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Joined 6 个月前
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Cake day: 2024年1月16日

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  • Not like they used to, mostly. They just replaced “contract” with “equipment payment plan”. Because $50/mo for 24 months is easier for a consumer to swallow than a lump payment of $1200, especially when the carrier is giving you a $10 or $20 (or more) “discount” on the phone.

    But as long as the EPP is active, the phone is locked to that carrier. And I think that’s fair. No different than the bank holding the title while you finance a car.

    The thing is that the plans that have these equipment deals are significantly more expensive than others. Namely big name plans like TMo or Verizon, compared to MVNO plans like Mint or Visible. So you end up paying more for the plan because you get “a deal” on your phone (but still end up ultimately paying more).








  • This is bad practice.

    More accurately it should look something like this:

    # Load sys library for exiting with status code
    import sys
    
    def sayHelloWorld(outPhrase: str="Hello World"):
        # Main function, print a phrase and return NoneType
        print(outPhrase)
        return None
    
    if __name__=="__main__":
        # Provide output and exit cleanly when run from shell
        sayHelloWorld()
        sys.exit(0)
    else:
        # Exit with rc!=0 when not run from shell
        sys.exit(1)
    









  • I mean, the market did what the market does.

    They released a device with the intent of being a tinker kit for programming and interacting with the physical world. The next technological jump for hobbyists from PIC to Arduino, became an ARM SBC.

    Of course, they released a cheap ARM SBC, and industry quickly learned that these are great for rapid prototyping and any case that called for a small low-power Linux system.

    I wouldn’t say they lost their way. There’s still a great hobbyists market around it, and tons of good competition. I’d say it’s more like they are a victim of their own success.