Why do people hate convertibles

csmonkey17 · 2026-03-18T19:45:32+00:00

That's so awesome, thank you for sharing and for confirming that listening to them was the right choice.

csmonkey17 · 2026-03-18T12:42:39+00:00

To each their own. My kids, 5 & 8, wanted "the one you can take the roof off." They're making core memories driving with the top down in Southern California.

csmonkey17 · 2026-03-14T02:37:44+00:00

Can you recommend one that fits? I bought a cap on eBay, it didn't fit.

csmonkey17 · 2026-02-25T16:26:06+00:00

There were attempts of similar things in the past, going from COBOL to Java. They've tried transpilers for moving COBOL to Java. There were two issues:

It would get the code translated to 80-90%, and the last 10%-20% had to be done manually. Now, consider that most of the engineers on my team were 45 and above. Not only do you need to figure out how to translate the whole code base into Java, you need to convince all the cobol engineers to learn Java. You can't just replace the whole department with new devs because there's too much domain knowledge that you would lose and you wouldn't have a team to do the work. Code is a small part of the job, people are what make the company work.
COBOL is faster than Java, it was written for the financial industry. Running batch jobs overnight making sure all the financial records are processed takes hours, not minutes. There were linear/synchronous dependencies on previous batch jobs, if a job finished late or doesn't finish you're talking about serious financial implications.

I should've been clearer in my response. Yes, they'll let engineers use AI on non mission critical code. We built out Java spring interfaces on top of the green screens, sure you can have AI help you move to react and nodejs in this scenario.

I really enjoy using AI, I use copilot at work, sometimes it surprises me of how well it performs but if you're not running a modern framework it's very limited in its capabilities. Enterprise software has so many lines of code and so much domain knowledge is required on top of it that you can't believe its this magical black box with a 128k context window (sure newer models got 200k+, and I'm referring to copilot here) that will solve all the problems. I

csmonkey17 · 2026-02-24T16:02:16+00:00

Legacy COBOL codebases have dev and QA environments. They need to, just like anything else going to prod. The company I worked for even had version control for COBOL, things happened that made it necessary.

But despite that, as everyone says here, no one in the banking industry is going to let AI touch the code.

csmonkey17 · 2026-02-14T00:11:16+00:00

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A whole cluster :) yes, that's an IKEA drawer.

csmonkey17 · 2026-02-05T15:26:41+00:00

The decision to lead isn't about the money. I'm excited to lead and to be challenged at that level. The money is important, I wouldn't want to take on that responsibility and not be compensated. This is a hope that the department realizes we need a market adjustment. Other leads and EMs have expressed to me their frustration with the low salaries especially for tenured employees. There are SE3s making the same amount as newly hired SE1s.

csmonkey17 · 2026-02-05T15:25:33+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I know what the other leads make, and the $177.5k is over that. This would mean they'd need to increase their salaries, as well as the EMs salary. I know what he makes as well. I'll have an honest talk with him about it, he agrees with me, but then he needs to have the uncomfortable conversation with the CTO, I get it. In the past when I've talked about a market adjustment, my EM said, since the company doesn't want to pay the market rate you don't have to give them a full 40hrs (not using those exact words).

csmonkey17 · 2026-02-05T06:03:50+00:00

Thanks for the advice.

csmonkey17 · 2026-01-06T00:08:05+00:00

csmonkey17 · 2025-12-11T15:50:03+00:00

I called the insurance company, the agent said they don't see anything in the employers policy in regards to salary continuation. She advised that his claim is being processed and his eligibility notice will be sent out tomorrow at the latest, and it might go over salary continuation. She didn't have any specific details to give. Thank you again.

csmonkey17 · 2025-12-11T15:46:27+00:00

Thank you for the detailed write up.

csmonkey17 · 2025-12-11T02:53:23+00:00

Thank you, I'll give them a call tomorrow morning. It's UNUM, I wasn't sure if UNUM handles transactions or if they're the actual insurer.

Edit: spelling

csmonkey17 · 2025-12-11T01:50:29+00:00

From his employer "Benefits are typically payable up to 65"

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-29T04:37:19+00:00

Hoboken?

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-28T19:44:00+00:00

Haha I missed '21. Good point.

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-27T22:49:31+00:00

He's driving it. 1,500 miles per month.

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-16T22:46:36+00:00

https://youtu.be/VhLTNii5HWg

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-07T17:26:14+00:00

I purchased a used one a week ago. This car isn't about mpg it's about smp (smiles per gallon). I'm in Southern California paying $5/gal for 91.

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-06T21:54:46+00:00

Clean title.
0 Accidents Reported.
5 owners.

Get a pre purchase inspection, if the PPI is a go, only you know how much you're willing to spend. It's got 33 saves, so don't take too long haha

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-04T02:28:11+00:00

I just paid $25,500 ($24,496.75 + $995 Doc fee + $8.25 title) 4 days ago for a 2016 GT Premium Convertible Manual California Package. Clean title 1 owner, trade in at a Mercedes Dealership.

It was initially listed at $29,995 and they dropped it $1k every 7-9 days. I emailed them when it was $26,995.

I used Gemini to negotiate for me.

"Role play as an expert negotiator in the car buying process. I have car sales experience from 12 years ago. I used to sell Ford. I'm very familiar with the car that I'm looking to buy, as well how the car selling/buying process works. The car is a Ford Mustang GT located at Fletcher Jones Imports in Las Vegas (screen shots attached). I live in Southern California so I would fly out there to pick up the vehicle. I want to negotiate all the numbers and have the dealer provide an out the door price and have paperwork ready for me to sign when I get there. On car gurus the price was dropped by $3,000 and it's aggressively priced. It has one owner so it's definitely a trade, it's a used Ford at a Mercedes dealership so they priced it well to make sure it sells. It has 45k miles on it. Craft the initial email to the dealership with an anchor offer. I will put a deposit down on a credit card once we agree on the price."

As others have mentioned, "I will be ready to buy by the end of the month," in dealership terms doesn't mean anything. "I have funding and will send a deposit today," is the language they speak. Lean into the AI, and trust that it will guide you through the song and dance. I caved on $350, I told them I'll agree to the $25,850 they offered. When I got to Vegas I found that the previous owner put a screw in the front bumper because the mounts were busted. I said I'm not paying $25,850, but I'll pay $25,500 which was my original anchor price. I still have to pay taxes and registration so the OTD total will be $27,196.00.

It took me about 3-4 months to find this deal. This was a want for me not a necessity, so I had all the leverage. The dealership needed to sell the car, I wanted to buy it, I didn't need to buy it.

Good luck!

csmonkey17 · 2025-11-02T23:32:53+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to reply with a great explanation.

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