The IRS gives business tax deductions for vehicles. Under 6000lbs it’s $12k, over 6000 is $31k

One DAY, you’re young. And then the NEXT. You’re standing in your BACK YARD. Like this. Staring at your bird FEEDER.

Yeah I don’t know, that’s just what Slate said “the telematics module is primarily for fleet customers, Slate told Ars.”

https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/06/we-take-a-ride-in-slates-24950-electric-pickup/

I read that the telematics package is meant for fleets, not average buyers

That site is just a map of Flock cams. You can detect them with a tool called Flock You

That’s a Buick thing. Was it a CTS? I’ve seen two year old CTS total from small accidents because there were no parts available for it.

It’s been a few years but I don’t remember it being too hard to set up. I did it on slackware, compiling everything from source, so anybody should be able to do it on a distro with dependency resolution.

They provided a zip file that is updated every so often (hourly?) and contains data for your specific region. I just used that. It does have an option that people can use their own data, but I think it’s because most NWS offices run this model in addition to the national models they get from upstream. No normal person has enough input data to be useful.

I haven’t done it in a few years but I used to run my own weather model. If fed the correct data and given time to crunch the numbers, several times a day you can create your own weather forecast that is probably (hopefully) similar to the freely available forecasts from the weather service, TV, radio and apps.

https://www.mmm.ucar.edu/models/wrf

You’re lucky to have that. My radar has ads.

They are doing it. There is a ton of decoy and anti-decoy research

Slackware. In 27-ish years of using it, it’s never once crashed or failed to install

Slackware on desktop, laptop and mini PC, Debian on anything smaller

They discovered a thing that everyone’s known forever. Here’s Bruce Schneier in 2008

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/04/tracking_vehicl.html

Get a $250 printer and start using it. It may be all you’ll ever need, but after a year or so it’s likely you’ll start seeing other printers with different functions that you think would be useful and will decide to upgrade. Hopefully you’ll know what you want by then.

The article says more clearly “2.7 billion records with Social Security numbers.” The author goes on to say he found 4 records with a friend’s data but in those 4 records were 3 different SSNs. He called the friend and confirmed that one of them was his actual SSN. I guess someone was auto-linking names and SSNs for ID theft purposes and getting it wrong sometimes.

Christians should show they’re not the antichrist by getting “Nero,” which is Greek for “not the beast” tattooed on their forehead

What if it’s a torx instead? People have to buy torx bits to work on their car.

I don’t see how it could be effective. The brand specific things I mentioned are almost identical and none of them stop people from repairing their car. The BMW design is simpler than the ones I mentioned. A flat screwdriver with a gap cut down the middle would work.

I don’t really know. I purposely picked the things I mentioned because they’re similar to the BMW bolt, but the tools required are cheap and simple for all of them.

Part of my point was that there are other, more complicated and more expensive tools that are brand specific too. I think a lot of it is really just the nature of the beast. Brands do thiings differently, so a special shaped tool to get into the nook and cranny of a certain car won’t work on a different brand that has different nooks and crannys. And you can substitute “brand” with “engine,” “model,” or even “year.”

“specifically intended to prevent BMW drivers from fixing their own cars.”

Give me a break.

I hate to break it to people but every manufacturer has a lot of brand specific tools. You need a special socket for Toyota head bolts, 10 point sockets for Honda suspensions, a special multipoint socket for Audis, a special socket for Mercedes lug nuts and it’s good to have a 21.5mm for Fords. 5 point security torx are starting to pop up on GMs.

That’s just an example of a few sockets, the deeper you go into a car, the higher the possibility that you need a $400 special tool or kit for a specific manufacturer, or even specific year or engine.