In times like these, I would trust Google over the government ANY DAY! I'd rather have a creative, for-profit company actually try to make a difference than have the government dick around with tax dollars that companies like Google will end up generating anyway.
Trying to predict what a user is wanting to do is quite useless. Knowing what the user wants to do is what matters. Imagine moving the mouse out of the way so it wouldn't be in a website-embedded video. Oops! Nevermind! Since my mouse was over my other web browser, it brought it into focus. Try to move it back to focus the window? Oops, moved it over a link on the page, now I'm on Disney.com.
Great idea, and toy, but I can't see it ever hitting mainstream. It would definitely have its uses for accessiblity applications, however.
So what this article is implying is that everyone should switch to Citizendium because there is too much "graffiti" in Wikipedia. If we applied this same logic to the world, namely in larger cities, then we'd all be living in caves because of "too much graffiti" everywhere else. Come on, lets be serious -- graffiti is NOT a big enough problem to spend many man hours trying to develop elaborate systems to "solve" because its already solved!
Paying monthly doesn't appeal to me. You can say I'm cheap or whatever, but I still believe in and enjoy a free multiplayer experience. Granted higher quality content will be brought to the table via the pay-to-play scheme, the joys of free online play like Diablo and Diablo II offered outweighs the MMO concept, in my opinion. What would be great if they could develop a free online system for Hellgate London as well. I don't know a lot about the game, but since it has a single player element, it seems applying the same style of gameplay to a Diablo-esque online experience would work fantastic. Basically, either you can pay to play with new content or you can play free with standard content. Seems a good compromise to me since I will not be a subscriber.
Point 1: Please refer to AutopsyReport's post. Point 2: Agreed, but they're in the insurance business, not healthcare. In a way, its health insurance vs. healthcare. Point 3: Very true, but they aren't "in business", they merely work for the healthcare business. This concept of an employee caring holds true even at your local burger joint. The employee may want you to have a good meal, because deep down inside, they care. Most people like seeing others enjoy what they've done for them, but the employee still wants to clock out as soon as possible, and doesn't really care about what kind of profit the owner is making.
To clarify, warranties are totally dependent on the particular dealer selling the car. Some buy warranties from third-parties to include with each vehicle, others offer it at the point-of-sale, and others sell their cars as-is. Most independent dealers that are selling used cars within 5 years old will sell them with a warranty or offer one.
And you can even go the extra mile and buy a bumper-to-bumper warranty. I haven't looked into pricing/savings for consumers yet, but... I'd say its not worth it.
Yeah, enough rambling.
I like your moral, though here is a valuable lesson in finance: Borrowed money is borrowed time.
That one sentence has made more men rich than anyone can imagine. Think about it. Apply it.
I'm not saying that one will never refuse, but the chance, for the type of business being discussed, is slim. As an example, there is a very large buy-here, pay-here less than a mile from my location, and they sell 500+ units a month and have lost less than 10 sales because of the device. Appropriately, my view is based on fact from proven records.
From the article: "Seriously, open source software progresses at commercial flight speed."
350 - 750 Mph? Thats not bad! FLY OPEN SOURCE! FLY DAMN YOU!
Re:What's sleazy about getting paid?
on
High-Tech RepoMan
·
· Score: 1
Shock function = Amen!
Re:I Developed a Competing System--and learned...
on
High-Tech RepoMan
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· Score: 1
We had a car with similar features, but not quite so drastic. The customer decided that symmetry sucked and he showed it by replacing each wheel on the vehicle, ensuring they all looked completely different and didn't fit right. He also made sure the tires sucked. And of course, it was repoed with a few other typical things:
- Horrendous interior
- Cracked windshield
- Fresh dents
- Check engine light
- Fuel light
There's no market for that! The people that generally install all the devices (employees of Passtime) sell codes to customers! Thankfully, the website requires a login and password which I will NEVER let those bloody thieves have! Yes, the installers, BLOODY THIEVES I TELL YOU! (We contract out the installs to professionals)
What device is it (by which company)? And how did you brute-force the password? The devices we use require a 9 digit code formatted in a specific way or the car may run for only 1 day then shut off, and then when the customer calls us, we give them a code, it won't work, then we KNOW they tampered with it. At this point, we may take legal action (if necessary). Must be some ancient device:P
(Excuse my overuse of commas, improper grammar, and bad usage)
Re:Buy Here, Pay Here places suck.
on
High-Tech RepoMan
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· Score: 1
All buy-here, pay-here lots will do cash deals. Just ask and show the Benjamins. The price will magically come down drastically and you'll buy a bargain. This is no joke, really, just do your homework on pricing the car and DO NOT trade your car in. Remember that the dealers are out to make a buck, and, obviously, financing a customer for 3-5 years will take a while for them to make a buck. A cash sale is a win-win situation.
