The only way to beat this kind of thing is to jam on the brakes HARD, with both feet, and do not let up.
You shouldn't need to use both feet. You shouldn't even need to press that hard, unless you have badly worn or faulty brakes.
I don't know if Toyota deliberately degrade their brakes for the American market, to match the incredibly poor brakes that American cars have. I'd be surprised if they do.
bzzzt.... wrong. What happens to your vacuum assisted brakes when the throttle is wide open? I'll give you a hint... they are no longer vacuum assisted.
Oh right, so as soon as you open the throttle all the vacuum rushes out of the soup-pot-sized brake servo? You have faulty brakes. Get them fixed.
Cars hae ample vacuum assist for a couple of brake applications even after the engine has been off for several hours. If they don't, your vacuum servo has a serious fault and should be replaced.
Every production car on the road has sufficient braking power to stall the engine in any gear at any throttle setting. Put your foot on the brake, and the car will stop. You may need new discs and pads after that.
Here's a thought, how about the prices get driven down to reasonable levels, and you don't need taxpayer-funded programs to pay for Grandmas $7000 hearing aid when she can just BUY the damn thing for $500. Crazy concept this "reasonable pricing" thing is, I know.
The problem is, you allow private industry to set all the prices. If you had proper socialised healthcare like all the other first-world countries, what would happen is the nationalised health service would turn round to the manufacturer and say "You sell us ten thousand for $500, or you don't sell it at all. Decide."
All you're getting with private healthcare is the opportunity to pay for the director of your medical insurance company buying a new Jaguar.
It wasn't a choice to potentially harm those around her, it was a choice to speak on the phone.
Yes, but choosing to speak on the phone while driving drastically increased the risk of harm to others around her. Supposing she'd chosen to drink a bottle of vodka instead of answering the phone?
After all, you cannot even legally own a firearm anymore.
It's slightly easier to legally own a gun in the UK than it is in many states in the US. Hell, it's easier to get a shotgun licence than a motorcycle licence.
Now it doesn't take a lot of force to push something into a wall socket far enough to get conduction sufficient to electrocute
But you have to push evenly on the live and neutral pins, otherwise the shutter won't move out of the way. On older sockets you may be able to wiggle something into the earth pin hole to push the shutter back, but that's usually got quite a strong spring.
Regarding posting things into video recorders, I've lost count of the number of front-loading VCRs I've had to realign and retime after it's mysteriously eaten a foreign object. Like, for instance, the little plastic Fireman Sam that the customer assured me her two-year-old son could not possibly have posted through the slot because he knows he's not allowed to touch the video recorder. One must assume, then, that one of the grown-ups in the house did it.
Or, for that matter, from being left in a car on a hot day - this kills something like a dozen children in the US alone every year.
It doesn't get around the fact that these people left a device which has the express purpose of killing or injuring someone lying around in a state where it was immediately dangerous.
Incidentally, how do you manage to electrocute yourself with uncovered mains sockets? I presume you're talking about those stupid little plastic plugs that people put in to stop children somehow inserting something into the socket. How a child small enough to not understand that sticking things in sockets is dangerous is meant to have the strength and ingenuity to push something in there is beyond me.
3psi is about atmospheric pressure at 40,000 feet - roughly where commercial airliners fly. Inside a commercial airliner the pressure altitude is around 8000-10000 feet, or about 11-10psi.
It's not entirely a solved problem, but it's not as bad as you think.
At the moment you can buy a horrifically expensive option board for some radios that does exactly this. That way you can tell if the HT that is supposed to be clipped to your security guard's belt as he walks around your bonded warehouse has suddenly gone horizontal. Another application is in shopping centres where it's pretty handy to be able to track where cleaners and security guards are - and have been in the past. Why? Nosiness? Spying? No.
Mouth-breathing Chav Scum: "ZOMG I SLIPPED AND FELL OVER ON THAT DROPPED ICE CREAM CONE THERE! THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEARED UP STRAIGHT AWAY! I'M GONNA SUUUUUUUUEEE!!!"
You: "Well, let's see, the cleaner went past there three minutes ago, so it can't have been like that for long."
MBCS: "But... But... Butt..."
or alternatively: You: "Right, who's doing the guard tour, oh it's Wee Wullie. That's funny, he's been standing at the same bit for a couple of minutes now, moving around quite a lot though. Wonder if everything's okay?"
