How (and why) to Ramble on your goat sideways
02-20-2019, 08:19 AM
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
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Pro tip: If you murdered a prostitute in 1993, do not toss napkins into trash bins at hockey games.
https://pix11.com/2019/02/19/he-thre...a-1993-murder/
https://pix11.com/2019/02/19/he-thre...a-1993-murder/
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02-20-2019, 08:30 AM
On the APC UPS
I left the unit outside for about 36 hours and pushed the test button. It was still alive. I pulled out the battery and it seems OK. The circuit in the front of the unit is crispy and still stinks. Battery is out to keep it from re-detonating while I wait to see if APC responds to my offer to ship it to them for evaluation.
I left the unit outside for about 36 hours and pushed the test button. It was still alive. I pulled out the battery and it seems OK. The circuit in the front of the unit is crispy and still stinks. Battery is out to keep it from re-detonating while I wait to see if APC responds to my offer to ship it to them for evaluation.
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02-20-2019, 09:40 AM
Moderator
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Location: Tampa, Florida
Posts: 20,652
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Cool tech:
https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2018/...pray-antennas/
(from the article)
https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2018/...pray-antennas/
(from the article)
The researchers, from the College's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, report that the MXene titanium carbide can be dissolved in water to create an ink or paint. The exceptional conductivity of the material enables it to transmit and direct radio waves, even when it's applied in a very thin coating.
"We found that even transparent antennas with thicknesses of tens of nanometers were able to communicate efficiently," said Asia Sarycheva, a doctoral candidate in the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and Materials Science and Engineering Department. "By increasing the thickness up to 8 microns, the performance of MXene antenna achieved 98 percent of its predicted maximum value."
Preserving transmission quality in a form this thin is significant because it would allow antennas to easily be embedded -- literally, sprayed on -- in a wide variety of objects and surfaces without adding additional weight or circuitry or requiring a certain level of rigidity.
"We found that even transparent antennas with thicknesses of tens of nanometers were able to communicate efficiently," said Asia Sarycheva, a doctoral candidate in the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and Materials Science and Engineering Department. "By increasing the thickness up to 8 microns, the performance of MXene antenna achieved 98 percent of its predicted maximum value."
Preserving transmission quality in a form this thin is significant because it would allow antennas to easily be embedded -- literally, sprayed on -- in a wide variety of objects and surfaces without adding additional weight or circuitry or requiring a certain level of rigidity.
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02-21-2019, 12:44 AM
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,026
Total Cats: 6,592
On the APC UPS
I left the unit outside for about 36 hours and pushed the test button. It was still alive. I pulled out the battery and it seems OK. The circuit in the front of the unit is crispy and still stinks. Battery is out to keep it from re-detonating while I wait to see if APC responds to my offer to ship it to them for evaluation.
I left the unit outside for about 36 hours and pushed the test button. It was still alive. I pulled out the battery and it seems OK. The circuit in the front of the unit is crispy and still stinks. Battery is out to keep it from re-detonating while I wait to see if APC responds to my offer to ship it to them for evaluation.
Humorous anecdote: The USB power adapter smoked while I was driving back to civilization after visiting the Oakbrook Tower, which is a building located sufficiently deep in the radioactive wasteland surrounding Chicago that it cannot be reached by subway, atop which we have a 2.1 Ghz receiver for the video feed from our helicopter when it's covering stories out in murderland.
Without really thinking about it, I placed the melted-but-now-cool adapter in my pocket as I got out of my car and entered the studio. (My own sense of smell having been numbed to it by that point.) Even after I tossed it into the trash can near the front entrance to the building (which is actually the side entrance, for reasons which are tedious, exhausting, and very loosely coupled to the failure of the Nixon administration), this brief period of contact was sufficient to cause three separate instances of "Do you smell something burning?" throughout the day.
RF is just ******* weird.
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It took me way longer than it should have to figure out what you are talking about.
02-21-2019, 08:32 PM
I swear. The next time I'm stopped at an intersection at a red light, and after my light turns green, and someone blazes thru said intersection as I'm proceeding into it....that person is going to suffer permanent psychological damage...as well as property damage....only after I stealthy follow them somewhere and park where they cannot see my car.
About got the **** t-boned out of me today. It wasn't the "oh I can make it thru the light" kinda red-light running....it was obviously "I'm not paying any ******* attention to anything while driving a 6-ton vehicle" blast thru an intersection. If the hair on the back on my neck didn't tell me to take one extra look as I proceeded, I'd surely be in the hospital right now. Some ---- in a truck...who when I did half step out of my car, was gestruing/lipping "I didn't see it [the light]. Sorry, but that's even more reason to set their **** on fire.
Ugh. Paying attention isn't that ******* hard. All these 'lane dectection' and "it'll stop for me" bullshit systems are making people phenomenally lazy.
