Re:No people complain when you over claim
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Wine 1.2 Released
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I just spent some time looking through the reports for CorelDraw/PhotoPaint -- I *need* PhotoPaint, with the scanning and image paste functions intact, and there is no viable alterative (that doesn't make me want to hurt someone). What you say is evident there -- ratings are all over the place, and it appears that the user's level of tolerance for faults and breakage is what's really being measured.:( I did note that those who gave it lower ratings had more specific complaints and were apparently more-regular users of the program.
Sure, some do. But look around at consumer electronics (and what's onboard a car is just another form of that). The average lifespan has been dropping steadily for a broad swath of products. And what are the longer-lived ones? those with more mechanical parts, like a fridge or washing machine, or just about any part of a car that doesn't depend on electronics.
Interestingly, when a modern washer dies, it's usually the electronics, not the mechanicals. (I was specifically warned off 'em cuz of that, by my appliance repair dude, who seems to really know his stuff.)
Some want to abolish absolutely everything that's not privatized, including police, fire, roads, schools, and even military (the areas I think are generally gov't business). Since I first came in contact with the Libertarian party back in 1972 (the Pres.candidate had a "town hall session" at my Uni), most adherents have become considerably more moderate, but there are still some hardcores around. But as more people come into it, it's naturally going to gain a broader viewpoint.
Occurs to me that you still erroneously believe you are sitting in front of your keyboard typing stuff, when that smear down below attests that you are not.
Actually, I'm 55 and I drive a 32 year old truck that's probably had less maintenance over its lifetime than anything modern gets... and has needed less, too.
But you point out something I'd like to emphasize: mechanicals *can* be maintained, and will usually continue to at least halfway work when worn or damaged. Electronics pretty much cannot -- you're stuck with whatever you started with, in a state that's either "alive" or "dead" or more rarely "malfunctioning unpredictably". Open analog system vs closed digital system, to put it into geek context.
My problem with that is that the Libertarian party takes things too far...we've had privatized education (we called it the middle ages) and police forces (we called it the mafia)... I'd like to wind up somewhere between the two, where gov't does the essentials that don't scale well from the private sector, but otherwise butts out.
[laughing] Yeah, I'm always telling clients that a puppy is just like a toddler, except the puppy is a lot more mobile and is armed with a chainsaw. And viewed objectively, both dogs and toddlers are disgusting creatures!!:D
I don't know that I could come up with a cite, but look around -- there are millions of fairly ancient mechanical systems still in use, while electronic systems, even meant to do the same work and under the same load, just don't last as long. One that springs to mind are typewriters. Mechanical units (including old-fashioned electrics) lasted decades. Electronic units... I've yet to see one with over 5 years of regular use before it went tits-up. And if you get outside of major metro areas, take a gander at how common older vehicles, wholly mechanical, really are -- generally working harder than their modern city cousins, too.
True, but they generally fail in more predictable ways. Also, on average they fail less often.
Every time I go to my mechanic's garage I become more convinced of this -- invariably he's got a dozen bays full of newish cars with some hard-to-pin-down computer fault, and one or none with some mechanical fault (usually plain old age, easy to diagnose). He's said the same to me himself -- computerization may be in some ways more efficient, but it's far less day-to-day reliable than the old mechanical systems, and breaks more often in less-predictable ways.
That's the thing. You can look at this wire or gear or belt and SEE the wear, or measure it with calipers. But the only way to measure wear on electronics is by uptime hours, and that may have little or no bearing on remaining lifespan. Whereas a physical part with remaining thickness N will have X-much life remaining.
My ancient Ford truck did some sort of random mechanical stick-down a few times when it was young. I just stuck my toe under the edge and gave it a jerk back toward the resting position, problem solved. No migratory floormats or computers involved, and no driver-error either. Of course, given that I'm a rather light-footed driver, it was only stuck a *little* ways, not mashed to the floor, so the effect was fairly trivial.
I'd guess that even if the problem is wholly driver error, there's some design issue that makes it more likely for *some* drivers (depending on driver height from floor, leg length and leverage, torso width, etc.) to hit the wrong pedal. For that reason it would be a lot more useful and interesting to see this charted by specific models. I know that while driving my neighbour's old Chrysler minivan, I have to pay a lot more attention to where I'm putting my feet, because it's designed for a very short and short-legged person of a certain torso width, and no matter where I adjust the seat it's just not natural for my legs to find the right pedal -- the seat would have to be adjustable a couple inches to the right to fit me correctly (and I've never heard of a lateral adjusting carseat). Conversely even when I first got into my truck, having never driven a pickup before, the pedal position was utterly natural and I never ever have to think about it.
