39100+ entries in 0.025s
a111: Logged on 2014-07-16 19:09 mircea_popescu:
They work
to boost revenue by offering an extended warranty or a service plan (made necessary by frequent breakdowns), charging for premium customer service (made necessary by
their normal customer service, which consists of a robotic phone maze backed by a few
trainees in India who just read aloud from Company B's public web site in a listless, stuttering monotone) and offering numerous enhancements and upgrades (made
mircea_popescu:
http://btcbase.org/log/2014-07-16#758238 << speaking of, here's some lulz. so i had recently occasion
to employ
the services of
the consul of
teh koninkrijk der nederlanden in san jose
to interface some diplomatic business with
the romanian mission not present here for my convenience.
☝︎ a111: Logged on 2019-02-15 00:00 asciilifeform was given 'mk61' at same age i
think diana_coman's kid is nao
mircea_popescu: god knows it informs a lot of
the strategic and systems design work at
the core of
the republic.
a111: Logged on 2014-07-16 19:04 mircea_popescu: "Suppose you have a company
that sets out
to make a widget. Let's call it Company A. Its founders are all engineers, of an uncompromising sort, and
the widget
they design and manufacture is of
tremendous longevity, durability and overall quality." << hey check out orlov.
a111: Logged on 2016-06-10 21:43 asciilifeform: 'Suppose you have a company
that sets out
to make a widget. Let's call it Company A. Its founders are all engineers, of an uncompromising sort, and
the widget
they design and manufacture is of
tremendous longevity, durability and overall quality.... When consumers refuse
to pay so much more
than
they feel
they have
to, Company A's widget fails in
the marketplace, and
the company is liquidated.'
mircea_popescu: mechanical
table clocks in us very
truthful witness
to
the "we
too"ism of
the place, in
the sense it is contemplated here.
mircea_popescu: and more 16
than 18, at
that. nevertheless -- maybe you lucked out. "should you be able
to bend a solid gold watch ?"
mircea_popescu: you know, old watches did need
to be set every day. we even discussed
this in
the logs, as
to
the function of big ben etc.
mircea_popescu: oh oh, set
them every day. i read "sold
them every day". i c lol.
mircea_popescu: i dunno what all
this "canonical" bs ever does. eg,
they invented some alt- mircea_popescu a few years ago,
to auto-return, great expert bla bla. did ~nothing, sunk back into
the gavinvat.
a111: Logged on 2019-03-28 16:22 asciilifeform: before
taking off , decided
to buy sumthing from
the carpet men, and bought a pocket watch. appeared
to be keeping correct
time, spiffy-looking '20s german
thing
mircea_popescu: re-reading
today it occurs
to me... you know we're having some fucking excellent discussions
these days ?
mircea_popescu: "ticabus", ie, local operator, actually on
their website roll.
mircea_popescu: im not saying it's strinctly impossible bonluck or ssongyank or w/e makes cars just as good as bayernische krankenwerken or whatever. it is a fact
though, i never looked at it seriously before. chiefly because never had
to.
mircea_popescu: i dunno, whai not. i never looked at it before, because i'm a loyal kind. but
the way
the germans are going... yes, of course eventually you lose me.
mircea_popescu: one of
those cases where yes it makes difference
to have 300 rather
than 30 hp available.
mircea_popescu: (i muchly doubt azn make'd have ever made it out on own power, at
that.)
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform, item genuinely was sunk a meter into sand,
took girls half hour
to dig it back out.
mircea_popescu: and
then going even lower,
there's of course sand. which was ww2 killer in africa .
mircea_popescu: if you add up
the miles, soon enough
the
toyota's ground into a
toaster oven
a111: Logged on 2017-11-09 16:38 asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: mircea_popescu earlier suggested , 'boltzmann distrib' of coffee speck velocities, almost certainly has high end
that grinds pieces of your vessel into
the output
mircea_popescu: anyway, back
to it :
the large rocks are one
thing, but if you drive over macadam say (which is not inconceivable here, and yes on a grade with hairpins, whynot)
there's very much a
http://btcbase.org/log/2017-11-09#1735165 sorta affair : for any arbitrary energy, you will get X many rocks per hour, or mile.
☝︎ mircea_popescu: they have cvasi-sedan ones, doesn't have
to be a
truck
mircea_popescu: well, here
too, kinda how rocks end up in
the way : mudslide washes
them in,
then rain washes
the mud. sorta like fractioned distillation
mircea_popescu: it stands
to reason,
too. "we made
this
thing
to be driven on road, road is defined as no immovable obstacles
taller
than x, plox
to keep in mind".
