I'm going to spend thousands of hours in it.
did you go with a spring mattress or one of those new fangled foam-only beasts
how many polar bears can jump on it at the same time
Springs. The firmest I could buy. Foam is basically quicksand, I do not enjoy it.
So ... 1.5 polar bears maybe? It's only a full, I think two would struggle to fit on.
did you go with a spring mattress or one of those new fangled foam-only beasts
how many polar bears can jump on it at the same time
Springs. The firmest I could buy. Foam is basically quicksand, I do not enjoy it.
So ... 1.5 polar bears maybe? It's only a full, I think two would struggle to fit on.
Springs: Best season and best matress.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
0
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
If the rest of the car is still any good, getting suspension properly fixed up is a pretty solid quality of life upgrade
Like, not only does fixing that whole system keep ya comfy, it also directly improves how the car interacts with the road by keeping the chassis and wheels properly spaced
Part of it is economy of scale, people aren’t buying mattresses every year, another part is that they are so big that the show rooms are so big overheads are probably really big.
Mattresses have the same problem as glasses where the vast majority are produced and then sold by the same 1 or 2 'giga-corporations' that also own most of the storefronts where mattresses are sold, and have multiple different subsidiary businesses that create the appearance of competition while actually maintaining a fairly strong monopoly over the market. Also things like, giving the exact same mattress different names for each storefront, to prevent things like price comparisons. They also just tend to jack up the price like crazy for when sales come along. Since people buy new mattresses so infrequently, it's really difficult to gauge what the 'normal' price is
We recently bought a Purple mattress and one of those super fancy Tempur-Pedic bed frames that vibrates, raises and lowers the head and foot, and tracks our sleep via heart rate, breathing rate, room temp and humidity, etc, and then it sends all that data to our phones and rates our sleep and gives us tips on how to improve our sleep. It asks questions like if we exercised, or ate right before bed, or had any alcohol, and then let's us know shit like, "On nights you consume a meal within two hours of sleep, you get 13% less REM sleep", shit like that. I don't know if all that is just a scam or not, but just the vibration and being able to raise/lower the bed is fucking amazing and I sleep like a baby and my back feels great. Totally worth the $5k we spent on the whole thing.
Oh, and I don't know about elsewhere, but in Texas you can have a chiropractor write a prescription for a mattress and/or frame and then you won't have to pay any sales tax. That saved us a chunk of change, so look into it if you're thinking about buying one
We recently bought a Purple mattress and one of those super fancy Tempur-Pedic bed frames that vibrates, raises and lowers the head and foot, and tracks our sleep via heart rate, breathing rate, room temp and humidity, etc, and then it sends all that data to our phones and rates our sleep and gives us tips on how to improve our sleep. It asks questions like if we exercised, or ate right before bed, or had any alcohol, and then let's us know shit like, "On nights you consume a meal within two hours of sleep, you get 13% less REM sleep", shit like that. I don't know if all that is just a scam or not, but just the vibration and being able to raise/lower the bed is fucking amazing and I sleep like a baby and my back feels great. Totally worth the $5k we spent on the whole thing.
Oh, and I don't know about elsewhere, but in Texas you can have a chiropractor write a prescription for a mattress and/or frame and then you won't have to pay any sales tax. That saved us a chunk of change, so look into it if you're thinking about buying one
Being able to raise and lower your upper body and legs is a super nice feature, and probably 75% of the cost of the frame. You really have to reinforce the frames to be able to do that. I imagine the other stuff can be useful after a few months/years. Like "oh, when its above 60% humidity my sleep gets worse" would be good to know.
Posts
I have nothing positive to say about the car
it is functional so I can get around, that's about it
for context I should mention - driving is expensive around here. taxes and import costs mean that every car, and I mean every car, usually goes for around 110% of it's equivalent US price. and we dont get a break on gas either, with prices averaging around $7 a gallon
I bought that car secondhand in 2018 for $9000, and that was a genuine steal
I would love to get a new car but it's just impossible for me to afford one
Quick google search shows that ya they 100% lock performance behind software and last year a company figured out how to crack the software and sell the upgrades at a discounted price. I have to imagine Tesla took them to court, but fuck this dystopian future.
https://electrek.co/2020/06/10/tesla-hacker-unlocks-performance-upgrade-acceleration-boost/
midnight black like my soul
It has certainly cemented my decision to not own a car.
