My biggest complaint is the UI (Motorola box). When I press a button on the remote, it may or may not respond to it. That's ok, but the real problem is that it will queue up several button presses before acting on them, that's crap. I can't tell if the remote was pointing in the right direction or not. They need to do one of 2 things:
- respond immediately to a button press (blink a light, actually do what I want, something else)
- or only act on the first button press if it is too busy doing something else, not all of the presses because it was tied up doing god knows what
And that's all I have to say about that.
I design low power, battery operated stuff (enMotion paper towel dispenser is one of them), and it always turns out to be a marketing claim about battery life, not always rooted in the reality of just how much enery is in the batteries. I've also worked with kitchen appliances where they are rated in Watts (mixers, blenders) and Amps (vacume cleaners), neither tell the consumer how much work they can perform (or how efficent they are). Someday I'm going to stop letting marking push my designs around... oh wait, they have something to to with my paycheck.
My posting was ambiguous, sorry. But thanks for seeing it. Yes, both USB and COM1/2 (RS-232 electrical standard) are serial bit stream interfaces, that was the point I was trying to make. Not only that but they are both asynchronous serial ports. One happens to be differential half duplex (USB), the other is single-ended with the potential to be full duplex.
While we are on the subject of USB, how about someone telling you to plug into the "serial port" on an old computer, but what they meant was COM1/2. Yes, friends, the "S" in USB is serial.
This had to be based on the East Coast of the US. And white men and golf: I'll never understand the attaction, a lot of white males must be terribly bored in order to waste an entire morning/afternoon (or both) chasing around a little white ball. Yes, I am a white male with an actual life to live.
Funny you should mention automatic transmissions and needlessly large vehicles. I have an F150 (automatic, big V8) to haul stuff with, had it for 9 years. I live out in the country (sort of) and it's a necessity but it only gets driven when needed (15mpg will do that to you).
But last year I bought a Chevy Cobalt right before the cash for clunkers thing, 5 speed manual. It had sat on the dealer's showroom floor for over 4 months and nobody was interested. I found that odd, but I'm now not surprised since I found out that 90% of the US cars are automatic.
And I'm 53 years old. I hope that wasn't the "old" you were refering to.
True, but I'm not likely to smoke 2 packs of pot cigarettes a day. dude. Question: What happens when you smoke more pot after you're already very high? Answer: Your bag of pot gets smaller.
fyi: unleaded gas was mandated with the 1975 model year cars, the first year for the catalytic converter. So if your car is 35+ years old, you're driving a collector/antique car anyway and are accustomed to the hassles of making leaded gasoline (or you've changed the valves/valve seats).
I would guess that a lot of it has to be due to the litigious nature here. But I would also consider European drivers to be more in tune with their cars, evidenced by the overwhelming use of automatic transmissions in the US. With a clutch there would be no run-away cars, I should have put that on my list.
I grew up in the US muscle car era and understand all of the automobile systems, either by working on cars/trucks or in drivers-education classes. That education just doesn't happen anymore from what I saw with my children. And most US drivers are more concerned about their car stereo with an 1/8" jack for their iPod/whatever than what's under the hood.
So the fact that I can immediately turn off any of my mechanical key operated cars is cause for litigation? In the past year I instintively shut off my son's truck because my foot had slipped off of the brake and I was unintentionally pressing the accelerator at the same time at a stop light. I was wearing large snow/work boots and didn't immediately figure out what I was doing wrong.
you certainly need steering at 120mph, but not the power boost. Was that the confusion? You only really need it below 15mph and failure to control a vehicle at 15mph rarely results in a fatal crash.
bingo. Ok, ok, I'm 53. But I have a 2007 Toyota Avalon that had not one, but 3 recalls so far (accelerator pedal sticking on the mat, little metal plate to do whatever, and an oil line problem).
The problem (as I see it) is a stackup of features:
pushbutton start/stop, and it doesn't stop when I momentarily push it.:
accelerator pedal by wire.:
transmission shift by wire.:
There is nothing in the owners manual that would tell me that you have to hold in the start/stop button in to stop it, I looked. That is beyond bullshit. I want a car that turns off when I tell it to, I will deal with the lack of power steering (you don't need it at 120mph) and a couple of power brake pedal pushes (the engine isn't making vacuume at full throttle anyway).
