@narfcake sigh
I thought that was a Tesla thing (they manufacture only the 120,00$ model, but sell it at 60k, 95k, and 120k pricepoints via software locking certain features)
You can hack these features to be permanently available, but you then leave your car offline forever, including from any certified repairs.
Honestly, most entertainment offers discounts/ free trials such that their cost is negligible. And I can always go without.
But my subscription for barely potable water? Even if I’m willing to drink water that tastes like Spic and Span? Like, congrats on cornering the market on basics for survival, but your product is overpriced crap.
I always knew streamings end goal was to kill cable and charge even more.
Worse so now that every copyright holder wants to be their own Netflix.
Now all the content is being sold in pieces under a dozen different subscriptions.
Everything is moving to that model really, not just streaming.
@blaineg@simeon527 BUT you couldn’t subscribe to one at a time. I can just rotate subscriptions. Watch what they had for the last few months. Cancel. Rotate. Probably get a new subscriber discount.
If you want to keep up with the newest episode to talk to people about shows. Yea doesnt work. But. Eh. It does work. And was sort of the idea.
If you have kids I could see Disney+ being constant… Just depends
I like being able to pick and choose what I want to stream. I do not need or want Netflix or similar overpriced trash. The one thing that I really hate is that computer programs that used to be free or at least buy-once-cry-once are subscription only now. Looking at you Microsoft. Thank the community for open source software. M$ can bite me. Long live Linux!!
@blaineg@tweezak They finally snapped to the fact that shitloads of people were ditching 365 for other packages, and made it possible to buy a “Use forever, but only get updates for a year” license again.
@macromeh@pmarin@Tadlem43 relative. If what you pay on a loan is less that what you get in return on investments… Or can be hitting your limits on retirement investments that can be tax free. You can technically be better off paying a 3% loan for 30 years because you money will earn more than that rate.
But it depends. On the rate/return/factors and you know peace of mind.
Then of course you see stories of houses that are fully paid off being seized over property taxes so.
@narfcake@rtjhnstn@werehatrack what I find strange about this is when I was a “kid” my dad did file my taxes for free, admittedly via paper . And the first year I did it when I was 18 or 19 I’m 100% sure I used a free IRS tool to fill out the form. Then it went Away… And we started the “free file” BS
@narfcake@rtjhnstn@werehatrack just for clarity when I was a dependent and this was in the early 2000s, he used to go to the library to fill out and correctly file all this stuff. Including pell grants etc. It was not that hard.
When I was in college it was also not that hard. And even after till they deleted the form.
Now because of all the tax credits they have injected it’s getting harder. But they didn’t have to inject them in that way. They could just be discounts or grants or at POS.
And for obvious reasons tax credits are only valuable to people who pay that much in tax… So it’s not a discount. If you want to influence behavior.
Then waiting till tax time. I always adjust .y withholding and at most a few 100 off but…
But still. For most taxpayers it could be automatic. And the way they abuse the tax system for incentives is. Scewed
@narfcake@rtjhnstn@werehatrack
That article corroborates that our many of our elected officials tend to be as scuzzy as the intuit suits, while pretending to be for the little people. And for that we fund their retirements for life. as if they had actually been of value to us.
@rtjhnstn Tax software actually changes every year, so that’s unavoidable. But things like Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop, and other graphics packages have zero reason to be replaced on an annual basis. The same is true for a lot of engineering packages. The whole “subscription” scam is just a blatant case of fucking extortion, and I’m not upgrading any of my old packages until they reinstitute the “buy once, use until YOU decide to upgrade” policy.
@OnionSoup, I bought infinity and it works well. It’s a one-time purchase. I’m not sure it’s as good as photoshop but it’s a decent program. Customer service is helpful too but you have to remember they’re UK based and work in a different time zone.
Even if I wasn’t so broke that Meh is the 4th major source of my daily nutrition, I am a little more than salty about the price of admission into society. “If your living wages isn’t $X amount per year, you would go to debtors’ prison if we still had those.”
Every year around April 15, I have renewal fee for a subscription that I don’t remember ever signing up for nor can I find a way to have it canceled without being involuntarily downsized to a 10’ x 10’ tiny house with an included roommate.
I have a few subscriptions, but they are either to apps which makes constant calls for calculations or storage on a server or absent, provide constantly updated contents, such as new apps
The latter, I get instead of newspaper subscriptions
All of them. I want it free!
This so called discount website where shipping is “free”, but I keep paying …
@ybmuG That sounds like a pretty mediocre website.
Heated seats in my car.
@hchavers How about the subscription for fully using a remote?
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/12/toyota-owners-have-to-pay-8-mo-to-keep-using-their-key-fob-for-remote-start/
@hchavers @narfcake
Well, that’s diabolical!
@hchavers what
@pakopako
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature
@narfcake sigh
I thought that was a Tesla thing (they manufacture only the 120,00$ model, but sell it at 60k, 95k, and 120k pricepoints via software locking certain features)
You can hack these features to be permanently available, but you then leave your car offline forever, including from any certified repairs.
Honestly, most entertainment offers discounts/ free trials such that their cost is negligible. And I can always go without.
