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happytigeron The fishy death of Red Lobster

I can’t wait until private equity companies are exposed as the exploitive side of our current system that needs to be corrected. At the heart of so many good companies are bad decisions driven by PE structures and personalities, most of whom seem very toxic and short sighted. Surely there is a better model of capitalism — I am not so vapid as to turn against the obvious advantages of the system. But I am also not willing to endorse the current approach as anything but exploitation with extra steps.

happytigeron [dead]

We need to cut spending. Spending is OUT OF CONTROL.

You can’t make up in taxes what you keep spending, and deficit spending is insane right now.

Why is this not part of the conversation? I have no problem paying higher taxes, but without responsible spending it’s just pouring gas on an out of control fire.

happytigeron The failure of the Domino's 30-minute delivery guarantee

This is just a social credit system designed to control behavior, but attached to your workplace instead of your person.

The proof is simple. If you move this system from a single workplace to multiple workplaces with an ID for the worker, you get social credit.

This is a system that many governments and corporatists are in love with, as it generally “punishes troublemakers” without having anyone who’s a lawsuit target get overly involved. In my opinion, social credit systems are repression and totalitarianism masquerading as systems of personal responsibility.

happytigeron Netflix blows past estimates as subscribers jump 16%

Netflix isn’t good, it just sucks less.

It’s really commentary on how bad streaming services are becoming.

happytigeron Cops can force suspect to unlock phone with thumbprint, US court rules

We need a privacy bill of rights. There shouldn’t be a separation between biometrics and passwords.

happytigeron Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

God forbid we don’t monetize the existence and care of life itself.

happytigeron How I prepare a talk for a tech conference (2022)

Mad respect for live demoing in a talk on conference Wi-Fi. There is something to authenticity and embracing potential failure that flies in the face of the well manicured presentation culture we have today that needs to come back. As long as the talk can be done, or there is a plan b, why not? I think a lot of concern stems from wasting other people’s time: which is valid. But presenting is also a deeply culturally engrained performance art that sometimes sacrifices authenticity for appearances.

happytigeron Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

This is beautiful. Thank you.

I think people don’t understand how important just being there for your family actually is. Sometimes it’s enough just to be reliable, stand for good and just be present. Sounds like he really knew it.

happytigeron Show HN: My $1k self-install, off-grid solar backup build for renters

What’s the status in insurance for this thing? Generally this doesn’t seem like it would be covered under renters insurance.

I can’t imagine a landlord in existence that wouldn’t throw a fit about something like this.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

They are limited by insurance rules in each state and federal. The patchwork of consumer protection regulation makes for a lot of weird effects, like the one you are discussing.

They are not limited in profit, but they are limited in what they can do, when they are required to total a car, etc.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

The shear effect generally require forces far beyond trailer loads (think impact forces).

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

This is the way it’s always been done and it’s highly effective. The move to welding it to the frame doesn’t make it less reliable, it saves manufacturing cost and complexity.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

The parts market transformation for tier-1 parts suppliers is far more complicated. What’s happening is that the legacy parts (panels) are coming from a different management pool than the EV components and parts suppliers are scrambling to change their strategies.

Take a look at how parts suppliers are segmenting their businesses and it will make sense (article below).

I completely agree with your conclusion, but none of the manufacturers have incentives that line up with limited liability.

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/growth-strategy-tier-o...

> Suppliers looking to formulate a successful portfolio strategy should begin with a careful review of their existing product groups, broadly allocated to three segments based on their growth and profitability outlooks.

- Booster parts. The major source of growth, this category includes such trend-driven parts as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), battery management systems (BMS), and fuel cells. These parts offer generally greater profitability, though profits will depend on the specific niche—higher for software, lower for increasingly commoditized segments like power electronics.

- Carry-over parts. These include a range of parts that will be predominantly trend-agnostic and stable, such as exterior parts, HVAC, seating, lighting, and the like. Profitability for this category will generally be stable.

- Legacy parts. These include ICE engine systems and conventional transmissions, exhaust systems, fuel systems, and older generations of electronics and human-machine interface (HMI) systems no longer applicable for connected cars—all of which are generally declining as a result of trends in mobility. In general, future profitability for this category of parts will be declining as suppliers struggle with overcapacity.

> Many tier-one suppliers will likely offer a mix of all three types of products. A proper portfolio strategy, however, will require the development of a separate, distinct strategy for managing each product group.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

That’s such the point. You’ve got one of the core issues about what is going articulated perfectly.

The problem is that the manufacturers are incentivized to build them with high repair costs based on how they make money… they make a ton from parts. And there are massive changes forecast for the parts market.

If you really want to dig in, and you may know all of this already, this is a great article outlining the transition currently happening for tier1 parts suppliers:

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/growth-strategy-tier-o...

