Bluetooth query

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" on Tue, 7 Aug 2018
12:13:27 +0100 typed in alt.windows7.general the following:

because everything was optional. So the base
price was low and you could get only the options
you wanted.

Though that presumably meant ordering from the factory, not the dealer;
on the whole I'd probably prefer to do that too, but would anticipate
getting poor service from dealers as a result. (Academic; I've never
actually bought a new car anyway, the closest being an ex-demo Lada.)

My mom would buy the dealer's "sample" - the one the salesman
drove. At the end of the model year. All the extras, a year's
maintenance, "used" but still "new". Such a deal.

And then there was Grandmother, who bought a new Buick Roadmaster
- loaded, and usually gave the old one to her daughter. The story
goes that one time Aunt D pulled into a gas station with it, and the
guy there exclaims "Lady, where did you get this car!?" To which my
Aunt replied "You'll never believe me, but I just got it from a little
old lady in Pasadena."

tschus
pyotr

--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| I have central _locking_, which is
| nice to have and relatively simple (i. e. I open/close the driver or
| passenger door - with the key! - and the other three doors unlock/lock),
| but that's still based on a mechanical lock;

How sensible. We in the US seem to always get
the best designs last. The designers are always busy
working on the fantasy aspect -- curves, angles,
widgets -- instead of sensible things.


| Reminds me of a funny from a few years ago: one person was suggesting
| that bumpers (I thought the US called them fenders?) be a standard
| height. Someone else said that's daft, otherwise you'd have to have them
| the same height on a Rolls-Royce as on a mini (that was the original
| mini, which was tiny, not the current BMW one). Then someone produced a
| picture showing that, in fact, the bumpers on those two cars _were_ at
| the same height. Cue very sheepish look from one person ...

We call the quarter panel a fender. I think the
requirement here is that bumpers protect from
damage at 2 mph. So pretty much no regulation.
There are now extensive requirements for air
bags and seat belts, but a bumper can be useless.
Not to mention that most trucks don't comply.
A flatbed tow truck will usually have a bumber,
but the steel plate of the bed, aimed right at
my head, sticks out too far for the bumper to
pprevent decapitation. Why is that allowed? I
don't know.

There was a funny scene in a movie a few years
ago. Sylvester Stallone, in the future where he's
a cop hunting Wesley Snipes, gets into an accident
and the whole car instantly fills with foam which
then hardens to styrofoam. Stallone was encased
and had to pick his way out.

| Yes. I think most are like that. With my first Toyota
| I bought a cigarette lighter at an auto parts store
| and plugged it in. It's cheaper for them to just wire
| in everything.
|
| I haven't seen a car here that didn't have that power outlet, for years.
| (Or that didn't have the lighter actually in it when new, though that's
| often got lost in older cars.)

We're not allowed to have those here. It's politically
incorrect to be aware of cigarette lighters. But I think
I do have a port for charging my non-existent iPhone.
Likewise, it's non-PC to have an ashtray. Instead of
a drawer we now get a tiny shelf, which are not as
useful. But we can't have ashtrays because the sight
of it might trigger an acute aversion episode in some
sensitive people who have their priorities straight.
Next thing you know, the car saelsmen is being sentenced
to 100 hours of community service working for a MeToo
activist group or a pronouns committee. Better to have
a tiny cubbyhole that's not useful for much of anything.

| I carry jump leads and an X-shaped wheelbrace - much more likely to be
| helpful to someone in difficulties! (Plus I get great satisfaction if
| I'm able to give a jump-start from my Skoda to, say, a BMW, Mercedes,
| or similar ...)

Skoda... I had to look that one up. How did you
get the S? copied from their website?


| Couldn't agree more. I'd love to turn most of them off - I just don't
| have the inclination to spend the time finding out which ones I can, and
| as you say, it's not necessary now due to the (wasteful) surplus of
| processor power and bandwidth.

We were talking about that recently. But in this
case I meant Web services. The thin client scam.
Renting software under the pretense that there
are logical reasons to rent rather than buy.