Re:What's sleazy about getting paid?
on
High-Tech RepoMan
·
· Score: 1
I agree about the profit idea. Profit isn't bad. Its the whole point of business! In fact, business is GOOD because it generates tax dollars and jobs.
In regard to high prices: Buy-here, pay-here lots finance customers with BAD CREDIT, not 600 beacon customers! Its the price they pay for NOT paying! The solution is PAY YOUR DEBTS, GET A JOB, GET GOING!
Re:I Developed a Competing System--and learned...
on
High-Tech RepoMan
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· Score: 1
The folks we have to repo cars have been repoing for about 30 years in our area. They have good connections for repoing. Since they've been repoing so long, they get lots of business therefore they don't charge much. Its not unusual for them to repo about 3-5 a day.
No, we haven't had anyone run off yet. We've heard many stories though. Then again, we've only been in business for one year, but we feel we're a bit more focused on our longevity than other car lots and tend to spot people who may run off with our cars.
Treating bad credit as bad credit
on
High-Tech RepoMan
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I seem to be posting this a lot, but I have a buy-here, pay-here car lot and I have not lost a SINGLE customer because of installing starter interrupt devices! Zero! ZILCH! ABSOLUTELY NONE! Remember, the customers that must have these installed have sub-prime credit! If someone walked on my lot, wanted my '99 Mustang GT, and they had $3,000 down and a 600 beacon, THEY'RE GETTING THE CAR! If they request no device installed, FINE! It won't be installed!
...that owns a buy-here, pay-here dealership.
These devices are a true blessing to buy-here, pay-here dealers. Repo-rate is now as low as 33%!
Re:I Developed a Competing System--and learned...
on
High-Tech RepoMan
·
· Score: 1
I'll have to disagree with what you say about Buy-Here, Pay-Here lots. Sure, the majority of them do in fact buy junk piles, but the operation I run is quite different. We try to maintain an inventory of vehicles with LESS than 100k miles and buy them ATLEAST '95 and newer! Most of our vehicles are '97-'02 models and are very clean, mechanically sound, and, most importantly, affordable to our market. Apart from what we sell, we also attempt to maintain the cars we sell. If the customer has a problem with a vehicle and they must call us, we will fix the problem and split the difference with the customer; sometimes we even pay the whole bill.
Back to the point, most Buy-Here, Pay-Here lots don't even use starter interrupt devices, and if they did, it'd be a waste of cash considering such devices range from $200-$400 and repossessing a car can be as cheap as $30 with an average of just over $50.
I own and operate a used car lot. The devices we use are by a company called Passtime. The type of operation we have is a buy-here-pay-here lot that attracts a lot customers with sub-prime credit, and we haven't had a single customer not buy a car because of the device. The fact is, if they won't agree to having the device on their car, they probably won't pay (keep in mind, these are sub-prime customers). We usually weed them about before they even come inside!
The device is quite easy to "hack" if you would even call it that. Its just soldered to the wiring harness and can VERY easily be bypassed. Most customers don't question it because "its a little computer thingy" and its "very complex".
Apart from all that, in the contract, the customer must sign about three pages of forms made up of about 15 signatures from both buyer and co-buyer agreeing to all the terms and conditions regarding the device. Again, our customers never have a problem signing their John Hancock on the line.
About the operation of the device: Currently, the device we use utilizes a "code" system where the customer pays their payment, we give them a 9-digit code from Passtime's website. The code is only good for however many days we set it, then we can set warning days where it will beep upon starting to remind them that their payment is due, and each code has atleast two emergency days that they can use by pressing 999-999-999.
