How (and why) to Ramble on your goat sideways
Ugh.
So back in Feb. I was driving on a road that has various passing zones, you know, the ones where your lane opens up into two lanes in your direction to ease congestion. Well, I was on such a road and had a bad driver in front of me, I got a passing zone, made the pass and moved back into the right lane. As I got close to the end of the passing zone, the truck that was behind me decided to overtake and go speeding past me to "beat" me to the end of the passing lane. Just as he did so, we passed a county sheriff, whose radar was running. The truck noticed him and slammed on the brakes, and in response to his sudden evasive maneuver, I applied my brakes in anticipation of not knowing what he was doing. This is when I noticed the sheriff going in the opposite direction with brakes on and blue lights flashing. I knew what happened. The officer turns around and passes me and pulls the truck over. As I approach, the officer waves me to pull over too. He says he "saw us side by side" when his radar went off and issued me (and the truck) a citation for 81 in a 55.
Go to court, a bench trial, and long story short, blow the officer out of the water trying to prove that the the truck and I were doing the same speed. You know, questions like "how long did you observe the two vehicles side-by-side?" and "at about what distance in front of you were the vehicles in question?" and "could you definitively see if one vehicle was ahead or behind the other at the distance and time you observed this?". All of these questions were met with "I don't know" or "I can't say" from the officer. Basically I made him prove that he couldn't prove that both vehicles were going the same speed at the same time he looked at us after seeing his radar display a reading. Yet, I was still found guilty "because the officer saw you side-by-side" by the judge.
So today I go speak with an attorney to see if I have anything to appeal....and pretty much I don't because no legal errors were made in court. Talk about being disappointed in the legal system.....I hope that judge slides off a desolate road in the middle of the night and suffers painful injuries for an extended period of time before keeling over.
So back in Feb. I was driving on a road that has various passing zones, you know, the ones where your lane opens up into two lanes in your direction to ease congestion. Well, I was on such a road and had a bad driver in front of me, I got a passing zone, made the pass and moved back into the right lane. As I got close to the end of the passing zone, the truck that was behind me decided to overtake and go speeding past me to "beat" me to the end of the passing lane. Just as he did so, we passed a county sheriff, whose radar was running. The truck noticed him and slammed on the brakes, and in response to his sudden evasive maneuver, I applied my brakes in anticipation of not knowing what he was doing. This is when I noticed the sheriff going in the opposite direction with brakes on and blue lights flashing. I knew what happened. The officer turns around and passes me and pulls the truck over. As I approach, the officer waves me to pull over too. He says he "saw us side by side" when his radar went off and issued me (and the truck) a citation for 81 in a 55.
Go to court, a bench trial, and long story short, blow the officer out of the water trying to prove that the the truck and I were doing the same speed. You know, questions like "how long did you observe the two vehicles side-by-side?" and "at about what distance in front of you were the vehicles in question?" and "could you definitively see if one vehicle was ahead or behind the other at the distance and time you observed this?". All of these questions were met with "I don't know" or "I can't say" from the officer. Basically I made him prove that he couldn't prove that both vehicles were going the same speed at the same time he looked at us after seeing his radar display a reading. Yet, I was still found guilty "because the officer saw you side-by-side" by the judge.
So today I go speak with an attorney to see if I have anything to appeal....and pretty much I don't because no legal errors were made in court. Talk about being disappointed in the legal system.....I hope that judge slides off a desolate road in the middle of the night and suffers painful injuries for an extended period of time before keeling over.
So after a week of troubleshooting with a client on their daily data file. I had to convince them on their internal process converting unix to dos was the issue. They swore up and down that nothing had changed on their end all week, pointing fingers back at us.
I finally got the guy to explain how his files were being created internally and they mentioned the conversion.
The unix to dos on their end was adding a EOF '1a' hex character at the end of the file causing our process to break.
Feeling victorious!
I finally got the guy to explain how his files were being created internally and they mentioned the conversion.
The unix to dos on their end was adding a EOF '1a' hex character at the end of the file causing our process to break.
Feeling victorious!
Justice sucks sometimes...
If it had been a city officer where I went to court, I would probably agree. But it was a county sheriff and a new-ish bitch judge.....
According to the officer and the judge, the person was indeed doing 100mph too. That's the point I made in court.
According to the officer and the judge, the person was indeed doing 100mph too. That's the point I made in court.
JK... Points suck.
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Posts: 3,214
Total Cats: 1,687
Tackling a new project: headlight lenses.
Encouraged by the successful result I had with my prior vacuforming endeavor, I have decided to fab new headlight lenses out of 2mm polycarbonate.
I have already built a vacuum forming table that is big enough for the headlights, and bought the polycarbonate board and had it cut to proper size pieces for the job.
Getting the correct plaster for the mold was tough, so I ended up buying 10 kg of dental mold plaster. Very hard surface, and shows great detail.
I am thinking about treating the mold surface with CA when it dries completely.
I found a University study where they achieved great results with CA as a surface hardener for plaster molds.
Polycarbonate MUST be dried to get rid of the inherent moisture, or you get thousands of tiny bubbles in the final product. I experimented with drying times, and 2.5 hours at around 125C seems perfect.
Let's hope I can pull this off..
I will definitely make a couple extra sets if all goes OK, in case anything happens in the future.
Those headlights are damn expensive.... and then, there's shipping charges to Turkey.
Encouraged by the successful result I had with my prior vacuforming endeavor, I have decided to fab new headlight lenses out of 2mm polycarbonate.