"pyotr filipivich" wrote

| I bought the Mazda truck on a Saturday afternoon. I'd been up all
| night and day, got towed in the last fifty miles, and I needed
| something to get me to my friends place for the 4th, and then home.
| "The truck I want is on this lot."

I guess that's probably more common than not. People
get into accidents, or blow a gasket, and suddenly
their car is not worth saving. Ordering custom is
probably mostly for people who don't really need
their car, perhaps having a second one they can
use if necessary.

In message , Mayayana
writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| I have central _locking_, which is
| nice to have and relatively simple (i. e. I open/close the driver or
| passenger door - with the key! - and the other three doors unlock/lock),
| but that's still based on a mechanical lock;

How sensible. We in the US seem to always get
the best designs last. The designers are always busy
working on the fantasy aspect -- curves, angles,
widgets -- instead of sensible things.

It's not new - positively old hat by now! Most modern ones are remote
lock/unlock (I presume all doors).
[]
| I haven't seen a car here that didn't have that power outlet, for years.
| (Or that didn't have the lighter actually in it when new, though that's
| often got lost in older cars.)

We're not allowed to have those here. It's politically
incorrect to be aware of cigarette lighters. But I think
I do have a port for charging my non-existent iPhone.

Well, I'm _assuming_ they're lighters; certainly that power outlet is
common (often one in the back for the rear passengers too), and usually
covered; I'd assumed the cover was a lighter, but could just be a cover
I suppose. (The industry I think calls them cigar lighters.)
[]
activist group or a pronouns committee. Better to have

I love "pronouns committee".
[]
Skoda... I had to look that one up. How did you
get the S? copied from their website?

Lada and Å*koda: used to be joke makes here - you lost all street cred
if you had either. Ladas were made in Russia (I think it was USSR then),
Å*kodas in IIRR Czechoslovakia; both very cheap. (And, to be fair, not
nearly as bad as made out; I had a series of them, and they gave me no
more trouble than other cars I've had before or since. No less, either.)
The Ladas were very solidly built, though certainly nothing to write
home about performance wise. (Also very high.) The Lada make (it wasn't
called that in Russia) disappeared from Britain; with the collapse of
communism, the Å*koda works was more or less taken into the Volkswagen
empire, and now makes modern sophisticated cars, using a lot of VW parts
and knowledge - though they still sell for somewhat less than VWs, and
are considered a bargain by those who know about them. Mine is from the
transitional period - I think it may be the last production Diesel that
_isn't_ a turbo. Still, it does me, and I get about 50 miles per gallon
on a good run.

How did I get the Å*? I've memorized all the Alt-codes ... no, seriously
(though I _do_ know quite a lot of them! But that's only of use if you
have a numeric keypad, which most smaller laptops don't), I use an
excellent piece of software called AllChars - get it from
http://allchars.zwolnet.com/ . There are I think a few such utilities,
but I find that one very intuitive. You tap _and release_ the Ctrl key,
then type two keys in succession - and which two is what I find very
intuitive: e' for é, o" for ö, ^S for Å*, ~n for ñ, and so on. (I
think the order doesn't matter for a lot of them.) And he's put in a few
others, not just odd letters: 12 gives ½, 34 ¾, +- ±, dg °, xx ×,
and so on. (I hope those all come through usenet.)

| Couldn't agree more. I'd love to turn most of them off - I just don't
| have the inclination to spend the time finding out which ones I can, and
| as you say, it's not necessary now due to the (wasteful) surplus of
| processor power and bandwidth.

We were talking about that recently. But in this
case I meant Web services. The thin client scam.
Renting software under the pretense that there
are logical reasons to rent rather than buy.

Right. Obviously, Windows will go that way soon, I expect. There's
little software around I need/want anything new of anyway; I'm perfectly
happy with Office 2003 (presumably 15 years old), IrfanView (free for
home use), VLC, and a few others, so can't see the need to even consider
any of the rental ones. (My references to thin clients wasn't meant to
press your button - I was just making a, poor, parallel to your
suggestion that someone'll [re]invent the work truck one of these days.)


