Similar laws could be made today demanding a twenty-year expected lifespan for regular cars, excluding accidents.
Which would triple the price of the car. Yes, a lot of individual cars last 20 yrs. But how many 1989 models do you see on the road today vs how many were produced?
Yes. The Smart got punted like a football. The Mercedes driver would have walked away, while you, the Smart driver would be, at best, in a wheelchair forever, after being crushed from the knees down. I don't care how the car body fares. I care about how my body fares.
For a little car, the Smart is very, very good. If it got better mileage (US), I'd seriously consider buying one. But lets not delude ourselves about its construction and safety.
There are, however, hard limits once you get physics involved. Crumple zones, for instance. There is a minimum time you can slow the human body from 40mph to zero, without incurring injury. This is what a crumple zone does. The car sacrifices its structure, to slow the passenger cabin down to zero at an acceptable rate. Sure, you could build a very small, very rigid car that would see minimal damage in a crash. But you, the squishy thing inside, would incur significant injury to your brain, lower limbs, and internal organs.
Designing a 'car' to slow the human down from 40mph to zero, in 18", and without serious injury, is a non-trivial exercise. The distance from you (your feet perhaps) to the point of impact is a significant design element as well.
The Smart is butting right against that design limit.
700lbs? 1/2 the weight of a SmartCar? An enclosed go-kart. 20 year lease? You mean I'm still going to be making payments on this thing in 2029? Gimme a break. Hydrogen fuel cell? And we refuel it where?
I don't care how green it might be (if it ever comes to pass), but locked into payments and a design for 20 years is just silly.
Not too hard to install a mesh with holes too small for a goose but big enough for air - and enough structural integrity that hitting a few things doesn't hurt it
Now, increase the structural integrity of the geese so they don't merely get diced as they hit this mesh, but instead just bounce off.
Microsoft is having huge problems with the EU because, well they are actually interested in the public good.
Microsoft is having huge problems with the EU because, well they are actually interested in extracting some money out of a rich, foreign, very visible, generally despised corporation. In other words, an easy target.
We pay either way. The government requires money to meet its many obligations, and it's going to collect that money through taxes of one sort or the other.
The word you're missing is 'opportunity'. Given lower taxes, more companies might establish in a particular country vs somewhere else. More companies = more tax income, even if it is less per company. Increase taxes...drive companies somewhere else with lower taxes. Decrease taxes...attract companies to your country.
The former (generic and boring names) was Microsoft's idea to subtly, or not so subtly, drive home the idea of their monopoly. Windows is a generic name.
Back in '00 or '01, I overheard this woman talking to the 'tech' at BestBuy?CompUSA?... 'What kind of computer do you have?' "an HP Millenium"
Today, I'd expect that same woman to describe her new PC as an 'HP Vista'
I simply don't understand how a school can get away with banning a handgun. It should be my choice if I want my child (I don't have any yet) to have a device that allows them to protect themseleves.
Banning cellphones became an issue after kids were abusing them. Texting answers back and forth, disrupting the classroom, etc. Now, a lot of kids have them, but they are 'off', and in the locker. Not much good as far as tracking goes.
...you have zero idea about the composition of the 'deck' and how the cards are dealt. You also have zero idea exactly whom you are playing against, and if/how they are communicating and cooperating.
Game of skill? yeah...you against the program and its operators. Not against the other 'players' or the cards.
The cost for that was just for the hardware. The software is free (beer). Technical info on how and what the OBD puts out, so you can roll your own. A Linux variant. Not much recent activity, though. Here is an apparently open source finished product. Again, the hardware is the cost.
I would prefer a simple well documented way to get at the codes.
Any of the laptop ODBII interfaces display all of the codes (incl the individual manufacturers extended set), what fault caused the light to come on, the ability to turn it off. The one I have allows you to 'record' a drive and monitor several settings. Later, download that to a spreadsheet and build graphs to see what happened when.
Now...I agree it would be nice to have that display built into the car, but for the vast majority of people, a useless tool.
It should (in the US) use plain English to describe exactly what is wrong and what the implications are
It can't, because there could be many causes, most of which mea absolutely nothing to a non-mechanic.
