Why do they still make car alarms? (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#381

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:03 AM UTC

thwarted wrote: post #367

earthboundkid wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have always been crazy people and the indolent, but there was a qualitative change in the number of urban homeless in the 1980s. It didn’t used to be like this.

Isn't this usually attributed to the Reagan administration's repeal of Mental Health Systems Act? Not that the situtation was necessarily all that great before it was repealed, but my understanding is that the federal government making this change ended up putting a lot of people on the street. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_Health_Systems_Act_of_1...

There was also a few court cases in the 70s and 80s that made it very difficult to involuntarily commit someone to a mental institution. Some of them are:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Connor_v._Donaldson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addington_v._Texas

If a mentally ill person doesn’t want to stay in a mental institution, authorities basically have to wait until they cause significant harm to be classified as dangerous before being able to do anything.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#382

Post by jojobas » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:05 AM UTC

greggman3 wrote: post #294

anonymousiam wrote: post #112

If the author had a Ring doorbell (and looked at their crime reports), or participated on NextDoor, they would know that theft from parked cars is the number one problem in most neighborhoods. An alarm is still a good deterrent for people who do not park their cars in a garage.

> theft from parked cars is the number one problem in most neighborhoods You forgot to add "in the USA" (or some other country). Where I live (Japan), AFAIK, theft from cars is practically non-existent. Leaving things in your car visible is not an issue. I don't think I've ever seen a pile of glass from a car window busted the entire time I've spent here (14 yrs) where as in SF, several times, I'd walk by Dolores Par…

You're talking about an ethnically and culturally homogeneous society, which are in short supply these days.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#383

Post by treve » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:06 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #379

audiometry wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the preoccupation with “how will the person use this money” I’ve done away with. I donate money to people. If it’s a scam or they use it for “unhealthy” ends, then I consider that is on them, not me. I gave the money with good intentions. I’m not tied to the outcome.

Assuming your donations are limited, a dollar given to a junkie or a scammer is a dollar not given to a hungry man.

99% of the time I've heard this argument, that dollar ends up going to neither.

Instead of trying to decide who is worthy of your dollar, perhaps consider what that dollar is worth to you vs. what it is worth to them.

If you give them a dollar and it's spent on something you don't approve of or you think they are not deserving that on them. If you don't give them anything because you assume they might not be worthy, that's on you.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#384

Post by mandelbrotwurst » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:06 AM UTC

brewdad wrote: post #276

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do police or insurance access it?

Presumably, the police need a warrant unless you volunteer it. The insurance company may need to subpoena the footage from you or you may be required to turn it over as a condition of coverage (I have no idea if any company is actually doing this).

Probably, but then what? The person I'm replying to stated that they "have no way of tapping into it and storing it", and I don't think that changes suddenly if there's a court order.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#385

Post by ARandomerDude » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:07 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #379

audiometry wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the preoccupation with “how will the person use this money” I’ve done away with. I donate money to people. If it’s a scam or they use it for “unhealthy” ends, then I consider that is on them, not me. I gave the money with good intentions. I’m not tied to the outcome.

Assuming your donations are limited, a dollar given to a junkie or a scammer is a dollar not given to a hungry man.

A post on HN is an educational comment not passed on to an underprivileged child. A dollar spent a moderately expensive restaurant is a dollar not spent on rice and beans, with the surplus donated to charity.

If good deeds (or even neutral deeds) are scrutinized and discouraged, there will be no end of other, theoretical good deeds that might have been done, and no simple good deed will be done.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#386

Post by fao_ » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

progman32 wrote: post #347

ineedasername wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It amazes me that, in wealthy countries, there are significant homelessness problems due to economic displacement. I consider it an existence-proof of the idea that a free market cannot solve all problems. I think homelessness due to other causes-- mental health for example-- are more complex but similarly demonstrate fundamental flaws in the framework of society. Only once was I able to give a homeless person a meal…

I've brought over a bagged lunch to a homeless person specifically asking for food, only to be roundly rejected without comment or inquiry. Guy begged for food daily. I've given money to a homeless person asking for money for a cab to the hospital. They had a visibly and badly injured hand. After I gave them the money they stopped me from calling a cab from my phone, and (upon perceiving me as having left), pocketed…

> I've brought over a bagged lunch to a homeless person specifically asking for food, only to be roundly rejected without comment or inquiry. Guy begged for food daily.

I imagine that this isn't the norm, though.

> I've given money to a homeless person asking for money for a cab to the hospital. They had a visibly and badly injured hand. After I gave them the money they stopped me from calling a cab from my phone, and (upon perceiving me as having left), pocketed the cash and laughed. They never went anywhere and just hung out.

How much do hospitals cost where you live? I'm not saying that this person wasn't an asshole, but for many people, they see no point going to the hospital if it's going to leave them in the red.

> I've had a friend offer a stack of jeans to a homeless person asking for pants, only to have them tossed all over the ground right in front of my friend. They only took their favorite pair.

What were they going to do with the others? Where do you think they could store them in a place they wouldn't get mouldy, wet, damaged, etc.?

> I've taken someone desperate for food into a convenience store to pick out a meal, only to be run out by the store owner.

Why is this the fault of the homeless person?

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#387

Post by recursive » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

FalconSensei wrote: post #363

recursive wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are magic anti-theft spells also needed?

We need some solution. Alarms are the only solution we have at the moment. So, until there's something else, alarms are necessary

If alarms stopped existing, the problem would not be any worse. So alarms are not necessary.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#388

Post by jojobas » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

ARandomerDude wrote: post #385

jojobas wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming your donations are limited, a dollar given to a junkie or a scammer is a dollar not given to a hungry man.

A post on HN is an educational comment not passed on to an underprivileged child. A dollar spent a moderately expensive restaurant is a dollar not spent on rice and beans, with the surplus donated to charity. If good deeds (or even neutral deeds) are scrutinized and discouraged, there will be no end of other, theoretical good deeds that might have been done, and no simple good deed will be done.

Well if one doesn't care if their donations are used for good purposes they can as well send them to me.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#389

Post by ehnto » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

spiritplumber wrote: post #100

I have an older RV that people sometimes try to steal (it's usually meth heads wanting to live on it; I've taken to leaving a plaque on the dash saying that if they want a hot meal instead, just knock on my door). The alarm is aftermarket, and silent. All it does is make the fuel pump go in reverse. (The fuel pump is also aftermarket) It's been hilarious a couple times.

That's amazing. I have had my car stolen, no thanks to the alarm, and later recovered, thanks to the immobolizer kicking back in. Immobilizers are all I use now.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#390

Post by mandelbrotwurst » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

filoeleven wrote: post #318

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do police or insurance access it?

Sorry, I’m not sure of the details. My info came from the forum posts I found while explicitly looking for how to use the cameras as a dashcam a while ago. Some of them linked to the spots in the user manual that mention the 22-second loop, but the manual doesn’t have more info on how the access works. All I really know for sure is “we haven’t figure out how to get to it ourselves” and the rest is what I picked up fr…

Gotcha, that's frustrating. I was mostly just asking to try and brainstorm, thinking that we might be able to come up with a way for you to access it if we knew anything about how it worked and/or other parties are able to access it.