Side thought: I wonder how much correlation there is with captain's chair or bucket-type seats, which constrict your seated position laterally? My truck has a bench seat, which means my ass can be wherever it needs to be to put my feet in a natural and comfortable line with the pedals. Not so in a 'chair' type seat, where there's usually only one spot for your butt, and it's your legs that are required to adjust laterally, if need be to reach the pedals.
I do the same thing but for different reasons. A slow-to-accelerate vehicle (eg. my truck) can be tough to get into traffic if the engine isn't goosed up just a little -- takes too long for the initial git-'er-movin'. But ride the brake and just lightly bring the engine up, and when there's an opening it's a lot more ready to go. Which is safer for everyone since I can join the flow of traffic in a more timely manner.
It's also a good technique for driving on ice, to just lightly ride the brake even tho your foot is still on the throttle -- hard to explain but it makes things more surefooted under certain circumstances. Same applies to some tight curves on dry pavement, where you may need to ease from braking to acceleratting with some overlap, for max control.
Also helpful if you have one of those engines that when sitting still, likes to idle slower and slower until it stalls out -- sometimes those can't be fixed (carb or injector design flaw), but a light touch on the throttle while sitting braked prevents the slide down to a full stall.
There are probably other fairly mundane examples (contrasted to the emergency maneuverings of another poster) but these are what I use often enough to call it a necessary feature.
I understand the "spin on your ass instant reverse" trick uses something similar, but I'm not personally familiar with it.
And of course there's also the "spin your car around the icy parking lot" fun (turn the wheel as far as it goes, ride the brake, and stand on the throttle), but that's not quite so necessary to the scheme of things.:)
So why on earth does your local rep, who sounds like an old-line Republican, running as a Democrat??
Tho one wonders sometimes if party alignment starts as the first group that would give you campaign funding, and goes downhill from there. (I'm lookin' at you, Max Baucus...)
[plaintively] Where do I find the Republican party I too wish to be part of, whose philosophy is "small-government, fiscal conservative, individual rights" and generally stays the hell out of my life??
Lately I've been getting pollster calls from various pro-life and anti-gay factions... "can we count on your support?" Absolutely not; those are individual rights issues and therefore none of our collective business. But it would be political suicide for most candidates to put it that baldly and honestly.
The problem being that without critical thinking, you wind up with educated idiots... some of whom firmly believe they excel at critical thinking, and that everyone else is an idiot.
An AC complains, "Being able to do office work during a blackout is not actually significant."
That depends on your office. At my sister's office, having a dozen architects twiddling their thumbs for four hours isn't just the $4800 in billable hours lost; it's also the contractor's penalty for being late, if it winds up making the job go over-limit. That can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But that's nothing compared to the downtime penalty for megabusinesses, which has been estimated at over $8 MILLION per MINUTE.
Even more amusing, the commenter seems to assume that ice weighs nothing, or magically floats above the surface of the earth, and only becomes subject to gravity (thus developing weight) after it melts.
Exactly my observations, having come from the same generation as yourself. We weren't allowed to use calculators even in college -- the slide rule was as much of a crutch as we were permitted.
See above too where I mention how when the power is out, my sister is the only one at her office (major architectural firm) who knows the old ways and can continue working.
Also, I suspect there is a strong correlation between hands-on and actual deep learning (the stuff that stays with you forever), not only because of the lack of the skill itself but also because the brain pathways never develop. Ask the calculator generation to recite the times tables and see what happens. It's not just ignorance; it's confusion, as if something in their brains can't make the connection at all.
Very interesting. I was just telling someone up above about how I learned to read from my mom reading to me at a very early age, and (per my own observation and experience) that I'm not sure "learning to read" and "learning to speak" should be considered separate skills.
BTW I see something similar as a pro dog trainer: dogs that are talked to a lot, even just randomly, develop much better "vocabulary skills" than those that are not talked to much. The ones that hear a lot of everyday speech learn to figure stuff out better, even if not as well-trained otherwise. I expect it's the same phenomenon as in your cited article, dogs and young children being VERY much alike.
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I just spent some time looking through the reports for CorelDraw/PhotoPaint -- I *need* PhotoPaint, with the scanning and image paste functions intact, and there is no viable alterative (that doesn't make me want to hurt someone). What you say is evident there -- ratings are all over the place, and it appears that the user's level of tolerance for faults and breakage is what's really being measured. :( I did note that those who gave it lower ratings had more specific complaints and were apparently more-regular users of the program.