<clicky on CCTV console>
You: "Aha, righty. Let's send Big Davie down to give him some 'assistance' there..."
...such as? The vast majority of the free software I use on Linux is also available for Windows.
Ardour, and various soft-synths for one. There's no Windows version, and it's unlikely there ever will be. Please don't reply with some comment about going and buying Ableton or Cubase or some such - they do *not* do the same job. That brings me back round to my previous point that I don't want to have to buy software that does less than the Free (and free) software I'm currently using.
Give me a shout when Pro Tools is open-source, so I can customise it to do what I want.
None of the software I use is available for Windows, and none of the custom software that I've written will work in Windows (well, maybe it will; I don't have Windows and it looks like the development software for Windows is expensive and rather limited). Also, Windows looks shit. Going back as far as Windows 2000 it's a hopeless mishmash of conflicting GUI elements. Adding XP brings in really garish toy-like widgets more suited to a cartoon "MovieOS" than serious use. Vista and Windows 7 look like a straight ripoff of KDE4, but with the old garish XP widgets thrown in randomly.
So, in short - Windows doesn't do the job I want, and it's horrible to use purely on aesthetic grounds. You expect me to *pay* for something that doesn't work and looks awful?
There are a couple of companies that already have working, polished products.
Care to give an example? One of the reasons I use Free and Open-Source software - including the OS that runs on my computers - is because there is no commercial alternative that is reliable, stable and nice to use. If you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
I prefer diesels, in which the braking servo assist works differently due to the lack of a throttle (and hence vacuum).
I prefer my old Citroen CX, where the brakes (and steering and suspension) are powered by a hydraulic pump the size of a beer can driven off the engine, and maintained for a couple of hours after shutdown by two large hydraulic accumulators. The pedal has no travel, and requires a fairly firm push to operate the brakes. The front discs and calipers are huge, and the rear discs are about the size of the front discs on a Prius (of course, it weighs about twice as much as a Prius).
It's got a really nice drive-by-wire system too; there is a bit of steel wire clamped to the end of the throttle pedal that connects to the little lever on the side of the carburettor, and a little spring that pulls the lever back to close the throttle. There's none of this "just one laptop in the country can read the diagnostics" either, because the diagnostics are simple. If you put your foot on the throttle and the car doesn't accelerate, that's because the wire has fallen off. If you take your foot off the throttle and the car doesn't slow down, that's because the spring has fallen off. I've had both happen at one time or another. No real drama, easy to fix.
Mobile phones emit a couple of hundred milliwatts *at full power* - and usually far less than that. The transmit power is turned down to the minimum required to reach the cell tower, which is why your battery goes flat extremely quickly when you've got a poor signal.
Compare a mobile phone battery with a PMR handheld battery, which powers a transmitter that puts out about 5 watts on a very intermittent duty cycle. The battery for a Motorola Mototrbo (similar computer and DSP bits to a Nokia N73, UHF or VHF radio stack) is about the size of three whole iPhones.
As for the cold, it hasn't snowed in San Diego in 40 years
I like snow, far more than I like extremely hot weather.
At the moment it's shaping up to be a nice sunny day, flat calm and dry. If it's like yesterday it'll hit 6-7C around noon, so I'll have my lunch on the roof deck, and maybe get my t-shirt off and catch some rays.
Stevie Wonder is an interesting example. Is that Stevie Wonder pre-Synclavier, or Stevie Wonder post-Synclavier? Because with the former you've got belting tunes like Superstition, Higher Ground and Living For The City, and in the latter you have the dull, mechanical I Just Called To Say I Love You.
Bach was a good composer. Mozart is umitigated shit. Why it remains so popular, I have no idea - in its day his music was just mass-produced commercial crap similar to Stock, Aitken and Waterman "Hit Factory" releases.
Slashdot Mirror
The only way to beat this kind of thing is to jam on the brakes HARD, with both feet, and do not let up.
You shouldn't need to use both feet. You shouldn't even need to press that hard, unless you have badly worn or faulty brakes.
I don't know if Toyota deliberately degrade their brakes for the American market, to match the incredibly poor brakes that American cars have. I'd be surprised if they do.
bzzzt.... wrong. What happens to your vacuum assisted brakes when the throttle is wide open? I'll give you a hint... they are no longer vacuum assisted.
Oh right, so as soon as you open the throttle all the vacuum rushes out of the soup-pot-sized brake servo? You have faulty brakes. Get them fixed.