About got the **** t-boned out of me today. It wasn't the "oh I can make it thru the light" kinda red-light running....it was obviously "I'm not paying any ******* attention to anything while driving a 6-ton vehicle" blast thru an intersection. If the hair on the back on my neck didn't tell me to take one extra look as I proceeded, I'd surely be in the hospital right now. Some ---- in a truck...who when I did half step out of my car, was gestruing/lipping "I didn't see it [the light]. Sorry, but that's even more reason to set their **** on fire.
Ugh. Paying attention isn't that ******* hard. All these 'lane dectection' and "it'll stop for me" bullshit systems are making people phenomenally lazy.
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02-21-2019, 08:39 PM
Also see: Why i don't actually have transportation at the moment. The minty FZJ80 Land Cruiser i bought for my wife got t boned by some braindead piece of **** an easy 5 seconds after the light changed a whole 5.5 months after i bought it.
So now she's driving my 4Runner. And i have nothing.
So now she's driving my 4Runner. And i have nothing.
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02-22-2019, 06:01 AM
I get particularly irritated when someone jeopardizes my property and safety in one fell swoop of sheer, ignorant stupidity. I don't get mad to the point of changing my intended route over little **** (which covers a lot of stuff). Like the jackass who was 9.3527" off of my bumper on the interstate when traffic in all lanes was stagnant....all moving at the same pace. I had a car next to me, and was following the car in front of me at a reasonable distance for doing 60-65mph. My retaliation was to lightly apply my brake lights, not actually hit them....pretty much brake-boosting....for a few hundred feet. Eventually, the fuckwad hung back, then proceeded to swerve in and out of lanes in an attempt to get ahead, and ended up cutting from the far right all the way right in front of me by a few feet, in the left lane. I saw it coming and already had my foot lightly on the brake, and sure enough Sir Assalot attempted a light brake check on me....but I had already fallen back some so I wouldn't have to jam the brakes and potentially cause a chain-reaction behind me.
Why did I make the choice to not go from "0 to I've ******* had it" in 0.05 seconds?
Because in any potential situation, I visually assess the type of car, the condition of the car, and when possible- the type of person who's driving it. There are some people, regardless of how much they put me at risk, I will not **** with. Dude in the beat-*** Crown Vic? Yeah no...I'll pass and hope they die of liver failure (I'd likely to call in a suspected DUI). Busted *** Camry? Nah, it'll wrap itself around a tree. Same for other **** box cars in poor condition- pretty much any Chrysler-branded car, or econobox that's beat up on multiple sides. Lifted obnoxious truck that's a cross of redneck and ghetto donk? Nope.... they're extra stupid...and probably armed. Suburban spoiled bitch or emotionless-faced office worker dude in their Armada or Escalade or boring luxury sedan? Game on if you put me in enough risk that I wouldn't be driving my car home and/or EMS would need to be called if I hadn't been quick enough to avoid them.
It's sad that being an attentive driver is what causes so much frustration- because it's a matter of keeping awareness in front, beside, and behind. To see all the stupid **** is an unfortunate side-effect. Personally, I take driving as a game of chess- watching what's currently going on and accessing what is likely going to happen next- what chain of events it might cause. For example: one person making a lane change with no signal and technically cutting off the person behind them...and the likelihood of either blinkerlessassbag darting over again, or the person who was cut off deciding to suddenly change lanes to not be behind them....and suddenly people hitting brakes in panic of a car making a sudden lane change. Or watching who is properly keeping up with traffic, and who the "sympathetic braker"- the person who randomly taps the brakes constantly either for no reason, or because a car in another lane tapped their brakes for no reason...again causing people to make rash decisions to hit the brakes for real or change lanes with no forethought. Or watching for the grabastic pieces of amphibian **** who are clearly about to ride all the way to the end of a merging lane/line of stopped traffic and come to a stop (blocking traffic of a moving lane in the latter case) and expect to shove their way in because they couldn't be bothered, and would have likely died, if they had merged properly 6 cars back. Let alone the people who dive across multiple lanes of traffic 20ft from an exit/intersection with no regard for the existence of any other object in the universe...because missing a turn will absolutely result in time coming to a stop and a sudden death with a trip to hell.
Why did I make the choice to not go from "0 to I've ******* had it" in 0.05 seconds?
Because in any potential situation, I visually assess the type of car, the condition of the car, and when possible- the type of person who's driving it. There are some people, regardless of how much they put me at risk, I will not **** with. Dude in the beat-*** Crown Vic? Yeah no...I'll pass and hope they die of liver failure (I'd likely to call in a suspected DUI). Busted *** Camry? Nah, it'll wrap itself around a tree. Same for other **** box cars in poor condition- pretty much any Chrysler-branded car, or econobox that's beat up on multiple sides. Lifted obnoxious truck that's a cross of redneck and ghetto donk? Nope.... they're extra stupid...and probably armed. Suburban spoiled bitch or emotionless-faced office worker dude in their Armada or Escalade or boring luxury sedan? Game on if you put me in enough risk that I wouldn't be driving my car home and/or EMS would need to be called if I hadn't been quick enough to avoid them.
