On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue >>>>> the
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>
off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires
it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the
14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack
a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground speed.
On 2025-12-08, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
On 2025-12-08 05:08, c186282 wrote:
The perp had dug up JUST enough info about her to
be convincing ... that he was with the bank holding
her mortgage. If she didn't deposit large money
RIGHT NOW people would be there to seize her home
tomorrow !
The woman totally bought-in ... was in a panic,
determined to make more payments.
Things like this make me feel very sad.
Me too - but it shows that we should be willing to make
some effort to take responsibility for our actions.
This includes reminding ourselves that if something
appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.
It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
-- W.C. Fields
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the detectors at the
store exit beep if you try to walk out with the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had enough shrinkage
for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh, easily convert to a Homeless
Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a study
that showed that people with shopping carts bought more than people
using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
GPS accuracy is 10 to 16 feet. So the slower the vehicle is going the more imprecise that speed, as it is dependent on the accuracy of the starting position and the ending position. The time interval is also a factor in the accuracy of the speed by GPS. ie at 60MPH, the car travels
520 feet per minute, so 10 feet on the starting and ending positions has more affect than if the speed was at 30MPH or 1040 feet. These number could be higher depending on the interference in the area of the
position. It is best to put the numbers in a spreadsheet to understand
the effect.
The speed detecting radar is accurate to 1 to 2 miles per hour in ideal conditions. In practice I suspect that if you stay within 10% of the speed, it is questionable if the radar detector can definitely say you
are over the speed limit. (10% Based on actual experience with many electronic instruments) Again there are many variables that affect the measurement of the speed detecting device.
Heck, yesterday I was walking around a beautiful spot with a river
(rivers are very uncommon where I live, nearly desert land, so I love
them). I took a photo from a spot some 20 meters higher, sent it to some friends, then pocketed the phone. After maybe 200 meters walk, I notice
my phone is missing. I retrace my steps back to the tiny hill, ask some
kids there, and sure enough, they had found my phone. They were seeking
for how to find me. Nice kids. Thank you so much, etc.
Apparently I did not pocket the phone, but dropped it, and it did no
noise. I'm getting old, no longer smart.
On Tue, 12/9/2025 3:30 AM, c186282 wrote:
NOTE: We suggest removing the supervisor password immediately after enabling Secure Boot.
If you choose not to remove your supervisor password,
make sure you write it down for future use.
"
I'd heard something about this before, that there was something
on a laptop, that would not work unless you set the Supervisor password first.
Paul
On 08/12/2025 22:43, Rich wrote:
Of course, the cost of a unit to me didn't go down significantly when
their BOM costs dropped by switching to a generic android tablet....
I pay rental on the Tom tom Go app. It pays for itself in warning me
about speed cameras.
The hardware cost was never the point. What costs is maintaining the
maps and infrastructure.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the
14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack
a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground
speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
GPS accuracy is 10 to 16 feet. So the slower the vehicle is going the
more imprecise that speed, as it is dependent on the accuracy of the
starting position and the ending position. The time interval is also a
factor in the accuracy of the speed by GPS. ie at 60MPH, the car travels
520 feet per minute, so 10 feet on the starting and ending positions has
more affect than if the speed was at 30MPH or 1040 feet. These number
could be higher depending on the interference in the area of the
position. It is best to put the numbers in a spreadsheet to understand
the effect.
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the detectors at the >>>> store exit beep if you try to walk out with the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had enough
shrinkage
for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh, easily convert to a Homeless
Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of
handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a study
that showed that people with shopping carts bought more than people
using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more
likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use instead
of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is getting,
so that I can walk back home.
On 15 Sep 2025 01:56:16 GMT, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
On Sun, 14 Sep 2025 23:06:44 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
We used "disquete" in Spain. I am not sure what name we used while I was >> in Ottawa, probably floppy.
In my experience in the US 5.25s were floppies and 3.5s were diskettes >usually. I'm perpetually confused over whether it's disk or disc. I don't >think I'm alone.
My understanding was (is?) that if it's magnetic it's a disk and if
it's optical it's a disc.
Strictly speaking
8" = floppy
5¼" = mini-floppy
3½" = micro-floppy
but in practice we (in South Africa) referred to the 5¼" ones as
floppies and the 3½" ones as stiffies.
And anything smaller than 8" was a "diskette".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_harrow
On 08/12/2025 22:23, Rich wrote:
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 08/12/2025 05:49, Rich wrote:
It also means if you have a pressure hose rupture you get
"train stops" or "truck stops" instead of "runaway train/truck".
Or in a truck I followed for a mile or so, a red- make that orange -
hot brake drum and rear axle. And burning tyre
Nice, the smell of burning tire in the morning is <s>wonderful</s>...
That, though, sounds more like some other problem than ruptured air
line. If the air line had ruptured, all the brakes should have
engaged, which would have prevented the truck from continuing forward
fast enough to heat up just the one axle, drum, and tire.
I think you underestimate how pathetic a trailers brakes are, when only
one is applied.
On 2025-12-09 11:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:43, Rich wrote:
Of course, the cost of a unit to me didn't go down significantly when
their BOM costs dropped by switching to a generic android tablet....
I pay rental on the Tom tom Go app. It pays for itself in warning me
about speed cameras.
The hardware cost was never the point. What costs is maintaining the
maps and infrastructure.
When I report an error in the map, with photo, I get no feedback, and it takes maybe a year to get it corrected :-/
On 09/12/2025 13:14, knuttle wrote:
GPS accuracy is 10 to 16 feet. So the slower the vehicle is going the >> more imprecise that speed, as it is dependent on the accuracy of the
starting position and the ending position. The time interval is also a
factor in the accuracy of the speed by GPS. ie at 60MPH, the car travels
520 feet per minute, so 10 feet on the starting and ending positions has
more affect than if the speed was at 30MPH or 1040 feet. These number
could be higher depending on the interference in the area of the
position. It is best to put the numbers in a spreadsheet to understand
the effect.
The speed detecting radar is accurate to 1 to 2 miles per hour in ideal
conditions. In practice I suspect that if you stay within 10% of the
speed, it is questionable if the radar detector can definitely say you
are over the speed limit. (10% Based on actual experience with many
electronic instruments) Again there are many variables that affect the
measurement of the speed detecting device.
In the UK we have little 'this is your speed!' displays in green or red depending on whether you are exceeding the limit or not.
These agree EXACTLY with my Tomtom Go speeds, derived from GPS and are always around 7% lower then the speedometer reads.
On every car I have tried it on.
On 12/9/2025 2:14 PM, knuttle wrote:
GPS accuracy is 10 to 16 feet. So the slower the vehicle is going the
more imprecise that speed, as it is dependent on the accuracy of the
starting position and the ending position. The time interval is also a
factor in the accuracy of the speed by GPS. ie at 60MPH, the car travels
520 feet per minute, so 10 feet on the starting and ending positions has
more affect than if the speed was at 30MPH or 1040 feet. These number
could be higher depending on the interference in the area of the
position. It is best to put the numbers in a spreadsheet to understand
the effect.
The speed isn't calculated this way but by doppler effect.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15519597/
|| Some global positioning system (GPS) receivers can data log
|| instantaneous speed. The speed accuracy of these systems is,
|| however, unclear with manufacturers reporting velocity accuracies
|| of 0.1-0.2 ms(-1). This study set out to trial non-differential
|| GPS as a means of determining speed under real-life conditions.
|| The speed determined by the GPS receiver was within 0.2 ms(-1) of
|| the true speed measured for 45% of the values with a further 19%
|| lying within 0.4 ms(-1)
On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
On 8/12/2025 6:33 am, rbowman wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 19:25:01 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Another thing is the TomTom tool. Sometimes I need to connect
the thing to the computer and do something on the software
(like enable debug so that customer service finds the
problem).
My Garmin Nuvi sometimes whines about needing a map update and
the Garmin Express app is only for Windows or Mac. No big
deal.What I mainly use it for it the speed. The studded tires I
put on last week are 14" wheels and the car came with 15" so the
speedometer is slightly off. I'm used to that. Jap bike
speedometers always were optimistic so you mentally subtract 5 or
10 mph from the needle.
So its NOT just Me! Good.
Many years ago, one of my sisters gave me one of those Naviman
things for Christmas.
I rarely use it because I usually know where I'm going but, often,
I'd be travelling with another sister who seems to be of the
opinion 'If you've got one, you might as well use it.'
And she keeps telling my how my Speed is going .... and I've worked
out my Speedo is reading about 4 or 5 kM/h low i.e. in a 100kM/H
zone my Speedo needs to be showing 104 or 105kM/H for the Naviman
to show 100kM/H.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to cover
a specified distance.
Somehow, when I pull into a Servo for petrol, I keep forgetting to
check the tyre pressures. ;-P
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue
the car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be
fined.
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
On 2025-12-09 12:50, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
In Spain, there is a regulation by which they have to apply a perceptual error, I think it is 7%. Otherwise, the fine is rejected when questioned
in court.
The exact percent varies with the years, but there are articles in
magazines that tell you the exact error applied at various speeds.
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to cover
a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the
14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack
a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to
expand a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground speed.
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the
14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack
a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground
speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:23, Rich wrote:
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 08/12/2025 05:49, Rich wrote:
It also means if you have a pressure hose rupture you get
"train stops" or "truck stops" instead of "runaway train/truck".
Or in a truck I followed for a mile or so, a red- make that orange -
hot brake drum and rear axle. And burning tyre
Nice, the smell of burning tire in the morning is <s>wonderful</s>...
That, though, sounds more like some other problem than ruptured air
line. If the air line had ruptured, all the brakes should have
engaged, which would have prevented the truck from continuing forward
fast enough to heat up just the one axle, drum, and tire.
I think you underestimate how pathetic a trailers brakes are, when only
one is applied.
Unless something 'strange' was done to the system (always possible) the
air brakes on trucks (tractor trailer trucks) are a single system when
hooked up, and a ruptured air line should engage the brakes on all 18
wheels.
One wheel/tire burning sounds more like a local issue with that one wheel/drum than a ruptured air line.
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:No you cannot.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their >>>>>>> diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to cover >>>>>>> a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the >>>>>> 14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack >>>>>> a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to
expand a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the
tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground
speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
Any more than you can calculate the 'diameter' of a tank tread.
You might choose to evaluate (circumference over pi), but that is just a number that has no meaning in this context. There is no physical
dimension that corresponds to it
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue
the car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be
fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being off.
The speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15"
tires it's calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
If you have a GPS unit it wouldn't hurt to check speed after getting
new rear tires, just in case.
In the UK we have little 'this is your speed!' displays in green or red depending on whether you are exceeding the limit or not.
These agree EXACTLY with my Tomtom Go speeds, derived from GPS and are always around 7% lower then the speedometer reads.
On every car I have tried it on.
This sounds similar to the marine speedometer I was looking into for a client. Delivers a stream of standardized ASCII output called NMEA data.NMEA-0183messages_MessageOverview.html
https://www.gpsworld.com/what-exactly-is-gps-nmea-data/ https://receiverhelp.trimble.com/alloy-gnss/en-us/
Our client was a speedboat racing team.
Winders didn't run one millisecond before I obliterated it with
Linux. Did have to turn off Secure Boot - and the only way to do that
was to delete all the keys.
I'd heard something about this before, that there was something on a
laptop, that would not work unless you set the Supervisor password
first.
In the UK we have little 'this is your speed!' displays in green or
red depending on whether you are exceeding the limit or not.
These agree EXACTLY with my Tomtom Go speeds, derived from GPS and
are always around 7% lower then the speedometer reads.
On every car I have tried it on.
On 9/12/2025 5:41 pm, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:46, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:04:29 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
On 8/12/2025 1:56 pm, c186282 wrote:
<Snip>
Have never seen any 'smart' ones ... just the basic models the >>>>> insane cat lady pushes down the street full of her junk.
You say 'Junk', she says 'Treasured Possessions"!! ;-P
I can't be judgmental. I'm surrounded by cables, microcontrollers,
Dupont wires, and odd little sensors that would qualify me as a very
strange hoarder if viewed objectively.
Ummm ... do you have conversations with them ? :-)
Do "insane cat lady" have conversations with them ?
Oh, hang on, she probably does. ;-P
If the locality is actually looking to deter "speeders" vs. looking to create a "cheque printing service" then this makes sense. Not entraping folks who overrun a little (whether by inattentiveness or rolling
downhill without braking enough) means far fewer folks swept up in the dragnet, and likely far fewer challenges in court for the "small
overage" tickets.
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 14:13:17 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
In the UK we have little 'this is your speed!' displays in green or red
depending on whether you are exceeding the limit or not.
These agree EXACTLY with my Tomtom Go speeds, derived from GPS and are
always around 7% lower then the speedometer reads.
On every car I have tried it on.
I pass one of those frequently and it matches both the Garmin Nuvi and the Toyota speedometer when I am running the OEM tires.
The sign is at the bottom of a short hill and flashes if you exceed 35
mph. I used to try to get it flashing with my bicycle but never quite made it. They finally moved it further out on the flat making it impossible,
for me at least. The bike's gearing didn't help either.
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 04:12:23 -0500, Paul wrote:
I'd heard something about this before, that there was something on a
laptop, that would not work unless you set the Supervisor password
first.
I disabled secure boot on the Lenovo I recently bought and have no
intention of ever enabling it. The damn thing kept bypassing the
EndeavourOS USB stick until I figured out the problem. Anything that considers Linux to be malicious software can go to hell.
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 03:35:01 -0500, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue
the car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be
fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being off.
The speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15"
tires it's calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
If you have a GPS unit it wouldn't hurt to check speed after getting
new rear tires, just in case.
In the case of bikes the speedometer drive is often from the front wheel >hub.
Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> posted:
On 15 Sep 2025 01:56:16 GMT, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
On Sun, 14 Sep 2025 23:06:44 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
We used "disquete" in Spain. I am not sure what name we used while I was >> >> in Ottawa, probably floppy.
In my experience in the US 5.25s were floppies and 3.5s were diskettes
usually. I'm perpetually confused over whether it's disk or disc. I don't >> >think I'm alone.
My understanding was (is?) that if it's magnetic it's a disk and if
it's optical it's a disc.
Strictly speaking
8" = floppy
5¼" = mini-floppy
3½" = micro-floppy
but in practice we (in South Africa) referred to the 5¼" ones as
floppies and the 3½" ones as stiffies.
My South African colleague used that terminology. I have't come across
anyone else.
And anything smaller than 8" was a "diskette".
or disquette as we spell it in these parts
On Tue, 12/9/2025 3:30 AM, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:23, rbowman wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 12:32:51 -0500, Paul wrote:
No, I'm not driving one of those carts around for two items. I move fast >>>> in stores and a cart would turn me into "sludge". The basket holds
enough to fill my backpack. (It's a commuter backpack, not a
back-country backpack.)
I use a similar metric in the summer months. If it fits in a basket, it
ywill fit into the motorcycle saddle bags.
Don't motorcycle anymore, but I do still tend to
apply that metric :-)
Ah, got in my replacement laptop ... the MX utility
for creating a full live installable clone DID work,
brought everything over nicely.
Now I have to get used to a slightly different
keyboard again ....
Anyway, a quarter the weight/bulk of the ancient
Acer I'd upgraded in the interim.
Can't cuss that Acer though ... fast enough after
an SSD, built-in DVD drive and network plug :-)
New one is i3/gen-13 ... more than snappy enough.
Lots of little tweaks to make though.
Winders didn't run one millisecond before I obliterated
it with Linux. Did have to turn off Secure Boot - and
the only way to do that was to delete all the keys.
"Enable or Disable Secure Boot on an Acer notebook
By Mary-Acer
Last Updated: Oct 8, 2025
Secure Boot is a feature designed to prevent malicious software and unauthorized media from
loading during the boot process. This option is enabled by default, but can be turned off
in UEFI / BIOS. Use the instructions below to enable or disable secure boot.
Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds
to completely shutoff your computer.
Power on the system. As soon as the first logo screen appears,
immediately press F2 to enter the BIOS.
Use the right arrow key to select Security.
Use the down arrow key to highlight Set Supervisor Password and press Enter.
Create a password and press Enter.
Retype the password to confirm and press Enter again.
Use the right arrow key to select Boot.
Press the down arrow key to select Secure Boot and press Enter.
With the arrow key, highlight Disabled and press Enter.
