The Level1 Show June 19th 2024: Cash Rejected Everywhere Around Me

So lemme get this straight... Paying cash will cost you extra. Paying with cards already has a 3% surcharge. What do they really want us to pay with? Checks?

So begins the enshittification of Raspberry Pi. Sooner or later the customers will be crapped upon for the sake of the shareholders. Line go up. Nothing else matters. "To continue using the product you thought you already owned , you must agree to our updated TOS."

Engagement challenge: AS an IT person in Germany, I can tell you that both many companies have IT-vacancies, but also that most companies offering entry-level IT positions are usually problematic.

I have an hp printer. It's like signing your soul away to just print a god damn document.

So happy MicroCenter finally came to NC. After CompUsa folded, we were stuck with BB and one Mom and Pop shot that never stocked anything newer than 2 generations old and CCTV gear for junk installs.

There was once a time that I wouldn't have bought anything but an HP printer. I've refused to buy another HP printer since Windows Vista first came out as the printer that I had bought only one year earlier HP refused to provide updated drivers for Vista. And they seem intent on digging their own grave even deeper.

The printer story makes me so glad I just run an old laser off a USB passed through to a bare-bones Debian VM running CUPS. Printing went from a migraine inducing nightmare to the most reliable tech thing in my house.

C.R.E.A.M. got no money, piling up the bills ya'll

Best Buy is on the verge... and their employees are markedly vocal about it.

5:04 we have those mag strip cards in mall food courts here in SE Asia, you pay cash to load the card, use the card at the food vendor, then return your card and get whatever money is left on it when you leave

I bought a gpu at Best Buy. Store full of employees standing around, but very willing to help

I tried to pay cash for a doctor's visit and was told they had to charge me extra !!! Usually they would give me a cash discount, but apparently in the medical sector now that's a thing. That happened in Costa Rica just 2 months ago.

I have an HP OfficeJet Pro 8720. Got it in 2018 with money from the VW Dieselgate settlement. Haven't used it in three months because it's now throwing errors after I turn it on and print one document. Would need to print something to get the error. With all the SHIT HP's done in the last few years, I've looked at Epson's printers that have refillable ink wells (not cartridges, wells. And yes, refillable wells), and I'm seriously considering dumping my current printer on Goodwill and getting an Epson. The sad thing is, I love my printer otherwise. Only annoying thing is the sheet feeder for the scanner hasn't worked right shortly after I bought it, but I don't scan tons of documents.

You guys are effectively my source of news these days, I wish there were less horrifying things happening out there. I have been watching and reading lots of bushcraft content to also learn for fun, but definitely could be useful one day if this keeps up. Funny enough, in my town in upstate New York, there's still 2 restaurants that only take cash, and don't have any new tech in there besides their phones. p.s. for Wendell, I'm typing this from my new Unicomp model M!

thank you for everything

I don't fly, ever. I don't eat hotdogs. I don't buy from adds. I don't click email junk. I use email aliases. I isolate emails. I don't use my phone for banking. I have two cell phones for data isolation. I use add blockers for anything I don't want to pay for to avoid them. I tried to buy most of the things I need from local brick and mortar. They often don't have repair parts in my town so everything has to be shipped which costs so much today that It is cheaper to order new junk. I have a pile of dead switches and routes and audio equipment because there are no repair techs locally. I'm down to going to recycling locations which I have two in one town. And we all know what happens to electronics "recycled" junk.

Here is an interesting question: If nobody is earning money anymore, cause everybody is replaced by AI, who will be the consumer? Who will buy the advertised products, watch the movies, pay for the as-a-service stuff?

The German transport companies failing has more to do with the fact that the German government almost doubled the road tax for heavy duty vehicles overnight, they claim it is for the environment by asking for companies to replace old euro 6 trucks with new euro trucks, but we know that they passed this law so mercedes could sell more semis

I have had to use Best Buy multiple times recently, and the most helpful employee positions were the cahier and the person at the front that asked what I was looking for. The latter kept me from wandering around looking for the items I wanted. Less time in store works for me (until BB figures that out and pulls the person at the front so that we have to wander).

I keep thinking my nose is whistling but it's actually coming from the video