- In ‘The Subscription Model’ (https://wordpress.com/post/innoparticularorder.blog/124) I pondered how change had come upon the things we *thought* we owned, and speculated on a future where our cars would stop working because of some remote software-based intervention. Much to my surprise, I was just ahead of the real thing; turns out, the Congress has this year passed a bill requiring (as in, not suggesting) that all cars, starting in five years, have ‘kill switches’ built into them (citation https://www.yahoo.com/autos/law-install-kill-switches-cars-170000930.html). These switches, so far, would be accessible by law enforcement, and are required to automatically detect impaired driving. But, anything so created can be subverted to serve another purpose, such as by hackers (‘Wanna drive? Send me money!’), car financing companies (‘Are you sure you sent that last payment? We don’t see it’) and more, potentially leaving drivers in a perilous spot with a dead vehicle. Not great.
- I won’t say the car brand (I’m confident most have heard the pitch anyway) but the latest amusing sales slogan is ‘What you see is what you pay.’ Rather lowering the bar here, don’t you think? I mean, yeah, I’m pretty old, but I thought that was the way it was supposed to work all along.
- Speaking of car sales, I am reminded of my last car buying experience. It actually overall was a fairly straightforward event, thank goodness. I knew what I wanted, what it should cost, and the sales person brought me to 3 or 4 candidates that fit that need. But then at settlement came the surprise $299 ‘doc fee’, which I decried as scurrilous and wouldn’t pay, and stalemate ensued. It reached the point where the Sales Manager arrived to declare that he ‘had people flying in from Alaska to buy this truck at this price’ and he wasn’t budging on the fee. Some hilarity ensued at that claim, but finally I went along, fetched a separate check for the fee and went my way with a new truck. But (here’s the fun part) a couple weeks later said sales person called – turns out they had given me some critical original paperwork that they needed to submit to the state, and had no copies. Would I please send those along? Well, sure I said, glad to help, and added ‘Tell the Sales Manager that my doc fee is $299’. I hung up the phone with a good laugh. It was worth every penny.
- TV manufacturers have started acting like software makers, and insisting on ‘required software updates’. This last one made it so that the TV did not, in fact, actually turn on most of the time. Some work and choice words later, some functionality was restored (hooray!). But if watching a little TV is going to require work and frustration first, well, I just might as well return to grappling with room-sized computers instead of relaxing with the set. And, it pays a whole lot better.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
In no particular order 