But my subscription for barely potable water? Even if I’m willing to drink water that tastes like Spic and Span? Like, congrats on cornering the market on basics for survival, but your product is overpriced crap.
I always knew streamings end goal was to kill cable and charge even more.
Worse so now that every copyright holder wants to be their own Netflix.
Now all the content is being sold in pieces under a dozen different subscriptions.
Everything is moving to that model really, not just streaming.
@simeon527 Relevant?
@blaineg @simeon527 BUT you couldn’t subscribe to one at a time. I can just rotate subscriptions. Watch what they had for the last few months. Cancel. Rotate. Probably get a new subscriber discount.
If you want to keep up with the newest episode to talk to people about shows. Yea doesnt work. But. Eh. It does work. And was sort of the idea.
If you have kids I could see Disney+ being constant… Just depends
I like being able to pick and choose what I want to stream. I do not need or want Netflix or similar overpriced trash. The one thing that I really hate is that computer programs that used to be free or at least buy-once-cry-once are subscription only now. Looking at you Microsoft. Thank the community for open source software. M$ can bite me. Long live Linux!!
@tweezak It’s called Microsoft 365 because you have to pay for it 365 days a year.
@blaineg @tweezak They finally snapped to the fact that shitloads of people were ditching 365 for other packages, and made it possible to buy a “Use forever, but only get updates for a year” license again.
My mortgage. The reception sucks.
@Tadlem43 Just buy your house with all the money up-front and voila… no mortgage required. But don’t get me started on property taxes…
@pmarin @Tadlem43 Worked for me - 25 years and counting with no mortgage.
@macromeh @pmarin @Tadlem43 relative. If what you pay on a loan is less that what you get in return on investments… Or can be hitting your limits on retirement investments that can be tax free. You can technically be better off paying a 3% loan for 30 years because you money will earn more than that rate.
But it depends. On the rate/return/factors and you know peace of mind.
Then of course you see stories of houses that are fully paid off being seized over property taxes so.
Business software that you don’t need to have updated every stinking year, but they force you to keep paying for it or else it stops working.
@werehatrack What about tax software?
@rtjhnstn @werehatrack It’s worse than that.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
@narfcake @rtjhnstn @werehatrack what I find strange about this is when I was a “kid” my dad did file my taxes for free, admittedly via paper . And the first year I did it when I was 18 or 19 I’m 100% sure I used a free IRS tool to fill out the form. Then it went Away… And we started the “free file” BS
@narfcake @rtjhnstn @werehatrack just for clarity when I was a dependent and this was in the early 2000s, he used to go to the library to fill out and correctly file all this stuff. Including pell grants etc. It was not that hard.
When I was in college it was also not that hard. And even after till they deleted the form.
Now because of all the tax credits they have injected it’s getting harder. But they didn’t have to inject them in that way. They could just be discounts or grants or at POS.
And for obvious reasons tax credits are only valuable to people who pay that much in tax… So it’s not a discount. If you want to influence behavior.
Then waiting till tax time. I always adjust .y withholding and at most a few 100 off but…
But still. For most taxpayers it could be automatic. And the way they abuse the tax system for incentives is. Scewed
@narfcake @rtjhnstn @werehatrack
That article corroborates that our many of our elected officials tend to be as scuzzy as the intuit suits, while pretending to be for the little people. And for that we fund their retirements for life. as if they had actually been of value to us.
@narfcake @werehatrack
@rtjhnstn Tax software actually changes every year, so that’s unavoidable. But things like Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop, and other graphics packages have zero reason to be replaced on an annual basis. The same is true for a lot of engineering packages. The whole “subscription” scam is just a blatant case of fucking extortion, and I’m not upgrading any of my old packages until they reinstitute the “buy once, use until YOU decide to upgrade” policy.
Software. Seriously, why can’t I just buy Photoshop anymore?
I can’t so I don’t… But wish still had access. I had fun with that back in the day.
@OnionSoup, I bought infinity and it works well. It’s a one-time purchase. I’m not sure it’s as good as photoshop but it’s a decent program. Customer service is helpful too but you have to remember they’re UK based and work in a different time zone.
@kittykat9180 thanks, I’ll have to check them out. I use paint shop pro and/or gimp for images currently.
@OnionSoup, sorry, meant Affinity.
/showme a sad person who has to use AI to create images because they can’t use Photoshop anymore because it is now subscription based.
@OnionSoup No kidding. My employer pays for mine, and I’m afraid to look and see how much it really is now.
Apps for sure. I really don’t mind paying more once for a really good app. Let me pay you, say, twenty bucks. Don’t charge me $1.99 a month forever.
Even if I wasn’t so broke that Meh is the 4th major source of my daily nutrition, I am a little more than salty about the price of admission into society. “If your living wages isn’t $X amount per year, you would go to debtors’ prison if we still had those.”
Every year around April 15, I have renewal fee for a subscription that I don’t remember ever signing up for nor can I find a way to have it canceled without being involuntarily downsized to a 10’ x 10’ tiny house with an included roommate.
KuoH
Death and Taxes
@f00l
And tech software, which I do not pay for
I have a few subscriptions, but they are either to apps which makes constant calls for calculations or storage on a server or absent, provide constantly updated contents, such as new apps
The latter, I get instead of newspaper subscriptions