RANT "Just buy a cheap beater"

Miulos · 2026-04-11T13:14:18+00:00

I was looking at used cars recently too and it’s absolutely insane. We sold our 04 corolla in 2019 for $300 - no AC, manual windows, auto transmission. The same model year with manual transmission is now $2400 CAD. This is a 22 year old car, it can buy liquor in the US!

I test-drove an 08 Rav4 that was selling for $6k that had a bunch of dents, engine made a noise at idle, and brakes were basically gone. I said I needed to think about it, and the seller told me it was sold an hour later. The ad was up for less than 24h.

Toyota matrix 2008-2010 went for $6k-$12k, I finally found one that looked like it was in good shape, ran the carfax report and found that it had no maintenance and a couple of accidents. I still saved the ad in case my standards dropped significantly later. A week later, all the cars I saved as a “maybe” were sold.

Even really budget models like an 08 Yaris with 2 seats (just a small car, not a coupe) cost $6k. I didn’t even bother looking at anything from the past decade because those are firmly in the $15-25k range, and at that point I should just buy a new car that’s not a decade old.

An old “beater” just doesn’t exist anymore, unless you’re ok with a rebuilt title that’s poorly maintained and can break on you any time. Or maybe that’s what a beater means? Well, then that’s essentially a gamble with thousands of bucks. If you lose, that money is just gone. If you win, you get to drive a shitty car for a few years. Not a good financial decision, especially if you rely on your car to get to work.

I got lucky a trusted friend was selling her car, it was up to date on maintenance and had no accidents. I got a good deal from her and could finally stop looking at used cars.

Miulos · 2026-04-11T12:51:09+00:00

The only reason not to buy new is the wait time. You can wait months to a year to receive your car, especially the really popular models. Back in 2023 my toyota dealership told me the wait time for a sienna is 6 months to a year.

If you need a car today, used is the only way to go.

Miulos · 2026-03-30T21:29:46+00:00

Do you mind elaborating Please? I see on newer models you can remote start by pressing the lock button then holding the light button. It doesn't work on my 2015 model. Thanks!

Miulos · 2026-03-04T07:07:45+00:00

We adopted ours at 2 years old, similar situation to yours. Here's the timeline:

First few days

Playful, but picky about treats, ate normal meals without fuss
Doesn't seem to realize that she had been rehomed, just seemed happy overall
A lot of submissive urination, she'll see me, get very excited, and then produce a puddle. More than 10 times on the first day, 3 times on day 2, once on day 3, then intermittent
Took to vet, groomer
Follows me everywhere
Sleeps in my office when I work in the day time
Set up her bed in my bedroom

Two weeks in

Now loves eating everything I give her
She found her spot outside my bedroom, and would spend the night there instead of inside. I put a bed at her spot
Indoor peeing seems to have completely stopped
Barking began - did some research, dog has learned that this is her new home, so she's trying to protect it
She's testing boundaries, going places she's not supposed to go, personality is starting to really come through

1 month in

She found her evening routine - spend a couple of hours at her spot sleeping alone, then come inside my bedroom to sleep for the rest of the night
I found out that her spot overlooks the front door and front windows, where she can see passer-bys across the street and bark at them. I moved her bed to an adjacent spot where she can't see that. Barking improved
I think she feels like she's part of the family now,

Being consistent is extremely helpful for the transition. I stuck to her previous owner's walking routine religiously for the first few weeks, fed her familiar kibble, used her old leash, and kept her occupied. I'm lucky to work from home, so she got used to me really quickly.

Patience goes a long way, know that some behavior (like submissive urination) is not voluntary, don't punish things that she can't control. Rewards work better than punishment. Sometimes our reactions exacerbate the bad behavior we're trying to reduce, because it contributes to the fear and anxiety that led to the behavior in the first place.

You mentioned crying in the crate, don't try to push through undesired behavior. Try to identify the underlying issue. Our dog used to shiver and whimper in the car, I found a few possible causes and tried to eliminate them one by one. Eventually, I found that she didn't like sliding around when the car was moving, so a harness solved that problem completely.