Press the F10 key and select Yes to save the changes and exit the BIOS.
NOTE: We suggest removing the supervisor password immediately after enabling Secure Boot.
If you choose not to remove your supervisor password,
make sure you write it down for future use.
"
I'd heard something about this before, that there was something
on a laptop, that would not work unless you set the Supervisor password first.
On 08/12/2025 22:23, Rich wrote:
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 08/12/2025 05:49, Rich wrote:
It also means if you have a pressure hose rupture you get
"train stops" or "truck stops" instead of "runaway train/truck".
Or in a truck I followed for a mile or so, a red- make that orange -
hot brake drum and rear axle. And burning tyre
Nice, the smell of burning tire in the morning is <s>wonderful</s>...
That, though, sounds more like some other problem than ruptured air
line. If the air line had ruptured, all the brakes should have
engaged, which would have prevented the truck from continuing forward
fast enough to heat up just the one axle, drum, and tire.
I think you underestimate how pathetic a trailers brakes are, when only
one is applied.
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue the >>>> car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being
off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires
it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
On 9/12/2025 5:41 pm, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:46, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:04:29 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
On 8/12/2025 1:56 pm, c186282 wrote:
<Snip>
Have never seen any 'smart' ones ... just the basic models the >>>>> insane cat lady pushes down the street full of her junk.
You say 'Junk', she says 'Treasured Possessions"!! ;-P
I can't be judgmental. I'm surrounded by cables, microcontrollers,
Dupont
wires, and odd little sensors that would qualify me as a very strange
hoarder if viewed objectively.
Ummm ... do you have conversations with them ? :-)
Do "insane cat lady" have conversations with them ?
Oh, hang on, she probably does. ;-P
On my HP, Linux WOULD NOT install with Secure Boot active,
one message even named SB as the big problem.
There was a toggle for SB ... but on reboot it would
re-enable. Had to get rid of the keys, THEN it stuck.
SB isn't necessarily *evil* ... but there are times it
just Gets In The Way, esp if you're not doing Winders.
I'll look into it some more. MIGHT be I can generate
new keys and re-enable ... maybe .......
As for laptops (and maybe desktops (more rare now))
they seem to be getting more and more STUPID. There
were surprisingly few BIOS options. Sometimes they
are 'hidden' behind an obscure prompt or require
a secret key to be held or something ... and then
sometimes there is just NO fine-tuning anymore.
"WE know what you want/need !".
On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
On 8/12/2025 6:33 am, rbowman wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 19:25:01 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Another thing is the TomTom tool. Sometimes I need to connect
the thing to the computer and do something on the software
(like enable debug so that customer service finds the
problem).
My Garmin Nuvi sometimes whines about needing a map update and
the Garmin Express app is only for Windows or Mac. No big
deal.What I mainly use it for it the speed. The studded tires I
put on last week are 14" wheels and the car came with 15" so the
speedometer is slightly off. I'm used to that. Jap bike
speedometers always were optimistic so you mentally subtract 5 or
10 mph from the needle.
So its NOT just Me! Good.
Many years ago, one of my sisters gave me one of those Naviman
things for Christmas.
I rarely use it because I usually know where I'm going but, often,
I'd be travelling with another sister who seems to be of the
opinion 'If you've got one, you might as well use it.'
And she keeps telling my how my Speed is going .... and I've worked
out my Speedo is reading about 4 or 5 kM/h low i.e. in a 100kM/H
zone my Speedo needs to be showing 104 or 105kM/H for the Naviman
to show 100kM/H.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to cover
a specified distance.
Somehow, when I pull into a Servo for petrol, I keep forgetting to
check the tyre pressures. ;-P
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue
the car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be
fined.
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue >>>>> the
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>
off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires
it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:No you cannot.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their >>>>>>> diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the >>>>>> 14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack >>>>>> a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand >>>>> a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre. >>>>
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground
speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
Any more than you can calculate the 'diameter' of a tank tread.
You might choose to evaluate (circumference over pi), but that is just a number that has no meaning in this context. There is no physical
dimension that corresponds to it
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue the >>>> car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined.
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being off. The >>> speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 16" tires it's >>> calibrated for.
On 2025-12-09, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
If you have a GPS unit it wouldn't hurt
to check speed after getting new rear
tires, just in case.
Aside from that, DO have experience with
'agricultural' radar-based speed detectors,
indestructible black boxes - you point 'em
straight down - RS232.
This sounds similar to the marine speedometer I was looking into for a client. Delivers a stream of standardized ASCII output called NMEA data.
https://www.gpsworld.com/what-exactly-is-gps-nmea-data/ https://receiverhelp.trimble.com/alloy-gnss/en-us/NMEA-0183messages_MessageOverview.html
Our client was a speedboat racing team.
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more
likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is
getting, so that I can walk back home.
Here shopping into your own bag is widely discouraged.
I can not
use a hand basket which I used to do because of my use of a cane
following a broken ankle.
One or two stores use smaller carts which are very much easier to
manuver thru the aisles of stores but most use the large family
carts only.
I bought more than I should yesterday which became
clear as i walked 4 blocks 2 at downhillk slopes where I staggered frequently. Spent most of the rest of the day getting over that
walk with lots of acetominophen(generic for Tylenol's active
ingredient). Still uncomfortable today. The weight of the bag was
very low maybe 5 lbs.
On my regular market days my friend and driver carries the bag up the
stairs for me. Still tiring getting them into apartment and groceries
put away.
bliss - ancient of days and exhausted as well.
On 2025-12-08 18:41, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
On 2025-12-08, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
On 2025-12-08 05:08, c186282 wrote:
The perp had dug up JUST enough info about her to
be convincing ... that he was with the bank holding
her mortgage. If she didn't deposit large money
RIGHT NOW people would be there to seize her home
tomorrow !
The woman totally bought-in ... was in a panic,
determined to make more payments.
Things like this make me feel very sad.
Me too - but it shows that we should be willing to make
some effort to take responsibility for our actions.
This includes reminding ourselves that if something
appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.
It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
-- W.C. Fields
But with old people it is possible that they can not help being "dumb". Dumber that they were.
Heck, yesterday I was walking around a beautiful spot with a river
(rivers are very uncommon where I live, nearly desert land, so I love
them). I took a photo from a spot some 20 meters higher, sent it to some friends, then pocketed the phone. After maybe 200 meters walk, I notice
my phone is missing. I retrace my steps back to the tiny hill, ask some
kids there, and sure enough, they had found my phone. They were seeking
for how to find me. Nice kids. Thank you so much, etc.
Apparently I did not pocket the phone, but dropped it, and it did no
noise. I'm getting old, no longer smart.
On 12/9/25 06:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue >>>>>> the
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>>
off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires >>>>> it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
Exactly.
Pi*D = circumference
On 9 Dec 2025 20:23:12 GMT, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 03:35:01 -0500, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue
the car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be
fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being off. >>>> The speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15"
tires it's calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
If you have a GPS unit it wouldn't hurt to check speed after getting
new rear tires, just in case.
In the case of bikes the speedometer drive is often from the front wheel >>hub.
I thought they mostly stopped doing that by the middle of the 1980s.
After that I used to see the speedo drive coming off of the rear ABS
ring, but these days I see it coming off of the transmission, fully electronic, of course. The days of spinning a flexible cable are long
gone.
Speaking of disappearing cables, throttle cables are also on the way
out. Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS,
throttle position sensor, that simply provides an electrical
representation of the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to
call it TBW, throttle by wire.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance
item.
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you >>>>>>> driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue >>>>>>> the
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>>>
off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires >>>>>> it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
Exactly.
Pi*D = circumference
Yes, for a perfect circle.
But a tire under load is no longer a perfect circle,
so if you use the
loaded "radius" or "diameter" (even though neither really applies to a "non-circular shape") you'll come up short for the "distance around the outside of the tire".
I thought they mostly stopped doing that by the middle of the 1980s.
After that I used to see the speedo drive coming off of the rear ABS
ring, but these days I see it coming off of the transmission, fully electronic, of course. The days of spinning a flexible cable are long
gone.
Trailers should have been the FIRST place 'intelligent'
braking control was applied.
On 12/9/25 22:05, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5 >>>>>>>> kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you >>>>>>>> driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue >>>>>>>> theThat's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being >>>>>>> off. The
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>>>>
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires >>>>>>> it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
Exactly.
Pi*D = circumference
Yes, for a perfect circle.
But a tire under load is no longer a perfect circle,
Familiar with the phrase "Good Enough ..." :-)
so if you use the
loaded "radius" or "diameter" (even though neither really applies to a
"non-circular shape") you'll come up short for the "distance around the
outside of the tire".
Only a little.
On 2025-12-09 16:56, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more >>>> likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying >>>> more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
These days. oops.
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is
getting, so that I can walk back home.
Here shopping into your own bag is widely discouraged.
Fortunately, they can say nothing about it. Even more, my usual bag has another bag inside, one of those insulated for frozen or cold foods, and inside, I put a small bottle (⅓litre) with frozen salted water, so that the guard at the entrance can see I enter with a bag that already has
some weight in it.
After depositing everything on the rubber belt at the cashier, I make a
show of looking the bag is empty, or show it to the employee.
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
I can not use a hand basket which I used to do because of my use of a
cane following a broken ankle.
Ah.
One or two stores use smaller carts which are very much easier to
manuver thru the aisles of stores but most use the large family
carts only.
Yes, my usual supermarket has two cart sizes.
And few years back there were baskets with wheels.
I bought more than I should yesterday which became
clear as i walked 4 blocks 2 at downhillk slopes where I staggered
frequently. Spent most of the rest of the day getting over that walk
with lots of acetominophen(generic for Tylenol's active ingredient).
Still uncomfortable today. The weight of the bag was
very low maybe 5 lbs.
Ow.
Sometimes I use a backpack, and some times my own trolley. When I buy
milk, for instance.
https://share.google/NreDLQi7p1sjP1KPY
Otherwise, I drive.
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they
encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government
regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning
the litter box.
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
On 12/9/25 22:05, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5 >>>>>>>>> kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>>>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you >>>>>>>>> driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then sue >>>>>>>>> theThat's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being >>>>>>>> off. The
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>>>>>
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" tires >>>>>>>> it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
Exactly.
Pi*D = circumference
Yes, for a perfect circle.
But a tire under load is no longer a perfect circle,
Familiar with the phrase "Good Enough ..." :-)
so if you use the
loaded "radius" or "diameter" (even though neither really applies to a
"non-circular shape") you'll come up short for the "distance around the
outside of the tire".
Only a little.
If you plan to use that distance to measure your speed, that little
will amount to a nice error in your final speed number you calculate.
And this subthread got started by discussing speed measurements.
On 2025-12-09 20:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:No you cannot.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their >>>>>>>> diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to >>>>>>> throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14" >>>>>>> wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring >>>>>>> when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the >>>>>>> 14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack >>>>>>> a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand >>>>>> a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre. >>>>>
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground >>>>> speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
Yes, we can. It is a formula with π in it.
Any more than you can calculate the 'diameter' of a tank tread.
You might choose to evaluate (circumference over pi), but that is just
a number that has no meaning in this context. There is no physical
dimension that corresponds to it
Irrelevant.
We measure the actual distance travelled for a number of turns. From
that we calculate the effective circumference, and from that, the
effective radius.
None of those have to be the apparent length seen by a measuring tape on
the wheel.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they
encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government
regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning
the litter box.
On 12/9/25 19:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they
encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government
regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning
the litter box.
Maybe they encourage people to use them in your vicinity, city, county, state but in
San Francisco City, County of San Francisco, State of California we are discouraged from
single use bags. As far as it goes when I read in one of those
underground newspapers,
possibly the LA Star, that animal were badly affected by the use of such bags I started
buying reusable bags, and hold my self-bestowed title of the Old Bag
with a Bag Full of
Bags. That started about 45 years back.
So nice paper bags at the stores I shop at though I seldom use them.
The plastic bags for fruit and vegetable are made out of starch based material.
I hear that there are problems with those as they disintegrate but they go into
landfills where they can do it peacefully.
On Tue, 12/9/2025 8:15 PM, c186282 wrote:
On my HP, Linux WOULD NOT install with Secure Boot active,
one message even named SB as the big problem.
There was a toggle for SB ... but on reboot it would
re-enable. Had to get rid of the keys, THEN it stuck.
SB isn't necessarily *evil* ... but there are times it
just Gets In The Way, esp if you're not doing Winders.
I'll look into it some more. MIGHT be I can generate
new keys and re-enable ... maybe .......
As for laptops (and maybe desktops (more rare now))
they seem to be getting more and more STUPID. There
were surprisingly few BIOS options. Sometimes they
are 'hidden' behind an obscure prompt or require
a secret key to be held or something ... and then
sometimes there is just NO fine-tuning anymore.
"WE know what you want/need !".
Linux has a signed shim for this.
In fact, a signing ceremony was done just recently,
to account for the revocation of a Microsoft key.
People physically fly to a certain location, to have
the shim signed.
But now the situation has gone too far the other way.
Ubuntu has done something to the UEFI content, which
has altered UEFI enough, that the Microsoft patch
for Black Lotus is failing to work (the machine could fail
to Secure Boot in the year 2026 if this is not corrected).
I have a binary dump of the key content, I can see two
Ubuntu entries, but I don't know why they are there, or
what the intentions of Canonical were by doing this.
Summary: The BEST reason for disabling Secure boot,
is the industry is simply too clueless to
operate the levers properly. It's a shame that
such a poorly thought out scheme, has resulted
in me turning it off in disgust.
As for Ubuntu, "FUCK WITH MY MACHINE? OUT THE DOOR YOU GO!!!"
Ubuntu is banned now. I will no longer answer questions
about Ubuntu by doing test installs of it. You damage
my machine, that's it. Now I don't even know if a
factory reset of the keys is sufficient to fix it.
Flashing the BIOS does not help (tried it). If
I factory reset it, what do I do next for all the
storage media in the room ???
The machine reserved for secure boot testing, has
ended up the way I expected it would end, with me
stuck with some mess I can't clean up. A victory for
the industry. I did not do anything to promote this.
I just install this garbage :-/
It's a good thing nothing in the room is "protected"
with Bitlocker. Then I'd really be screwed.
The rolling diameter is no more or less inaccurate than the rolling circumference. Are you familiar with the process of calibrating a bicycle speedometer? You mark the tire and ride a specific number of revolutions, measuring the distance covered. That gives you the rolling circumference which is not necessarily the same circumference of the unladen tire.
But have it your way, as you will.
Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS, throttle
position sensor, that simply provides an electrical representation of
the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to call it TBW, throttle by
wire.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance
item.
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> writes:
In the UK we have little 'this is your speed!' displays in green or
red depending on whether you are exceeding the limit or not.
These agree EXACTLY with my Tomtom Go speeds, derived from GPS and
are always around 7% lower then the speedometer reads.
On every car I have tried it on.
Last time I checked my car speedo read 68mph when GPS reads 70mph, so a little under 3% off. I’ve not checked the error at lower (or higher l-) speeds, nor often enough to say how it varies with time and conditions.
Previous cars had less accurate speedos.
On 12/9/25 06:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being
kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of 100Km/h >>>>>> and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you
driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could then
sue the
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined. >>>>>
off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15"
tires it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
Exactly.
Pi*D = circumference
Elastic properties of tires can make a
small headache, but overall ...
so if you use the
loaded "radius" or "diameter" (even though neither really applies to a
"non-circular shape") you'll come up short for the "distance around the
outside of the tire".
Only a little.
On 12/9/25 22:25, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
On 12/9/25 22:05, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer to 5 >>>>>>>>>> kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road limit of >>>>>>>>>> 100Km/h
and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there is no possibility of you >>>>>>>>>> driving just a bit above the limit and be fined. You could >>>>>>>>>> then sue
the
car maker for having bad instrumentation that caused you to be >>>>>>>>>> fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers being >>>>>>>>> off. The
speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm running the 15" >>>>>>>>> tires
it's
calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
Exactly.
Pi*D = circumference
Yes, for a perfect circle.
But a tire under load is no longer a perfect circle,
Familiar with the phrase "Good Enough ..." :-)
so if you use the
loaded "radius" or "diameter" (even though neither really applies to a >>>> "non-circular shape") you'll come up short for the "distance around the >>>> outside of the tire".
Only a little.