High cyl head temperature = bad thermostat or blocked radiator or failed water pump or broken belt or low coolant level(why? because the radiator has a pinhole) or collapsed return hose or 18 other things. For something so 'simple' as the cooling system.
Troubleshooting/diagnosis is quite often not so simple.
For those of us who CAN troubleshoot, the tools are easy to buy and use.
It will also happen if there are repeated misfires, but misfires cause at least one of the monitors to fail
I have an ODBII interface for my laptop. $120. Sucker works great.
Regarding the misfire scenario. It does NOT work in the obvious way...no spark to cylinder #3 = misfire. No...there is an accelerometer on the crankshaft. As each cylinder fires, the crankshaft accelerates a little. The absence of this is a 'misfire'.
So...at 4000RPM (200 firing cycles per sec among 6 cylinders - suck, squeeze, bang, blow), the onboard computer can sense that 'at this point in the firing cycle, the crankshaft did not register the appropriate acceleration, ergo, cyl #3 sparkplug did not fire properly'.
Buy whatever laptop interface you can find for your (post-95) vehicle. Seriously.
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Similar laws could be made today demanding a twenty-year expected lifespan for regular cars, excluding accidents.
Which would triple the price of the car.
Yes, a lot of individual cars last 20 yrs. But how many 1989 models do you see on the road today vs how many were produced?
Did you watch that video ?
Yes. The Smart got punted like a football. The Mercedes driver would have walked away, while you, the Smart driver would be, at best, in a wheelchair forever, after being crushed from the knees down. I don't care how the car body fares. I care about how my body fares.
For a little car, the Smart is very, very good. If it got better mileage (US), I'd seriously consider buying one.
But lets not delude ourselves about its construction and safety.
There are, however, hard limits once you get physics involved. Crumple zones, for instance. There is a minimum time you can slow the human body from 40mph to zero, without incurring injury. This is what a crumple zone does. The car sacrifices its structure, to slow the passenger cabin down to zero at an acceptable rate.
Sure, you could build a very small, very rigid car that would see minimal damage in a crash. But you, the squishy thing inside, would incur significant injury to your brain, lower limbs, and internal organs.
Designing a 'car' to slow the human down from 40mph to zero, in 18", and without serious injury, is a non-trivial exercise.
The distance from you (your feet perhaps) to the point of impact is a significant design element as well.
The Smart is butting right against that design limit.
Even the Smart, while great for a little tiny car, doesn't fare too well in a realworld crash.
700lbs? 1/2 the weight of a SmartCar? An enclosed go-kart.
20 year lease? You mean I'm still going to be making payments on this thing in 2029? Gimme a break.
Hydrogen fuel cell? And we refuel it where?
I don't care how green it might be (if it ever comes to pass), but locked into payments and a design for 20 years is just silly.
the cone would be made of a grid of rigid wires
Please describe how the bird would be deflected and not diced by the 'rigid wires'.
That's why the cone would be made of a grid of rigid wires that would let quite a lot of air through, of course.
And 15 lbs of diced bird. Problem remains.
So what if the cone continued up to the edge of the engine cowling?
If jet engines didn't need air to operate, you might have a solution.
However...
What is needed is not so much a screen, but rather a solid angled metal shield
/. analysis can fix it.
Heavy and impedes airflow when deployed
that projects about 1-2 feet in front of the air intake for the engine on take off and landing
Immensly strong support structure. 15 lb bird at 250mph is a LOT of force. And impedes the needed airflow into the engine.
and retracts at cruising altitude.
Heavy, complex retracting mechanism.
Decades of aero engineers have never, ever thought of such solutions, yet 3 minutes of
Amazing.
Not too hard to install a mesh with holes too small for a goose but big enough for air - and enough structural integrity that hitting a few things doesn't hurt it
Now, increase the structural integrity of the geese so they don't merely get diced as they hit this mesh, but instead just bounce off.
Remember, in the US, MS' OS were put in place despite explicit regulations disallowing its use.
[citation needed]
Microsoft is having huge problems with the EU because, well they are actually interested in the public good.
Microsoft is having huge problems with the EU because, well they are actually interested in extracting some money out of a rich, foreign, very visible, generally despised corporation.
