81–90 of 363 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why don't they have any competition?
My hot take is auto dealers are a notoriously painful enterprise sales cycle due to network effects aka "good 'ol boys" club (anecdotally from folks in tech who have to deal in this industry).
Related note: car stealerships are a relic of the past. There is no reason why a middleman should exist when buying a car. Consumers should have the option to purchase directly from the manufacturer. I am personally not a fan of Tesla as a vehicle, but I admire the business model of buying directly from Tesla. Stealerships are a drain on the consumer. All that land they own can be used for productive economic activit…
I think every process needs a paper backup. There’s just no telling when something will be down. If you run a SAAS you could offer this as a feature. Even hire data entry people to input transactions later if needed.
Is there anything relevant to recovery / graceful functional degradation in SoC2? If not, this feels like an obvious match there. E.g. "Company has a defined and demonstrated process by which they can (a) offer degraded but limited functionality in the event of full system outage & (b) accept data updates via a backup method, until system restoration." Sure would have helped with Change Healthcare...
One of the reports of this I heard was on Marketplace the other day... and the part that made me chuckle was on cursive. Pen and paper, but please no cursive: Widespread cyberattack sends car dealers back to 20th century - https://www.marketplace.org/2024/06/21/cdk-global-hack-softw... > Car dealers are a pretty big part of this economy, doing some $1.2 trillion in sales last year, according to the National Automobil…
I'm trying to buy two cars right now, and this has put a big wrench in the process. The dealership can't tell me what's on their lot compared to what's on their Website, except by going out and searching.
Maybe offer to bring them more pens and paper so they can send someone out to make a list of what's on their lot.
If the dealers have the capacity to go around and run everything by pencil and paper, it seems like either the are really poorly run for the average case where the computers work and make life easier, or the programmers have done a really poor writing useful programs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree they're useless middlemen but I don't believe for a second that the direct-to-manufacturer model wouldn't also be enshitified eventually too.
It's what we had before the laws prohibiting direct-to-consumer/manufacturer-owned dealerships. It's hard for me to find any reliable sources that explain why we got those laws though (was it because direct-to-consumer was bad?) It seems like the EU has reined in the worst excesses of dealerships a lot, and allows direct-to-consumer. Maybe the US will follow suit in a few decades.
But as those manufacturers and dealers grew, they then had the resources to operate at broader geographies, and dealers lobbed for franchise laws to "protect local businesses", etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree they're useless middlemen but I don't believe for a second that the direct-to-manufacturer model wouldn't also be enshitified eventually too.
It's what we had before the laws prohibiting direct-to-consumer/manufacturer-owned dealerships. It's hard for me to find any reliable sources that explain why we got those laws though (was it because direct-to-consumer was bad?) It seems like the EU has reined in the worst excesses of dealerships a lot, and allows direct-to-consumer. Maybe the US will follow suit in a few decades.
I was involved in the building of the 911 system for my country. When doing that, we had to design it with this in mind. If the system ever fell down, the operators had standard templated papers they would fill, and once the system would be back up they would add the case data back in.
“The current 911 system is down statewide, if you have an emergency and need assistance pull your nearest Fire Box, or call the Boston Fire Department at 617-343-2880. You can also get assistance by going to your nearest Firehouse,” the post read.
Police Commissioner and Boston Police Chief Michael Cox said earlier Tuesday that residents looking to contact officials while the 911 system was down could call local police departments for assistance, and pull the local red call box on streets and corners to alert fire/EMS.
https://www.kake.com/story/50917965/statewide-911-system-out...
The technology, patented by Gamewell in the 1880s, is based on telegraph technology from the mid 1800s - you pull the handle, it releases a notched disc which starts spinning and transmitting a number to the central fire command. The number corresponds to a street address and emergency services will be alerted.
Old call box still in working order: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5bwxFoJc56/
I know some (former) CDK alumni and I'm not surprised. Notorious for paying below market in engineering and IT. A place to cut your teeth but not to stay.