If you plan to use that distance to measure your speed, that little
will amount to a nice error in your final speed number you calculate.
And this subthread got started by discussing speed measurements.
It will result in a SLIGHT speed error. IF you plan
to use speed to estimate arrival at a distant point
then you will have a problem. If you are only interested
in not getting a speeding fine then the slight error
should not be relevant.
As I plan to drive to the food store, not launch
500km into Ukraine, I'd say a quick diameter check
should be "good enough".
There are times to get all hung up on the decimal
points, and times not to.
On 2025-12-09 20:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:No you cannot.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their >>>>>>>> diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to >>>>>>> throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14" >>>>>>> wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring >>>>>>> when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the >>>>>>> 14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack >>>>>>> a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand >>>>>> a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre. >>>>>
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground >>>>> speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
Yes, we can. It is a formula with π in it.
Any more than you can calculate the 'diameter' of a tank tread.
You might choose to evaluate (circumference over pi), but that is just
a number that has no meaning in this context. There is no physical
dimension that corresponds to it
Irrelevant.
We measure the actual distance travelled for a number of turns. From
that we calculate the effective circumference, and from that, the
effective radius.
None of those have to be the apparent length seen by a measuring tape on
the wheel.
On 09/12/2025 20:20, rbowman wrote:
The rolling diameter is no more or less inaccurate than the rollingBollocks. There is no 'rolling diameter.'
circumference. Are you familiar with the process of calibrating a bicycle
speedometer? You mark the tire and ride a specific number of revolutions,
measuring the distance covered. That gives you the rolling circumference
which is not necessarily the same circumference of the unladen tire.
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
But have it your way, as you will.Its not my way, it's the facts.
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
On 09/12/2025 23:01, Char Jackson wrote:
Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS, throttleSomething has to modulate the air input on a petrol engine.
position sensor, that simply provides an electrical representation of
the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to call it TBW, throttle by
wire.
I dont think they use servos.
On a diesel, well its different.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance
item.
I haven't seen a mechanically coupled clutch (or brakes) on a 4 wheeled vehicle since...forever! 1955 or there about maybe.
Standard on bikes tho I agree.
On 12/9/25 22:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they
encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government
regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning
the litter box.
USA, outside the People's Republic of California, we
get so many plastic bags we can barely deal with them.
Some supermarkets have bins for them ... but the
regular trash service doesn't want them.
Supermarkets now cfharge a pooit for them and the same for non displsable ones so peole got used to pringing the min diusposable iones nacck in.
The plastic bags for fruit and vegetable are made out of starch based material.
I hear that there are problems with those as they disintegrate but they go into
landfills where they can do it peacefully.
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the detectors at the >>>> store exit beep if you try to walk out with the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had enough
shrinkage
for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh, easily convert to a Homeless
Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of
handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a study
that showed that people with shopping carts bought more than people
using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more
likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use instead
of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is getting,
so that I can walk back home.
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
On 12/9/25 19:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they >>>> encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop >>>> with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government >>>> regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning >>> the litter box.
Maybe they encourage people to use them in your vicinity, city, >> county, state but in
San Francisco City, County of San Francisco, State of California we
are discouraged from
single use bags. As far as it goes when I read in one of those
underground newspapers,
possibly the LA Star, that animal were badly affected by the use of
such bags I started
buying reusable bags, and hold my self-bestowed title of the Old Bag
with a Bag Full of
Bags. That started about 45 years back.
So nice paper bags at the stores I shop at though I seldom use them.
The plastic bags for fruit and vegetable are made out of starch >> based material.
I hear that there are problems with those as they disintegrate
but they go into
landfills where they can do it peacefully.
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
Of course it doesn't HURT anything to police your
plastic bags, so if you think you're Doing Something ...
The starch-based 'plastic' ... may depend on the exact
formulation. Some of the originals either came all
apart after just a few days exposure to moisture,
letting yer tomatoes and such escape or let nasty
germs get to your food - OR they were big lies and
NEVER disintegrated or merely came apart into some
smaller bits of forever plastic so it SEEMED they
were 'green' to the eye.
I think the newer ones are more better.
Starch/sugar/protein-based IS a good idea ... but
getting exactly the right performance seems a
bit difficult (esp for $$$-oriented corps).
But of course the News insists your brain is 80%
evil plastic specks now !
You have been assimilated ... resistance is futile :-)
Hmmmm ... have an instinct that sugar/protein 'plastic'
might be better than fooling with starches - easy to
micro-tweak proteins, and the sugars are the molecular
glue .....
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the
detectors at the store exit beep if you try to walk out with
the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had
enough shrinkage for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh,
easily convert to a Homeless Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of
handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a
study that showed that people with shopping carts bought more
than people using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote
shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people
were more likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that
they were buying more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag
is getting, so that I can walk back home.
Here shopping into your own bag is widely discouraged. I can not use
a hand basket which I used to do because of my use of a cane
following a broken ankle. One or two stores use smaller carts which
are very much easier to manuver thru the aisles of stores but most
use the large family carts only.
On 12/9/25 21:38, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 16:56, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people
were more likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in
that they were buying more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to
use
These days. oops.
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my
bag is getting, so that I can walk back home.
Here shopping into your own bag is widely discouraged.
Fortunately, they can say nothing about it. Even more, my usual bag
has another bag inside, one of those insulated for frozen or cold
foods, and inside, I put a small bottle (⅓litre) with frozen
salted water, so that the guard at the entrance can see I enter
with a bag that already has some weight in it.
After depositing everything on the rubber belt at the cashier, I
make a show of looking the bag is empty, or show it to the
employee.
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and
they encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter
the shop with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours.
Well, government regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store, they'll claim you
STOLE it from them ....
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
On 10/12/2025 1:10 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:Over the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket handing out
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the detectors at >>>>> the
store exit beep if you try to walk out with the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had enough
shrinkage
for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh, easily convert to a Homeless
Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of
handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a study
that showed that people with shopping carts bought more than people
using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more
likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is
getting, so that I can walk back home.
what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be recyclable.
On 12/10/25 05:30, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 23:01, Char Jackson wrote:
Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS, throttleSomething has to modulate the air input on a petrol engine.
position sensor, that simply provides an electrical representation of
the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to call it TBW, throttle by
wire.
I dont think they use servos.
On a diesel, well its different.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance
item.
I haven't seen a mechanically coupled clutch (or brakes) on a 4
wheeled vehicle since...forever! 1955 or there about maybe.
Standard on bikes tho I agree.
Bikes are small, light, simple.
Kinda WISH car makers would adopt that paradigm again.
Oh, hydraulics are great - until there's a leak ....
Over the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket handing out
what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be recyclable.
On 12/10/25 06:14, Daniel70 wrote:
On 10/12/2025 1:10 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:Over the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket handing
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the detectors
at the
store exit beep if you try to walk out with the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had enough
shrinkage
for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh, easily convert to a Homeless >>>>> Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of
handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a study
that showed that people with shopping carts bought more than people
using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more >>>> likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying >>>> more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is
getting, so that I can walk back home.
out what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be recyclable.
Hmmm ... what IS it ? Any idea ?
There are various kinds of 'recyclable' plastics.
Some recycle better than others. For what's going
to be holding kitchen trash you want something
that decomposes under moisture/UV/fungi after
maybe a year - but CLEAN decomposition.
They've gotten better at that, but I still have
not heard of a really 'clean' product that breaks
down to non-toxics/non-persistents.
Such 'plastics' probably exist, but may be too
expensive to produce.
'Green' is not inherently evil - though politics
often make it that way. If you CAN, easily, do
something 'green' then, well, why not ?
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
On 12/9/25 19:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they >>>>> encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop >>>>> with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well,
government
regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom >>>> have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when
cleaning
the litter box.
Maybe they encourage people to use them in your vicinity, city, >>> county, state but in
San Francisco City, County of San Francisco, State of California we
are discouraged from
single use bags. As far as it goes when I read in one of those
underground newspapers,
possibly the LA Star, that animal were badly affected by the use of
such bags I started
buying reusable bags, and hold my self-bestowed title of the Old Bag
with a Bag Full of
Bags. That started about 45 years back.
So nice paper bags at the stores I shop at though I seldom use >>> them.
The plastic bags for fruit and vegetable are made out of starch >>> based material.
I hear that there are problems with those as they disintegrate >>> but they go into
landfills where they can do it peacefully.
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and finding
no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop digestion happening.
Of course it doesn't HURT anything to police yourMost 'green tech' is virtue signalling bullshit.
plastic bags, so if you think you're Doing Something ...
The starch-based 'plastic' ... may depend on the exact
formulation. Some of the originals either came all
apart after just a few days exposure to moisture,
letting yer tomatoes and such escape or let nasty
germs get to your food - OR they were big lies and
NEVER disintegrated or merely came apart into some
smaller bits of forever plastic so it SEEMED they
were 'green' to the eye.
I think the newer ones are more better.What IS the right performance anyway?
Starch/sugar/protein-based IS a good idea ... but
getting exactly the right performance seems a
bit difficult (esp for $$$-oriented corps).
Your computer monitor turns to bio-goo in 5 years?
Great, thanks.
Plastic is made for burning. Just scrub the flues to get rid of the chlorine, sulhur and make it hot enough to break down the dioxins.
And generate some power as well.
Of course greens *hate* that because its too sensible.
But of course the News insists your brain is 80%I tend to wonder if that isn't true in the case of Greens.
evil plastic specks now !
You have been assimilated ... resistance is futile :-)Back in the day we made stuff out of wood.
Hmmmm ... have an instinct that sugar/protein 'plastic'
might be better than fooling with starches - easy to
micro-tweak proteins, and the sugars are the molecular
glue .....
Burning many kinds of plastic DOES generate a lot
of toxic stuff, maybe worse than coal.
Hanging bags of dog shit ?
Yep 🙂
Wood, ie paper, does work pretty good for a lot
of things. However plastic is best at keeping
bacteria and such out of your lunch.
Oh, we're kinda using up all the wood.
On 12/9/25 21:38, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 16:56, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were
more
likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were
buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
These days. oops.
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag
is getting, so that I can walk back home.
Here shopping into your own bag is widely discouraged.
Fortunately, they can say nothing about it. Even more, my usual bag
has another bag inside, one of those insulated for frozen or cold
foods, and inside, I put a small bottle (⅓litre) with frozen salted
water, so that the guard at the entrance can see I enter with a bag
that already has some weight in it.
After depositing everything on the rubber belt at the cashier, I make
a show of looking the bag is empty, or show it to the employee.
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they
encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well,
government regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated
self-checkout" :-)
Sometimes I use a backpack, and some times my own trolley. When I buy
milk, for instance.
https://share.google/NreDLQi7p1sjP1KPY
Otherwise, I drive.
What a drag it is getting old .......
Hey, joints don't hold up forever - and the more
you abused them in yer youth ........
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
Nope. They stamp them when they sell them 🙂
Besides, it is easy to differentiate a much used bag from a new one.
On 12/9/25 22:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they
encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop
with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government
regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning
the litter box.
USA, outside the People's Republic of California, we
get so many plastic bags we can barely deal with them.
Some supermarkets have bins for them ... but the
regular trash service doesn't want them.
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife fromWell you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and finding
no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop digestion happening.
Most 'green tech' is virtue signalling bullshit.
Of course it doesn't HURT anything to police your
plastic bags, so if you think you're Doing Something ...
The starch-based 'plastic' ... may depend on the exact
formulation. Some of the originals either came all
apart after just a few days exposure to moisture,
letting yer tomatoes and such escape or let nasty
germs get to your food - OR they were big lies and
NEVER disintegrated or merely came apart into some
smaller bits of forever plastic so it SEEMED they
were 'green' to the eye.
I think the newer ones are more better.What IS the right performance anyway?
Starch/sugar/protein-based IS a good idea ... but
getting exactly the right performance seems a
bit difficult (esp for $$$-oriented corps).
Your computer monitor turns to bio-goo in 5 years?
Great, thanks.
Plastic is made for burning. Just scrub the flues to get rid of the chlorine, sulhur and make it hot enough to break down the dioxins.
And generate some power as well.
Of course greens *hate* that because its too sensible.
But of course the News insists your brain is 80%I tend to wonder if that isn't true in the case of Greens.
evil plastic specks now !
You have been assimilated ... resistance is futile :-)Back in the day we made stuff out of wood.
Hmmmm ... have an instinct that sugar/protein 'plastic'
might be better than fooling with starches - easy to
micro-tweak proteins, and the sugars are the molecular
glue .....
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop
digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Hanging bags of dog shit ?
Yep 🙂
It;s people who are conditioned by propaganda that Dog Shit is Bad and
has to be Disposed Of Properly, so they carry little council provided
poop bags and put it in the council provided poop bins.
Except the council has no remit over highways and byways that are
outside the village and on 'agricultural' land where dogs are permitted
to shit as they please, along with foxes, badgers and weasels etc. etc.
On 12/10/25 06:14, Daniel70 wrote:
On 10/12/2025 1:10 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
Over the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket handing
out what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be recyclable.
Hmmm ... what IS it ? Any idea ?
There are various kinds of 'recyclable' plastics.
Some recycle better than others. For what's going
to be holding kitchen trash you want something
that decomposes under moisture/UV/fungi after
maybe a year - but CLEAN decomposition.
They've gotten better at that, but I still have
not heard of a really 'clean' product that breaks
down to non-toxics/non-persistents.
Such 'plastics' probably exist, but may be too
expensive to produce.
'Green' is not inherently evil - though politics
often make it that way. If you CAN, easily, do
something 'green' then, well, why not ?
On 10/12/2025 03:26, c186282 wrote:
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.Then why is he there?
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
Not necessarily.
I am not sure what a 'BB' gun is, but as far as air rifles equipped with
On 2025-12-10 13:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Hanging bags of dog shit ?
Yep 🙂
It;s people who are conditioned by propaganda that Dog Shit is Bad and
has to be Disposed Of Properly, so they carry little council provided
poop bags and put it in the council provided poop bins.
Dog poo on city pavement is a curse. Very good idea to have pet owner collect it.
Except the council has no remit over highways and byways that are
outside the village and on 'agricultural' land where dogs are
permitted to shit as they please, along with foxes, badgers and
weasels etc. etc.
On 2025-12-10 05:09, c186282 wrote:
On 12/9/25 22:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:38:46 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and they >>>> encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter the shop >>>> with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well, government >>>> regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
They encourage people to use them in the US. I have several but seldom
have them with me. Besides, the plastic bags come in handy when cleaning >>> the litter box.
USA, outside the People's Republic of California, we
get so many plastic bags we can barely deal with them.
Some supermarkets have bins for them ... but the
regular trash service doesn't want them.
We no longer get plastic bags on supermarkets, you have to pay for each one, and often they degrade fast.
Only some shops still use plastic bags, like pharmacies. Food stores, no.
I have a garbage container, and I basically need to purchase garbage bags of certain sizes. Not that easy to reuse plastic bags from supermarkets.
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop
digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the country
and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs poo right in
the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
The dogs poo right in the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.Mine never did
In comp.os.linux.misc The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 03:26, c186282 wrote:
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.Then why is he there?
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
Not necessarily.
I am not sure what a 'BB' gun is, but as far as air rifles equipped with
Likely a US term then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bb_gun
On 12/10/2025 8:49 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:What about deer, rabbit, fox, raccoon, etc, poop. Do you worry about stepping in that?
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of
poop digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the
country and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs
poo right in the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
On 10/12/2025 15:03, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote: >>> On 10/12/2025 03:26, c186282 wrote:Ah. Dont think they exist in the UK
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.Then why is he there?
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
Not necessarily.
I am not sure what a 'BB' gun is, but as far as air rifles equipped
with
Likely a US term then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bb_gun
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 15:03, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote: >>>> On 10/12/2025 03:26, c186282 wrote:Ah. Dont think they exist in the UK
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.Then why is he there?
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
Not necessarily.
I am not sure what a 'BB' gun is, but as far as air rifles equipped
with
Likely a US term then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bb_gun
Are there no compressed air (or CO2 cartridge) powered rifles that fire "shot" (small metal balls) in the UK?
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and finding
no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop digestion happening.
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
I am not sure what a 'BB' gun is, but as far as air rifles equipped with infra red sights go...
Which is why they speedometers which count RPM, not 'rollingRadius™' are
as accurate as they are.