Sure, some do. But look around at consumer electronics (and what's onboard a car is just another form of that). The average lifespan has been dropping steadily for a broad swath of products. And what are the longer-lived ones? those with more mechanical parts, like a fridge or washing machine, or just about any part of a car that doesn't depend on electronics.
Interestingly, when a modern washer dies, it's usually the electronics, not the mechanicals. (I was specifically warned off 'em cuz of that, by my appliance repair dude, who seems to really know his stuff.)
Some want to abolish absolutely everything that's not privatized, including police, fire, roads, schools, and even military (the areas I think are generally gov't business). Since I first came in contact with the Libertarian party back in 1972 (the Pres.candidate had a "town hall session" at my Uni), most adherents have become considerably more moderate, but there are still some hardcores around. But as more people come into it, it's naturally going to gain a broader viewpoint.
Crap. That explains why I'm eating dinner with my fingers!
Hmm. I'm not sure. What do you *believe*??
Occurs to me that you still erroneously believe you are sitting in front of your keyboard typing stuff, when that smear down below attests that you are not.
OTOH, perhaps I was deceived by special effects.
Actually, I'm 55 and I drive a 32 year old truck that's probably had less maintenance over its lifetime than anything modern gets... and has needed less, too.
But you point out something I'd like to emphasize: mechanicals *can* be maintained, and will usually continue to at least halfway work when worn or damaged. Electronics pretty much cannot -- you're stuck with whatever you started with, in a state that's either "alive" or "dead" or more rarely "malfunctioning unpredictably". Open analog system vs closed digital system, to put it into geek context.
My problem with that is that the Libertarian party takes things too far ...we've had privatized education (we called it the middle ages) and police forces (we called it the mafia) ... I'd like to wind up somewhere between the two, where gov't does the essentials that don't scale well from the private sector, but otherwise butts out.
[laughing] Yeah, I'm always telling clients that a puppy is just like a toddler, except the puppy is a lot more mobile and is armed with a chainsaw. And viewed objectively, both dogs and toddlers are disgusting creatures!! :D
I don't know that I could come up with a cite, but look around -- there are millions of fairly ancient mechanical systems still in use, while electronic systems, even meant to do the same work and under the same load, just don't last as long. One that springs to mind are typewriters. Mechanical units (including old-fashioned electrics) lasted decades. Electronic units... I've yet to see one with over 5 years of regular use before it went tits-up. And if you get outside of major metro areas, take a gander at how common older vehicles, wholly mechanical, really are -- generally working harder than their modern city cousins, too.
Just cloning it for ya ;)
True, but they generally fail in more predictable ways. Also, on average they fail less often.
Every time I go to my mechanic's garage I become more convinced of this -- invariably he's got a dozen bays full of newish cars with some hard-to-pin-down computer fault, and one or none with some mechanical fault (usually plain old age, easy to diagnose). He's said the same to me himself -- computerization may be in some ways more efficient, but it's far less day-to-day reliable than the old mechanical systems, and breaks more often in less-predictable ways.
That's the thing. You can look at this wire or gear or belt and SEE the wear, or measure it with calipers. But the only way to measure wear on electronics is by uptime hours, and that may have little or no bearing on remaining lifespan. Whereas a physical part with remaining thickness N will have X-much life remaining.
My ancient Ford truck did some sort of random mechanical stick-down a few times when it was young. I just stuck my toe under the edge and gave it a jerk back toward the resting position, problem solved. No migratory floormats or computers involved, and no driver-error either. Of course, given that I'm a rather light-footed driver, it was only stuck a *little* ways, not mashed to the floor, so the effect was fairly trivial.
Someone posted a link to a chart, see here: http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2010/03/toyota-not-the-only-automaker-linked-to-unintended-acceleration.html
I'd guess that even if the problem is wholly driver error, there's some design issue that makes it more likely for *some* drivers (depending on driver height from floor, leg length and leverage, torso width, etc.) to hit the wrong pedal. For that reason it would be a lot more useful and interesting to see this charted by specific models. I know that while driving my neighbour's old Chrysler minivan, I have to pay a lot more attention to where I'm putting my feet, because it's designed for a very short and short-legged person of a certain torso width, and no matter where I adjust the seat it's just not natural for my legs to find the right pedal -- the seat would have to be adjustable a couple inches to the right to fit me correctly (and I've never heard of a lateral adjusting carseat). Conversely even when I first got into my truck, having never driven a pickup before, the pedal position was utterly natural and I never ever have to think about it.
