Farm Film Report

[captainsblog]

Starting with the farms....

A victory came this week for consumers in the never-ending battle where manufacturers try to prevent buyers from repairing their own equipment, denying them access to manuals or needed codes to get under the hood of their products. In the case of John Deere equipment, those hoods are literal, and the company's resistance to Right to Repair became legendary. Even the President stood up and took notice, but before any regulations got passed to guarantee that right, the tractor company Ran Like a Deere and settled:

In July 2021, US President Joe Biden weighed in with an executive order that specifically mentioned this problem. Among other actions, the order called on the Federal Trade Commission to prevent "unfair anticompetitive restrictions on third-party repair or self-repair of items, such as the restrictions imposed by powerful manufacturers that prevent farmers from repairing their own equipment."

President Biden brought the issue up again six months later, saying that "if you own a product, from a smartphone to a tractor, you don’t have the freedom to choose how or where to repair that item you purchased."

Tractors, at least, have gained traction now: last weekend, John Deere and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining the company's responsibilities to provide diagnostic tools and software outside of the company's official authorized repair centers:

"AFBF is pleased to announce this agreement with John Deere," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. "It addresses a long-running issue for farmers and ranchers when it comes to accessing tools, information, and resources, while protecting John Deere’s intellectual property rights and ensuring equipment safety. A piece of equipment is a major investment. Farmers must have the freedom to choose where equipment is repaired, or to repair it themselves, to help control costs. The MOU commits John Deere to ensuring farmers and independent repair facilities have access to many of the tools and software needed to grow the food, fuel, and fiber America’s families rely on."

I haven't decided what's better: that the company has withdrawn from the opposing forces of freedom (yet to be joined by Apple or other don't-do-it-yourself manufacturers), or that the president of the Farm Bureau is named Zippy Duvall.

The need is real, especially as companies design products almost intended to break in a short time to guarantee themselves a replacement market.  Manufacturer and so-called extended warranties are largely smoke and mirrors, usually requiring you to do without the product for weeks at a time while they (or more often now, insurance companies) make you ship them back to a faraway depot and wait for a repair or a "replacement," which may be a used product or a gift card in the same amount at the same seller you bought the original from.   I ran into that faced with the sudden need to repair this laptop, and likely voided whatever remaining warranty was on it by letting an unauthorized repair place fix it in days rather than weeks.

Maybe there's another Pinhead at one of the computer trade groups that can help bring those companies on board, too.

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We do not farm here, but that doesn't stop the Farm and Tractor Supply ads from showing up. Eleanor was using one of their flyers to dry out paintbrushes, and that's where I saw this product:



I felt the need to check that wasn't a typo: did they mean it was a 36 inch wide gun safe? No, that product ID references one capable of holding three dozen rootin' tootin' shootin' guns.

What. The actual. FUCK?  These aren't being marketed to police departments or shooting ranges, but to Joe Second Amendment.  I took some flak in my jacket from some Facebook friends when I questioned this product. They, or their rels, have very similar cabinets, and they store other things in them, or not nearly as many. And don't get me wrong; I'm all for safe storage of these arsenals. It's the marketing that troubles me.

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On to the films....

Another friend recommended a couple of movies that were adapted from novels by the just deceased author Russell Banks. We watched one of them the other night:  Sweet Hereafter, night, with Ian Holm and Sarah Polley in leading roles (and Banks himself in a brief cameo). It's disturbing but wonderfully acted, filmed and scored. It's also about as quintesentially Canadian as you can get, what with hockey games always in the background, snow and ice all over, and the Tragically Hip on the soundtrack (including a beautiful cover of "Courage" by Polley herself:).  The novel it was adapted from is now on order.

Also here soon, the other film adaptation George mentioned: Affliction, with James Coburn, Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek. This one's set in New England, but the library site's keywords for that one?

Austere
Bleak
Chilly
Disturbing
Downbeat
Paranoid
Wintry

Sounds perfect for 2023 so far.

(Although the year can take a positive turn- even with all that austerity, bleakness and chill- if the Bills finish their first-round business in Orchard Park starting in a couple of hours.  We're looking forward to inviting the Miami Dolphins into our winter wonderland for the second time in a few weeks and hope to have a result as good as the last one.)

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Ending with what we watch those films on:

Another terror of tech is how they force interconnected devices on you.  Our television may be "smart," but it's almost entirely dependent on its remote control to get it to do anything. Half the time, I can't even turn the thing off through the well-hidden button in the back. We also have a soundbar in front of it with several external speakers connected to it, manufactured by the same company, and it has a remote that is virtually identical to the one for the tv.  I'm constantly mixing up which is which, when I even have both of them in sight and one not shoved down the chair cushion or pushed by a cat under the table.

If only they made them in different colours, I thought. And a genie must have heard me. A psychadelic genie at that, even. For arriving tomorrow?



It's glow-in-the-dark green, and has extra gripping on it so I'm less likely to drop it under the table.  (The cats will still require some training, though.)  Best of all, it has no repairable parts, so I won't even need Zippy's help with it.

Although it does look a little too Miami Dolphin teal, but one way or another that won't be a problem by the time it gets here tomorrow....

Comments

[warriorsavant]

Clearly Google or Wastebook or somebody noticed your blogging about John Deere (perhaps looking in their crystal balls) and that's why you got farm supply ads. Or that you no longer live in the NYC metropolitan area, and therefore obviously live on a farm.

I'm so glad Biden did that, and that there seems to be a tide starting to run that way. I know the EU has put in strong legislation about that too. There's a group here in MTL that teaches ppl to be Mr/Mme Fix-it, including things like how to jerry-ring screwdrivers to open 5-sided proprietary screws, and what to do once you've opened them.