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and finding
no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop digestion
happening.
It;s people who are conditioned by propaganda that Dog Shit is Bad and
has to be Disposed Of Properly, so they carry little council provided
poop bags and put it in the council provided poop bins.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the country
and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs poo right in
the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
It's another of those 'little knowledge, 'concerned', citizens' who
arrived along with a socialist government.
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Wood, ie paper, does work pretty good for a lot
of things. However plastic is best at keeping
bacteria and such out of your lunch.
Or in it, depending.
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Oh, we're kinda using up all the wood.
Nope., We are growing as much pulpwood as we use.
Ah, Yes, we can buy bb guns but they are not what pro ratters use,
On 2025-12-10 04:26, c186282 wrote:
On 12/9/25 21:38, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 16:56, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were >>>>>> more
likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were
buying
more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
These days. oops.
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag
is getting, so that I can walk back home.
Here shopping into your own bag is widely discouraged.
Fortunately, they can say nothing about it. Even more, my usual bag
has another bag inside, one of those insulated for frozen or cold
foods, and inside, I put a small bottle (⅓litre) with frozen salted
water, so that the guard at the entrance can see I enter with a bag
that already has some weight in it.
After depositing everything on the rubber belt at the cashier, I make
a show of looking the bag is empty, or show it to the employee.
They charge for each plastic bag you get on the exit cashier, and
they encourage people to buy reusable bags. Thus, we have to enter
the shop with empty reusable bags. It is their doing, not ours. Well,
government regulation, actually. Pushed by the EU.
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
Nope. They stamp them when they sell them :-)
Besides, it is easy to differentiate a much used bag from a new one.
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated
self-checkout" :-)
Wow. I do use them, no problems here. They have staff constantly
watching and helping.
At one of the big supermarkets I use, Carrefour, the automated section
is for bags or baskets, not carts.
At a very small number of Carrefours, there is another automated
mechanism: you pick a handheld scanner on entry to the place, and then
scan each item you put on the cart. At exit, you put the device on a receptacle, and you get asked to pay the total. No need to handle
anything on the cart. So out to your car to put everything in the boot. Randomly, they pick one cart to check manually.
I don't know how they handle an error, but I have not heard of arrests.
...
Sometimes I use a backpack, and some times my own trolley. When I buy
milk, for instance.
https://share.google/NreDLQi7p1sjP1KPY
Otherwise, I drive.
What a drag it is getting old .......
Hey, joints don't hold up forever - and the more
you abused them in yer youth ........
Heard on the radio, a doctor investigator, maybe yesterday, that during
a Marathon race the... I think he said the glio cells in the cerebrum
get damaged (20%?) and need a recovery of about two or three weeks.
Those runners that participate in many races get a constant damage. Not clear what impact that has.
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop
digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the country
and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs poo right in
the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
On 10/12/2025 15:03, Rich wrote:
In comp.os.linux.misc The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>Ah. Dont think they exist in the UK
wrote:
On 10/12/2025 03:26, c186282 wrote:
Yikes ! Small RAT just scurried past in my house.Then why is he there?
Never had one inside before. Just ordered the
highest-rated rat poison. Basically nothing for
him to eat here, so he'll love the poison block.
They move too quick to try a BB gun ... don't
think I have any that work anymore anyway.
Not necessarily.
I am not sure what a 'BB' gun is, but as far as air rifles equipped with
Likely a US term then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bb_gun
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:08 +1100, Daniel70
<daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
I use the self-checkout 100% of the time. Love it.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:52:47 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Which is why they speedometers which count RPM, not 'rollingRadius™' are >> as accurate as they are.
RPM of what? On my Harley the Hall sensor picks up the 5th gear teeth.
Meanwhile I have a lawn full of deer shit. It mulches well and doesn't
burn the grass so I look at it as a plus. Cycle of nature and all. They
eat the ornamental crabapples and provide the fertilizer that keeps the crabapple tree happy.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:58:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
It's another of those 'little knowledge, 'concerned', citizens' who
arrived along with a socialist government.
The US terminology is 'Karen'.
On 12/10/25 07:13, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Oh, we're kinda using up all the wood.
Nope., We are growing as much pulpwood as we use.
"We" ???
So why are global forests being razed ???
Seems a LOT of people aren't growing wood
as fast as they use it. If your country is
short, get some OTHER country to raze its
forests ... gets past most press scrutiny.
Then there are the highly coveted, marked-up,
'tropical' woods. Whole rainforests are being
razed and 'we' can't grow those trees in
temperate zones.
Sorry, there IS a problem ... we've just become
better at HIDING it.
So, I'm still gonna promote 'alternate' materials
'kind of' like wood.
I can buy 'plastic lumber' from the local home store.
It's almost pure polyethylene, old milk jugs. It is
easy to work and does not rot. Alas it's not very
STIFF ... bends far more easily than even softwood
lumber. Likely not as much tensile strength either.
Stressed fibers inside the boards COULD help with
that, but makes it more expensive.
Wood is a fascinating study - highly-evolved
nano-structured material for load-bearing. We
just can't MAKE anything quite like it on
an industrial scale - probably not for quite
awhile.
A nice big house built of 4x12 Ironwood beams
IS attractive ... strong as hell, won't burn,
won't rot, enough flex to survive quakes, maybe
even dense enough to resist nuke-bomb radiation -
ought to last 1000+ years. Alas there aren't
that many ironwood trees and they take hundreds
of years to grow. Bummer.
Normally, the poo is FERTILIZER for the plants. It
only gets bad if there's way TOO much poo in one
place - typically near farms, but too many dogs in
the little dog park also perhaps.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:08 +1100, Daniel70
<daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
I use the self-checkout 100% of the time. Love it.
Anyway, yes ... in the USA we DO train little kids
to use 'guns'. Bear that in mind if you're planning
an invasion ......
On 11/12/2025 03:22, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 07:13, The Natural Philosopher wrote:The Western world. Esoecially canada Norway and teh sub arctic natuons
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Oh, we're kinda using up all the wood.
Nope., We are growing as much pulpwood as we use.
"We" ???
So why are global forests being razed ???So they can graze beef.
Seems a LOT of people aren't growing woodWe (UK) are growing it now faster than we use it. The worst time was the Great Naval period of ships with' hearts of oak' ,
as fast as they use it. If your country is
short, get some OTHER country to raze its
forests ... gets past most press scrutiny.
More oaks now than than 200 years ago for sure.
Softwood plantations are a major industry in Canada, and in IIRC
Norway,. which is where our constructional lumber and pulp paper comes
from.
Never read 'sometimes a great notion'?
Oregon too.
Then there are the highly coveted, marked-up,Thoise are now somewhat protected., It is very hard to find decent ebony
'tropical' woods. Whole rainforests are being
razed and 'we' can't grow those trees in
temperate zones.
or rosewood.
But then the trend is to build using pulpwood products like chipboard or MDF. Not mahogany. Which was a choise because of its even grain from the seasonless tropics. But plywood is even more stable, and birch is a weed
in the northern places.,
Sorry, there IS a problem ... we've just becomeNo, its the solution you haven't noticed, Why would you unless you lived
better at HIDING it.
in a cold norhern country?
So, I'm still gonna promote 'alternate' materialsPlenty of that too. Bamboo for example. Much used for many things. You
'kind of' like wood.
can use hemp to make cloth has well as smoke it. Also sisal
I can buy 'plastic lumber' from the local home store.
It's almost pure polyethylene, old milk jugs. It is
easy to work and does not rot. Alas it's not very
STIFF ... bends far more easily than even softwood
lumber. Likely not as much tensile strength either.
Stressed fibers inside the boards COULD help with
that, but makes it more expensive.
MDF is best. Not much stiffness but very stable.
I've got walls made of it - easy to screw into and tales paint well.
Made a 19" rack with it too.
http://vps.templar.co.uk/ FTTP%20installation/8%20wiring%20rack%20and%20boundary%20router.png
Wood is a fascinating study - highly-evolvedAnd thank heaven for that. Wood is a ghastly material to use. Its
nano-structured material for load-bearing. We
just can't MAKE anything quite like it on
an industrial scale - probably not for quite
awhile.
unstable, isotropic and no two pieces are the same.
Engineered wood - plywood - is much better. So is fibre board and chipboard.
A nice big house built of 4x12 Ironwood beamsMine is built with some 12 x 12 oak...but the real strenght is that it's clad with plywood.
IS attractive ... strong as hell, won't burn,
won't rot, enough flex to survive quakes, maybe
even dense enough to resist nuke-bomb radiation -
ought to last 1000+ years. Alas there aren't
that many ironwood trees and they take hundreds
of years to grow. Bummer.
Plus the odd bit of brick and steel ...
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:08 +1100, Daniel70
<daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
I use the self-checkout 100% of the time. Love it.
On 09/12/2025 23:01, Char Jackson wrote:
Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS, throttleSomething has to modulate the air input on a petrol engine.
position sensor, that simply provides an electrical representation of
the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to call it TBW, throttle by
wire.
I dont think they use servos.
On a diesel, well its different.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance
item.
I haven't seen a mechanically coupled clutch (or brakes) on a 4 wheeled vehicle since...forever! 1955 or there about maybe.
Standard on bikes tho I agree.
On 11/12/2025 05:00, Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:08 +1100, Daniel70I am about 50 50.
<daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout"
:-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs. >>>
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
I use the self-checkout 100% of the time. Love it.
The problem is certain items are 'adult only' and require staff intervention. Aspirin, paracetamol, alcohol and FFS even *matches*
cannot be sold to kids.
And sometimes the machines throw a wobbly and need resetting
BUT there is generally a shorter queue.
And checkout is not the major labour cost - shelf restocking is.
In comp.os.linux.misc Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> wrote:
On 9 Dec 2025 20:23:12 GMT, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
What's been replacing throttle cables is drive by wire, where the pedal
has a "pedal positon sensor" which sends a digital signal to the
control computer. The computer then sends a different digital signal
to an actuator that actually moves the throttle. The wife's car has
that. It also has a most annoying lag to it (although she does not
notice, and I drive it little enough to not care much). But you press
the pedal to speed up, and a noticable time lag later the engine
actually starts pulling more.
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 20:20, rbowman wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
On 10/12/2025 13:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
Nope. They stamp them when they sell them 🙂
Besides, it is easy to differentiate a much used bag from a new one.
In my supermarket the design changes every week or two,
But in general they trust you.
On 12/9/25 21:20, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 20:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:No you cannot.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular. >>>>>>> Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track' >>>>>>>
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so
their diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to >>>>>>>>> cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to >>>>>>>> throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14" >>>>>>>> wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring >>>>>>>> when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the >>>>>>>> 14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack >>>>>>>> a little more to get the 15" on.
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to
expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the
tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the
Ground speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
Yes, we can. It is a formula with π in it.
Any more than you can calculate the 'diameter' of a tank tread.
You might choose to evaluate (circumference over pi), but that is
just a number that has no meaning in this context. There is no
physical dimension that corresponds to it
Irrelevant.
We measure the actual distance travelled for a number of turns. From
that we calculate the effective circumference, and from that, the
effective radius.
None of those have to be the apparent length seen by a measuring tape
on the wheel.
Planning to lock the steering and send it 500km
towards Kyiv ???
If not, then the estimation based on raw diameter
or circumference will be Good Enough to guess if
yer new tires put you at legal risk.
It's just TOO easy to get hung up on the decimal points.
I have a garbage container, and I basically need to purchase garbage
bags of certain sizes. Not that easy to reuse plastic bags from supermarkets.
On 11/12/2025 8:27 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 11/12/2025 05:00, Char Jackson wrote:.... which the Check-out staff can also do when things are quite at the Check-outs!
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:08 +1100, Daniel70I am about 50 50.
<daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
On 10/12/2025 2:26 pm, c186282 wrote:
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated self-checkout" >>>>> :-)
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated
Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use >>>> of the Staff that I'm paying for.
I use the self-checkout 100% of the time. Love it.
The problem is certain items are 'adult only' and require staff
intervention. Aspirin, paracetamol, alcohol and FFS even *matches*
cannot be sold to kids.
And sometimes the machines throw a wobbly and need resetting
BUT there is generally a shorter queue.
And checkout is not the major labour cost - shelf restocking is.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:08 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
Hate them!! Hate them! Hate them. I'll stand in line at a staffed
Check-Out (if there is one) rather than use those Auto-mated Check-Outs.
The way I figure it, the Supermarket has already added the 'Staffing
Costs' into the price of the things I buy, so I might as well make use
of the Staff that I'm paying for.
The markets have reduced the number of manned lanes and have done away
with the 'express' lanes. I'm not keen on standing in line behind someone
who was shopping for a family of nine to get my six items rung up. Even
worse is discovering you're behind someone with a EBT card that finds
their credit card declined for the stuff the EBT didn't cover.
On 12/10/25 08:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 04:26, c186282 wrote:
On 12/9/25 21:38, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 16:56, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/9/25 06:10, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
Nope. They stamp them when they sell them :-)
Unless the under-paid guy FORGETS ...
Besides, it is easy to differentiate a much used bag from a new one.
But they don't get 'much used' for awhile.
And if you really want to get arrested, use "automated
self-checkout" :-)
Wow. I do use them, no problems here. They have staff constantly
watching and helping.
False arrests are a growing issue in US stores. The
security cam/AI becomes *convinced* you skipped/hid
some item. Then cops come for you. TRY to prove
you are innocent.
Oh yea, what's the POINT in actual HUMAN watchers ?
You're still dedicating at least one human to the
checkout process ... ergo NO reason for the
'automated' shit. Just let 'em work a register !
At one of the big supermarkets I use, Carrefour, the automated section
is for bags or baskets, not carts.
At a very small number of Carrefours, there is another automated
mechanism: you pick a handheld scanner on entry to the place, and then
scan each item you put on the cart. At exit, you put the device on a
receptacle, and you get asked to pay the total. No need to handle
anything on the cart. So out to your car to put everything in the
boot. Randomly, they pick one cart to check manually.
I won't use automated systems. Human check-out or
go to another store.
I don't know how they handle an error, but I have not heard of arrests.
Check.
Sometimes I use a backpack, and some times my own trolley. When I
buy milk, for instance.
https://share.google/NreDLQi7p1sjP1KPY
Otherwise, I drive.
What a drag it is getting old .......
Hey, joints don't hold up forever - and the more
you abused them in yer youth ........
Heard on the radio, a doctor investigator, maybe yesterday, that
during a Marathon race the... I think he said the glio cells in the
cerebrum get damaged (20%?) and need a recovery of about two or three
weeks. Those runners that participate in many races get a constant
damage. Not clear what impact that has.
Glia cells are the "other half" of the brain - and
more and more found to be VERY important. Heavy
stress COULD screw 'em up.
There are several kinds of 'support' cells in the
brain. They DO play a number of active roles,
including modulating neurotransmitter levels
dynamically. Neurons do what neurons do, but
they need a lot of help. It's ALL the cells
that comprise the full picture.
Maybe neural network electronics won't need
such help ?
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 22:46:41 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 5:41 pm, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:46, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:04:29 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
On 8/12/2025 1:56 pm, c186282 wrote:
<Snip>
Have never seen any 'smart' ones ... just the basic models the >>>>>> insane cat lady pushes down the street full of her junk.
You say 'Junk', she says 'Treasured Possessions"!! ;-P
I can't be judgmental. I'm surrounded by cables, microcontrollers,
Dupont wires, and odd little sensors that would qualify me as a very
strange hoarder if viewed objectively.
Ummm ... do you have conversations with them ? :-)
Do "insane cat lady" have conversations with them ?
Oh, hang on, she probably does. ;-P
Watch it! I do talk to the cat(s) at times. The problem with putting cat
food outside around here is you wind up with more cats than the intended
one, to say nothing of trash pandas and skunks. Fortunately no bears, although that is a problem in some parts of town.
On 11/12/2025 12:37 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
<Snip>
I have a garbage container, and I basically need to purchase garbageI have about 30-40 of the old "Single Use" shopping bags (I kept
bags of certain sizes. Not that easy to reuse plastic bags from
supermarkets.
forgetting to take them back next time I went shopping!!) so I use them
as 'kitchen bin liners'. Slowly working my way through them .... just
don't produce much waste!!
And now we have Four (Count them, four) rubbish bins ... General waste,
Food & Garden waste (i.e. decomposable stuff), Cardboard & Plastic
Waste, and Glass waste.