In other words, an easy target.
We pay either way. The government requires money to meet its many obligations, and it's going to collect that money through taxes of one sort or the other.
The word you're missing is 'opportunity'.
Given lower taxes, more companies might establish in a particular country vs somewhere else.
More companies = more tax income, even if it is less per company.
Increase taxes...drive companies somewhere else with lower taxes. Decrease taxes...attract companies to your country.
Not 100% that simple, but it is a consideration.
As an American, I think that the rest of the world deserves to have that happen.
As an American, where would would you and your extended family rather live?
China, or current (or recent) America?
(bear in mind you may not be one of the protected (USA IT/college educated) class that you are now, and this is a nonreversible, binding decision)
Also, please tell us 'why', either way.
The former (generic and boring names) was Microsoft's idea to subtly, or not so subtly, drive home the idea of their monopoly. Windows is a generic name.
Back in '00 or '01, I overheard this woman talking to the 'tech' at BestBuy?CompUSA?...
'What kind of computer do you have?'
"an HP Millenium"
Today, I'd expect that same woman to describe her new PC as an 'HP Vista'
The clueless shall ever remain clueless.
On day 1, did Google have that response?
I simply don't understand how a school can get away with banning a handgun. It should be my choice if I want my child (I don't have any yet) to have a device that allows them to protect themseleves.
Banning cellphones became an issue after kids were abusing them. Texting answers back and forth, disrupting the classroom, etc.
Now, a lot of kids have them, but they are 'off', and in the locker. Not much good as far as tracking goes.
I knew someone was going to say that.
Which browser do you want?
[ ]IE
[ ]FireFox
[ ]Opera
[ ]Safari
Which image editor do you want?
[ ]MS Paint
[ ]GIMP
[ ]Paint.net
Which text editor do you want?
[ ]Notepad
[ ]Notepad2
[ ]vi
[ ]Emacs
and on and on...
With online poker...
...you have zero idea about the composition of the 'deck' and how the cards are dealt. You also have zero idea exactly whom you are playing against, and if/how they are communicating and cooperating.
Game of skill? yeah...you against the program and its operators. Not against the other 'players' or the cards.
The cost for that was just for the hardware. The software is free (beer).
Technical info on how and what the OBD puts out, so you can roll your own.
A Linux variant. Not much recent activity, though. Here is an apparently open source finished product. Again, the hardware is the cost.
I think they mean the total satellite mass, not just launched in a particular year.
I would prefer a simple well documented way to get at the codes.
Any of the laptop ODBII interfaces display all of the codes (incl the individual manufacturers extended set), what fault caused the light to come on, the ability to turn it off. The one I have allows you to 'record' a drive and monitor several settings. Later, download that to a spreadsheet and build graphs to see what happened when.
Now...I agree it would be nice to have that display built into the car, but for the vast majority of people, a useless tool.
It should (in the US) use plain English to describe exactly what is wrong and what the implications are
It can't, because there could be many causes, most of which mea absolutely nothing to a non-mechanic.
High cyl head temperature = bad thermostat or blocked radiator or failed water pump or broken belt or low coolant level(why? because the radiator has a pinhole) or collapsed return hose or 18 other things. For something so 'simple' as the cooling system.
Troubleshooting/diagnosis is quite often not so simple.
For those of us who CAN troubleshoot, the tools are easy to buy and use.
It will also happen if there are repeated misfires, but misfires cause at least one of the monitors to fail
I have an ODBII interface for my laptop. $120. Sucker works great.
Regarding the misfire scenario. It does NOT work in the obvious way...no spark to cylinder #3 = misfire.
No...there is an accelerometer on the crankshaft. As each cylinder fires, the crankshaft accelerates a little. The absence of this is a 'misfire'.
So...at 4000RPM (200 firing cycles per sec among 6 cylinders - suck, squeeze, bang, blow), the onboard computer can sense that 'at this point in the firing cycle, the crankshaft did not register the appropriate acceleration, ergo, cyl #3 sparkplug did not fire properly'.
Buy whatever laptop interface you can find for your (post-95) vehicle. Seriously.