This is either an embedded software bug (it has issues with the cruise control sometimes when pulling a mountain) or RF susceptibility. At no time does ANYONE test for RF susceptibility with a nearby trucker running a linear amplifier on his CB radio. It is well above CE test limits.
only the first item is flamebait, IMHO. "say something in actual genuine non-geek speak " is very insightful. I'm reminded of "Office Space" and the FAX maching displaying "PC LOAD LETTER".
I've written embedded software in past jobs, and now I write a lot of specifications, design circuits, poor over device data sheets, and layout PCBs. All of those activities require a fair amount of concentration. What works best for me is a quiet room/office (music optional, but I rarely play it, and then it's instrumental jazz). I fought for a private office for 3 years in my present job and finally moved into the small EE lab and use half of it for my office. I have a door to close, that is wonderful. The rest of the product development group (MEs and Industrial designers) are in an open room where there is no privacy (where I was for 3 years). Before I moved to the small EE lab, whenever I had to get some focussed work done I worked at my office at home.
"220, 221, whatever it takes." Mr.Mom quote. The voltage varies with distribution and load, as it's not regulated like your PC power supply.
I have a good friend that works in the power distribution section of AEP (American Electric Power, AEP owns the U.S.'s largest electricity transmission system). I asked him what a typical outlet in the U.S. should be: 115V, 120V, or 125V. His answer: yes.
The point: Stop getting hung up on the exact voltage. It's not exact. It's closer to +/-15%.
I have 2 rules for eating meat: no organs (skin is the exception, it's not filtinging much of anything) and it must be cooked (at least "medium"). Even when traveling in Asia, these are my rules.
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I would think that it does, but I'm just a hardware guy.
a week ago I went to a website and it asked me (by my name) if I wanted to follow them on Facebook. I was not logged into Facebook at the time.
no, it is copper
Yes, I was a big fan of them when they picked on $cientology. All this other crap is really getting on my nerves.
My biggest complaint is the UI (Motorola box). When I press a button on the remote, it may or may not respond to it. That's ok, but the real problem is that it will queue up several button presses before acting on them, that's crap. I can't tell if the remote was pointing in the right direction or not. They need to do one of 2 things:
- respond immediately to a button press (blink a light, actually do what I want, something else)
- or only act on the first button press if it is too busy doing something else, not all of the presses because it was tied up doing god knows what
And that's all I have to say about that.
I design low power, battery operated stuff (enMotion paper towel dispenser is one of them), and it always turns out to be a marketing claim about battery life, not always rooted in the reality of just how much enery is in the batteries. I've also worked with kitchen appliances where they are rated in Watts (mixers, blenders) and Amps (vacume cleaners), neither tell the consumer how much work they can perform (or how efficent they are). Someday I'm going to stop letting marking push my designs around... oh wait, they have something to to with my paycheck.
My posting was ambiguous, sorry. But thanks for seeing it.
Yes, both USB and COM1/2 (RS-232 electrical standard) are serial bit stream interfaces, that was the point I was trying to make. Not only that but they are both asynchronous serial ports. One happens to be differential half duplex (USB), the other is single-ended with the potential to be full duplex.
While we are on the subject of USB, how about someone telling you to plug into the "serial port" on an old computer, but what they meant was COM1/2. Yes, friends, the "S" in USB is serial.
This had to be based on the East Coast of the US. And white men and golf: I'll never understand the attaction, a lot of white males must be terribly bored in order to waste an entire morning/afternoon (or both) chasing around a little white ball. Yes, I am a white male with an actual life to live.
why would a visitor from another country be going to this rally???
that's my retirement plan. the world ends. no retirement money needed. I hope.
Funny you should mention automatic transmissions and needlessly large vehicles. I have an F150 (automatic, big V8) to haul stuff with, had it for 9 years. I live out in the country (sort of) and it's a necessity but it only gets driven when needed (15mpg will do that to you).
But last year I bought a Chevy Cobalt right before the cash for clunkers thing, 5 speed manual. It had sat on the dealer's showroom floor for over 4 months and nobody was interested. I found that odd, but I'm now not surprised since I found out that 90% of the US cars are automatic.