I think only the 'Food & Garden waste' gets collected every week, the
others alternate. ..... or something like that. ;-)
On 09/12/2025 11:53, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer
to 5 kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road
limit of 100Km/h and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there
is no possibility of you driving just a bit above the limit
and be fined. You could then sue the car maker for having
bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers
being off. The speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm
running the 15" tires it's calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
which a tyre DOES NOT HAVE. Any more than a tank track does.
On 2025-12-09 12:50, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
In Spain, there is a regulation by which they have to apply a perceptual error, I think it is 7%. Otherwise, the fine is rejected when questioned
in court.
The exact percent varies with the years, but there are articles in
magazines that tell you the exact error applied at various speeds.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the
14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack
a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground
speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
On 11/12/2025 02:37, rbowman wrote:
Meanwhile I have a lawn full of deer shit. It mulches well and doesn't
burn the grass so I look at it as a plus. Cycle of nature and all. They
eat the ornamental crabapples and provide the fertilizer that keeps the
crabapple tree happy.
When my farmer neighbour was alive, and not his bitch-from-hell wife, I would walk the dogs alomg his farm tracks., We met one day as the black
lab decided to take a shit in his wheat field "Nice: Free fertiliser"
was his comment. He had a couple of his own.
On 12/10/2025 8:49 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:What about deer, rabbit, fox, raccoon, etc, poop. Do you worry about stepping in that?
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of
poop digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the
country and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs
poo right in the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:16:39 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and finding
no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby increasing total
pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop digestion
happening.
One of the popular trailheads in town has a collection of colorful bags of dog shit and a sign giving the daily count. I think it's a nearby resident that walks their dog and collects the bags the idiots leave.
The dispensers have pictographs of using the provided bags but fails to
show the 'take it with you' part. Sometimes the black Lab is the smarter
of the pair.
On 10/12/2025 12:48 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 12:50, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
In Spain, there is a regulation by which they have to apply a
perceptual error, I think it is 7%. Otherwise, the fine is rejected
when questioned in court.
WOW!!
So the people know how much they can speed before they get booked for Speeding!! WOW!!
The exact percent varies with the years, but there are articles in
magazines that tell you the exact error applied at various speeds.
On 10/12/2025 1:09 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:Say WHAT?? Is it elliptical or something??
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular.
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so their
diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to
throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14"
wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring
when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the
14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack
a little more to get the 15" on.
Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track'
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the Ground
speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
On 10/12/2025 12:48 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 12:50, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 12:59 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:20, Daniel70 wrote:
Hmm! Back in the day, friends who were Policemen told me that, using a
Speed Gun, they usually allow 2-3km .... just to be sure.
In Spain, there is a regulation by which they have to apply a
perceptual error, I think it is 7%. Otherwise, the fine is rejected
when questioned in court.
WOW!!
So the people know how much they can speed before they get booked for Speeding!! WOW!!
The exact percent varies with the years, but there are articles in
magazines that tell you the exact error applied at various speeds.
On 10/12/2025 1:08 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 11:53, Daniel70 wrote:Sorry. Am I missing the point you are trying to make??
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer
to 5 kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road
limit of 100Km/h and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there
is no possibility of you driving just a bit above the limit
and be fined. You could then sue the car maker for having
bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers
being off. The speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm
running the 15" tires it's calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
which a tyre DOES NOT HAVE. Any more than a tank track does.
When I but new tyres (which I'll have to do, again, soon.) I buy 15 inch tyres (I think). Is this not the diameter of the Hubs on to which the
tyres are fitted??
So the inner circumference of the Tyres 'hole' is about 15 inch diameter.
On 10/12/2025 1:09 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.Say WHAT?? Is it elliptical or something??
On 2025-12-10 16:10, knuttle wrote:
On 12/10/2025 8:49 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:What about deer, rabbit, fox, raccoon, etc, poop. Do you worry about
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from
ordinary thin plastic bags. They tear easily, even
a mouse could get free. My guess is that you got
an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
dogs walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags,
and finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of
poop digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the
country and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs
poo right in the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
stepping in that?
Nope, they don't poo in human pathways, normally. Too exposed?
Some animals cover their poo with earth. The pathway has hard earth,
some have asphalt.
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the
country and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs
poo right in the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
One of the popular trailheads in town has a collection of colorful bags of >> dog shit and a sign giving the daily count. I think it's a nearby resident >> that walks their dog and collects the bags the idiots leave.
The dispensers have pictographs of using the provided bags but fails to
show the 'take it with you' part. Sometimes the black Lab is the smarter
of the pair.
Depends. Some cities put the bag dispenser with a bin in the same post,
so obviously that bin is for the poo bags.
I have about 30-40 of the old "Single Use" shopping bags (I kept
forgetting to take them back next time I went shopping!!) so I use them
as 'kitchen bin liners'. Slowly working my way through them .... just
don't produce much waste!!
And now we have Four (Count them, four) rubbish bins ... General waste,
Food & Garden waste (i.e. decomposable stuff), Cardboard & Plastic
Waste, and Glass waste.
I think only the 'Food & Garden waste' gets collected every week, the
others alternate. ..... or something like that. ;-)
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
On 12/10/25 07:13, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Oh, we're kinda using up all the wood.
Nope., We are growing as much pulpwood as we use.
"We" ???
So why are global forests being razed ???
Seems a LOT of people aren't growing wood
as fast as they use it. If your country is
short, get some OTHER country to raze its
forests ... gets past most press scrutiny.
Then there are the highly coveted, marked-up,
'tropical' woods. Whole rainforests are being
razed and 'we' can't grow those trees in
temperate zones.
Sorry, there IS a problem ... we've just become
better at HIDING it.
So, I'm still gonna promote 'alternate' materials
'kind of' like wood.
I can buy 'plastic lumber' from the local home store.
It's almost pure polyethylene, old milk jugs. It is
easy to work and does not rot. Alas it's not very
STIFF ... bends far more easily than even softwood
lumber. Likely not as much tensile strength either.
Stressed fibers inside the boards COULD help with
that, but makes it more expensive.
Wood is a fascinating study - highly-evolved
nano-structured material for load-bearing. We
just can't MAKE anything quite like it on
an industrial scale - probably not for quite
awhile.
A nice big house built of 4x12 Ironwood beams
IS attractive ... strong as hell, won't burn,
won't rot, enough flex to survive quakes, maybe
even dense enough to resist nuke-bomb radiation -
ought to last 1000+ years. Alas there aren't
that many ironwood trees and they take hundreds
of years to grow. Bummer.
On 12/10/2025 8:49 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
Although I have to say that it is not nice to be walking on the
country and have to keep watching for poo and avoiding it. The dogs
poo right in the middle of the path, not like wild creatures.
When I see that, I gennerally assume that was left by someone on their
way into the trail, who did not want the bag of sh*t in their pocket for
the hour they will be spending there, and they intend to pick it up on
their way back. And then they may forget it on their way back.
So if I see it again on MY way back, I'll pick it up for them.
We have a number of nice trail options here:
- Foothill trails, going from the suburban streets up to the crest of a
4000 ft (1200 m) front range, which is part of Los Padres National
Forest. Often have sections that is just a 1-foot wide ledge carved
into the side of the canyon carved by a mostly seasonal creek.
Dogs are officially supposed to be on leash.
- An old dump turned into a park managed by a private foundation.
Dogs are explicitly allowed to be off-leash so long as they are
well-behaved, but you pay for the privilege: Each dog must have a tag
that costs USD 145 per year. Half the park is "wild" with grass that
is mostly unkempt, except that every year or two they bring in 100
sheep and goats for two weeks to "mow" it, the other half has
3 softball (i.e. baseball) fields and two soccer/rugby/lacrosse
fields, two smallish meadows kept free of weeds, an amphitheater
that seats 200, and a "memorial trail" honoring war veterans, where
plaques lists the names of every soldier from the county that died
each year in Vietnam. We gladly pay the fee for our two dogs,
because of the greatly reduced risk of getting foxtails up (ryegrass
seedheads) up the dogs' noses. My previous beagle had to have one
surgically removed at a cost of USD 800 for a visit to the emergency
dog surgery.
The downside is that they often rent out the area with
the meadows and amphitheater for weddings, collecting $7,000 to
$20,000 for an event that closes "the upper park" to the public for a
Saturday, and sometimes a Sunday. And if there happens to be a
softball tournament AND a youth soccer tournament on the same
week-end, we dog-owners better find another place.
The total area is about 80 acres (30+ ha).
- The "Douglas Family Preserve". 70 acres of coastal blufftop.
Was an abandoned plant nursery. Someone wanted to build a gated
condominium community there, and the local public raised $17 mio to
buy it to prevent that. Since the core group of fundraisers were dog
owners who had been trespassing to run their dogs there, most of the
area is off-leash permitted. My previous beagles loved to burrow into
the dense scrub areas to chase jackrabbits for hours at a time.
One of them died from Leptospirosis after drinking from a stagnant
pond ("vernal pool") in the springtime. (Hemorrhagic fever is very
ugly.)
The nice park has trash cans for dogpoo and compostable bags all over.
The other parks have bags and trash cans at the entrances. The mountain trails expect you to kick the shit into the bushes of down the hillside.
On 2025-12-11 03:30, rbowman wrote:
One of the popular trailheads in town has a collection of colorful bags of >>> dog shit and a sign giving the daily count. I think it's a nearby resident >>> that walks their dog and collects the bags the idiots leave.
The dispensers have pictographs of using the provided bags but fails to
show the 'take it with you' part. Sometimes the black Lab is the smarter >>> of the pair.
On 2025-12-11, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
Depends. Some cities put the bag dispenser with a bin in the same post,
so obviously that bin is for the poo bags.
We have a "dog beach" here. At Arroyo Burro Beach County Park, the area
to the right of the parking lot is reserved for people. There is a restaurant, a grassy picnic area and a beach where dogs must be on
leash. To the other side, there is about a mile of beach allowing
offf-leash dogs. The parking lot has about 12 trash cans marked as
dedicated to "Animal Waste".
It is a great place for dogs to run a little wild. Confined between
the Pacific Ocean and a sandstone cliff. My late beagle often tried to
scale the cliff, and once fell on a rock from 15 feet up. Broke a rib,
and was forever sore in that area if you picked her up and did not
remember that. But that did not keep her from trying again in the same
spot later.
The downside of that beach, is that there is a natural oil seep in the
ocean and little lumps of tar the size of a BB pellet often mix in the
sand, so you need a bottle of baby oil handy to clean feet, paws and dog
fur to avaid getting tar on your car seats.
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
On 2025-12-11, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
Get away - fast! Put distance between yourself and that truck before
the inevitable bad event!! And be thankful you are not behind it.
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
On 2025-12-11 03:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:16:39 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop
digestion happening.
One of the popular trailheads in town has a collection of colorful bags
of dog shit and a sign giving the daily count. I think it's a nearby
resident that walks their dog and collects the bags the idiots leave.
The dispensers have pictographs of using the provided bags but fails to
show the 'take it with you' part. Sometimes the black Lab is the
smarter of the pair.
Depends. Some cities put the bag dispenser with a bin in the same post,
so obviously that bin is for the poo bags.
We have a "dog beach" here. At Arroyo Burro Beach County Park, the area
to the right of the parking lot is reserved for people. There is a restaurant, a grassy picnic area and a beach where dogs must be on
leash. To the other side, there is about a mile of beach allowing
offf-leash dogs. The parking lot has about 12 trash cans marked as
dedicated to "Animal Waste".
I made a new lawn, new topsoil, grass seed. The cat crapped in the
middle and made a nice little pile. When the grass sprouted that patch
was twice as tall..
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:42:46 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I made a new lawn, new topsoil, grass seed. The cat crapped in the
middle and made a nice little pile. When the grass sprouted that patch
was twice as tall..
I don't know what it is about dogs that their crap tends to kill grass.
Cats, deer, raccoons, and so forth improve it. I would think one carnivore would be similar to the other.
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 20:20, rbowman wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just that the rim is too
stiff to 'tear' much unless under extreme load. HAVE seen it on
18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling at 80mph and
bouncing randomly off an overpass. Deadly if you were in the path
.....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:37:05 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-11 03:30, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:16:39 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop
digestion happening.
One of the popular trailheads in town has a collection of colorful bags
of dog shit and a sign giving the daily count. I think it's a nearby
resident that walks their dog and collects the bags the idiots leave.
The dispensers have pictographs of using the provided bags but fails to
show the 'take it with you' part. Sometimes the black Lab is the
smarter of the pair.
Depends. Some cities put the bag dispenser with a bin in the same post,
so obviously that bin is for the poo bags.
You vastly overestimate the intelligence of the average US citizen.
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum servo-assist.
On 11/12/2025 02:46, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:58:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
It's another of those 'little knowledge, 'concerned', citizens' who
arrived along with a socialist government.
The US terminology is 'Karen'.
What is the male equivalent?
On 2025-12-11, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
That sounds like a retread de-laminating. Sometimes the entire tread
will peel off in one piece - I see them lying beside the road sometimes.
Or they'll break up bit by bit, throwing chunks several inches long in
every direction. One night I found myself behind a truck where this was happening. It was raining heavily, making for a surreal sight: steaming chunks of rubber flying everywhere before coming to rest on the road.
At my mother village, when we stayed maybe on 1969, there was no water
at the houses, no bathrooms. Some had electricity only for lights. So we
did our things on the pile of manure in the stable, then covered it with
a spade. I think there was a pig there and a horse.
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a documented
phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't even answer a phone
call. NOT sure where that came from ... Covid fallout ???
The problem is certain items are 'adult only' and require staff
intervention. Aspirin, paracetamol, alcohol and FFS even *matches*
cannot be sold to kids.
On 12/10/25 08:49, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from ordinary thinWell you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs
plastic bags. They tear easily, even a mouse could get free. My >>>>> guess is that you got an OD of Greenie Propaganda.
walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop
digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
I'm still trying to comprehend the confluence of warped mindsets
involved in CREATING such a phenom.
Somebody kind of literally let the inmates run the asylum !
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 23:51:25 -0500, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 08:49, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 13:03, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 06:16, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 06:42, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 00:27, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Cannot imagine MUCH impact on the wildlife from ordinary thin >>>>>> plastic bags. They tear easily, even a mouse could get free. My >>>>>> guess is that you got an OD of Greenie Propaganda.Well you gotta love the people from the village who bring their dogs >>>>> walking in the woods, and scoop the poop into plastic nags, and
finding no bins for them , *hang them on the trees* thereby
increasing total pollution and stopping the natural processes of poop >>>>> digestion happening.
Oh ... wow ...........
Maybe WAY too much acid back in the day ???
Oh, in my area there are few trees. I saw the black poo bags in the
ground and was astonished.
I'm still trying to comprehend the confluence of warped mindsets
involved in CREATING such a phenom.
Somebody kind of literally let the inmates run the asylum !
https://www.flickr.com/photos/splatt/3672608548
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:23:16 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
At my mother village, when we stayed maybe on 1969, there was no water
at the houses, no bathrooms. Some had electricity only for lights. So we
did our things on the pile of manure in the stable, then covered it with
a spade. I think there was a pig there and a horse.
The Asians never had a problem with human manure. Shit is shit. Western cultures have some strange hangups.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a documented
phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't even answer a phone
call. NOT sure where that came from ... Covid fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
On 2025-12-11 03:30, rbowman wrote:
One of the popular trailheads in town has a collection of colorful bags of >>> dog shit and a sign giving the daily count. I think it's a nearby resident >>> that walks their dog and collects the bags the idiots leave.
The dispensers have pictographs of using the provided bags but fails to
show the 'take it with you' part. Sometimes the black Lab is the smarter >>> of the pair.
On 2025-12-11, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
Depends. Some cities put the bag dispenser with a bin in the same post,
so obviously that bin is for the poo bags.
We have a "dog beach" here. At Arroyo Burro Beach County Park, the area
to the right of the parking lot is reserved for people. There is a >restaurant, a grassy picnic area and a beach where dogs must be on
leash. To the other side, there is about a mile of beach allowing
offf-leash dogs. The parking lot has about 12 trash cans marked as
dedicated to "Animal Waste".
It is a great place for dogs to run a little wild. Confined between
the Pacific Ocean and a sandstone cliff. My late beagle often tried to
scale the cliff, and once fell on a rock from 15 feet up. Broke a rib,
and was forever sore in that area if you picked her up and did not
remember that. But that did not keep her from trying again in the same
spot later.