I have already built a vacuum forming table that is big enough for the headlights, and bought the polycarbonate board and had it cut to proper size pieces for the job.
Getting the correct plaster for the mold was tough, so I ended up buying 10 kg of dental mold plaster. Very hard surface, and shows great detail.
I am thinking about treating the mold surface with CA when it dries completely.
I found a University study where they achieved great results with CA as a surface hardener for plaster molds.
Polycarbonate MUST be dried to get rid of the inherent moisture, or you get thousands of tiny bubbles in the final product. I experimented with drying times, and 2.5 hours at around 125C seems perfect.
Let's hope I can pull this off..
I will definitely make a couple extra sets if all goes OK, in case anything happens in the future.
Those headlights are damn expensive.... and then, there's shipping charges to Turkey.
Actually, I did. I initially told the officer I was going 60-63mph. In court, he told the judge I said I was doing 65...I did correct him in front of the judge. The officer also said the road was straight and level, and again I had to correct him that it was the crest of a hill and that it limited forward visibility/time available to watch oncoming traffic. I know its a couple small details, but details make up the big picture. More or less, I was hoping the officer's recollection wasn't as accurate as it should have been...further proving his credibility of what actually happened.
Last edited by Doppelgänger; 05-08-2015 at 06:54 PM.
Having commuted over 110 miles per day (round trip) for 11 years, I consequently racked up quite a few citations, and used to fight every single one of them. The only real hope was that the cop wouldn't show. If he did show, no matter how much he (or I) lied or exaggerated, his testimony was always believed over my own. That's just the way it is.
The good news is that, overall, I enjoyed a better than 1 in 3 chance that the cop wouldn't show up for court, i.e. case dismissed!
Well yeah, just follow the cop felon thread for a day and you'll see that cops are more corrupt than the government.. and you're trying to clear your name against both of them together.
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iTrader: (2)
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Location: Istanbul, Turkey
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Spent the afternoon removing one headlight, disassembling/cleaning the lens and getting it ready for casting plaster.
The shape of the lens presents the biggest challenge so far.
It is very much like a deranged fishing boat, the far ends are considerably high (and uneven) than the sides. That means it is impossible to fill it to the brim with a liquid.
So, I came up with a bastardized rotomolding method to get the plaster evenly on the actual surface that is visible when the headlight is assembled.
Once that was covered, I tilted the headlight one way or the other as I poured the next batch of plaster.
I poured the successive batches pretty quickly so the final mold would not have layers - plaster bonds beautifully while it's still somewhat liquid.
The first "trial cast" is drying as we speak. It gives off a ton of heat!
I have discovered a couple bubbles on the smooth transparent surface, but I can deal with it later.
I will start a thread on this if it turns out to be a success.
Hell, I could even sell some at m.net...
Oh, Czubaka/Gregg, I got your message.. Thank you!
The shape of the lens presents the biggest challenge so far.
It is very much like a deranged fishing boat, the far ends are considerably high (and uneven) than the sides. That means it is impossible to fill it to the brim with a liquid.
So, I came up with a bastardized rotomolding method to get the plaster evenly on the actual surface that is visible when the headlight is assembled.
Once that was covered, I tilted the headlight one way or the other as I poured the next batch of plaster.
I poured the successive batches pretty quickly so the final mold would not have layers - plaster bonds beautifully while it's still somewhat liquid.
The first "trial cast" is drying as we speak. It gives off a ton of heat!
I have discovered a couple bubbles on the smooth transparent surface, but I can deal with it later.
I will start a thread on this if it turns out to be a success.
Hell, I could even sell some at m.net...
Oh, Czubaka/Gregg, I got your message.. Thank you!
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,030
Total Cats: 6,594
Art class girl loses eight fingers after putting hands in plaster of Paris - Mirror Online
That's pretty terrible, reminds me of the story I heard of a student with contact lenses around airborne formaldehyde gas but I guess that one isn't all that true. My Biology teacher sure told quite the story though, she must hate contacts...
snopes.com: Contact Lenses Fused to Eyes
snopes.com: Contact Lenses Fused to Eyes
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Tampa, Florida
Posts: 20,656
Total Cats: 3,011
I just got an email from a customer of mine. What's the best way to send large sums of money to the Ukraine?
How are you today?
Sorry for any inconvenience, but I'm in a terrible situation. I came down here to Ukraine for a program and last night on my way back to my hotel room, I was robbed at gunpoint. My wallet and other valuables were stolen off me, leaving me with only my passport. My luggage is still in custody of the hotel management pending when I make payment on outstanding bills I owe. I contacted my bank (E-mail) for a wire transfer but it has proven impossible to operate my account from here as they made me understand international transaction takes seven (7) working days to be effective which I can't wait. I need you to help me with a loan to pay my hotel bills and get my self home.
I will reimburse you soon as I get back home. Please let me know if you can be of help.
All hopes on you.
Thank You,
xxxxx xxxxxxx
Sorry for any inconvenience, but I'm in a terrible situation. I came down here to Ukraine for a program and last night on my way back to my hotel room, I was robbed at gunpoint. My wallet and other valuables were stolen off me, leaving me with only my passport. My luggage is still in custody of the hotel management pending when I make payment on outstanding bills I owe. I contacted my bank (E-mail) for a wire transfer but it has proven impossible to operate my account from here as they made me understand international transaction takes seven (7) working days to be effective which I can't wait. I need you to help me with a loan to pay my hotel bills and get my self home.
I will reimburse you soon as I get back home. Please let me know if you can be of help.
All hopes on you.
Thank You,
xxxxx xxxxxxx