Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[ScoobsMcGee]

Originally Posted by cjd

Today is a new day. I've spent the last two days unraveling bad decisions made by all sorts, both in and outside the company. Now maybe... Maybe I can move forward.


I can't wait to see what stupid decision I trip over next. Probably minutes away, lurking in dark corners hiding from the sun... Probably having tea with the neighborhood grue.

Related: If someone is the type of person to keep all of your passwords and logons in a single unprotected Excel spreadsheet, with URLs leading to the logon pages, please at least don't name it "PASSWORDS.xlsx" and save it to the root of your OneDrive. Please. Just... please don't.

Originally Posted by Tcoat

The top trim in the 17 is not available in a MT (in Canada at any rate).
It only comes with the new CVT. At first I didn't like that idea at all but the new gen CVT is miles ahead of the old ones. It actually has artificial shift pints built in when in auto which does away with that creepy acceleration without RPM changes feel. The paddle shifters are very responsive and you would never even know that it was a CVT. Not that I would ever prefer it but if it has to have one it is vastly better than the old ones.

Sounds similar to the CVT in a Legacy I drove not too long ago. They really aren't bad at all. I recall the first time a friend drove a rented Juke with a CVT. He pulled over on the highway and called me because he thought he broke the car since it didn't shift while merging.

I just really like 3 pedals, and I guess don't face enough traffic to be annoyed by it.

[JD001]

Originally Posted by cjd

Today is a new day. I've spent the last two days unraveling bad decisions made by all sorts, both in and outside the company. Now maybe... Maybe I can move forward.


I can't wait to see what stupid decision I trip over next. Probably minutes away, lurking in dark corners hiding from the sun... Probably having tea with the neighborhood grue.

Need examples of "bad decisions"? Having tea with the local friendly neighborhood guru is never a good decision...

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by JD001

Is this really coming in 2020??? Looks interesting..

I thought this would come out first but it's been 30 some years.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHK9su11mEA[/ame]


At least we kinda got this one in the guise of Lexus SC400 / Toyota Soarer and too bad Nissan went bankrupted.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpzBga36rYM[/ame]

[Ultramaroon]

RIP Aretha. God bless you and yours.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by JD001

Need examples of "bad decisions"? Having tea with the local friendly neighborhood guru is never a good decision...

GRUE. They hide in dark spots.


Hard coding environment to production in a base docker image... Guess what database was briefly available for wrecking in test?!

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by cjd

GRUE. They hide in dark spots.


Hard coding environment to production in a base docker image... Guess what database was briefly available for wrecking in test?!

Oh the base docker image is indeed horrible



Gru in dockers would be horrid

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

For those of you that think car parts are expensive....

Below is a quote I received for the rebuild of a Lycoming O-360-A4A engine in a Cherokee 180 I'm considering in some "horse trading". The engine is a horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engine with 180HP at 2700RPM.

By the way, the overhaul costs more than what the plane is worth as it sits even though it is a perfectly serviceable airplane you could fly cross the US in today if you wanted to. The good news is that this increases the value of the plane almost $ for $ what you spend, until you fly it an hour of course and then you get to deduct about $10 for every hour you fly since the engine has a 2,000 hour TBO (time between overhaul).

I had a long conversation with a man about this the other day. He had bought an 80k plane with 500 hours on the engine (more on the rest, of course). He flew it 1000 hours. It had 500 hours left. He sold the plane as is for essentially 1/4 of the engine rebuild price. These small planes go down way too often to screw around with.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

The top trim in the 17 is not available in a MT (in Canada at any rate).
It only comes with the new CVT. At first I didn't like that idea at all but the new gen CVT is miles ahead of the old ones. It actually has artificial shift pints built in when in auto which does away with that creepy acceleration without RPM changes feel. The paddle shifters are very responsive and you would never even know that it was a CVT. Not that I would ever prefer it but if it has to have one it is vastly better than the old ones.

Why would you want artificial shift points? That just makes the car slower and less efficient. Floor it? Stick the car at the torque peak and stay there. Efficiency? Drop RPMs to the most efficient rpm for the load.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...-the-best-one/

It doesn't even have to drone. If you know the car is going to sit exactly at 6700 RPM for most of it's life, you can design the intake and exhaust to be quiet at that speed only. You can cut out design compromises for tractability at a range of rpm and instead focus on only what matters.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I had a long conversation with a man about this the other day. He had bought an 80k plane with 500 hours on the engine (more on the rest, of course). He flew it 1000 hours. It had 500 hours left. He sold the plane as is for essentially 1/4 of the engine rebuild price. These small planes go down way too often to screw around with.

My dad always did it himself and had a certified mechanic inspect work. We ran in those circles.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

My dad always did it himself and had a certified mechanic inspect work. We FLEW in those circles.

Fixed.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

Why would you want artificial shift points? That just makes the car slower and less efficient. Floor it? Stick the car at the torque peak and stay there. Efficiency? Drop RPMs to the most efficient rpm for the load.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...-the-best-one/

It doesn't even have to drone. If you know the car is going to sit exactly at 6700 RPM for most of it's life, you can design the intake and exhaust to be quiet at that speed only. You can cut out design compromises for tractability at a range of rpm and instead focus on only what matters.

45 years of driving cars that had shift points means that without them it feels strange. Didn't say there was an advantage to them just that they made me more comfortable. There are probably a pile of people that don't like CVT and don't even realize that the feel may be part of it. You can probably turn them off but it is just the family runabout not a race car so it is fine the way it is.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

Fixed.

duh me

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

My dad always did it himself and had a certified mechanic inspect work. We ran in those circles.

My dad would have pulled the plugs, gave them a good wire brushing, rubbed some brake fluid on them, shoved them back in and tightened any viable bolt down as hard as he could regardless of torque. He would then tell my mom that he was getting it inspected, pocket the money for beer, forge an inspection certificate and fly away happy. The problem is that he would probably have never had an engine issue.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I...These small planes go down way too often to screw around with.

I was with you until this. That is mostly myth. First, planes that have an engine quit don't just fall out of the sky, you go plenty of time to land safely if that happens. It's just a glider at that point, not an auger into the ground.

I think the perception comes from every plane crash being reported on every news outlet regardless of its distance from you. If they showed just a scrolling list of auto accident (not fatal, but same coverage aviation gets) no one would drive.

In the end, small general aviation aircraft (those owned by private citizens) have a death rate that is just below or about the same as auto accidents when you look at it at some ratio. It's a little difficult to match perfectly because auto accidents are measured in per miles driven, and aircraft accidents are measured in hours flown but they match up relatively well from the statistics I've seen. Also, like auto deaths, most aircraft fatalities are "pilot error" not mechanical failures.