The downside of that beach, is that there is a natural oil seep in the
ocean and little lumps of tar the size of a BB pellet often mix in the
sand, so you need a bottle of baby oil handy to clean feet, paws and dog
fur to avaid getting tar on your car seats.
Softwood plantations are a major industry in Canada, and in IIRC
Norway,. which is where our constructional lumber and pulp paper comes
from.
On 11/12/2025 05:29, c186282 wrote:
Anyway, yes ... in the USA we DO train little kids
to use 'guns'. Bear that in mind if you're planning
an invasion ......
Why on earth would anyone want to invade America? Where else would you
put Americans?
On 2025-12-11 05:31, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 08:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 04:26, c186282 wrote:
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
Nope. They stamp them when they sell them :-)
Unless the under-paid guy FORGETS ...
Hardly... when I buy a new bag and put it on the belt, they scan the
barcode to charge it, then stamp it, or just scratch the barcode with
a ballpen.
On 2025-12-11, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-11 05:31, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 08:23, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 04:26, c186282 wrote:
If you use a 'permanent' bag, esp from THAT store,
they'll claim you STOLE it from them ....
Nope. They stamp them when they sell them :-)
Unless the under-paid guy FORGETS ...
Hardly... when I buy a new bag and put it on the belt, they scan the
barcode to charge it, then stamp it, or just scratch the barcode with
a ballpen.
I've seen shops with cashiers doing that too. I suppose you can imagine
a problem with this: stores that sell such bags *and* have
self-checkouts. Which renders the whole thing useless to keep track of already paid-for bags.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking with your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
On 11/12/2025 05:29, c186282 wrote:
Anyway, yes ... in the USA we DO train little kids
to use 'guns'. Bear that in mind if you're planning
an invasion ......
Why on earth would anyone want to invade America? Where else would you
put Americans?
On 2025-12-10 11:30, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 23:01, Char Jackson wrote:
Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS, throttleSomething has to modulate the air input on a petrol engine.
position sensor, that simply provides an electrical representation of
the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to call it TBW, throttle by
wire.
I dont think they use servos.
On a diesel, well its different.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance
item.
I haven't seen a mechanically coupled clutch (or brakes) on a 4
wheeled vehicle since...forever! 1955 or there about maybe.
Standard on bikes tho I agree.
My father's car in which I started driving had mechanical clutch.
Probably cable. An Austin 1300. Hydraulic brakes, no servo assist.
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum servo-assist.
My first car too also had cable clutch. A Renault Super 5 TL. This car
was bought around 1985.
Non had assisted steering.
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 20:20, rbowman wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
On 2025-12-10 06:22, c186282 wrote:
On 12/9/25 21:20, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 20:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 15:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:No you cannot.
On 09/12/2025 11:57, Daniel70 wrote:
On 9/12/2025 9:08 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 08/12/2025 22:39, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 00:20:38 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:There is no such thing as diameter on a tyre. It isn't circular. >>>>>>>> Might as well ask yourself 'what is the diameter of a tank track' >>>>>>>>
I usually put it down to my Tyres being under-inflated, so >>>>>>>>>> their diameter is less so it takes more revolutions of the >>>>>>>>>> tyre to
cover a specified distance.
I don't think under inflation would change the diameter enough to >>>>>>>>> throw the speed off that much. In my case the diameter of the 14" >>>>>>>>> wheels is noticeably less than the 15". I see that in the spring >>>>>>>>> when I'm going back to the 15". If I jack the car up enough so the >>>>>>>>> 14" leaves the ground and I can remove it sometimes I have to jack >>>>>>>>> a little more to get the 15" on.
What counts is circumference and the tyre is elastic enough to >>>>>>>> expand
a little under high pressure.
.... and that pressure would get higher due to usage heating the >>>>>>> tyre.
And to wear a little lower.
... which would reduce the tyres diameter, so decreasing the
Ground speed.
THE TYRE HAS NO DIAMETER., It is not circular.
It doesn't matter. We can calculate it.
Yes, we can. It is a formula with π in it.
Any more than you can calculate the 'diameter' of a tank tread.
You might choose to evaluate (circumference over pi), but that is
just a number that has no meaning in this context. There is no
physical dimension that corresponds to it
Irrelevant.
We measure the actual distance travelled for a number of turns. From
that we calculate the effective circumference, and from that, the
effective radius.
None of those have to be the apparent length seen by a measuring tape
on the wheel.
Planning to lock the steering and send it 500km
towards Kyiv ???
:-D
If not, then the estimation based on raw diameter
or circumference will be Good Enough to guess if
yer new tires put you at legal risk.
It's just TOO easy to get hung up on the decimal points.
Here we can not just put any wheel on a car, it has to be an approved one.
On 11/12/2025 12:37 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
<Snip>
I have a garbage container, and I basically need to purchase garbageI have about 30-40 of the old "Single Use" shopping bags (I kept
bags of certain sizes. Not that easy to reuse plastic bags from
supermarkets.
forgetting to take them back next time I went shopping!!) so I use them
as 'kitchen bin liners'. Slowly working my way through them .... just
don't produce much waste!!
And now we have Four (Count them, four) rubbish bins ... General waste,
Food & Garden waste (i.e. decomposable stuff), Cardboard & Plastic
Waste, and Glass waste.
I think only the 'Food & Garden waste' gets collected every week, the
others alternate. ..... or something like that. ;-)
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the pedals
have different feeling, specially when the brake was not assisted and I
had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though. Not
over a ton.
Once had an old car that came with power steering - except the pump
was broken and I could not afford to replace it. THAT was a
muscle-building exercise for sure !
I never drove an automatic car.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighedunder 2
tons.
Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And steering was real
exercise and brakes were unassisted.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:02:06 -0500, c186282 wrote:
Once had an old car that came with power steering - except the pump
was broken and I could not afford to replace it. THAT was a
muscle-building exercise for sure !
I talked to my ex early this week and she was reminiscing about my '49 Chrysler New Yorker. Straight 8 cast iron engine, no power steering. Her memories of parallel parking it aren't great.
It was an interesting lash up as it had both a clutch and a fluid
coupling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Drive
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 03:42:57 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
I never drove an automatic car.
She was around 70 when I had to convince my mother she could drive an automatic. She'd only been driving since 1921 and had taught her father
how to drive. She adapted to AT, power brakes, and power steering nicely.
My first car was an automatic but I eventually replaced the tired Torqueflight with a manual. Easier said than done.
On 12/12/25 01:52, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:02:06 -0500, c186282 wrote:
Once had an old car that came with power steering - except the
pump was broken and I could not afford to replace it. THAT was a
muscle-building exercise for sure !
I talked to my ex early this week and she was reminiscing about my '49
Chrysler New Yorker. Straight 8 cast iron engine, no power steering.
Her memories of parallel parking it aren't great.
It was an interesting lash up as it had both a clutch and a fluid
coupling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Drive
Hmm ... my mother was about 5'3" but managed just fine without power
steering, at least on 'smaller' US cars of the time. Apparently her
first car was a Model-T Coupe - came with a fold-out shelf, maybe
called a 'rumble seat', in the back so you could carry two or three
extra people. Power NOTHING. Safety - well, don't hit anything !
On 11/12/2025 02:46, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:58:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
It's another of those 'little knowledge, 'concerned', citizens' who
arrived along with a socialist government.
The US terminology is 'Karen'.
What is the male equivalent?
On 12/11/25 13:35, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a
documented phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't even
answer a phone call. NOT sure where that came from ... Covid
fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
I can too but the reason phones are not answered unless there is an identificable call is the frequency of robocalls.
I just saw a phone saying KPIX, a local TV station, was calling but
it was a hacked line trying to drum up business for an injury
attorney or phisher.
On 12/12/2025 9:07 am, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 13:35, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a
documented phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't even
answer a phone call. NOT sure where that came from ... Covid
fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
I can too but the reason phones are not answered unless there is an
identificable call is the frequency of robocalls.
For some unknown reason, the main fitting for my Landline phone is in
the main bedroom. (Who spends 24/7 in their bedroom?? Not even the
Elderly, I suspect.
On 12/11/25 05:43, Daniel70 wrote:
On 11/12/2025 12:37 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
<Snip>
I have a garbage container, and I basically need to purchase garbageI have about 30-40 of the old "Single Use" shopping bags (I kept
bags of certain sizes. Not that easy to reuse plastic bags from
supermarkets.
forgetting to take them back next time I went shopping!!) so I use
them as 'kitchen bin liners'. Slowly working my way through them ....
just don't produce much waste!!
And now we have Four (Count them, four) rubbish bins ... General
waste, Food & Garden waste (i.e. decomposable stuff), Cardboard &
Plastic Waste, and Glass waste.
I think only the 'Food & Garden waste' gets collected every week, the
others alternate. ..... or something like that. ;-)
I've never SEEN a "single use" bag.
Anyway, check Amazon ... search for 'green'
or 'compostable' bags. They come in lots of
sizes. Best compromise these days ... practical
but at least KIND OF 'green'.
WAS buying a brand, which disappeared, but they--
were SO thin you'd often have to tie the bag,
then tie another bag around it just to deal
with the little holes. The new ones are thicker.
On 12/10/25 06:14, Daniel70 wrote:
On 10/12/2025 1:10 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:Over the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket handing
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
The plastic baskets are electronically marked, and the detectors
at the
store exit beep if you try to walk out with the plastic basket.
On 2025-12-08, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
I'll have to look more closely. I was surprised they had enough
shrinkage
for it to be a concern. The carts, otoh, easily convert to a Homeless >>>>> Hilux.
I, too, have noticed that many stores have a distinct shortage of
handbaskets. I remember that back in the 1960s, I read about a study
that showed that people with shopping carts bought more than people
using handbaskets. This prompted stores to promote shopping carts.
The consumer groups suggested that it might be because people were more >>>> likely to use a cart if they knew on their way in that they were buying >>>> more than would fit in a handbasket.
This days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us to use
instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy my bag is
getting, so that I can walk back home.
out what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be recyclable.
Hmmm ... what IS it ? Any idea ?
There are various kinds of 'recyclable' plastics.
Some recycle better than others. For what's going
to be holding kitchen trash you want something
that decomposes under moisture/UV/fungi after
maybe a year - but CLEAN decomposition.
They've gotten better at that, but I still have
not heard of a really 'clean' product that breaks
down to non-toxics/non-persistents.
Such 'plastics' probably exist, but may be too
expensive to produce.
'Green' is not inherently evil - though politics
often make it that way. If you CAN, easily, do
something 'green' then, well, why not ?
On 10/12/2025 11:40, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 06:14, Daniel70 wrote:
On 10/12/2025 1:10 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
I think there simply is no great commercial driver to design themThis days, I shop with the reusable bag that they told us toOver the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket
use instead of one use plastic bags. That way, I know how heavy
my bag is getting, so that I can walk back home.
handing out what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use
plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be
recyclable.
Hmmm ... what IS it ? Any idea ?
There are various kinds of 'recyclable' plastics. Some recycle
better than others. For what's going to be holding kitchen trash
you want something that decomposes under moisture/UV/fungi after
maybe a year - but CLEAN decomposition.
They've gotten better at that, but I still have not heard of a
really 'clean' product that breaks down to
non-toxics/non-persistents.
Such 'plastics' probably exist, but may be too expensive to
produce.
Better to use paper or cardbaord for packaging Like egg cartons.
'Green' is not inherently evil - though politics often make it that
way. If you CAN, easily, do something 'green' then, well, why not
?
There are two 'Greens' One is about reducing undesirable impacts on
the environment (of which COI2 is probably not among their number)
and the other is about guilt tripping you into buying overpriced dysfunctional crap, and funding pointless academics to increase your
guilt...
On 2025-12-10 12:40, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 06:14, Daniel70 wrote:
On 10/12/2025 1:10 am, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 14:55, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2025 14:37:25 -0500, Paul wrote:
Over the last few weeks, I've noticed the local Supermarket handing
out what I can only ASSUME are a new style of single use plastic bags.
Maybe a different form of plastic .... which could be recyclable.
Hmmm ... what IS it ? Any idea ?
There are various kinds of 'recyclable' plastics.
Some recycle better than others. For what's going
to be holding kitchen trash you want something
that decomposes under moisture/UV/fungi after
maybe a year - but CLEAN decomposition.
I once bought such bags, and they decomposed in my kitchen, before I
could fill them completely. I don't generate that many organic waste,
takes a week or two to fill a bag.
They've gotten better at that, but I still have
not heard of a really 'clean' product that breaks
down to non-toxics/non-persistents.
Such 'plastics' probably exist, but may be too
expensive to produce.
'Green' is not inherently evil - though politics
often make it that way. If you CAN, easily, do
something 'green' then, well, why not ?
Right.
On 11/12/2025 11:18, Daniel70 wrote:
On 10/12/2025 1:08 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Yes. Rims don;t deform. Tyres do, So a rin can be said to have an
On 09/12/2025 11:53, Daniel70 wrote:Sorry. Am I missing the point you are trying to make??
On 9/12/2025 9:09 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 08:35, c186282 wrote:
On 12/8/25 17:41, rbowman wrote:There is no 'tire diameter'
On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:59:12 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
No, this is intentional calibration of the car speedometer
to 5 kilometres low. The reason is that if you see a road
limit of 100Km/h and you do drive at 100Km/h sharp, there
is no possibility of you driving just a bit above the limit
and be fined. You could then sue the car maker for having
bad instrumentation that caused you to be fined.
That's the reason I've heard for Japanese bike speedometers
being off. The speedometer in the Toyota is accurate when I'm
running the 15" tires it's calibrated for.
Yep, tire diameter IS critical.
Only circumference.
.... and, as circumference is dependant on diameter/radius ......
which a tyre DOES NOT HAVE. Any more than a tank track does.
When I but new tyres (which I'll have to do, again, soon.) I buy 15 inch
tyres (I think). Is this not the diameter of the Hubs on to which the
tyres are fitted??
overall diameter that the tyre does not
So the inner circumference of the Tyres 'hole' is about 15 inch diameter.
WE are not talking about 'inner circumferences'. But of the bit that
rolls along the road.
If you want to play semantics try alt.pedant ==>
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking with your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 09:17:38 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Softwood plantations are a major industry in Canada, and in IIRC
Norway,. which is where our constructional lumber and pulp paper comes
from.
No, Canada cuts down the existing forests. The problem in northern forests
is it takes up to 100 years to get marketable timber. Plantations work in
the southeast US where there is plenty of water and a longer growing
season.
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> writes:
On 11/12/2025 05:29, c186282 wrote:
Anyway, yes ... in the USA we DO train little kids
to use 'guns'. Bear that in mind if you're planning
an invasion ......
Why on earth would anyone want to invade America? Where else would you
put Americans?
Cheaper and easier to buy its politicians, anyway.
Here we can not just put any wheel on a car, it has to be an approved
one.
Still emulating the fascists I see ... what
was the point in fighting them way back when ?
USA you can get any brand, almost any size.
You can mix sizes if you want.
On 12/11/25 04:28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 11/12/2025 05:29, c186282 wrote:
Anyway, yes ... in the USA we DO train little kids
to use 'guns'. Bear that in mind if you're planning
an invasion ......
Why on earth would anyone want to invade America? Where else would you
put Americans?
Heh, heh .......
Of course Brits DID try it a couple of times ...
Germans and Japanese too. Chinese, maybe tomorrow.
It's not a safe world, never was.
On 12/12/2025 9:07 am, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 13:35, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a
documented phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't even
answer a phone call. NOT sure where that came from ... Covid
fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
I can too but the reason phones are not answered unless there is an
identificable call is the frequency of robocalls.
For some unknown reason, the main fitting for my Landline phone is in
the main bedroom. (Who spends 24/7 in their bedroom?? Not even the
Elderly, I suspect.
When I first moved here and the phone rang, I'd make a mad dash into the Bedroom and pick up the phone handset, only to find is was a Scammer
calling.
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems ....
so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up the call
and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone whilst 'they are leaving a message.
On 12/12/25 10:11, Daniel70 wrote:
On 12/12/2025 9:07 am, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 13:35, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a
documented phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't even
answer a phone call. NOT sure where that came from ... Covid
fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
I can too but the reason phones are not answered unless there is an
identificable call is the frequency of robocalls.