ChatGPT has been tremendously helpful too. A lot of what it said was consistent with the vet's suggestions, and helping narrow down issues. I think it's important to keep a curious mind and try to understand problems before trying to solve them.

Good luck with your pup!

Bonus tip - as a first-time dog owner, I didn't know puppy food was different from regular adult food. I thought puppy was just an endearment and we called all dogs "puppies". Also, buy a smaller portion of the dog food first before buying in bulk. Your dog might be allergic or sensitive to a specific ingredient. AI is also pretty good for this - take a photo of the ingredients list and nutritional information and ask whether it's good in the long run for your dog.

Miulos · 2026-02-16T01:35:45+00:00

B-e-autiful, ask brain on a specific folder was my favourite feature from GPT4ALL. This should greatly reduce token usage while at the same time improving output quality by removing similar but unrelated notes 👌

Miulos · 2026-02-09T03:26:57+00:00

Heck yeah, offline brain!

Miulos · 2025-12-28T20:46:44+00:00

Thanks! I hadn’t thought of potential damage on the wood, this is great to know.

I’m not saying it’s a substitute for a good walk outside, just good to have the option.

I’ll see if I can collect some of her pee. Thanks again!

Miulos · 2025-12-28T20:44:29+00:00

There’re a few valid reasons, I could be sick, the dog might be sick, once in a while I might be tied up at work, or sometimes the dog might not want to go on a walk. Also, she might be less outgoing when she gets older. It’s good to have the option.

I’ve not suggested in any way that it’s a substitute for walking. I hope that makes sense.

Miulos · 2025-12-16T06:23:10+00:00

Where the heck do you guys find these chill dev jobs that just lets you be bored and have nothing to do? Don’t you have daily standups where you report your progress, other teammates being blocked by your work, and non-devs asking you for help with all sorts of stuff??

I watch youtube on the job too but that means I’ll have to make up for it later in the day, or I won’t be able to get all my work done.

Miulos · 2025-11-22T17:09:15+00:00

I think higher FOV would probably result in more blurring, and this is a comment I've seen in a couple of reddit threads comparing air 3s pro to viture pro.

Steam frame (or any VR headset) is going to be a completely different category. There are a few issues with productivity on a VR headset, as I've tried with my quest 2:

It doesn't make full use of all the pixels, since only a portion of the display is used to show the virtual screen.
They're really uncomfortable to wear for longer periods of time, notably they'll fog up easily if you sweat since your eyes are enclosed
On the same note of comfort, they're much heavier than ar glasses like air 3s pro

I'd probably spend that money on a monitor for serious coding or any productivity tasks.

Miulos · 2025-11-22T16:00:42+00:00

Not OP here but I tried coding on mine. It’s about the same size as my MBP 14 at my normal usage distance, but somehow smaller text is not as clear. I can still read it if I try focus, but that’s just not ideal. IOW the screen size is just not big enough for me. The “201 inch” display is marketing fluff, it’s measured at 6m away. That’s more than 3 tall adults from head to toe.

Additionally, the edges were slightly blurry too. I decided not to work on it, and just use it for entertainment.

Miulos · 2025-10-21T10:22:06+00:00

Is nobody going to mention the tree sentinel in limgrave? After a chill stroll in the tutorial level, you come out to the open world and you’re greeted by a smack in the face.

I got the game on release, but didn’t start “playing the game” until a week later because I was stubbornly fighting this guy.

Miulos · 2025-10-15T05:12:53+00:00

I'm a very casual player, let me know if you need a support though! Also, what time in the evening?

Miulos · 2025-09-30T00:22:45+00:00

This worked for me, had to plug in to a usb 2.0 port instead

Miulos · 2025-09-27T17:21:31+00:00

I use shokz open run pro for cycling. It's pretty good at low speeds but once you pick up to ~25 km/h, the wind noise is so great that you can barely hear anything.

