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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 26th, 2023

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  • Carriers will offer better deals on the phones though if you’re planning to stick with them.

    I’m looking at a $1000 phone that ATT will give me for 2.99/month for 2 years. That’s over 85% off on the phone. The trick is they give it to you by actually charging like $42/month, but then giving a $39 credit every bill for 2 years, so you have to pay the difference on the $1,000 phone if you jump carriers.

    But since they’re the only carrier that works at my office, and this is gonna be a work phone (my company pays me a monthly stipend for it), I can live with that.







  • When 5 different people have paid 15-20 grand for the same car that’s approaching 20 years old, the manufacturers are absolutely losing sales. Most people buying them now would prefer to buy new small trucks, but since they’re not avaialbe they buy used and put 3rd-party parts in them to keep them running.

    Ford finally released a small, affordable truck with only a 4.5-foot bed and a hybrid motor (Maverick) , and they can’t make enough of them to meet demand. It’s been their most-successful new vehicle in decades, if not ever.

    They’re on pace to have more than 10x as many sold this year as when they launched in 2021 despite a price increase of over 35%, and it’s still almost impossible to see one on the showroom floor because they’re sold out before they reach the dealer. Ford is making mint on it despite it being too small to be useful as a truck for many users. A true successor to the old Rangers would be a money-printing machine.


  • Meh. The Ranger, S-10, and Dakota were major sellers for the automakers and they’ve felt that hit . The Ranger has come back in name, but not in size.

    The fact that a 2008 Ford Ranger with 150,000 miles can still sell for 12-15k tells you there’s still a huge demand for this class of truck. The manufactures don’t get another dime out of that S-10 that’s changed hands 4 times - often to people who would have gladly bought new if it were an option.

    Another vehicle class just died to increasingly-strict CAFE rules on vehicle footprint - the small cargo van. The Nissan NV200, Ford Transit Connect, and Ram ProMaster City were all discontinued in the last few years. These were all hugely popular.





  • Some jobs necessarily include idle time when you’re waiting for work to come through even if there’s nothing to do in that specific moment. The flip side of that is that the employer is able to require that the worker be available instantly. If they’re leaving their work area because they’re bored then they’re not “at work.”

    My Dad was a career firefighter, and he spent most of his time sitting in the station watching TV, cooking meals, or sleeping. He was paid for every minute of that time because at the drop of a hat he could be called to a wreck, fire, or medical emergency.

    The reason he had to be paid is federal law requiring that all workers who are “engaged to wait” are on the clock. If someone is installing mouse-jiggler software so they can leave their workstation and do whatever they want, they’re no longer being engaged to wait.