--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"... all your hard work in the hands of twelve people too stupid to get off jury
duty." CSI, 200x

"Mayayana" on Tue, 7 Aug 2018 12:51:46 -0400
typed in alt.windows7.general the following:
"pyotr filipivich" wrote

| I bought the Mazda truck on a Saturday afternoon. I'd been up all
| night and day, got towed in the last fifty miles, and I needed
| something to get me to my friends place for the 4th, and then home.
| "The truck I want is on this lot."

I guess that's probably more common than not. People
get into accidents, or blow a gasket, and suddenly
their car is not worth saving. Ordering custom is
probably mostly for people who don't really need
their car, perhaps having a second one they can
use if necessary.

I'll shop around when it is time to replace "this One" - if I can.
In that case, I "shopped around" the lot. Where there is no
alternative, there is no problem.




--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

On Tue, 7 Aug 2018 16:01:21 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

Electronic components are dirt cheap these days. Packaging, warehousing,
and shipping for local retail sale often costs way more than the part
itself does. That's why the local electronics store carries very few if
any electronics parts. I recall the halcyon days when the Radio Shack
store had five or six aisles of parts, hundreds and hundreds of them.



When I was a teenager (before there was a Radio Shack), going to high
school in the Bronx, I used to build radios, etc. After school I would
often stop in a local electronics store to buy parts. Sometimes I
would buy parts I needed for something, but mostly I would just buy
parts to put into my box of stuff I *might* need some day. One of the
things I used to like to buy (they were very inexpensive) were old
circuit boards with components soldered onto them. I would unsolder
the resistors, capacitors, etc. and save then for the future (the
future that never came).

I don't remember when, but eventually I threw out all that junk.

"Wolf K" wrote

| Is Software classed as a capital expense? If so, it may be
| tax-advantageous to rent it, especially if the rental includes
maintenance.
|

I don't see why. If I buy a drill for $100 I
can write it off. If I lease a drill for $10/month
I can also write it off. I can write off more
with the lease, but only because I spent more.
Anyone who's self-employed knows that's not
a good deal.

Software rental generally includes updates.
That's one of the two scam selling points:
"free" updates and online storage. Do you
necessarily want Adobe CS updates? Do you
want online storage? The storage provides another
way for them to make the software appear to be
running online. If you don't make local copies
of your work it will *only* be on Adobe's server!

Adobe and others wouldn't be doing this if
they didn't make more money from it. Even their
most dedicated customers were generally skipping
every other update. Many other people rarely
need updates. Renting the software means
everyone pays regularly. In fact, to a great extent,
the reason for the new rental push is precisely
because people don't need updates, because most
popular software is already mature. Adobe finished
the product years ago. Now they just add clever
things like the ability to fill in a gap in an image
convincingly. That's an impressive feature, but aside
from magazine journalists it's of very little value
to anyone. But since they're charging rental they
have to keep adding stuff.

"Wolf K" wrote

| Is Software classed as a capital expense? If so, it may be
| tax-advantageous to rent it, especially if the rental includes
maintenance.
|

Maybe the best way to look at it is just like anything
else. If you need a car or a tool you buy it. If you only
need it for a few days you rent it. If you need a
reference book you buy it. If you need access to
a changeable database, you rent it.

We do whatever makes most sense. Usually the
decision of whether to buy is based on whether it
costs less than renting in the long run. With cars
there are other things to consider, like whether
you want to handle reselling a car or find it easier
to just lease. But in general, we do what makes most
sense for our needs.

The problem with something like Adobe CS is that
they know buying makes most sense for their customers.
It takes months just to learn how to use it, so if you
want it you probably want to own a copy. But that
option makes the least money for them. So they don't
allow an option. You can't decide which is best for
your needs. You can only rent.