All of these changes are coming out in the insurance industry, but the insurance industry is constrained by what insurance commissioners will allow, and of course there’s the point you are making at core — they’re not making parts affordable because it’s become a profit center for them. A lot of money is now being made in the backend as companies optimize their supply chains for BEVs.

Take a look at the New Strategies section of that article.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

I am not debating potential or technology, but the higher industry repair costs.

Theory meets the road so to speak. I think it’s likely an artificially created profit center to keep the upfront cost of vehicles very low, as in Tesla’s case.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

El typo struks again.

happytigeron Movie industry demands US law requiring ISPs to block piracy websites

We should pass a law that any company that tries to outsource their trademark and copyright costs onto the public loses them in reaction to this ongoing waste of money and time.

happytigeron Movie industry demands US law requiring ISPs to block piracy websites

Let’s make this the top comment? Haha I love it. The love of your brother is evident and you finished with the point just so eloquently.

happytigeron Auto insurance prices have gone nuts

Rising cost of repairs are causing this as new car are becoming so complex and are so difficult to repair they are causing catastrophic loss to insurance companies.

Electric cars lead this change with eye watering repair costs, but just look at the cost of replacing the headlight on a 2024 f-150 — it is almost 1400 bucks, plus labor. Each. So a minor fender bender is thousands and for insurance you have to use approved parts, which are most always OEM and painfully expensive.

Cars are complicated and expensive to repair and getting more complicated. And manufacturers are doing strange things. Like the 2024 Lexus GX has a hutch included in every model (yay, finally), but then it sticks out several inches and is welded to the frame so even a minor fender bender can total the car — it’s the first thing that gets nailed when someone read ends it and it goes straight to the frame. That’s not a good plan, and could (in my opinion definitely will) lead to totaling the car from minor fender benders.

And electric cars in general are even more expensive to repair.

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2022/07/12/ccc-report-rep...

It all comes out in higher insurance costs.

happytigeron Rents are soaring. Is RealPage to blame?

This is correct. I am currently working on a system to do price and purchase monitoring and optimize people’s purchasing. One of the things that I keep having to work around is dynamic real-time personalized pricing systems as they are more prevalent than I realized.

It seems almost inevitable that everyone will move to subscription / surge pricing models unfortunately. There are no structural incentives for retailers to keep prices lower. Perhaps bulk purchasing will change the game at some point, but it seems unlikely.

happytigeron Landfills Leak More Planet-Baking Methane Than We Thought

Don’t a lot of places capture methane from their landfills for energy? How can the quantities be unknown when you’re capturing and messing the output gases? This can’t be some magical surprise.

happytigeron Some colleges will soon charge $100k a year – how did this happen?

It’s the same system California is putting in place with income-based energy billing.

Income-based billing is rife for abuse!

happytigeron GPT Chats with T-Mobile Support to get discounts

Such a good point I wish I’d included it in my original comment. Well said.

happytigeron Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

Exactly. Strangely this is actually tax efficient for both parties.

happytigeron Study: AI writing, illustration emits hundreds of times less carbon than humans

Also goodness be if you're a celebrity and get kept alive for hundreds of years as a head in a jar.

Thank you futurama for your carbon neutral solutions.

happytigeron GPT Chats with T-Mobile Support to get discounts

I’m you want me to go on arguing, you’re going to have to pay for another 5 minutes.

Every time one of these enshitification AI customer service startups pops up I always think of the ultimate form of where this is going… to people paying to argue with people.

Follow me down the rabbit hole for a second. Imagine all of these things succeeded eventually and Customer Service completely saturated by talking to bots, to which they then have to deploy bots, and in very short order essentially becoming a bot API layer for Customer Service issues with gamification driving at the core. It’s almost inevitable.

So then, people will want to develop the debate skills. They will feel like they are missing out in the negotiating skills people used to have. There will be coaches to help people learn how to deal with the skills set of negotiation, as all negotiation is now automated (which is, at the root, all this business is — its automated negotiation).

Which leads my brain to believe that Monty Python was prescient and this will become a reality.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDB5gbtaEQ

happytigeron Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

Beyond the invasive mess they are making, there’s this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/23agnj/til_t...

happytigeron Apple's Phil Schiller Works 80 Hours a Week Overseeing App Store

Anything less doesn’t keep a job at Apple even in quasi retirement.

happytigeron The last crimes of Caravaggio

Cheers to Jim!

happytigeron The last crimes of Caravaggio

Yes you are describing my experience exactly. This art is one of those arts that looks nice in photos and is just impactful (?) in person. Like, movingly painted somehow? It is emotionally arresting. He has captured something of the human spirit in some of his work.

Well said.