It's sad that being an attentive driver is what causes so much frustration- because it's a matter of keeping awareness in front, beside, and behind. To see all the stupid **** is an unfortunate side-effect. Personally, I take driving as a game of chess- watching what's currently going on and accessing what is likely going to happen next- what chain of events it might cause. For example: one person making a lane change with no signal and technically cutting off the person behind them...and the likelihood of either blinkerlessassbag darting over again, or the person who was cut off deciding to suddenly change lanes to not be behind them....and suddenly people hitting brakes in panic of a car making a sudden lane change. Or watching who is properly keeping up with traffic, and who the "sympathetic braker"- the person who randomly taps the brakes constantly either for no reason, or because a car in another lane tapped their brakes for no reason...again causing people to make rash decisions to hit the brakes for real or change lanes with no forethought. Or watching for the grabastic pieces of amphibian **** who are clearly about to ride all the way to the end of a merging lane/line of stopped traffic and come to a stop (blocking traffic of a moving lane in the latter case) and expect to shove their way in because they couldn't be bothered, and would have likely died, if they had merged properly 6 cars back. Let alone the people who dive across multiple lanes of traffic 20ft from an exit/intersection with no regard for the existence of any other object in the universe...because missing a turn will absolutely result in time coming to a stop and a sudden death with a trip to hell.
Last edited by Doppelgänger; 02-22-2019 at 07:11 AM.
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02-22-2019, 09:04 AM
Elite Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: OKC, OK
Posts: 3,693
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You should come drive in OKC. We are so spread out, running red lights is practically a given. When the the light turns green, look both ways, wait, look both ways again, then go. I can't tell you how many times I've nearly been rear ended when I DIDN'T run a red light. And I've only been here 2 years.
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02-22-2019, 09:48 AM
Boost Pope
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Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
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Chicago has a similarly high preponderance of red-light runners, though of course traffic a bit denser here.
One of the most annoying problems is that left-turn arrows are uncommon, even at the largest of multi-lane intersections. So cars wanting to left turn generally are stuck waiting, out in the middle of the intersection until after the straight-through oncoming traffic have finished running their red light, and THEN a half-dozen left-turning cars will proceed to run their red light, long after the cross-lane lights have gone green. As a result of this, even at those few intersections which do have a dedicated left-green light, you usually can't take advantage of it because the intersection is still full of red-light-runners by the time your green arrow goes out.
One of the most annoying problems is that left-turn arrows are uncommon, even at the largest of multi-lane intersections. So cars wanting to left turn generally are stuck waiting, out in the middle of the intersection until after the straight-through oncoming traffic have finished running their red light, and THEN a half-dozen left-turning cars will proceed to run their red light, long after the cross-lane lights have gone green. As a result of this, even at those few intersections which do have a dedicated left-green light, you usually can't take advantage of it because the intersection is still full of red-light-runners by the time your green arrow goes out.
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02-22-2019, 10:07 AM
Elite Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: OKC, OK
Posts: 3,693
Total Cats: 222
I haven't driven in Chicago, but have in NYC/San Diego/Nashville/etc, many other large cities, and I've just never seen so many people so consistently run red lights as I have here.
Poorly designed traffic infrastructure + 2nd largest city in the country by land area = constant red light runners.
Poorly designed traffic infrastructure + 2nd largest city in the country by land area = constant red light runners.
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02-22-2019, 03:53 PM
I once drove across Oklahoma...never again lol I could imagine the mentality of "**** it, there's no one around".
Joe- Run into that all over....even where there is a turn light, 5 more cars run it. But in such cases, other traffic is stopped and waiting. It is irritating. But wholly ****, blasting thru a red light at 45 mph 5 seconds after it has turned, and cross-traffic's light has been green for 3-4 seconds is flat out retarded....would love to see that car do it and hit the side of a semi trailer.
Joe- Run into that all over....even where there is a turn light, 5 more cars run it. But in such cases, other traffic is stopped and waiting. It is irritating. But wholly ****, blasting thru a red light at 45 mph 5 seconds after it has turned, and cross-traffic's light has been green for 3-4 seconds is flat out retarded....would love to see that car do it and hit the side of a semi trailer.
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02-22-2019, 03:58 PM
I once drove across Oklahoma...never again lol I could imagine the mentality of "**** it, there's no one around".
Joe- Run into that all over....even where there is a turn light, 5 more cars run it. But in such cases, other traffic is stopped and waiting. It is irritating. But wholly ****, blasting thru a red light at 45 mph 5 seconds after it has turned, and cross-traffic's light has been green for 3-4 seconds is flat out retarded....would love to see that car do it and hit the side of a semi trailer.
Joe- Run into that all over....even where there is a turn light, 5 more cars run it. But in such cases, other traffic is stopped and waiting. It is irritating. But wholly ****, blasting thru a red light at 45 mph 5 seconds after it has turned, and cross-traffic's light has been green for 3-4 seconds is flat out retarded....would love to see that car do it and hit the side of a semi trailer.
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