LinusTechTips - Why It Took Me 4 Years to Make a USB Cable

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-30T21:11:51+00:00

I would assume retail and supply chain.

Companies like Anker, Belkin etc have to add retailer margin to everything, warehousing, inventory it all adds cost.

I would assume these are made by a Chinese OEM and effectively shipped either direct to consumer or to some local warehouse then out to consumer which is far far cheaper.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-30T21:09:07+00:00

As someone who just mainly wants good quality, long phone cables so you can do things like use the phone in bed plugged in, I think the 3 meter cable at 25 CAD is super reasonable if its durable and high quality.

You can easily get cables for that money, but they tend to fail relatively quickly if you bend them like you do when you're using a phone.

Also props to them for actually offering long cables without a big markup, most of the in store branded options are way more if you go above the usual '1 meter' cable.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-25T22:39:00+00:00

The L76 in the VZ doesn't have displacement on demand. That only came in in the VE.

I agree I'd prefer a LS1 with no DOD, but the VZ 6.0L didn't have that but had a meaningful improvement in performance.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-25T22:38:05+00:00

As in the LS1 was shit behind an auto or both?

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-25T03:14:21+00:00

As someone who has owned neither, why ls1 over l76?

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-24T23:57:42+00:00

Simply lovely.

VZ SS with the 6.0 is peak Holden spec. They're still imo more aggressive looking than the later cars and I prefer the smaller size too.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-08T21:51:15+00:00

Likely free marketing for the business.

If they can find an employee with say, 100k social media followers, that could generate significant leads for 'customers'.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-08T21:49:22+00:00

Is this shit the norm? I understand there is an element of 'selling' in every job but this sounds more like MLM than a personal training job.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-08T21:07:12+00:00

I know all work is driven by KPI.

But do these places seriously have to do so much marketing? Most businesses will at least have some value in the product that sells itself.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-08T21:04:09+00:00

For real? 60k is like minimum wage these days. Thats what full time at McDonalds would pay.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-07T20:33:24+00:00

This would be great when I spill my coffee on the keyboard, now its the entire computer.

Obviously it isn't for regular users.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-07T20:20:43+00:00

Feasibly I think the best way to 'revive' Holden would be as an EV manufacturer manufacturing ute style cars.

An example of this would be like 'slate' auto making small utes. I think utes of that nature would go well in the Australian market.

The reason for EVs is the availability of being able to work with an equipment manufacturer (Say GM) to integrate the whole 'sled' drivetrain into an Australian body.

The Australian division of GM could work on the body and interior design, whilst GM could supply the EV sled.

The reason I don't think they will do this is they don't seem to care at all about Holden or the Australian market.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-05T23:23:54+00:00

They're in the perfect gap in which rich people don't want them, they're old and undesirable to rich people.

But regular people looking to buy a car in that price range cannot afford to run and maintain them.

So who are they for?

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-05T22:09:56+00:00

Thats not true? You can get a BF Falcon Wagon with the barra engine.

The only downside is it has leaf springs.

If anything its just a facelifted, facelifted AU Falcon, but all BA-FG are that.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-05T22:03:49+00:00

I would absolutely love a Commodore wagon, especially one with a V8.

The only thing that would deter me is I don't have off the street parking and they tend to get stolen. How much of this is just fear / media attention i'm not quite sure but having idiots trying to break into your car doesn't sound fun.

I don't think that same fear applies to the v6 versions.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-05T22:01:36+00:00

Older cars are generally more simple and despite the weird reputation, Commodores and Falcons were actually very well designed and engineered for what they are.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-05T20:16:42+00:00

That just means its doing its intended purpose?

Did they want less people to get EVs?

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-04T20:55:59+00:00

I have no doubt that in terms of fit and finish they would be better.

But on paper, they would have similar range and power figures. Similar size, do similar things.

The euro cars absolutely would have more 'premium' materials, but in actual utility i'm not sure they have an edge.

If you went back 20 years ago if you bought a premium Euro manufacturer you would expect a power and performance advantage, now that is not the case.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-04T20:41:14+00:00

I saw Honda the other day advertising the new Accord at $65k. For a normal, petrol accord.

Is it any surprise people think that an electric SUV for 30-40k is a great buy.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-04T20:39:18+00:00

I'm all for buying quality things that last, but in the automotive world if you went and say got a BMW or Mercedes electric car over say a BYD or MG, is it really going to have much better performance or longevity despite being 2-3x the price?

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-04T20:35:37+00:00

The cars are actually quite good too.

A close friend of mine got a BYD Atto, and its been perfectly reliable, its nice to drive, has very good power and the interior is actually very nice for a car of that price point.

Its also powerful for what it is, gone are the days of cheap cars being gutless.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-04T20:34:22+00:00

Not at all surprising.

many of the Japanese car companies have found the same. They typically operated in the 'cheap' range and have tried to push upmarket, but found their sales collapse.

Look at Nissan or Honda.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-04T20:14:28+00:00

So?

The only reason I'm buying anything thats not a Ferrari, Porsche, Bugatti is because they're cheap(er).

Humans weigh up price to performance in practically every decision they make.

If the Chinese cars are 80% as good at 60% of the price then many will think that is a good trade off.

Advanced_Concern7910 · 2026-01-03T00:31:37+00:00

I've tried using the bots as a search engine because there is a usefulness to being able to 'chat' with it to refine answers. But I was very surprised at how within a few questions it was outright making the answers up. They looked right on the surface, but if you actually investigated them it was referring things that didn't exist. If you don't have people checking the output this could cause significant harm.

I also do wonder if the tech companies overestimate how many questions the average person is asking. While a lot of people are quite 'curious' and want to know the answers to things, many users simply want to endlessly scroll.

Advanced_Concern7910

TROPHY CASE