Does anyone else find this disturbing?

[Chuck(G)]

An embarrassing amount of the equipment I worked on was pre-WW II stuff, but most was post-war. Heck, we still used 25 Hz AC power distribution in a lot of areas. If you've never had to work under mercury vapor lighting running from 25 Hz, you haven't missed much

 

[Gary C]

Flickery ~!

I do miss the low pressure sodium's. With LED white lighting, everything is so stark. Mind you at my old coal power station, hardly any lights worked and any that did had their light absorbed by the general blackness of all the oil and coal dust smeared on almost every surface in the boiler house.

This plant was built in the 60's so no prewar stuff, but no digital either. Stuff you really could fix.

Zirconia oxygen sensor replacements were one of my favourite jobs. An 8 ft probe into an exhaust duct from a 1000MW furnace with the end heated to 800°C, held in the duct by a four bolt flange and counter weight on the outside. Replacement on load meant thick gauntlets that would smoke like crazy as you pulled the probe out, while stood on a 5ft sq platform, 20ft in the air desperate to put it down across the hand rail before the heat soaked through to your hands.

Epic memories.

Mind you, getting showered in molten metal from a carbon arc cutting tool when on a scaffold also sticks firmly in my mind.

 

[Dwight Elvey]

Understanding file directory structure isn't too hard but keeping it clean is a pain. As an example, say I need to convert a program from Hex to binary format. I know I could search the web for such a thing but I could also download some malware or even a virus. It is not a complicated operation, so I write one, tuned to the particular application I'm working on. In one case, a 16 byte HEX line is desired, as it is easier to examine and edit. In another case, 32 byte lines are preferred.
So, I write or modify another program I've written and place it in the current work directory. The problem now is that I have maybe 6 versions of the program. I dumbly use the same name for all of them. When I need one, I do a search and then have to look at each one to see if it is the one I'd like to use. About half are essentially the same but some have special features, like organizing sections into easily recognizable blocks based on the data.
What I'm saying is I'd like there to be a program to sort the programs out into some kind of order, even though, they may be in different directories. I don't like programs that have complex command line structures. I'd rather like to find a way to sort them out based on their purpose for being unique.
On to another subject, fixing your own car.
When disk breaks first became popular, places would charge more for replacing pads then shoes. It was a scam. Disk breaks are easier to work on, even the ones with mix parking brakes. Then most all shops want to turn the disk rotor. They rarely need this done. Even a badly grooved disk will function fine. The pads will quickly conform. If the disk has varied thickness around the disk, it needs to be turned.
Drum breaks are a pain. Fighting springs is a pain, even with the proper tools. Drums often do need to be turned or replaced.
Changing oil is a pain. One needs to deal with the oil removed in an environmentally correct way.
Even changing spark plugs has gotten to be a pain. A transverse mounted V6 will often need to intake manifold to be removed to get at the back set ( I got one of those ). I like watching the repair videos. I saw what one needed to go through to replace spark plugs on a Mercedes. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen ( what a pile of junk, they call engineering ). While fixing ones own car is a good thing, it has more huddles today than ever before.
Dwight

 

[Gary C]

Know what you mean about disk brakes. My Impreza STi was in for a service and they quoted me £1500 for new front disks and pads.

Thing is, being Brembo four piston opposed calipers, you only had to knock out a couple of pins and the pads literally fall out.

 

[tradde]

Disk brakes are quite easy to work on. As the above post says you just need to pop out two pins and the pads should slide out. My Dad being a mechanic taught me that rotors rarely needed to be turned. Unless severely gouged by pads with no "pad" left then the rivets might score the rotor. Or if the rotor is warped from heat then they either need turning or replacing. There is a stamping of minimum thickness somewhere on the rotor. I hated drums, but they are not hard to work on once you get used to it. Yes, oil changing often leaves you with the unused oil sitting in containers and not certain where you can take it.

 

[Agent Orange]

Crazy prices aren't just limited to brakes. A day or so ago there was a pretty good snow storm, I think it was named Milan, hit the greater Detroit area. A few cars found the birms on I-75 north and needed wrecker service. One lady received an itemized charge of over $9,000. After much bad publicity, the tow truck outfit settled for $2,000. Some of the other wrecker companies wouldn't even respond to calls from the tv station.

 

[tradde]

How could a tow cost anywhere near that much? Even the lowered amount is not proper. A few hundred dollars I might expect. I have had my car towed due to a flat tire and the stupid tire seal crap didn't work. Heck it didn't even spray out into the tire. No real spare in this car. I think it cost me $150 from my house to the tire place.
Some of it depends on how far she is towed too. Cross country?

 

[VERAULT]

This is why we still have AAA. practically unlimited towing with a max distance of 350 miles. i have to pay extra for my wifes plan and extra for the motorcycle... i have used them to open locked cars, bring gas when empty, jump dead batteries.. an dplenty of tows.. on avg in Connecticut a tow is $400 to $500.. so memeber ship is worth it.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Some idiot ran off the driveway and into the mud at my home. AAA came and towed the SUV out, free, no questions asked, even though the car wasn't mine.

