Linux or Windows, Tablets to Slimbooks, APU's to GPU's. All tech talk goes here.
3d ago Tech Talk
@MathPlanetarian The industry has changed SOOOO much since I started in 1985, and also since I opened my own shop in 2000.
The financial costs of opening a shop have gone way, way up. Zoning limitations, building rent, permit fees from half a dozen agencies. The cost of RUNNING the business has changed dramatically as well. Internet sales have driven the RETAIL price of parts below the jobber wholesale prices I can get from distributors even when I have a $200,000/year spend. Price pressures and constant shifting of manufacturing to "emerging" read cheap economies has caused virtually ALL brands of parts, even major OEMs, to race to the bottom in quality and longevity.
Cars have changed a great deal in this time, from being built to barely last through the mandated warranty obligation period and a move toward every-goddamn-thing on the car requiring proprietary "programming" procedures before it will function after replacement. After the payment coupon book gets used up and the factory warranty expires, original owners with the means usually end up restarting the clock by purchasing a new vehicle, and the second owners and beyond have NO idea the maintenance costs of these vehicles, and tend to be unable to patronize any shop better than the bottom of the barrel quick service chains.
I'm still in contact with a huge community of peer small to medium shop owners. Hiring quality mechanics has been a problem for DECADES in the US. Not so much because "Today's kids don't want to work" but chronic public disrespect for blue collar workers, elimination of trades education in high schools, what trade schools that still exist collecting tuition but churning out people who don't understand jack shit, and wage pressures driven by the biggest players in the industry.
A lot of people are retiring and their progeny don't want to follow them into this industry. There's a general sense that we don't envy those starting or taking over an existing auto repair shop today.
Read Morehere's my question
Clarey always talk how everyone should have car shop as there is shortage of skilled men. Is this bulsshit or you can't be arsed to start it again.
The brain drain is real.
3d ago Tech Talk
After the bullshit Covid lockdowns bankrupted my 2-decades-running auto repair business
It's ridiculous how many former small-business owners I've talked to in the last 2-3 years lost their businesses due to that shit and its lingering effects.
Yet huge companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot thrived...
Almost like destroying any kind of independence was part of some sinister plan...
4d ago Tech Talk
There is an epidemic of MBA type managers that only know how to boost the balance sheet in the short-term.
Hello, Vulture Capitalism! HUGE American companies got harvested of their value then discarded in husks of debt often borne by taxpayers and small invested parties, while a few individuals walked away grotesquely rich. This is a big factor in why Sears failed right as the internet age could have revitalized their catalog delivery system. New owners came in not to perpetuate the company, but to keep it going in minimalist dysfunction while they harvested the value of the real estate holdings and walked away. Pretty sure JCPenney and K-Mart had similar underlying causes for their demise.
4d ago Tech Talk
@MentORPHEUS here's my question
Clarey always talk how everyone should have car shop as there is shortage of skilled men. Is this bulsshit or you can't be arsed to start it again.
4d ago Tech Talk
Where drone delivery companies go to die. We've probably all seen the viral video of the food delivery drone almost making it to the customer, then crashing on a carport roof below, food and all. Flirtey was one of 10 US companies given experimental FAA approval to develop and operate autonomous delivery drones in the US. They completed the first such delivery in US history moving emergency medical supplies from barge to land.
The business model hasn't panned out commercially yet, however, so the company shut down in February. The bones of the company are now available for picking through in a bankruptcy auction. Tons of computer stuff, tools, machines, raw materials, and drone parts for sale. There always seems to be something frivolous like a ping-pong table in these auctions as well.
I'd totally bid in this auction if I wasn't a state away. After the bullshit Covid lockdowns bankrupted my 2-decades-running auto repair business, this is my life now; buying liquidated assets of other failed companies and flipping them.
hibid.com/california/catalog/540472/online-auction-of-bankruptcy-assets-for-flirty-5-20-24
Read More1w ago Tech Talk
There is an epidemic of MBA type managers that only know how to boost the balance sheet in the short-term. It's in every industry.
They look good during their tenure but destroy the company's long-term competitivity.
1w ago Tech Talk
@SeasonedRP I've watched so many brands that used to mean high quality go to shit and/or cease to exist. Sucks.
1w ago Tech Talk
@Typo-MAGAshiv Some time ago, Boeing used to be highly regarded for quality. That was its brand. Then it merged with McDonnell Douglas and consultant/shareholder value types took over who realized profits increase if you skimp on quality. And they do. But not forever. But hey, the execs who made those decisions made their money and are gone. Current management team no better but caught holding the bag. Entire culture needs to be revamped. I've traded in and out of its stock since the early 90s so know the company fairly well.
Whistleblower Josh Dean of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems has died
So that's 2 Boeing whistleblowers dead now. Looks like Boeing can fix anything.. except their planes...
seattletimes.com/business/whistleblower-josh-dean-of-boeing-supplier-spirit-aerosystems-has-died/
While the odds that someone with a compromised immune system due to submitting to receive the Covid-19 "vaccine" would not only be a whistleblower formerly employed by an aerospace parts vendor for a prominent aerospace manufacturing corporation and later die within two weeks time from a rare antibiotic resistant strain of Staph infection are rather low. I will admit this much, it's vastly more subtle than self inflicted gunshots to the back of the head in the cab of a pickup truck in a hotel parking lot.
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