In message , Mayayana
writes:
[]
Adobe and others wouldn't be doing this if
they didn't make more money from it. Even their
most dedicated customers were generally skipping
every other update. Many other people rarely
need updates. Renting the software means
[]
The car manufacturers and credit providers, between them, seem to have
quietly turned cars into the same steady-payment model too, at least
here. I haven't seen a car ad. on TV for months - possibly years - that
actually mentions the purchase price of the car being advertised; they
only mention the monthly cost (of purchasing it).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

G B Shaw said: "Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have
made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."
(quoted by "Dont Bother" [sic], 2015-8-24.)

In message , Wolf K
writes:
[]
The components are made all over the place, and the parts and materials
that go into the components are made all over the place, too. By the
time the car is finished, parts of it have crossed borders (and
sometimes oceans) several times, including shipments between plants

This is being highlighted as one of the problems we're going to
experience after Brexit, if we don't get some sort of trade agreement in
place; at present, a lot of cars are "made" here (including German makes
like BMW), but using parts from all over Europe and beyond, which
themselves use parts from here, Europe, and beyond.

owned by the same company. Most of the assembly is done by robots:
Detroit is dead, but the USA assembles more cars these days than it did
in Detroit's heyday. That's a why a certain person's imposition of
tariffs is stupid. Car prices will go up, bigly.

(Even if the international nature wasn't the case, tariffs don't work
anyway, except very briefly for the protected manufacturers: as soon as
imported competition gets expensive due to the tariffs, local producers
up _their_ prices to match [you can't blame them, we'd do it in their
position], so the _consumer_ sees _all_ product - imported or
locally-made - go up, after a very short time - usually too short a time
for consumers to arrange a big purchase like a car. OK, the locally
"protected" manufacturers live high for a while, but their
competitiveness [efficiency of manufacture etc.] soon falls off, as
they're at an artificial advantage, and soon they _need_ the effective
subsidy just to continue.)

Data point: My previous car was a 2005 Ford Escape, assembled in
Kansas, bought used. Drive-train was pure Mazda, as was most of the
sheet-metal and interior furniture. It was a "re-badged" Mazda Tribute
with a slightly softer suspension.

Have a good day,

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

G B Shaw said: "Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have
made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."
(quoted by "Dont Bother" [sic], 2015-8-24.)

In article , says...

In message , Mayayana
writes:
[]
Adobe and others wouldn't be doing this if
they didn't make more money from it. Even their
most dedicated customers were generally skipping
every other update. Many other people rarely
need updates. Renting the software means
[]
The car manufacturers and credit providers, between them, seem to have
quietly turned cars into the same steady-payment model too, at least
here. I haven't seen a car ad. on TV for months - possibly years - that
actually mentions the purchase price of the car being advertised; they
only mention the monthly cost (of purchasing it).

I've never seen it mentioned in any ad what the purchase price "really"
is for a very long time now. What I'd like to know is what the dealer
marks the selling price up by versus what he pays for it.

In article , am says...

"Wolf K" wrote

| Is Software classed as a capital expense? If so, it may be
| tax-advantageous to rent it, especially if the rental includes
maintenance.
|

Maybe the best way to look at it is just like anything
else. If you need a car or a tool you buy it. If you only
need it for a few days you rent it. If you need a
reference book you buy it. If you need access to
a changeable database, you rent it.

We do whatever makes most sense. Usually the
decision of whether to buy is based on whether it
costs less than renting in the long run. With cars
there are other things to consider, like whether
you want to handle reselling a car or find it easier
to just lease. But in general, we do what makes most
sense for our needs.

The problem with something like Adobe CS is that
they know buying makes most sense for their customers.
It takes months just to learn how to use it, so if you
want it you probably want to own a copy. But that
option makes the least money for them. So they don't
allow an option. You can't decide which is best for
your needs. You can only rent.

Which is exactly what MS wants to do with Windows. I'll not buy into it
and I'll stay at Win 7 on my 12 pcs for as long as I can. When I can't
I'll find some other alternative besides renting.

On Tue, 7 Aug 2018 16:35:21 -0400, Wolf K wrote:

Data point: My previous car was a 2005 Ford Escape, assembled in Kansas,
bought used. Drive-train was pure Mazda, as was most of the sheet-metal
and interior furniture. It was a "re-badged" Mazda Tribute with a
slightly softer suspension.

