Ask Lemmy

That is absolutely wild.

And they only put groceries in the back seat because the truck bed is "too dirty"

There was a Miller High Life commercial I used to love. It showed a guy’s hand holding a hose and watering his lawn the “old fashioned way.” Then it showed the neighbor’s brand new SUV in the driveway, and said, “The only ‘off-road action’ this $50,000 monstrosity will ever see if is its owner accidentally backs over a flowed bed,”

Wish I could find that commercial somewhere. Makes me laugh to this day when I see the glorified grocery getters in all their perfectly detailed glory!

I've started seeing US pick up trucks here in the UK in a city and they really are rediculous. Really large (comically so) and the truck bit is open to the elements although I have never ever seen anyone using the truck bit for anything whatsoever. Rediculous waste of space and I'm surprised they're ever legal here.

That reads like a Joni Mitchell lyric.

I mean that in a good way.

Hey, maybe they need to be ready to haul full sheets of plywood at any moment

This is lacking a target. It's not an example of keeping up with the Jones, it's just an opinion. A rather wild one in which you judge other's motivations as invalid.

Regarding the camera, I do a lot of backpacking and my phone is my only camera. Upgrading to appreciably better camera tech is something I will do. Example (Pixel 6 phone):

I wait until the battery is no longer useful. Unfortunately, the iPhone makes it difficult at best to DIY a battery change, at worst expensive to have it done officially. Taking care of a battery gets it to about 4 years, and then you’re looking at Apple ending support not too long after that. Decent enough time to switch out phones.

I completely agree with what you're saying. At the same time, around 4 years I'm easily tempted by new ones. I don't think it's about the Joneses for me, I just enjoy the luxury of having a newer phone. The ability to brag only lasts the first year or less and that's certainly not worth $800 by itself

I felt bad about splurging on a brand new phone after only 4.5 years. But it was a treat to myself.

I had a Nexus 5 that was old enough for my friend to give me for free, and I used that until the battery just wouldn't hold a charge longer than an hour idling.

The phone I replaced it with had specs that were ever so slightly lower than the Nexus 5.

It was a night and day difference when I replaced that phone with something actually good.

Do I use all the features? No. Should I have waited for a price drop? Probably. Do I regret it? Nah. Probably a once in a lifetime event for me, to allow myself to be excited for the launch of a new phone and to experience that much of a jump in quality.

I hope to get 7 years of life out of this phone even if it means getting the battery replaced (expensive...) and living without the top-of-the-line security updates (unfortunately).

The phone market has been a lot like the PC market 20, 30 years ago.

Back then, you actually had an advantage by getting a new machine quite often, as the newer machine was so much better and faster than the model from the year before. It actually made a difference for 99% of the users: The text processing, calculating, or browsing programs ran way better and faster on the current model than on the one or two year older one.

Nowadays, any off-the-shelf PC fulfills the needs of 95% of the users. It runs Windows/Word/Excel (or whatever else they use) fast enough to not be an issue. The only people who still need the bleeding edge stuff are some high-end uses e.g. in engineering, and gamers.

Same with cell phones. Ten years ago, the annual new model actually provided a big leap of abilities and comfort. Nowadays, I'm replacing my 5+ year old model just because the battery is getting close to the end of it's usability.

Move her in!

For most people, yes I agree with you, however apple has done a very good job at creating products for stupid people. If I have someone ask me for advice on phones or computers I always ask them, do you want to have to think to use it? Do you care if you pay more so you can be lazy? If the answer is no to both of those, Apple is not bad. The end user never has to see a file system, everything is drag and drop. My grandmother was able to figure out the Apple UI in about an hour, and that included learning how a mouse and keyboard worked as she had never used a computer before in her life. It’s a little scary how dumb Apple allows you to be.

For that reason and that reason only I think Apple has a place. If you want to get actual work done / don’t want to pay double for the same thing, Apple’s not for you.

I feel a decoration war would hilariously benefit the neighborhood though.

I have a neighbor that had one of those projecting rotating balls in their yard. It projects Halloween images... it's still running, no xmas decor in their yard. I'm loving it!!

As someone who has to use them daily since I own a farm...this shit right here has all of us in the construction and farm community pissed....trucks are harder and harder to buy used or buy new with basic shit in them. We're going to be rough on the truck, give us cloth seats and manual crank windows, no sunroofs and a manual transmission...now trucks are like 100k and have fucking heated seats. It's insane.

Those are called pavement princess trucks. Trucks that are afraid to touch dirt or mud. If you really want to piss the dude off, refer to it supportively as his gender affirming care.

I'm not rich, but decided to flex my landscaping muscle and have the greenest lawn by simply mowing twice per week and not picking up the clippings. The clippings breakdown and provide nitrogen, making a green lawn.

My neighbors have light green lawn and pay a landscaping company...

Thanks for asking for all of us. In Quebec, we call that an inflatable neighbour (translated)

I have two brothers-in-law that also did that, so...