For some unknown reason, the main fitting for my Landline phone is in
the main bedroom. (Who spends 24/7 in their bedroom?? Not even the
Elderly, I suspect.
When I arranged a new FTTH connection for a friend. I put the main connection, the ONT in her main bedroom. I didn't do it because I
expected her to have one phone by her bed, but because it offered a
clean run of cable to the front of the house, a nice cupboard to hide it away in, and simple access to the loft through which I could run
ethernet cable to the rest of the house.
I left the single phone connection in the cupboard, a DECT wireless
device which covered the whole house.
I've used DECT/wireless/mobile for phones for two or three decades, do
other people still just have wired phones in their living room?
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:2 tons. Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And steering was
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with >>>> hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were >>>> brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission cars >>> used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking
with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the
pedals have different feeling, specially when the brake was not
assisted and I had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though.
Not over a ton.
Ah you are a European with sensible designers. In the USA a car
that weighed under a ton would be foreign made except for a few
lightweights back in the 1930s.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighed under >
real exercise and brakes were unassisted.Uff.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:02:06 -0500, c186282 wrote:
Once had an old car that came with power steering - except the pump
was broken and I could not afford to replace it. THAT was a
muscle-building exercise for sure !
I talked to my ex early this week and she was reminiscing about my '49 Chrysler New Yorker. Straight 8 cast iron engine, no power steering. Her memories of parallel parking it aren't great.
It was an interesting lash up as it had both a clutch and a fluid
coupling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Drive
On 12/11/25 05:11, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 11:30, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 23:01, Char Jackson wrote:
Within the last few years, they've been replaced by a TPS, throttleSomething has to modulate the air input on a petrol engine.
position sensor, that simply provides an electrical representation of
the throttle position to the ECU. They seem to call it TBW, throttle by >>>> wire.
I dont think they use servos.
On a diesel, well its different.
Clutches have been hydraulic for quite a few years, so that cable is
gone, as well. Good riddance to all of them. It's one less maintenance >>>> item.
I haven't seen a mechanically coupled clutch (or brakes) on a 4
wheeled vehicle since...forever! 1955 or there about maybe.
Standard on bikes tho I agree.
My father's car in which I started driving had mechanical clutch.
Probably cable. An Austin 1300. Hydraulic brakes, no servo assist.
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had
with hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe
1984. I remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the
brakes were brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped
brutally. Vacuum servo-assist.
My first car too also had cable clutch. A Renault Super 5 TL. This car
was bought around 1985.
Non had assisted steering.
Once had an old car that came with power steering - except
the pump was broken and I could not afford to replace it.
THAT was a muscle-building exercise for sure ! :-)
Drove it for years. Huge engine ... indeed had to add an
electric fuel booster pump if I wanted full throttle for
more than ten seconds. Sold it to some guy who ran it
into a concrete pole at 45mph. The thing STILL ran, with
a big "U" in the front. You wouldn't WANT to drive it
of course. Good old American Heavy Metal :-)
Now smaller cars ... power steering/brakes are nice, but
not NECESSARY. It was quite easy to drive a mid 60s car
without such add-ons.
A lot of 'accessories' were added to automobiles not
so much because they were necessary - but instead
because they were an advertising point.
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with >>>> hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were >>>> brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission cars >>> used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking
with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the
pedals have different feeling, specially when the brake was not
assisted and I had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though.
Not over a ton.
Ah you are a European with sensible designers. In the USA a car that weighed
under a ton would be foreign made except for a few lightweights back in
the 1930s.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighed under 2 tons.
Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And steering was real
exercise and
brakes were unassisted.
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:20:41 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 20:20, rbowman wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just that the rim is too
stiff to 'tear' much unless under extreme load. HAVE seen it on
18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling at 80mph and
bouncing randomly off an overpass. Deadly if you were in the path
.....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
The resulting debris is referred to as an 'alligator' here.
https://www.sttc.com/where-do-road-alligators-come-from/
The site might be biased since they're retreaders. I don't know if it was legislation or economics but there used to be retreaded passenger car
tires but for big trucks retreads are widely used , usually on the
trailers.
Theoretically you're supposed to check the inflation daily but with 18
tires the common practice is to 'thump' them. A 6-cell Maglite is good for that. The correct inflation is 100-110 psi but a tire down to 60 psi still sounds the same. It has to be really low before you get sort of a dead
sound.
I haven't driven in 30 years so I don't know if TPMS are common now.
They're certainly available
https://www.noregon.com/commercial-tire-pressure-monitoring-systems/
Even in the '90s a new 22.5 tire ran about $275 so getting the most life
out of them made sense.
On 12/11/25 05:20, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 11:57, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 05:27, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 20:20, rbowman wrote:
Otherwise a flat tyre would tear itself off the rim'
Umm ... they DO ... or at least TRY. It's just
that the rim is too stiff to 'tear' much unless
under extreme load. HAVE seen it on 18-wheelers ...
entire giant tire breaking loose, then rolling
at 80mph and bouncing randomly off an overpass.
Deadly if you were in the path .....
Once I overtook a lorry, very early morning. One of the rear wheels
was... how can I say... the sides of the rubber were intact, but the
part that touches the asphalt was loose, turning wildly at the 100Km/h
the lorry was doing. We were bewildered, not knowing what to do.
Because of the mass of the vehicle, many truckers
don't even know they've had such a failure unless
huge flames are involved.
And I've seen just that.
The torn-loose tire was most impressive though,
actually overtook the truck, riding the margin,
then hit the railing of an overpass, bounced a
good 100' into the air and almost hit a car
up ahead.
On 12/11/25 05:22, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-10 06:22, c186282 wrote:
On 12/9/25 21:20, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-09 20:11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/12/2025 14:50, Carlos E.R. wrote:
If not, then the estimation based on raw diameter
or circumference will be Good Enough to guess if
yer new tires put you at legal risk.
It's just TOO easy to get hung up on the decimal points.
Here we can not just put any wheel on a car, it has to be an approved
one.
Still emulating the fascists I see ... what
was the point in fighting them way back when ?
USA you can get any brand, almost any size.
You can mix sizes if you want.
Did they crash often, I wonder? Difficult to stop a 2 ton box of metal
in time.
On 2025-12-12 06:49, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had
with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I >>>>> remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes
were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum >>>>> servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission
cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking
with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory >>>> kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the
pedals have different feeling, specially when the brake was not
assisted and I had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though.
Not over a ton.
Ah you are a European with sensible designers. In the USA a car >> that weighed
under a ton would be foreign made except for a few lightweights back
in the 1930s.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighed
under 2 tons.
Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And steering was real
exercise and
brakes were unassisted.
My Renault Super 5 TL weighted 850 Kg (1874 pounds). A 42 horse engine (31KW). If memory serves. I could do 140Km/h on a flat.
On 11/12/2025 21:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:I am running on a manual courtesy car at the moment and the pedals are
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had
with hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe
1984. I remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the
brakes were brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped
brutally. Vacuum servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission
cars used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for
braking with your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission
muscle memory kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got
the brake instead.
so closely spaced I tend to hit all three at once.
Did they crash often, I wonder? Difficult to stop a 2 ton box of metal
in time.
On 11/12/2025 22:14, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 09:17:38 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Canadian Reforestation
Softwood plantations are a major industry in Canada, and in IIRC
Norway,. which is where our constructional lumber and pulp paper comes
from.
No, Canada cuts down the existing forests. The problem in northern
forests is it takes up to 100 years to get marketable timber.
Plantations work in the southeast US where there is plenty of water and
a longer growing season.
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems ....
so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up the call
and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone whilst 'they are leaving a message.
If its a Robotcall, it/they usually hang up whilst my "I'm not here,
leave a message" message is rattling off!Job done!
But just think of all those TREES that would have to be cut down to make
all that cardboard and paper!!
Oh!! The poor Planet!! ;-P
My current car has pressure sensors on the 4 wheels. I can read the
values in the dash display. I think the sensor is in the valve, with a battery and a radio.
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:19:19 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Did they crash often, I wonder? Difficult to stop a 2 ton box of metal
in time.
Not really. The brakes were designed to handle the load. A big problem was the single circuit hydraulic system that could leave you with no brakes except the mechanical hand brake. They were usually referred to as
'parking brakes' and weren't convenient to operate.
I lost the brakes twice. The first time was in a manual transmission car
and I was able to get home using the gears and handbrake if I had to stop
for a light. The second time was in the 2 1/2 ton Lincoln. I was close to work and there was a slight uphill grade to the parking lot and I was able
to kill most of the speed.
The dual systems are much better. I lost the front brakes on my pickup
after a porcupine chewed through the hose. Coming down a mountain road was interesting since most of the braking power is on the front wheels but at least there was something.
Even with fully operational brakes people who depended solely on the
brakes on mountain roads could get a rude awakening when they overheated. Even with the AT in the Toyota I habitually shift down to 2nd or even 1st
on grades. Modern ATs are much better. The early versions would freewheel.
On 12/12/2025 13:32, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-12 06:49, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
My Renault Super 5 TL weighted 850 Kg (1874 pounds). A 42 horse engine
(31KW). If memory serves. I could do 140Km/h on a flat.
I'm driving a Seat Ibiza as a courtesy car. 3 cylinder engine, 5 speed manual, more bhp than my old British sports cars ever had (not sure, but think 85) and 60+ miles to the (UK) gallon. Weight is about 1000kg. Will exceed legal road speeds given a bit of time
You could probably fit two in the average US parking slot.
Of all the shitty European shopping trolleys, I always found Seat and
Skoda to be above average and not expensive.
Fiats fall to pieces.
VWs cost too much
Renault are just awful Worse then any British Leyland car ever was.
Peugeots rust.
Vauxhall/Opel are just plain boring.
Toyota think they are designing space ships, but they cant handle being
on terra firma at all.
Ford are pretty good these days.
None of these worth importing to the USA because of Big Beautiful Tariffs,.
None of these worth importing to the USA because of Big Beautiful Tariffs,.
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 02:19:51 -0500, c186282 wrote:
On 12/12/25 01:52, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:02:06 -0500, c186282 wrote:
Once had an old car that came with power steering - except the
pump was broken and I could not afford to replace it. THAT was a
muscle-building exercise for sure !
I talked to my ex early this week and she was reminiscing about my '49
Chrysler New Yorker. Straight 8 cast iron engine, no power steering.
Her memories of parallel parking it aren't great.
It was an interesting lash up as it had both a clutch and a fluid
coupling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Drive
Hmm ... my mother was about 5'3" but managed just fine without power
steering, at least on 'smaller' US cars of the time. Apparently her
first car was a Model-T Coupe - came with a fold-out shelf, maybe
called a 'rumble seat', in the back so you could carry two or three
extra people. Power NOTHING. Safety - well, don't hit anything !
There is a bit of difference between a 1500 pound Model T and a 4500 tank.
https://fastestlaps.com/models/chrysler-new-yorker-4-door-sedan
She didn't have a problem with my '51 Chevy or '60 Plymouth that didn't
have any power assist but neither of them had a straight 8 cast iron
engine holding down the front end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o60hEsejjqM
The Model T had an optional mother-in-law seat that was primitive. The
Model A had what became known as the rumble seat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdvOv0KPXXc
The Model A also had mechanically actuated 'brakes'. Plan ahead.
On 11/12/2025 21:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:I am running on a manual courtesy car at the moment and the pedals are
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I
remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
so closely spaced I tend to hit all three at once.
Was probably a Model-A ... there's a very old fuzzy photo somewhere
in the family archive.
Apparently it was the most popular family car, kinda cool and sporty.
The siblings had to call dibs on who'd get it for the weekend
On 2025-12-12 16:39, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
None of these worth importing to the USA because of Big Beautiful
Tariffs,.
Also, there is no dealer network and spareparts distribution. That is
the real showstopper; that is why Fiat could never be viable in the US:
N o matter what the problem was, the car would sit at the shop until
parts could come in from Europe. (A colleague back in Denmark has the
same issue when he bought a Jauar E-type.)
Old MG Midget ?
A girl next door had one ... she always drove it with her shoes off
so she could FEEL the pedals properly.
Road devil, you didn't want to ride with her. Or behind her. Or
beside her. Or same road ...
On 12/12/2025 04:20, c186282 wrote:
Here we can not just put any wheel on a car, it has to be an approved
one.
Still emulating the fascists I see ... what
was the point in fighting them way back when ?
USA you can get any brand, almost any size.
You can mix sizes if you want.
Well it is the flip side of not having cars with rusted through frames
and no brakes and steering that is no more than a vague indication of intended direction on the road.
'Modification' of cars needs approval - at least from the insurers.
However *some* latitude is allowable in the case of wheels and tyres
Just not 50% larger rims and lift kits.
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:13:48 -0500, c186282 wrote:
Old MG Midget ?
A girl next door had one ... she always drove it with her shoes off
so she could FEEL the pedals properly.
Road devil, you didn't want to ride with her. Or behind her. Or
beside her. Or same road ...
I had a Sprite, the AH version of the Midget. While giving my brother in
law a ride one evening he asked 'how does this little piece of shit
handle?' I did a 180 and motored off in the opposite direction. "Oh"
His father had a thing for Checkers and he destroyed a couple of them. Couldn't drive for shit. He managed to roll one outside of Mayfield KY in
'69 when we were supposedly headed for Mexico. High times in Mayfield! Everyone in town went down to the garage to ogle the big, silver wreck.
"Is that one of them that Mercedes Benzs?"
On 2025-12-08 18:41, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
On 2025-12-08, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
On 2025-12-08 05:08, c186282 wrote:
The perp had dug up JUST enough info about her to
be convincing ... that he was with the bank holding
her mortgage. If she didn't deposit large money
RIGHT NOW people would be there to seize her home
tomorrow !
The woman totally bought-in ... was in a panic,
determined to make more payments.
Things like this make me feel very sad.
Me too - but it shows that we should be willing to make
some effort to take responsibility for our actions.
This includes reminding ourselves that if something
appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.
It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
-- W.C. Fields
But with old people it is possible that they can not help being "dumb". Dumber that they were.
Heck, yesterday I was walking around a beautiful spot with a river
(rivers are very uncommon where I live, nearly desert land, so I love
them). I took a photo from a spot some 20 meters higher, sent it to some friends, then pocketed the phone. After maybe 200 meters walk, I notice
my phone is missing. I retrace my steps back to the tiny hill, ask some
kids there, and sure enough, they had found my phone. They were seeking
for how to find me. Nice kids. Thank you so much, etc.
Apparently I did not pocket the phone, but dropped it, and it did no
noise. I'm getting old, no longer smart.
On 2025-12-12 16:39, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
None of these worth importing to the USA because of Big Beautiful Tariffs,.
Also, there is no dealer network and spareparts distribution. That is
the real showstopper; that is why Fiat could never be viable in the US:
N o matter what the problem was, the car would sit at the shop until
parts could come in from Europe. (A colleague back in Denmark has the
same issue when he bought a Jauar E-type.)
On 2025-12-12 11:11, Daniel70 wrote:
On 12/12/2025 9:07 am, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 13:35, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a
documented phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't
even answer a phone call. NOT sure where that came from ...
Covid fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
I can too but the reason phones are not answered unless there is
an identificable call is the frequency of robocalls.
For some unknown reason, the main fitting for my Landline phone is
in the main bedroom. (Who spends 24/7 in their bedroom?? Not even
the Elderly, I suspect.
When I first moved here and the phone rang, I'd make a mad dash
into the Bedroom and pick up the phone handset, only to find is was
a Scammer calling.
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems
.... so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up
the call and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone
whilst 'they are leaving a message.
I tried that in the 90's. Most friends and family aborted the call
when confronted by the machine. And the phones did not have call ID
back then.
I had to tell people to please leave a message, because you have
already paid the phone call and I don't know who to call back.
And the machine picks up too early, I might be at home.
...
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 21:11:22 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems ....
so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up the call
and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone whilst 'they are
leaving a message.
If its a Robotcall, it/they usually hang up whilst my "I'm not here,
leave a message" message is rattling off!Job done!
That works for me. It was humorous when I got a new machine and didn't
bother recording a message, leaving the generic female greeting that came with it. The first time my ex called and got the machine "You've got a
live in?" she asked.
On 12/10/25 07:12, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Wood, ie paper, does work pretty good for a lot
of things. However plastic is best at keeping
bacteria and such out of your lunch.
Or in it, depending.
