Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Destination fees, etc. (Score 1) 401

From your link, which you apparently didn't read: "Some of the fees you won't be able to avoid, such as the destination fee, which covers the cost of getting your car from the factory to the dealership."

Bullshit. ALL fees, charges, prices, etc., are negotiable. Just tell the slug salesman that one of the other 20 stealerships^X dealerships in the area will waive it, get up, and start for the door. You'd be surprised how fast those "mandatory non-negotiable fees" will disappear. This works especially well (1) at the end of the month when they have to "make the numbers" or (2) when the economy is in the shitter, like now. "NO! PLEASE! WAIT! STOP! LEMME GO TALK TO THE BOSS ONE MORE TIME!" Even if you can't avoid that fee, there are plenty of others you can. Just say no.

  1. Dealer prep fee/post-delivery inspection? No.
  2. Document fee? No.
  3. Worthless extended warranty? No.
  4. Worthless disability/life/whateverthefuck insurance? No. For that matter, any kind of insurance the slug offers? No.
  5. Super Duper Electronic rustproofing gizmo? No.
  6. "Free" "lifetime" oil changes? No.
  7. Special Dealer Financing? Hell to the fuck no. Have that arranged through your bank or preferably, credit union, in advance.

Or, as one of my Jesuit priests told me, "'No' is a holy word." And when they give you a final price on the vehicle, say, "Okay, that's the all-inclusive, out-the-door price, right?" When they say no, you know what to do.

Submission + - SPAM: More hospitals hit by ransomware - in New Zealand this time

Submitted by NewtonsLaw
NewtonsLaw writes: Hospitals in the Waikato region of New Zealand are reporting a severe ransomware attack that has knocked clinical, patient records and phone systems offline since this morning. According to one report, the malware is the same as that which affected a hospital in Ireland recently: "Conti".

As someone who was scheduled to have a brain MRI scan tomorrow at one of the affected hopsitals, I am not worried. After all, what could possibly go wrong with putting your head in a large rotating magnet cooled by liquid helium and now controlled by hackers half a world away? :-)

Submission + - SPAM: The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora's box at Wuhan?

Submitted by vasanth
vasanth writes: A group of virologists and others wrote in the Lancet on February 19, 2020 overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, but It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Facebook Moderator: "Every Day Was A Nightmare" 1

Submitted by ytene
ytene writes: The BBC covers a story from Ireland, where a current Facebook moderator has been giving traumatic evidence to the Irish Parliament.

Despite an allowance of up to 1.5 hours per week for time to see support staff, moderator Isabella Plunkett describes harrowing experiences, including reviewing extreme content for eight hours a day, leaving her grappling with nightmares.

Evidence like this is bound to fuel the debate on social networks as a platform, as society continues to come to grips with their impact and influence.

Comment Re:Not anti-vax (Score 1) 297

Your posts didn't refute any of the points in the parent post.

You're missing the point. I wasn't trying to refute the points in the parent post, I was showing that while claiming to not be an anti-vaxxer, the parent was parroting shopworn anti-vax propaganda and grasping at straws to avoid being vaccinated. Others did a much better job than me at debunking said propaganda.

Slashdot Top Deals

The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.

Close