Cars hae ample vacuum assist for a couple of brake applications even after the engine has been off for several hours. If they don't, your vacuum servo has a serious fault and should be replaced.
Every production car on the road has sufficient braking power to stall the engine in any gear at any throttle setting. Put your foot on the brake, and the car will stop. You may need new discs and pads after that.
Here's a thought, how about the prices get driven down to reasonable levels, and you don't need taxpayer-funded programs to pay for Grandmas $7000 hearing aid when she can just BUY the damn thing for $500. Crazy concept this "reasonable pricing" thing is, I know.
The problem is, you allow private industry to set all the prices. If you had proper socialised healthcare like all the other first-world countries, what would happen is the nationalised health service would turn round to the manufacturer and say "You sell us ten thousand for $500, or you don't sell it at all. Decide."
All you're getting with private healthcare is the opportunity to pay for the director of your medical insurance company buying a new Jaguar.
It wasn't a choice to potentially harm those around her, it was a choice to speak on the phone.
Yes, but choosing to speak on the phone while driving drastically increased the risk of harm to others around her. Supposing she'd chosen to drink a bottle of vodka instead of answering the phone?
After all, you cannot even legally own a firearm anymore.
It's slightly easier to legally own a gun in the UK than it is in many states in the US. Hell, it's easier to get a shotgun licence than a motorcycle licence.
Did she come to conscious decision that she would drive without due care and attention?
Yes, she did. She deliberately chose to talk on her phone while attempting to drive, meaning that she was not fully in control of her car.
Or are you suggesting she somehow accidentally answered the phone, or accidentally drove the car?
Inside a commercial airliner, it's 14.7 psi, or below that enough to make your ears pop.
14.7 psi is atmospheric pressure at sea level. 11psi is enough to make your ears pop.
Shuttered outlets are a fairly recent feature in the US, and homes built before the requirement was added are not required to be retrofitted.
Ah, okay; they've been standard for at least 30 years in the UK. Probably more, but my house was last rewired 30 years ago with "modern" sockets.
Now it doesn't take a lot of force to push something into a wall socket far enough to get conduction sufficient to electrocute
But you have to push evenly on the live and neutral pins, otherwise the shutter won't move out of the way. On older sockets you may be able to wiggle something into the earth pin hole to push the shutter back, but that's usually got quite a strong spring.
Regarding posting things into video recorders, I've lost count of the number of front-loading VCRs I've had to realign and retime after it's mysteriously eaten a foreign object. Like, for instance, the little plastic Fireman Sam that the customer assured me her two-year-old son could not possibly have posted through the slot because he knows he's not allowed to touch the video recorder. One must assume, then, that one of the grown-ups in the house did it.
Or, for that matter, from being left in a car on a hot day - this kills something like a dozen children in the US alone every year.
It doesn't get around the fact that these people left a device which has the express purpose of killing or injuring someone lying around in a state where it was immediately dangerous.
Incidentally, how do you manage to electrocute yourself with uncovered mains sockets? I presume you're talking about those stupid little plastic plugs that people put in to stop children somehow inserting something into the socket. How a child small enough to not understand that sticking things in sockets is dangerous is meant to have the strength and ingenuity to push something in there is beyond me.
I tend not to leave things that are *intended* to be used as murder weapons lying around. I don't know about the grandparent poster.
3psi is about atmospheric pressure at 40,000 feet - roughly where commercial airliners fly. Inside a commercial airliner the pressure altitude is around 8000-10000 feet, or about 11-10psi.
It's not entirely a solved problem, but it's not as bad as you think.
At the moment you can buy a horrifically expensive option board for some radios that does exactly this. That way you can tell if the HT that is supposed to be clipped to your security guard's belt as he walks around your bonded warehouse has suddenly gone horizontal. Another application is in shopping centres where it's pretty handy to be able to track where cleaners and security guards are - and have been in the past. Why? Nosiness? Spying? No.
Mouth-breathing Chav Scum: "ZOMG I SLIPPED AND FELL OVER ON THAT DROPPED ICE CREAM CONE THERE! THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEARED UP STRAIGHT AWAY! I'M GONNA SUUUUUUUUEEE!!!"
You: "Well, let's see, the cleaner went past there three minutes ago, so it can't have been like that for long."