Side thought: I wonder how much correlation there is with captain's chair or bucket-type seats, which constrict your seated position laterally? My truck has a bench seat, which means my ass can be wherever it needs to be to put my feet in a natural and comfortable line with the pedals. Not so in a 'chair' type seat, where there's usually only one spot for your butt, and it's your legs that are required to adjust laterally, if need be to reach the pedals.
I do the same thing but for different reasons. A slow-to-accelerate vehicle (eg. my truck) can be tough to get into traffic if the engine isn't goosed up just a little -- takes too long for the initial git-'er-movin'. But ride the brake and just lightly bring the engine up, and when there's an opening it's a lot more ready to go. Which is safer for everyone since I can join the flow of traffic in a more timely manner.
It's also a good technique for driving on ice, to just lightly ride the brake even tho your foot is still on the throttle -- hard to explain but it makes things more surefooted under certain circumstances. Same applies to some tight curves on dry pavement, where you may need to ease from braking to acceleratting with some overlap, for max control.
Also helpful if you have one of those engines that when sitting still, likes to idle slower and slower until it stalls out -- sometimes those can't be fixed (carb or injector design flaw), but a light touch on the throttle while sitting braked prevents the slide down to a full stall.
There are probably other fairly mundane examples (contrasted to the emergency maneuverings of another poster) but these are what I use often enough to call it a necessary feature.
I understand the "spin on your ass instant reverse" trick uses something similar, but I'm not personally familiar with it.
And of course there's also the "spin your car around the icy parking lot" fun (turn the wheel as far as it goes, ride the brake, and stand on the throttle), but that's not quite so necessary to the scheme of things. :)
jd, is that you smeared along the bottom of the cliff?? ;)
They wind up thinking critically about everyone else's thinking, but not about their own.
Glah. My brain hurts.
So why on earth does your local rep, who sounds like an old-line Republican, running as a Democrat??
Tho one wonders sometimes if party alignment starts as the first group that would give you campaign funding, and goes downhill from there. (I'm lookin' at you, Max Baucus...)
To be expected from a yellow dog democrat. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Democrat
[plaintively] Where do I find the Republican party I too wish to be part of, whose philosophy is "small-government, fiscal conservative, individual rights" and generally stays the hell out of my life??
Lately I've been getting pollster calls from various pro-life and anti-gay factions... "can we count on your support?" Absolutely not; those are individual rights issues and therefore none of our collective business. But it would be political suicide for most candidates to put it that baldly and honestly.
The problem being that without critical thinking, you wind up with educated idiots... some of whom firmly believe they excel at critical thinking, and that everyone else is an idiot.
An AC complains, "Being able to do office work during a blackout is not actually significant."
That depends on your office. At my sister's office, having a dozen architects twiddling their thumbs for four hours isn't just the $4800 in billable hours lost; it's also the contractor's penalty for being late, if it winds up making the job go over-limit. That can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But that's nothing compared to the downtime penalty for megabusinesses, which has been estimated at over $8 MILLION per MINUTE.
Even more amusing, the commenter seems to assume that ice weighs nothing, or magically floats above the surface of the earth, and only becomes subject to gravity (thus developing weight) after it melts.
One wonders what he thinks clouds weigh. ;)
Neither does mine, but that doesn't stop Edison from structuring the rates as tho I use most of it during peak hours. :(
Exactly my observations, having come from the same generation as yourself. We weren't allowed to use calculators even in college -- the slide rule was as much of a crutch as we were permitted.
See above too where I mention how when the power is out, my sister is the only one at her office (major architectural firm) who knows the old ways and can continue working.
Also, I suspect there is a strong correlation between hands-on and actual deep learning (the stuff that stays with you forever), not only because of the lack of the skill itself but also because the brain pathways never develop. Ask the calculator generation to recite the times tables and see what happens. It's not just ignorance; it's confusion, as if something in their brains can't make the connection at all.
Very interesting. I was just telling someone up above about how I learned to read from my mom reading to me at a very early age, and (per my own observation and experience) that I'm not sure "learning to read" and "learning to speak" should be considered separate skills.
BTW I see something similar as a pro dog trainer: dogs that are talked to a lot, even just randomly, develop much better "vocabulary skills" than those that are not talked to much. The ones that hear a lot of everyday speech learn to figure stuff out better, even if not as well-trained otherwise. I expect it's the same phenomenon as in your cited article, dogs and young children being VERY much alike.