And I'm 53 years old. I hope that wasn't the "old" you were refering to.
Didn't you mean to state:
Most people should not be driving. Period.
?
True, but I'm not likely to smoke 2 packs of pot cigarettes a day. dude.
Question: What happens when you smoke more pot after you're already very high? Answer: Your bag of pot gets smaller.
I've been supporting T.Boone Pickens for over a year. A sane (IMHO) roll in of natural gas for commercial vehicles.
fyi: unleaded gas was mandated with the 1975 model year cars, the first year for the catalytic converter. So if your car is 35+ years old, you're driving a collector/antique car anyway and are accustomed to the hassles of making leaded gasoline (or you've changed the valves/valve seats).
I would guess that a lot of it has to be due to the litigious nature here. But I would also consider European drivers to be more in tune with their cars, evidenced by the overwhelming use of automatic transmissions in the US. With a clutch there would be no run-away cars, I should have put that on my list.
I grew up in the US muscle car era and understand all of the automobile systems, either by working on cars/trucks or in drivers-education classes. That education just doesn't happen anymore from what I saw with my children. And most US drivers are more concerned about their car stereo with an 1/8" jack for their iPod/whatever than what's under the hood.
So the fact that I can immediately turn off any of my mechanical key operated cars is cause for litigation? In the past year I instintively shut off my son's truck because my foot had slipped off of the brake and I was unintentionally pressing the accelerator at the same time at a stop light. I was wearing large snow/work boots and didn't immediately figure out what I was doing wrong.
you certainly need steering at 120mph, but not the power boost. Was that the confusion? You only really need it below 15mph and failure to control a vehicle at 15mph rarely results in a fatal crash.
bingo. Ok, ok, I'm 53. But I have a 2007 Toyota Avalon that had not one, but 3 recalls so far (accelerator pedal sticking on the mat, little metal plate to do whatever, and an oil line problem).
The problem (as I see it) is a stackup of features:
pushbutton start/stop, and it doesn't stop when I momentarily push it.:
accelerator pedal by wire.:
transmission shift by wire.:
There is nothing in the owners manual that would tell me that you have to hold in the start/stop button in to stop it, I looked. That is beyond bullshit. I want a car that turns off when I tell it to, I will deal with the lack of power steering (you don't need it at 120mph) and a couple of power brake pedal pushes (the engine isn't making vacuume at full throttle anyway).
This is either an embedded software bug (it has issues with the cruise control sometimes when pulling a mountain) or RF susceptibility. At no time does ANYONE test for RF susceptibility with a nearby trucker running a linear amplifier on his CB radio. It is well above CE test limits.
only the first item is flamebait, IMHO. "say something in actual genuine non-geek speak " is very insightful. I'm reminded of "Office Space" and the FAX maching displaying "PC LOAD LETTER".
no kidding. That was my first reaction, too.
I've written embedded software in past jobs, and now I write a lot of specifications, design circuits, poor over device data sheets, and layout PCBs. All of those activities require a fair amount of concentration.
What works best for me is a quiet room/office (music optional, but I rarely play it, and then it's instrumental jazz). I fought for a private office for 3 years in my present job and finally moved into the small EE lab and use half of it for my office. I have a door to close, that is wonderful. The rest of the product development group (MEs and Industrial designers) are in an open room where there is no privacy (where I was for 3 years). Before I moved to the small EE lab, whenever I had to get some focussed work done I worked at my office at home.
"220, 221, whatever it takes." Mr.Mom quote. The voltage varies with distribution and load, as it's not regulated like your PC power supply.
I have a good friend that works in the power distribution section of AEP (American Electric Power, AEP owns the U.S.'s largest electricity transmission system). I asked him what a typical outlet in the U.S. should be: 115V, 120V, or 125V. His answer: yes.
The point: Stop getting hung up on the exact voltage. It's not exact. It's closer to +/-15%.
I have 2 rules for eating meat: no organs (skin is the exception, it's not filtinging much of anything) and it must be cooked (at least "medium"). Even when traveling in Asia, these are my rules.