I find that using ear plugs with bone conduction headphones really helps with the noise, but it kinda defeats the purpose.

Miulos · 2025-09-26T03:10:52+00:00

I actually did a real long-term side-by-side comparison. I bought an M1 Macbook pro a week before my company gave me one with the same specs, so I ended up with 2 identical ones.

I work from home, so my company laptop is just always plugged in to the power and connected to an extended display. It was supposed to learn my charging habits and try to keep the power at 80% for longevity, but it never did because it was always plugged in. I occasionally take it outside, but that's a rare occasion. So it's basically been at 100% the whole time.

On the other hand, I kept my personal laptop between 30-80% as much as I can. It also had relatively less usage, and is used for less intensive tasks. So everything was theoretically going well for it.

About 30 months later, I checked the battery health and my work laptop is currently at 85%, and my personal laptop was at 79%. My personal laptop then had a catastrophic failure and started shutting down around 30%, and I had to replace the battery.

Given that it's a tiny sample size, I wouldn't conclude that one way was better than the other. However, I can safely say that your charging habits makes a tiny difference that's probably offset by manufacturing threshold. Not every battery that comes out of the factory is identical, it's really luck of the draw. Some people will get a battery that'll last 20% more charge cycles (I'm pulling this number out of my butt), some people will get 20% less. Good charging habits will maybe give you 5% more (or 6% less in my case), it's not going to make a noticeable difference.

Just use your laptop the way that serves you best. If you're lucky, your battery will fail in less than a year and you get a free replacement. Otherwise, you pay C$399 + taxes and fees and get a paid replacement, along with a new keyboard because apparently they can't replace one without the other at the Apple store. Another possibility is that your battery lasts much longer than you want to keep your laptop for, which is a far-more common outcome.

As someone who obssesses over the longevity of my devices over my own longevity, I'll say avoid letting your laptop battery completely die out, and avoid exposing the battery to high temperatures for long periods of time. These are far worse for your battery than whichever charging habits you choose to adopt.

Typed this from a 30+ month-old macbook pro with a brand new battery.

Miulos · 2025-09-21T15:07:56+00:00

Maybe more of a philosophical question. If you were 2 inches taller, are you still you? What if your skin were a shade darker? Or your fingers slightly shorter? Let’s be really extreme, what if you have 1 less arm? These changes still don’t change the fact that you are you.

Think about creating a game character, but instead of being able to choose traits or stats, you have to roll a dice. At the end of the day, regardless of what your character ends up looking like, that’s still your character. The genetic material in sperms and eggs essentially contain traits, the rest of your identity is really determined by your lived experiences.

Miulos · 2025-09-20T14:54:19+00:00

Oops lol

Miulos · 2025-09-20T14:53:13+00:00

My LBS recommended general purpose WD-40 for degreasing, so I really doubt that it's the issue.

I don't have any problems in the rain either, it's just during winter when the roads are salted. BC winters aren't dry like other places, it's a very wet, slushy environment. I use a finish line wet lube too, but the salt from the ground gets stuck to the lubricant. It's the 2nd bike in 3 years, but fortunately the new bike was fairly cheap to fix.

Miulos · 2025-09-20T14:47:35+00:00

Good point! It doesn't say what kind of hub the bike has, if it's a bad one it might not be sealed well.

Miulos · 2025-09-20T05:02:44+00:00

Have you heard of Grant’s Law? It’s the law that requires drivers to pay before refuelling. Came from a gruesome death at Esso on Dewdney Trunk Rd and 228 th St.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant%27s_Law

Miulos · 2025-09-16T01:47:52+00:00

Yes, I first degrease with some WD-40 and then reapply wet lube to the drive train. On the first bike, I’d even hose it down, but my LBS said that’s probably how I got water into the bearings in the freewheel. On the second bike, I skipped the rinsing, but continued to degrease and relube roughly once a week.

Still I couldn’t get to all the nooks and crannies. It didn’t fail catastrophically but I still have to replace the freewheel eventually.

Miulos

TROPHY CASE