I do agree with the non-unique naming complaint though. Do I want to use Messages or Messages?

I was on the phone with our ISP after our internet service went out. The rep asked me if the box had a green light on it - yes - then asked me to plug a light into the same outlet and confirm the power was on. I said, “Look, I understand you have to follow a script, but you literally just asked me to confirm the power light on the box was on. Clearly the power is working.”

Same ISP sends me an email whenever we have a power outage letting me know that our internet might not work when the power is out. (I’ve joked that this email arrives before the ceiling fans have come to a stop.) But when my internet goes down, they’re completely clueless. “Ohhhh it must be that your power is out even though we monitor that closely and aren’t showing a power outage right now!”

I’ve had better luck at a real lumber yard, instead of the big box stores.

Hell I have the app on my phone, but yesterday, I received a ticket for an event, accepted it, and downloaded it to my phone without using that app at all.

I think OP is misunderstanding what is happening. The code changes every so often, probably to prevent people from passing around a screen shot and trying to get in that way. You can get the ticket without the app.

Yeah, same here - except it was on a PC jr. I hit save so often that one program actually balks at me now and then. (It’s just a fussy program, most don’t care and do the save.)

I have an unlocked Galaxy S21 that I bought off Amazon, and I’ve never seen an ad for a new phone in my notifications.

My first thought was maybe the ad was from OP’s service provider, not Samsung, but it definitely looks Samsung-generated. Not that the providers wouldn’t do the same thing…

Are you talking about people breaking in and stealing them? While I agree that was a stupid problem, it’s quite a bit different than a remote hacker taking over your brakes while you drive.

Someone figured out how to remotely take control of Chrysler vehicles with the Uconnect 8.4 systems a while back. So people are out there working on these things. Also, the more popular the car, the more likely someone is working on it.

To FCA’s credit in that case, they listened to the researchers and implemented several fixes very quickly to address the problem. I wouldn’t put it past many manufacturers to do the hands-over-the-ears “la la la” thing when faced with the same situation.

My “dream” car is a V6 Accord from the last year they made them, which I think is 2016. I’d buy one of those right now and just keep repairing it, and hope no one t-bones me. Unfortunately I think my wife is still in the mindset of “we should buy a new car and keep it forever”, which used to be my mindset, too. But she’s not seeing the news on this stuff like I am, either. I suspect if I explained “heated seat subscription” to her (a feature she will not buy a car without) she would object strenuously.

But I don’t like where new cars are going, at all. I don’t like subscriptions, I don’t like the backseat driver nanny features that blare out false alarms, and on the whole I’d rather not have adaptive cruise control (there are times when adaptive cruise is nice, but overall I prefer the old-style cruise control).

We have a 2020 Mazda that I absolutely hate driving; if that is the future of cars, I’m not interested.

I’m hoping my car and our pickup last forever. The other day we took the Mazda for an errand in poor weather because, as I said, “It’s the most expendable car.”

Yeah for connected features, there are those costs. A vehicle we own would let me remote start it and lock and unlock doors from the app…if I paid $15/month. It’s not worth it to me, so I’ve never paid for that service, and the vehicle works fine without it. I mostly even forget it exists. I might be more interested if it would report things like fuel level, oil and fuel filter replacement time, and so on, but it doesn’t (but even then I’m not sure it’d be worth $15/month).

A subscription for heated seats, though? No. I don’t want a subscription service for something that doesn’t have an ongoing cost to the manufacturer. For us in particular, we buy our cars with the intention of keeping them a long time, and I’m not paying that fee for the life of the car. I like cars that are paid off.

If I’m on a heated seat subscription and they break for some reason, who pays for them to be fixed?

Comparison on the heated seats repair question: I rent the water softener at my house for $29/month. (The previous owner set it up, and I haven’t gotten around to replacing it…it’s a “it’s working, and I have bigger issues” situation.) At this point I’ve paid for two of the highest-end home water softeners available, and I haven’t had a single issue with the one I have, so it’s definitely not the best setup financially. But, if my water softener dies today, I can call them, and they’ll come right out and fix it or replace it, no charge. So there is a benefit to that monthly subscription price; they take the risk of it failing, not me.

I’ve moderated many online forums going waaaay back (farther than I’d like to admit actually). I agree with you, and I want to explain decisions to the users too, so I’ll generally try to talk them as well. And sometimes we get a connection, and sometimes I realize I made a mistake. But in my experience, when they start playing lawyer, you’re not going to please them.

I never thought about the four categories of mods before, but what you wrote feels pretty accurate. I think I’m in that first group, and I try to avoid issues by moderating as lightly as possible.

When I’m in other groups or communities, sometimes I think, “If someone did that in my group, they’d get one warning, then I’d just ban them the second time it happened. Boom. End of discussion.” But I know that’s likely not how it would go in reality. LOL

The “legal eagles” are best ignored. Just ignore them. Most of the time they’ll just stop if you ignore them, because they want you to argue with them.

I am often amazed by the aggressively-driven minivans I see. It’s like they’re upset they’re driving a minivan, and taking it out on the rest of us, or something. I don’t know.

I mean, I see plenty of other aggressively-driven vehicles as well, but the minivans always stand out because they seem like pretty much the antithesis of a vehicle you would expect to be driven aggressively. No one is buying a minivan for the performance, handling, or cool factor.

I don’t have anything against minivans - they’re extremely useful vehicles for hauling people or things and reasonably fuel-efficient while doing it.

4:20 p.m., known as 1620 in much of the world.

4:20 is the traditional time to smoke marijuana.

The smaller subs (such as for specific hobbies) do not have the same momentum here on Lemmy. That’s probably why.

I agree.

We have a 3/4 ton Ram 2500 with the diesel for the aforementioned towing and hauling, and there’s no question it’s a luxury vehicle. I recognize that. I also don’t daily drive it - it’s 9 years old and still has less than 60k miles on it and my plan is to keep it as close to forever as possible.

If we weren’t towing the trailer and hauling those pellets with it, an old beater half ton would still be a pretty handy vehicle to have around. I occasionally need lumber for various projects around the house; I have to run things to the dump sometimes; I sometimes need to get propane (which shouldn’t be carried in an enclosed vehicle for obvious reasons, though I did it many times before we had a pickup); sometimes I’m working on a car and need to carry a greasy or oily part; sometimes I move heavy arcade games; and so on.

Maybe a kei truck would work for those latter tasks, I don’t know…since they aren’t available here, the whole argument is kind of moot. If the manufacturers thought there was a reasonable market and profit for them, they’d be doing it. My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that the kei trucks do not meet US crash standards, and modifying them to meet that standard would kill the utility they have now.

And let’s face it, there are quite a few pickups around that have never hauled anything. But to claim they can’t haul anything is just bizarre.

Yeah, that’s an insane comment. I regularly tow an 8,500 lbs trailer with my pickup and regularly haul 2,000 lbs of pellets for our stove in it. Sometimes I tow the trailer with an additional 500 lbs of stuff in the bed of the pickup. I seriously doubt a kei truck - which aren’t even available here in the US - could handle either of those tasks.

Oh I know, we had an Accord that went 7 years before it needed anything other that regular maintenance (and even then it was just that airbag recall). It was great!

For all of its faults, though, the Cougar is a lot of fun to drive.