I’ll start: printers.
I bought an HP in March 2020 when my job went remote and HP bricked it remotely after only 100 pages because I wouldn’t sign up for their subscription program. Ended up trashing a perfectly good printer.
Luckily my library’s close by and I can print there remotely.
HP printer, cars, appliances.
Dryer drum seals broke and bushings worn. I just bought parts and spent the time fixing it, to avoid the IOT new ones. Probably coat me 30% of getting a new one
Car: we were due for a new one, but we found a 2004 car in mint shape so we downgraded purposely. I wanted to be able to have easy repairs and no phone-home garbage of a new car, and never any SaaS nonsense.
For the Printer: the drugstore guy alerted me to the HP ink nonsense, so I went with a Canon.
I’ve been slowly doing more and more car repair. I just hope they don’t stop producing replacement parts to force you into buying new cars.
Eventually we’ll all either be riding bicycles or constantly repairing homemade vehicles like they do in Cuba.
It seems like the way things are going. We are also gonna need those cooling shirts with ice packs in them to prevent heat exhaustion.
I was thinking of this this morning, so looked up electric motor kits to retro fit cars. https://ev-evolution.eu/solution/ev-kit/
https://electricgt.com/shop/
I’m so bummed out that this wasn’t around yet when I accidentally ruined my Honda Element’s motor.
But then again, it seems even these wouldn’t wanna push that frame around very much yet. :p
If you’re in the US, there are some somewhat newer ones that only have 3G cell radios, so can’t talk to the cell network any more. That said, I have no idea what data they transfer when being serviced.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g39301678/3g-internet-sunset-cars/
Damn, didn’t realize 3G is gone. I wonder if that explains my 2013’s inability to send a health report. I assumed it went through my own cell but dialed a dead number. Now I’m wondering if I have an antenna to hunt down.
I knew 2G was on its way out, but my 2G GPS devices fell out of use before service was actually ended.
Meanwhile, I can’t stand 5G and wish I could force my phone to 4G. Let me guess, 4G is on its deathbed. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is 5G has faster speed but shorter range. I feel I’m always a little far from towers and sit at 1-2 bars of 5G. If I see it drop to 4G, everything loads way faster. But cell tech had to race to make the #G go up because bigger number sell better