well-temperedforum.groupee.net
First World Problems just got worse
16 July 2022, 03:47 AM
AmandaFirst World Problems just got worse
At least for BMW owners.
This, from a recent Bloomberg bulletin.
quote:
When Software as a Service Squeezes Too Hard
We recently booked a long-haul, eight-leg return flight, praying that the Coronavirus doesn’t derail our first overseas vacation in three years. Reserving seats in advance costs extra, of course, so in addition to the initial eye-watering ticket price, we’ve forked out the equivalent of almost $250 to avoid the risk of not sitting together or, worse, being trapped near the bassinets with their screaming bundles of inflight joy.
Such surcharges have become commonplace as a way for airlines to squeeze extra revenue from their hostages passengers. And now the auto industry is trying to get in on the act. BMW AG wants to charge owners of its automobiles $18 a month for a software update that will unlock the already installed seat-warming technology in their vehicles. Otherwise, their buttocks will remain unheated. It also plans to levy a smaller surcharge to warm steering wheels.
Let the Gucci shod pitchfork brigade begin to storm the barricades of their corporate headquarters!
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The most dangerous word in the language is "obvious"
16 July 2022, 07:05 AM
ShiroKuroI really hate the move to make everything a subscription! I don’t care about BMW, but this is part of an overall trend that I really resist as much as I can.
Music - don’t *buy* digital songs, subscribe to a service that in theory gets you access to more music, but you’re paying the subscription fee every month for forever. Amazon music has this model, as does Apple, Spotify etc. I still buy music I like, and refuse to subscribe to Spotify.
Kindle has a similar version, as does the Great Courses, and there are all kinds of other examples. Oh, and MS office products all changed to that as well, IIRC. I get them through work so I don’t subscribe but I really hate the idea!
So I refuse to do it for all that I possibly can. Right now the only subscriptions we have are for Netflix and NYTs.
Ah, regarding cars — it seems to me that the BMW software subscription makes the car less appealing on the used market…
16 July 2022, 07:53 AM
AxtremusMaybe think of it as longer term granular leasing?
You can lease a whole car, why not buy parts of a car and lease some other parts of the car?
Wonder if pace makers and burial plots will go to the subscription model, too? Perhaps with ad sponsored options as well?
16 July 2022, 09:26 AM
Steve Millerquote:
Originally posted by Axtremus:
Maybe think of it as longer term granular leasing?
Wonder if pace makers and burial plots will go to the subscription model, too? Perhaps with ad sponsored options as well?
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Life is short. Play with your dog.
16 July 2022, 09:34 AM
Steve MillerBMW pulled this stunt with Apple CarPlay a while back.
Customers were not amused and they dropped the plan.
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Life is short. Play with your dog.
16 July 2022, 07:26 PM
QuirtEvansI heard that the heat-seating subscription was only in Europe ... it's still free in the U.S.
They also have a monthly subscription (separate, natch) for the heated steering wheel.
17 July 2022, 10:00 AM
RealPlayerI am annoyed to have to pay monthly to DropBox for sharing large files. I seldom need to exchange large files, but at the moment have to work on 2 files with several other people, so it's OK for now.
But I think it's going to be hard to cut off the service when I no longer need it.
I'd like to have a fee-per-use, but I don't know of such a service. WeTransfer was better, at least you could pay for a single month when desired.
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“It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." -- Bill Murray
17 July 2022, 04:08 PM
NinaI just "renewed" Office365 for the family. We all downloaded the latest stuff, and I will cancel my subscription.
Turns out they added a lot of nice stuff since Word 2013.
On the other hand, I hate having to upgrade Excel. They always completely wipe out the UI and it takes me days to find stuff again. And for those of you who care about these things, what's with the idiotic automatic "grouping" of dates when you pull that field into a pivot table? It breaks your date down into year, quarter, month, and day, and you have to go in every freaking time and undo it. Not a genius move by the MS peeps, in my opinion.
Now get off my lawn!
17 July 2022, 05:19 PM
pianojugglerDates in Excel have always annoyed me. Why is the default format D-Mmm? I have never seen that format anywhere but Excel. What can’t they at least let you set a default format for your worksheets?
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pj, citizen-poster, unless specifically noted otherwise.
mod-in-training.
pj@ermosworld∙com
All types of erorrs fixed while you wait.
17 July 2022, 07:52 PM
DanielI predict Audi won't do this and BMW will drop the idea.
17 July 2022, 11:36 PM
RealPlayer
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“It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." -- Bill Murray
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Life is short. Play with your dog.
18 July 2022, 02:08 AM
AdagioMquote:
Originally posted by RealPlayer:
I am annoyed to have to pay monthly to DropBox for sharing large files. I seldom need to exchange large files, but at the moment have to work on 2 files with several other people, so it's OK for now.
But I think it's going to be hard to cut off the service when I no longer need it.
I'd like to have a fee-per-use, but I don't know of such a service. WeTransfer was better, at least you could pay for a single month when desired.
I didn’t give it up after I used it for some big work. Now I store a lot of stuff up there. I guess it’s worth it?
I do resent Flickr; it used to be free and then they said they’d delete pictures if you had more than a certain amount. I used to host all the photos for my blog there. I’d have to repost all the pictures into the blog, and I don’t have time for that. Blergh.
18 July 2022, 11:39 AM
ShiroKuroRP
Re dates, all dates in any kind of digital file should always be yyyymmdd. This way you can get things into chronological order just from the numbers.
The other thing I hate with a column of dates where the format is automated is when they want to force you to include the time. Grrrr
18 July 2022, 12:14 PM
big alMy personal preference for dates is ddMMMyyyy for many purposes although I usually spell out the short months like June and July when I'm writing a check or dating an individual item such as a signature. I keep the date column in the check register in my checkbook as dd/mm.
That being said, I do like SK's comment about yyyymmdd being easy to sort.
Big Al
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Money seems to buy the most happiness when you give it away.
Why does everything have to be so complicated, all in the name of convenience. -ShiroKuro
A lifetime of experience will change a person. If it doesn't, then you're already dead inside. -MarkJ