Too bad I can't say the same. Owning a car is required in small town Texas
cars near required in the US:
Austin is a congested city, and even being the capitol, it is well behind on fixing its transit issues; that's with strong bike and environmentalist cultures (despite insufficient infrastructure support.) let us not speak of Dallas or Houston.
but small towns can be just as hard if not harder. as an example, if you work inside, maybe you're lucky and generally healthy enough to walk there within twenty minutes, and have allowed time to clean up the sweaty or other unpresentable/uncomfortable state you've acquired on the way. but you live real rural, or live in town and work out in the fields or mines or parks or whatever job site, the time investment increases.
food deserts exist in urban, suburban, and rural landscapes; regardless of locale, hauling groceries across town in your backpack ain't easy in 100+ heat or icy weather, and god forbid you had anything else planned for your day or many mouths to feed. the corner grocery / dairy / shop / bodega / market / mom-and-pop largely doesn't exist in flyover country. and that's just one errand!
for most people, affordable housing with a short commute to work and affordable food sources is hard to manage outside of large cities, and even in urban spaces, only less challenging. in Austin, i had restaurant coworkers on the bus for literal hours when it was a direct 15-20 minute drive in moderate traffic.
America!
I guess Sony doesn't want my hot throbbing lucre
You best keep that in your pants.
Steam, Warframe: Megajoule
they got a cream for that now
Mine has lasted for longer than 4 hours, what do?
brag about that shit to your friends
Same up here in Maine. Public transportation is fairly useless unless you live right in Portland. It doesn't stop me from driving something completely useless in Maine winters though...nothing plows through the snow like a 2010 Beetle.
It cost an upsetting amount, which I'm trying not to think about.
Getting an expensive mattress must be a difficult decision. Maybe you can sleep on it.
I always feel better about a capitalism if it's for something I know I'm going to spend a lot of time using.
how many polar bears can jump on it at the same time
I've been trying to psych myself up for shopping for a new computer chair at home, and the only thing that makes a dent in the sticker shock is reminding myself that I'm going to spend thousands of hours in it.
Steam, Warframe: Megajoule
Springs. The firmest I could buy. Foam is basically quicksand, I do not enjoy it.
So ... 1.5 polar bears maybe? It's only a full, I think two would struggle to fit on.
Springs: Best season and best matress.
Springs: Best season, best mattress, worst car part.
kill it and use the life insurance to buy a new car
Like, not only does fixing that whole system keep ya comfy, it also directly improves how the car interacts with the road by keeping the chassis and wheels properly spaced
So yeah, if it's worth it, do it
AGATHA: Spoon holder & steam releaser
BERT: Cheese Knife
GRACULA: Garlic Crusher
SPLATYPUS: Jar Scraper Spatula
SPACE MASHER: Potato Masher
That’s always puzzled me
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
This type of shit is like the main reason why I love going to Taiwanese department stores, they have these type of housewares on display all the time.
Part of it is economy of scale, people aren’t buying mattresses every year, another part is that they are so big that the show rooms are so big overheads are probably really big.
Satans..... hints.....
Mattresses have the same problem as glasses where the vast majority are produced and then sold by the same 1 or 2 'giga-corporations' that also own most of the storefronts where mattresses are sold, and have multiple different subsidiary businesses that create the appearance of competition while actually maintaining a fairly strong monopoly over the market. Also things like, giving the exact same mattress different names for each storefront, to prevent things like price comparisons. They also just tend to jack up the price like crazy for when sales come along. Since people buy new mattresses so infrequently, it's really difficult to gauge what the 'normal' price is
Oh, and I don't know about elsewhere, but in Texas you can have a chiropractor write a prescription for a mattress and/or frame and then you won't have to pay any sales tax. That saved us a chunk of change, so look into it if you're thinking about buying one
Italian brand Alessi has a lot of similar things, too, like this citrus press
or this egg cup
Being able to raise and lower your upper body and legs is a super nice feature, and probably 75% of the cost of the frame. You really have to reinforce the frames to be able to do that. I imagine the other stuff can be useful after a few months/years. Like "oh, when its above 60% humidity my sleep gets worse" would be good to know.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
You can't fool me, that's not a juicer, it's a post-modern version of the pear of anguish.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
So does everything else.
We laughed, the housewares sales rep laughed, the juicer laughed, we killed the juicer, it was a good time
Steam, Warframe: Megajoule