Well, don't buy from that rusty Lunch Truck ! :-)
WAXED paper isn't bad ... combines many of the
preservation aspects of plastic with the bio-
goodness of paper. The paraffin wax is pretty
harmless.
However we DO need to re-think 'wood' ... too many
'eternal' forests are now forests of STUMPS. Wood
is just TOO attractive as a handy construction
material ... the trees sealed their own doom.
On 11/12/2025 1:57 pm, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 07:12, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Wood, ie paper, does work pretty good for a lot
of things. However plastic is best at keeping
bacteria and such out of your lunch.
Or in it, depending.
Well, don't buy from that rusty Lunch Truck ! :-)
WAXED paper isn't bad ... combines many of the
preservation aspects of plastic with the bio-
goodness of paper. The paraffin wax is pretty
harmless.
However we DO need to re-think 'wood' ... too many
'eternal' forests are now forests of STUMPS. Wood
is just TOO attractive as a handy construction
material ... the trees sealed their own doom.
As I've typed here-abouts before .... Logging Companies should be required to plant a tree (or two or three) for each three they cut down .... so in 30/40/50 years these new trees can be cut down .... to save what's left of our old forests.
The 'new' trees could be planted in straight lines to make harvesting easier.
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-08 18:41, Charlie Gibbs wrote:I'm twenty, and I regularly forget where I left something and go to look
On 2025-12-08, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
On 2025-12-08 05:08, c186282 wrote:
The perp had dug up JUST enough info about her to
be convincing ... that he was with the bank holding
her mortgage. If she didn't deposit large money
RIGHT NOW people would be there to seize her home
tomorrow !
The woman totally bought-in ... was in a panic,
determined to make more payments.
Things like this make me feel very sad.
Me too - but it shows that we should be willing to make
some effort to take responsibility for our actions.
This includes reminding ourselves that if something
appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.
It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
-- W.C. Fields
But with old people it is possible that they can not help being
"dumb". Dumber that they were.
Heck, yesterday I was walking around a beautiful spot with a river
(rivers are very uncommon where I live, nearly desert land, so I love
them). I took a photo from a spot some 20 meters higher, sent it to
some friends, then pocketed the phone. After maybe 200 meters walk, I
notice my phone is missing. I retrace my steps back to the tiny hill,
ask some kids there, and sure enough, they had found my phone. They
were seeking for how to find me. Nice kids. Thank you so much, etc.
Apparently I did not pocket the phone, but dropped it, and it did no
noise. I'm getting old, no longer smart.
for it... while I am holding it in my hand.
Not so sure it's age or intelligence, we're just human after all
On 12/12/2025 11:54 pm, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-12 11:11, Daniel70 wrote:
On 12/12/2025 9:07 am, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 13:35, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:28:49 -0500, c186282 wrote:
"Self" seems to appeal to Gen-Z especially - who have a documented >>>>>> phobia of dealing with other humans. Many won't
even answer a phone call. NOT sure where that came from ...
Covid fallout ???
I can live without much human interaction, thank you.
I can too but the reason phones are not answered unless there is
an identificable call is the frequency of robocalls.
For some unknown reason, the main fitting for my Landline phone is
in the main bedroom. (Who spends 24/7 in their bedroom?? Not even
the Elderly, I suspect.
When I first moved here and the phone rang, I'd make a mad dash
into the Bedroom and pick up the phone handset, only to find is was
a Scammer calling.
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems
.... so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up
the call and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone
whilst 'they are leaving a message.
I tried that in the 90's. Most friends and family aborted the call
when confronted by the machine. And the phones did not have call ID
back then.
I had to tell people to please leave a message, because you have
already paid the phone call and I don't know who to call back.
Sounds like good advise.
And the machine picks up too early, I might be at home.My machine gives variable number of rings before answering, 3, 6, and
...
12, I think.
Checkers were very decent vehicles - and intended to stand up to
urban taxi service uses. Huge 6 cyl towards the end as I remember.
On 13/12/2025 5:42 am, rbowman wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 21:11:22 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:Hey, have we got the same "generic female greeting"??
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems
....
so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up the call
and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone whilst 'they
are leaving a message.
If its a Robotcall, it/they usually hang up whilst my "I'm not here,
leave a message" message is rattling off!Job done!
That works for me. It was humorous when I got a new machine and didn't
bother recording a message, leaving the generic female greeting that
came with it. The first time my ex called and got the machine "You've
got a live in?" she asked.
Usually on a clear cut lot, there are lots and lots of "stumps" and
nobody gives a shit about those. That's why the field in that video is suspiciously "too good to be true". As the years pass, the stumps will
rot and be digested like normal. It's just the stumps are a hazard right after a clear cut session.
On 12/12/25 21:52, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On 2025-12-12 16:39, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
None of these worth importing to the USA because of Big Beautiful
Tariffs,.
Also, there is no dealer network and spareparts distribution. That is
the real showstopper; that is why Fiat could never be viable in the US:
N o matter what the problem was, the car would sit at the shop until
parts could come in from Europe. (A colleague back in Denmark has the
same issue when he bought a Jauar E-type.)
"Parts" are a BIG deal ... and one that most
overlook. Japan/Korea made sure you could get
parts rather easily ... but most EU makers
never did.
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:44:34 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
My current car has pressure sensors on the 4 wheels. I can read the
values in the dash display. I think the sensor is in the valve, with a
battery and a radio.
Yes. My car reports low pressure by turning on a light, but not the
pressure in each tire. The wheels with the studded tires don't have
sensors so the light is on during the winter.
When you bought new tires there was always a charge for new valve stems
that I thought was a bit of a scam. The first time I bought tires for a
car with sensors I thought they wouldn't charge for new stems. No, they charged for 'rebuilding' the sensors. I think you can replace the battery
in some, but not all, models so it still smells like a scam.
On 2025-12-12 06:49, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:2 tons. Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And steering was
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had
with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I >>>>> remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes
were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum >>>>> servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission
cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for braking
with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory >>>> kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the
pedals have different feeling, specially when the brake was not
assisted and I had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though.
Not over a ton.
Ah you are a European with sensible designers. In the USA a car that
weighed under a ton would be foreign made except for a few
lightweights back in the 1930s.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighed under >
real exercise and brakes were unassisted.Uff.
Did they crash often, I wonder? Difficult to stop a 2 ton box of metal
in time.
On 12/12/25 05:19, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-12 06:49, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:Uff.
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we had >>>>>> with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I >>>>>> remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the brakes >>>>>> were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally. Vacuum >>>>>> servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic transmission >>>>> cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for
braking with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle memory >>>>> kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake
instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the
pedals have different feeling, specially when the brake was not
assisted and I had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though.
Not over a ton.
Ah you are a European with sensible designers. In the USA a car that
weighed under a ton would be foreign made except for a few
lightweights back in the 1930s.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighed under
2 tons. Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And steering was
real exercise and brakes were unassisted.
Did they crash often, I wonder? Difficult to stop a 2 ton box of metal
in time.
We in the USA have many lighter cars now and we still have horrible multicar accidents usually caused by going faster than safe in bad conditions
which include road surfaces and visibility in heavy fogs or even storms.
We had accidents yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area involving
cars driving too fast in fog. On first responder saved his life by leaping out of the way but they still hit his leg.
In Sacramento, California in the years I was in HS 1951-1955 the authorities parked heavily damaged cars on significant street corners to
show the people and young people especially how driving badly could
end.
I don't know the current yearly death counts but not long ago
it was about the same as a medium war.
Tomahawks for the Ukraine.
bliss
Tomahawks for the Ukraine.
I still have not changed the rubbers on my current car. It has nearly
90000 Km, and I usually get around 95000 Km out of them. So I will find
that out soon. Within a year, probably.
On 11/12/2025 1:57 pm, c186282 wrote:
On 12/10/25 07:12, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 10/12/2025 12:03, c186282 wrote:
Wood, ie paper, does work pretty good for a lot
of things. However plastic is best at keeping
bacteria and such out of your lunch.
Or in it, depending.
Well, don't buy from that rusty Lunch Truck ! :-)
WAXED paper isn't bad ... combines many of the
preservation aspects of plastic with the bio-
goodness of paper. The paraffin wax is pretty
harmless.
However we DO need to re-think 'wood' ... too many
'eternal' forests are now forests of STUMPS. Wood
is just TOO attractive as a handy construction
material ... the trees sealed their own doom.
As I've typed here-abouts before .... Logging Companies should be
required to plant a tree (or two or three) for each three they cut
down .... so in 30/40/50 years these new trees can be cut down .... to
save what's left of our old forests.
The 'new' trees could be planted in straight lines to make harvesting easier.
There are a couple of the new 500s around town. I don't know how that's working out for the people.
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 02:08:27 -0500, c186282 wrote:
Checkers were very decent vehicles - and intended to stand up to
urban taxi service uses. Huge 6 cyl towards the end as I remember.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_Marathon
The Marathons were the civilian version but the taxi models were the same. The one he had when we were in high school must have had the Continental engine. The two after that had Chevrolet engines. I know the silver one
had a 283. Checker made the bodies but the engines and running gear were a crap shoot.
I was amused when some of the movies that wanted to show a seen in Translovakia of some other fictional eastern European country would use Checkers as a car not too many people outside of Chicago or NYC would recognize without taxicab livery.
My father in law was a rather strange person and the Checkers were just
the tip of the iceberg. It would like someone buying one of those strange looking British hackneys. I did have another friend whose father bought a Humber Super Snipe for obscure reasons.
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 21:16:22 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:
On 13/12/2025 5:42 am, rbowman wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 21:11:22 +1100, Daniel70 wrote:Hey, have we got the same "generic female greeting"??
So I brought one of those "Answer machine and Two handset" systems
....
so now, if I get a call, I can let the Answer machine pick up the call >>>> and then, if it's a Real call, I can pick up the phone whilst 'they
are leaving a message.
If its a Robotcall, it/they usually hang up whilst my "I'm not here,
leave a message" message is rattling off!Job done!
That works for me. It was humorous when I got a new machine and didn't
bother recording a message, leaving the generic female greeting that
came with it. The first time my ex called and got the machine "You've
got a live in?" she asked.
Probably. Its not quite robotic and probably is a clip spoken by a real
human but is very bland.
On 2025-12-13 10:06, c186282 wrote:
On 12/12/25 21:52, Lars Poulsen wrote:
On 2025-12-12 16:39, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
None of these worth importing to the USA because of Big Beautiful
Tariffs,.
Also, there is no dealer network and spareparts distribution. That is
the real showstopper; that is why Fiat could never be viable in the US:
N o matter what the problem was, the car would sit at the shop until
parts could come in from Europe. (A colleague back in Denmark has the
same issue when he bought a Jauar E-type.)
"Parts" are a BIG deal ... and one that most
overlook. Japan/Korea made sure you could get
parts rather easily ... but most EU makers
never did.
My father had an Austin 1300. Initially things were well, but then
Austin abandoned Spain, I don't know why. This would be in the late
70's. Spares became difficult or impossible to find, and we are talking about UK and Spain, not Japan. Not that far away. We used parts from
other brands, but better from junk yards.
The motor broke one teeth of the inertia wheel, that has teeth for the starter motor. One broke, so sometimes the starter would spin "empty".
We had to push the car with gear engaged for just a bit, then try the starter again.
I think the garage replaced the thing with a part from a Fiat. The
problem then became that the motor would get stuck. Different shape of teeth. Finally the garage man found a wheel at a junk yard. That worked fine.
On 2025-12-13 6:40 p.m., Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/12/25 05:19, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-12 06:49, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
On 12/11/25 18:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:under > 2 tons. Of course that time was over 68 years ago. And
On 2025-12-11 22:28, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:11:00 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The next car my father bought, a Peugeot 205, was the first we
had with
hydraulic clutch, same reservoir as the brakes. Bought maybe 1984. I >>>>>>> remember the first time I drove it, my father warned me the
brakes were
brutal. Yet I was surprised by them, the car stopped brutally.
Vacuum
servo-assist.
I don't think they do it as much anymore but automatic
transmission cars
used to have very wide brake pedals, presumably to allow for
braking with
your left foot. Brutal was when your manual transmission muscle
memory
kicked in, you attempted to hit the clutch pedal, and got the brake >>>>>> instead.
I never drove an automatic car.
I guess my left leg kicks differently than my right, because the
pedals have different feeling, specially when the brake was not
assisted and I had to push really hard (decades ago).
Steering was also an exercise. No servo. Cars were lighter, though. >>>>> Not over a ton.
Ah you are a European with sensible designers. In the USA a car
that weighed under a ton would be foreign made except for a few
lightweights back in the 1930s.
I do not think a family sedan such as my parents used weighed
steering was
real exercise and brakes were unassisted.Uff.
Did they crash often, I wonder? Difficult to stop a 2 ton box of
metal in time.
We in the USA have many lighter cars now and we still have horrible
multicar accidents usually caused by going faster than safe in bad
conditions
which include road surfaces and visibility in heavy fogs or even storms.
We had accidents yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area involving
cars driving too fast in fog. On first responder saved his life by
leaping
out of the way but they still hit his leg.
In Sacramento, California in the years I was in HS 1951-1955 the >> authorities parked heavily damaged cars on significant street corners to
show the people and young people especially how driving badly could
end.
I don't know the current yearly death counts but not long ago
it was about the same as a medium war.
Tomahawks for the Ukraine.
bliss
You must be blessed to have lived as long as you have. Good health to you.
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:40:02 -0800, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Tomahawks for the Ukraine.
https://zombietools.net/collections/blades/products/the-traumahawk
I went to their open house/barbecue a few years ago. The shop was
interesting with odd objects stuffed everywhere. The people, well... One
of the guys had painted his entire pickup with the stuff used for roll on
bed liners. Not a bad idea. My old truck could use a paint job and with
that stuff you don't have to worry about fisheyes, runs, dust, and so
forth.
That's about the only tomahawk the Ukraine can effectively use on their
own. I hope Zelensky has his one way ticket to Israel under his pillow.
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 07:00:19 -0500, Paul wrote:
Usually on a clear cut lot, there are lots and lots of "stumps" and
nobody gives a shit about those. That's why the field in that video is
suspiciously "too good to be true". As the years pass, the stumps will
rot and be digested like normal. It's just the stumps are a hazard right
after a clear cut session.
In this area, make that 'many years'. We had a bad fire in 2003 that took some areas down to mineral soil. Long after the fire stumps were still burning out the underground root systems. 22 years later you still have to
be careful off trail not to step in a pit. The areas were not replanted so there are very few trees.
The winter after the fire I went out snowshoeing and completely lost the trail that I had hiked often. You don't realize how much of a clue the
brush along a trail is until there isn't any. There was also a small
stretch with fairy slippers, a small orchid, that I liked as a sign of spring. The similar looking shooting stars have returned but not the fairy slippers. The corms have a relationship with soil fungus and that's all
gone.
The clear cuts here definitely don't look like a well prepared garden
plot. The technique of leaving a few seed trees wasn't effective either. There's nothing left to shelter seedlings.
The areas managed by the Forest Service have made out better. I've helped mark out a few timber sales. The trees to go are sprayed blue at breast height and the roots, the keepers orange. The lower paint is to keep
people honest since you can tell what was cut from the stump. Often though the sale is never bid on since selective harvesting is more expensive.
On 12/13/25 17:32, rbowman wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:40:02 -0800, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
Tomahawks for the Ukraine.
https://zombietools.net/collections/blades/products/the-traumahawk
I went to their open house/barbecue a few years ago. The shop was
interesting with odd objects stuffed everywhere. The people, well... One >> of the guys had painted his entire pickup with the stuff used for roll on
bed liners. Not a bad idea. My old truck could use a paint job and with
that stuff you don't have to worry about fisheyes, runs, dust, and so
forth.
That's about the only tomahawk the Ukraine can effectively use on their
own. I hope Zelensky has his one way ticket to Israel under his pillow.
With Tomahawks missles the Ukraine could bring the Putin war
home to the Russians. The military incursions could be brought to an end.
Why would Zelensky go to Israel? I hope he can retire to the Crimean peninsula.
Why would Zelensky go to Israel? I hope he can retire to the
Crimean peninsula.
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
| Location: | Appleton, WI |
| Users: | 1,090 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 159:59:00 |
| Calls: | 13,922 |
| Files: | 187,021 |
| D/L today: |
900 files (254M bytes) |
| Messages: | 2,457,305 |