Regardless, it'd be nice if Passtime would give me the freakin' code to generate the Passtime codes so I can integrate it into my software! They protect it quite well, thankfully!
Slashdot Mirror
In times like these, I would trust Google over the government ANY DAY! I'd rather have a creative, for-profit company actually try to make a difference than have the government dick around with tax dollars that companies like Google will end up generating anyway.
Trying to predict what a user is wanting to do is quite useless. Knowing what the user wants to do is what matters. Imagine moving the mouse out of the way so it wouldn't be in a website-embedded video. Oops! Nevermind! Since my mouse was over my other web browser, it brought it into focus. Try to move it back to focus the window? Oops, moved it over a link on the page, now I'm on Disney.com.
Great idea, and toy, but I can't see it ever hitting mainstream. It would definitely have its uses for accessiblity applications, however.
So what this article is implying is that everyone should switch to Citizendium because there is too much "graffiti" in Wikipedia. If we applied this same logic to the world, namely in larger cities, then we'd all be living in caves because of "too much graffiti" everywhere else. Come on, lets be serious -- graffiti is NOT a big enough problem to spend many man hours trying to develop elaborate systems to "solve" because its already solved!
Paying monthly doesn't appeal to me. You can say I'm cheap or whatever, but I still believe in and enjoy a free multiplayer experience. Granted higher quality content will be brought to the table via the pay-to-play scheme, the joys of free online play like Diablo and Diablo II offered outweighs the MMO concept, in my opinion. What would be great if they could develop a free online system for Hellgate London as well. I don't know a lot about the game, but since it has a single player element, it seems applying the same style of gameplay to a Diablo-esque online experience would work fantastic. Basically, either you can pay to play with new content or you can play free with standard content. Seems a good compromise to me since I will not be a subscriber.
Point 1: Please refer to AutopsyReport's post.
Point 2: Agreed, but they're in the insurance business, not healthcare. In a way, its health insurance vs. healthcare.
Point 3: Very true, but they aren't "in business", they merely work for the healthcare business. This concept of an employee caring holds true even at your local burger joint. The employee may want you to have a good meal, because deep down inside, they care. Most people like seeing others enjoy what they've done for them, but the employee still wants to clock out as soon as possible, and doesn't really care about what kind of profit the owner is making.
To clarify, warranties are totally dependent on the particular dealer selling the car. Some buy warranties from third-parties to include with each vehicle, others offer it at the point-of-sale, and others sell their cars as-is. Most independent dealers that are selling used cars within 5 years old will sell them with a warranty or offer one. And you can even go the extra mile and buy a bumper-to-bumper warranty. I haven't looked into pricing/savings for consumers yet, but... I'd say its not worth it. Yeah, enough rambling.
I like your moral, though here is a valuable lesson in finance: Borrowed money is borrowed time. That one sentence has made more men rich than anyone can imagine. Think about it. Apply it.
This is the most confusing "feature" I've ever seen. Remove it now!
Hopefully they'll ensure they "de-ratify" the rat brain, or we may see this headline in the not so distant future:
"Rats Rejoice -- Rat Planes Exact Their Revenge on Cats!"
I'm not saying that one will never refuse, but the chance, for the type of business being discussed, is slim. As an example, there is a very large buy-here, pay-here less than a mile from my location, and they sell 500+ units a month and have lost less than 10 sales because of the device. Appropriately, my view is based on fact from proven records.
From the article: "Seriously, open source software progresses at commercial flight speed."
350 - 750 Mph? Thats not bad! FLY OPEN SOURCE! FLY DAMN YOU!
Shock function = Amen!
We had a car with similar features, but not quite so drastic. The customer decided that symmetry sucked and he showed it by replacing each wheel on the vehicle, ensuring they all looked completely different and didn't fit right. He also made sure the tires sucked. And of course, it was repoed with a few other typical things: - Horrendous interior - Cracked windshield - Fresh dents - Check engine light - Fuel light
There's no market for that! The people that generally install all the devices (employees of Passtime) sell codes to customers! Thankfully, the website requires a login and password which I will NEVER let those bloody thieves have! Yes, the installers, BLOODY THIEVES I TELL YOU! (We contract out the installs to professionals)
Doctor Ice Age says, "I shall call it--Mini Me."