 

[VERAULT]

yeah that really depends on the driver.. not AAA. i got motorcycle coverage because although i was a member. i called the. they sent a tow. he wouldnt pickup my bike because i didnt have "AAA motorcycle coverage" he was just a local wrecker driver. he could have done it. he chosw not to. again some drivers are better than others. that aside i still think its really worth it.

 

[Slob]

Right now, I'm having to teach a PhD about Zip-compressed files...

I have seen a remarkable decline in self-sufficiency and even common sense among young people. This has profound effects in a society. I have read that "Home Improvement" type stores are panicking because young homeowners can't do ANY home maintenance, like, fix a toilet, change a faucet, change a door lock/knob, etc. And yet on homes made in the last 30 years, this is practically child's play.

 

[Slob]

I think we can split that kind of knowledge into 3 levels:

1. Doing your own brake job
2. Knowing how to do a break job
3. Basic hands-on skill and logic skills to figure out how to do a brake job if you need to

IMO "we" have failed to teach #3 enough - in many areas.
Of course, it takes a bit of #1 in similar areas to get there.

If I ran the world, there would be middle & high school classes on:

• Household finance basics
• Business basics (incl. how taxes in businesses work)
• Personal tax basics
• Shop class (auto, wood, machine)
• How Stuff Works
• Troubleshooting
• Conflict resolution
• Applied Logical thinking
• Applied Critical Thinking
• Practical Statistics - and how they can mislead
• How to get to the truth - how our brains work, biases, assumptions

Oh - I gotta go, the big and and little hand say I need to get back to work!

I would say that a good number of adults, particularly young adults, need those classes as remedial classes.

 

[tradde]

Wouldn't their home repair department like that? I guess it would not help on sales though. But I can believe it.

 

[twolazy]

Thankfully I did a good job with jr. Currently rebuilding his b18 acura engine together. Now only if I can get him into electronic repair... LOL. But I am happy he has that spark of curiousity that I have, and thats all I care. Now if he just do his chores hahhaha!

Funny enough Chuck, I have the same truck most part, and refuse to get rid of it! 94 here with a 351w. Super easy to work on most part. Wish they still made trucks like them. Only complaint I have is the gas millage.

 

[rmay635703]

Disk brakes are quite easy to work on. As the above post says you just need to pop out two pins and the pads should slide out. My Dad being a mechanic taught me that rotors rarely needed to be turned. Unless severely gouged by pads with no "pad" left then the rivets might score the rotor. Or if the rotor is warped from heat then they either need turning or replacing. There is a stamping of minimum thickness somewhere on the rotor. I hated drums, but they are not hard to work on once you get used to it. Yes, oil changing often leaves you with the unused oil sitting in containers and not certain where you can take it.

Easy to work on but easy to get messed up where they want to stick, clean slides, bleed, lube month later stick adding drag.

My Volt is notoriously hard to keep them free and not sticking slightly

 

[tradde]

Easy to work on but easy to get messed up where they want to stick, clean slides, bleed, lube month later stick adding drag.

My Volt is notoriously hard to keep them free and not sticking slightly

Never had a problem with any disk brake I worked on. Pistons slightly rusted? Doesn't take much to keep them from retracting a bit as they are supposed to.

 

[whartung]

I have seen a remarkable decline in self-sufficiency and even common sense among young people.

Well, that's your first mistake.

Common sense is not common.

I remember, being in my mid- to late-20s talking with my father, and mentioning something about how I never knew that Representatives were voted in to office every 2 years.

He was, essentially, disappointed and dismayed that I had only recently realized this, but I didn't take a "Government" class is High School (instead, I spent my senior year learning about Lincoln).

Similarly, I was watching a partial solar eclipse and a lady in her late 30's came up to me curious about what was happening and how did it work.

 

[tradde]

Well, how about Rep Gohmert asking if we could change the moon's orbit to help with climate change? This would normally be taken as a joke, but I am pretty sure he really meant it. And he's in Congress? Scary.

I was at the doctor's office back in December. And it was the 7th. While leaving I mentioned to the receptionist that "it was a bad day". She looked at me oddly and asked why? I said "The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on this day in 1941". She continued to look at me oddly. Guess they don't teach history any more or the students don't pay attention or don't care. Once again scary.

 

[Dwight Elvey]

Each day, the moon takes more rotational energy from the Earth than all of the nuclear bombs set of on earth. Doing that, it move about 1.5 inch further away from the Earth, in one years time. Gohmert would try to move it him self. One does wonder what use it would be to reducing the amount of green house gas building up in the atmosphere.

 

[Grandcheapskate]

If I was a member of an alien race and wanted to make the people of Earth a slave race, I would get them reliant on technology and wait until there are very few who understand how to do the task without the use of technology (let's say using a road map instead of GPS). Then pull the technology away and watch the silly humans walk around like zombies.

I do have sympathy for those who cannot understand new technology. I tried to help a friend whose laptop is running Windows 10 and I could not figure out how to do even the most menial task. And as I use to say during my working days in IT, I simply have no desire to spend my time learning a new way to do the same thing.

Joe