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform, no, cracked engine /
transmission casing.
mircea_popescu: this used
to be
the bane of
the mercedesen i used in a diff life in romania.
mircea_popescu: never happened, i have yet nfi wtf it is shielded by, but volcanic rock seems
to have nothing on it.
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform, point in case :
the undercarriage
transmission/engine cover was banged AT LEAST ONE HUNDRED
TIMES. so
the car goes "bong!" and your head shakes and you're "omfg,
the 7 (seven!!! point five!!!) liters of expensive oil are now on
the ground.
mircea_popescu: so
they buy shitty cars and live unhappy domestic lives.
mircea_popescu: there's
this purely idiotarian usgistani view of "oh, young woman always better
than old wife". really, bitch ? cuz why, cuz
the precious cuntlet can't
take without breaking down a 1% of what
the
tried and
tested old ho can swallow unblinking ?
mircea_popescu: i do not believe any same-year made car during any of
the years involved could have survived as a replacement. (i don't even
take
the newer / better ones for
this sort of
treck -- and
tbh, i do not respect
them NEARLY as much. i grew
to love
the cheap unassuming old car on
the merits, which is
to say what it'll
take. like any woman.
mircea_popescu: except poor dood's spent MORE
than
that fixing his
toyota so as
to get
the riteve hence. vindicating
the point
that... hm. white devil!
a111: Logged on 2019-01-16 15:58 mircea_popescu: asciilifeform i have
the converse problem. alternator dies on road, /me
takes car back
to (otherwise very competent, and very able) independent mechanic who charged 75 an hour for
tools and labour
to find what needs changing and
then install mp's parts (75 CENTS!!!). "why
the fuck was not
this on
the bill ?" "ah, it wasn't really broken yet, still hung on a
thread".
mircea_popescu: so
then was stuck discovering defects for half a year /
training locals
to sanity because
http://btcbase.org/log/2019-01-16#1887591 ; and stuck paying for parts / organizing imports / whatever,
to
the
tune of like 3k, ie, years' local salary. which seemed
to vindicate
the "you were scammed" pov.
☝︎ mircea_popescu: haha yes, you know i got it on
the spot ? self-same groundskeeper, "but you know
the car ?" "nope" "So you went with mechanic ?" "umm, no." "but... so you got scammed ?" "i guess we see"
mircea_popescu: i
think in principle
the "all
tests failed" printout would be 10-20k itemized lines.
mircea_popescu: they check everyhing. (no joke, either,
ticos are a serious folk). brakes, direction, i even get warnings
that
the front seat headrest is unattached (i keep it out deliberately, so as not
to obstruct my front view)
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform,
they have
this
testing office here,
they give you a stamp
that
the car is up
to spect
technically, good for 1 year. (good measure
too,
the
tubs
these people drove before it... jesus f. even now you see
trucks dead in middle of onramp cuz unmaintained engine finally croaked etc)
☟︎ mircea_popescu: asciilifeform, 30% grades ; crazy winds ; drove it
through sand and
through a river bed i'm
too lazy rto get
the link of and and and
mircea_popescu: is 2nd pass of
the same... it just... he's visibly still dfigesting it.
mircea_popescu: bartholomew is driving my groundskeeper fellow
to
the brink of madness. it is
the SECOND consecutive
technical inspection it passed without any repairs, AT ALL.
the poor guy, drives a cheap
toyota, comes back from
trhe
test with lengthly lists of requisites EVERY
time. last year he was very put off by
the "pass on 1st
try"
thing, especially as
the year prior he had seen
the
thing dump its fluids and have
to be
toed. but
th
mircea_popescu: i suspect we might want very different
things from our cars.
BingoBoingo: <mircea_popescu> it si, it is. he's just being mean. << Only halfway.
The other half is derechos as in derechos por cerdos humanos
a111: Logged on 2019-03-28 16:06 mircea_popescu: BingoBoingo, i expect sometime before 2022 ima switch
to buying azn cars. what can you do, germans are morons now.
mircea_popescu: BingoBoingo,
that was quite a pleasant re-read lol. i even forgot about it.
mircea_popescu: besides, duke's
the lands' foremost university of left
turns.
BingoBoingo: Under
the current criminal code,
that might be interpreted as a sentence of community service with
the guilty assigned
to judge in order
to work off his debt
to society
mircea_popescu: i'd put
the lawyer in jail, if i were stuck judging
this
thing.
mircea_popescu: this might be
the most retarded case i read
this year.
BingoBoingo: <mircea_popescu> wtf, and
these
tards are actually lawyers now ? << Worse, graduates del la facultad de Derecho!