What device is it (by which company)? And how did you brute-force the password? The devices we use require a 9 digit code formatted in a specific way or the car may run for only 1 day then shut off, and then when the customer calls us, we give them a code, it won't work, then we KNOW they tampered with it. At this point, we may take legal action (if necessary). Must be some ancient device :P
(Excuse my overuse of commas, improper grammar, and bad usage)
All buy-here, pay-here lots will do cash deals. Just ask and show the Benjamins. The price will magically come down drastically and you'll buy a bargain. This is no joke, really, just do your homework on pricing the car and DO NOT trade your car in. Remember that the dealers are out to make a buck, and, obviously, financing a customer for 3-5 years will take a while for them to make a buck. A cash sale is a win-win situation.
I agree about the profit idea. Profit isn't bad. Its the whole point of business! In fact, business is GOOD because it generates tax dollars and jobs. In regard to high prices: Buy-here, pay-here lots finance customers with BAD CREDIT, not 600 beacon customers! Its the price they pay for NOT paying! The solution is PAY YOUR DEBTS, GET A JOB, GET GOING!
The folks we have to repo cars have been repoing for about 30 years in our area. They have good connections for repoing. Since they've been repoing so long, they get lots of business therefore they don't charge much. Its not unusual for them to repo about 3-5 a day. No, we haven't had anyone run off yet. We've heard many stories though. Then again, we've only been in business for one year, but we feel we're a bit more focused on our longevity than other car lots and tend to spot people who may run off with our cars.
I seem to be posting this a lot, but I have a buy-here, pay-here car lot and I have not lost a SINGLE customer because of installing starter interrupt devices! Zero! ZILCH! ABSOLUTELY NONE! Remember, the customers that must have these installed have sub-prime credit! If someone walked on my lot, wanted my '99 Mustang GT, and they had $3,000 down and a 600 beacon, THEY'RE GETTING THE CAR! If they request no device installed, FINE! It won't be installed!
...that owns a buy-here, pay-here dealership. These devices are a true blessing to buy-here, pay-here dealers. Repo-rate is now as low as 33%!
I'll have to disagree with what you say about Buy-Here, Pay-Here lots. Sure, the majority of them do in fact buy junk piles, but the operation I run is quite different. We try to maintain an inventory of vehicles with LESS than 100k miles and buy them ATLEAST '95 and newer! Most of our vehicles are '97-'02 models and are very clean, mechanically sound, and, most importantly, affordable to our market. Apart from what we sell, we also attempt to maintain the cars we sell. If the customer has a problem with a vehicle and they must call us, we will fix the problem and split the difference with the customer; sometimes we even pay the whole bill. Back to the point, most Buy-Here, Pay-Here lots don't even use starter interrupt devices, and if they did, it'd be a waste of cash considering such devices range from $200-$400 and repossessing a car can be as cheap as $30 with an average of just over $50.
I own and operate a used car lot. The devices we use are by a company called Passtime. The type of operation we have is a buy-here-pay-here lot that attracts a lot customers with sub-prime credit, and we haven't had a single customer not buy a car because of the device. The fact is, if they won't agree to having the device on their car, they probably won't pay (keep in mind, these are sub-prime customers). We usually weed them about before they even come inside!
The device is quite easy to "hack" if you would even call it that. Its just soldered to the wiring harness and can VERY easily be bypassed. Most customers don't question it because "its a little computer thingy" and its "very complex".
Apart from all that, in the contract, the customer must sign about three pages of forms made up of about 15 signatures from both buyer and co-buyer agreeing to all the terms and conditions regarding the device. Again, our customers never have a problem signing their John Hancock on the line.
About the operation of the device: Currently, the device we use utilizes a "code" system where the customer pays their payment, we give them a 9-digit code from Passtime's website. The code is only good for however many days we set it, then we can set warning days where it will beep upon starting to remind them that their payment is due, and each code has atleast two emergency days that they can use by pressing 999-999-999.
Regardless, it'd be nice if Passtime would give me the freakin' code to generate the Passtime codes so I can integrate it into my software! They protect it quite well, thankfully!