MBCS: "But... But... Butt..."
or alternatively:
You: "Right, who's doing the guard tour, oh it's Wee Wullie. That's funny, he's been standing at the same bit for a couple of minutes now, moving around quite a lot though. Wonder if everything's okay?"
<clicky on CCTV console>
You: "Aha, righty. Let's send Big Davie down to give him some 'assistance' there..."
...such as? The vast majority of the free software I use on Linux is also available for Windows.
Ardour, and various soft-synths for one. There's no Windows version, and it's unlikely there ever will be. Please don't reply with some comment about going and buying Ableton or Cubase or some such - they do *not* do the same job. That brings me back round to my previous point that I don't want to have to buy software that does less than the Free (and free) software I'm currently using.
Give me a shout when Pro Tools is open-source, so I can customise it to do what I want.
None of the software I use is available for Windows, and none of the custom software that I've written will work in Windows (well, maybe it will; I don't have Windows and it looks like the development software for Windows is expensive and rather limited). Also, Windows looks shit. Going back as far as Windows 2000 it's a hopeless mishmash of conflicting GUI elements. Adding XP brings in really garish toy-like widgets more suited to a cartoon "MovieOS" than serious use. Vista and Windows 7 look like a straight ripoff of KDE4, but with the old garish XP widgets thrown in randomly.
So, in short - Windows doesn't do the job I want, and it's horrible to use purely on aesthetic grounds. You expect me to *pay* for something that doesn't work and looks awful?
There are a couple of companies that already have working, polished products.
Care to give an example? One of the reasons I use Free and Open-Source software - including the OS that runs on my computers - is because there is no commercial alternative that is reliable, stable and nice to use. If you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
You've just invented direct injection, again.
I prefer diesels, in which the braking servo assist works differently due to the lack of a throttle (and hence vacuum).
I prefer my old Citroen CX, where the brakes (and steering and suspension) are powered by a hydraulic pump the size of a beer can driven off the engine, and maintained for a couple of hours after shutdown by two large hydraulic accumulators. The pedal has no travel, and requires a fairly firm push to operate the brakes. The front discs and calipers are huge, and the rear discs are about the size of the front discs on a Prius (of course, it weighs about twice as much as a Prius).
It's got a really nice drive-by-wire system too; there is a bit of steel wire clamped to the end of the throttle pedal that connects to the little lever on the side of the carburettor, and a little spring that pulls the lever back to close the throttle. There's none of this "just one laptop in the country can read the diagnostics" either, because the diagnostics are simple. If you put your foot on the throttle and the car doesn't accelerate, that's because the wire has fallen off. If you take your foot off the throttle and the car doesn't slow down, that's because the spring has fallen off. I've had both happen at one time or another. No real drama, easy to fix.
they've all been whackjobs who wouldn't know what science was even if you served it to them on a plate with a sprig of parsley on it.
They're allergic to parsley, you insensitive clod!
As Lessig said in his latest website chat, 75% of studies not funded by the cellphone industry found evidence for a connection.
As a matter of interest, who *were* they funded by? People with an interest in proving a link between RF from mobile phones and cancer?
Mobile phones emit a couple of hundred milliwatts *at full power* - and usually far less than that. The transmit power is turned down to the minimum required to reach the cell tower, which is why your battery goes flat extremely quickly when you've got a poor signal.
Compare a mobile phone battery with a PMR handheld battery, which powers a transmitter that puts out about 5 watts on a very intermittent duty cycle. The battery for a Motorola Mototrbo (similar computer and DSP bits to a Nokia N73, UHF or VHF radio stack) is about the size of three whole iPhones.
As for the cold, it hasn't snowed in San Diego in 40 years
I like snow, far more than I like extremely hot weather.
At the moment it's shaping up to be a nice sunny day, flat calm and dry. If it's like yesterday it'll hit 6-7C around noon, so I'll have my lunch on the roof deck, and maybe get my t-shirt off and catch some rays.
...or Stevie Wonder for instance
Stevie Wonder is an interesting example. Is that Stevie Wonder pre-Synclavier, or Stevie Wonder post-Synclavier? Because with the former you've got belting tunes like Superstition, Higher Ground and Living For The City, and in the latter you have the dull, mechanical I Just Called To Say I Love You.
Bach was a good composer. Mozart is umitigated shit. Why it remains so popular, I have no idea - in its day his music was just mass-produced commercial crap similar to Stock, Aitken and Waterman "Hit Factory" releases.