To my knowledge, Ford never had an assembly plant in Kansas, did they?
They have one in Missouri, but that's "a whole state away", as the
locals say. (Claycomo, a suburb of Kansas City, MO.)

http://askus.thehenryford.org/faq/140528
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ford_factories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_assembly_plants_in_the_United_S tates#Ford_Motor_Company



--

Char Jackson

"Mayayana" on Tue, 7 Aug 2018 18:53:18 -0400
typed in alt.windows7.general the following:
"Wolf K" wrote

| Is Software classed as a capital expense? If so, it may be
| tax-advantageous to rent it, especially if the rental includes
maintenance.
|

Maybe the best way to look at it is just like anything
else. If you need a car or a tool you buy it. If you only
need it for a few days you rent it. If you need a
reference book you buy it. If you need access to
a changeable database, you rent it.

We do whatever makes most sense. Usually the
decision of whether to buy is based on whether it
costs less than renting in the long run. With cars
there are other things to consider, like whether
you want to handle reselling a car or find it easier
to just lease. But in general, we do what makes most
sense for our needs.

The problem with something like Adobe CS is that
they know buying makes most sense for their customers.
It takes months just to learn how to use it, so if you
want it you probably want to own a copy. But that
option makes the least money for them. So they don't
allow an option. You can't decide which is best for
your needs. You can only rent.

Intuit did that with their Quicken accounting package back in
2005. Unless I updated the software, I could not even get my bank
data loaded. I decided then and there, that as far as Quicken was
concerned, nothing was better. And for the next six years, I used
nothing.

--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

"Wolf K" wrote

| | Is Software classed as a capital expense? If so, it may be
| | tax-advantageous to rent it, especially if the rental includes
| maintenance.
| |
|
| I don't see why. If I buy a drill for $100 I
| can write it off. If I lease a drill for $10/month
| I can also write it off. I can write off more
| with the lease, but only because I spent more.
| Anyone who's self-employed knows that's not
| a good deal.
| [...]
|
| It depends on tax rules, e.g., depreciation rates. Reminder: enterprise
| level software can cost millions.
|

You're conflating a lot of issues there and talking
in generalities. This is a real issue of cost, not a
generality. None of us is buying "enterprise" software.
And in most cases that's already rental. A corporation
has a choice with Windows: Sign up for Windows
rental per seat or per copy, as a rental deal, or risk
the BSA swat team descending on their company
at any time if they decide to buy regular Windows
licenses:

http://web.archive.org/web/200907071...3-5065859.html

And of course, with Win10, not going enterprise
licensing also means your copies of windows will
be subject to microsoft's unpaid beta testing program.
You can't block updates.

For cars you have to depreciate. Then there
are also issues like whether you want to deal with
reselling a car you own. So it might sometimes
make more sense to lease. But cars have nothing
to do with software.

For most people, pro or not, this is just a
question of whether or not it's worth it to you
to buy Windows, Photoshop, etc.

You can't depreciate the cost of business software
on your taxes even if you wanted to. It's classed
as an office expense on schedule C.

So it's really very simple: Are you better off
renting or buying? If you pay $600/year to Adobe
you can write that off. But of course that's only
written off your total taxable income before calculating
taxes. So maybe you save $200 in taxes? Is it
worth spending $600 to save $200? Obviously not.

Anyone would have to figure out the details for
themselves. Do you already have a cop of CS6
that serves your needs? Maybe that will serve
your needs for many years to come? Then you
can save thousands by not renting. Do you
want to hire a hotshot designer who insists on
having the latest Adobe package? Then maybe
you want to rent for that person.

From what I've seen of Adobe's pricing,
it's not small task to figure out exactly what it would
cost to rent their software. I've seen quotes from
$10-50/month, depending on various factors. The
point is, you no longer get to choose. You can only
rent Adobe software. And the reason, of course, is
that they don't make as much money by selling their
software. Software rental is not a practical idea
in most situations. It's a moneymaking scam.