Humor Random Comments Thread

[Urwumpe]

Why is there no "speed limit" on the Autobahn? I can't imagine myself going 180 km/h along a road with cars passing by at a faster speed. :blink:

Simple: Because we don't like speed limits.

In the 1970s, during the oil crisis, the German government experimented with speed limit 100 on all Autobahns, but a campaign by the German automobile club ADAC against this speed limit resulted in the current situation: Since 1978, there is a recommended speed of 130 km/h, but you are free to exceed it on your own risk - if you have an accident at more than 130 km/h, you are also sharing a part of the blame in the end (unless you can prove that the resulting damage would have also happened at 130 km/h)

Also, there is no real reason to set a speed limit - even safety is no issue, the Autobahns are the roads with the lowest risk of accidents: Its 1.9 deaths per billion car kilometres (5.6 in total in Germany), while 31% of the traffic goes over the Autobahns here - an average daily traffic of 48,710 cars. Only 11% of the deaths in road traffic happen on a Autobahn.

For comparison: In the USA you have a total number of deaths of 6.8 per billion car kilometres, at a daily highway traffic of just 39.634 (24% of the traffic). Despite quite many speed limits.

 

[Fabri91]

:lol: Only because some university professors say so....

Never heard anyone actually say so, but so far it appears to be a very good fit for the cars it was fitted in (as a replacement for NA 1.4-1.6L engines mostly, somewhat like VAG's 1.2TSI I'd guess).

 

[Urwumpe]

Never heard anyone actually say so, but so far it appears to be a very good fit for the cars it was fitted in (as a replacement for NA 1.4-1.6L engines mostly, somewhat like VAG's 1.2TSI I'd guess).

No really, the 1.0l Ecoboost engine won a few design prices in the past years.

International Engine of the Year 2012 *
Best Engine 2012 *
Best Engine Below 1.0l Displacement 2012 *
ÖkoGlobe 2012
International Engine of the Year 2013 *
Best Engine 2013 *
Best Engine Below 1.0l Displacement 2013 *
Auto Test Sieger 2013
International Engine of the Year 2014 *
Best Engine 2014 *
Best Engine Below 1.0l Displacement 2014 *

(* All prizes awarded by the magazine Engine Technology International - any relation to the Ford Dunton Technical Center, UK is purely geographical)

 

[Fabri91]

I heard about the prizes, but, sorry, I can't tell if you're suggesting some sort of "friendship" between Ford's technical center and the magazine or not.

 

[Urwumpe]

I heard about the prizes, but, sorry, I can't tell if you're suggesting some sort of "friendship" between Ford's technical center and the magazine or not.

Its my own hypothesis of scientific meritocracy - what you think is the best of 2015 is purely subjective and as such, surprisingly often things that interest you more and have some personal or professional relation to you.

Like what you would answer is the best Orbiter add-on of 2014 - alone if you would just collect options for a forum poll is already filtered by your own Boyd cycle.

 

[Fabri91]

I see what you mean, now.

Anyway, today everything worked flawlessly. Let's hope it was some sort of electronic brain fart.

 

[Urwumpe]

I see what you mean, now.

Anyway, today everything worked flawlessly. Let's hope it was some sort of electronic brain fart.

I would not exclude that your EGR valve is already clogged a bit with soot - this is a common weak spot for modern engines, but without working EGR valve, you can't reach Euro 6 standards. Usually, you notice a failed EGR by slightly higher fuel consumption.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Wow...talk about the wrong person.

 

[SolarLiner]

Well at least he can count to 3... :lol:

 

[Linguofreak]

For comparison: In the USA you have a total number of deaths of 6.8 per billion car kilometres, at a daily highway traffic of just 39.634 (24% of the traffic). Despite quite many speed limits.

Part of that is that our standards for issuing a driver's license aren't, and can't be, as high as they are in Germany. Except in a few big cities like New York, our public transportation system may as well be non-existent, and almost everywhere is too far to walk to from almost everywhere else. As a result, to deny someone a driver's license is pretty much to condemn them to poverty, so everyone who is not an obvious and immediate danger to themselves and everyone they share the road with (as opposed to just a ticking bomb) is granted a license.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

I saw reports on the web that some new (high-end?) smartphones on the global market can already see the Chinese BDS navigation system satellites on top of those GPS and GLONASS ones! (sorry, no Galileo just yet) I wonder if your phones can do that? To see if this is possible with your phone, use apps like this or this (Android) and see if you can get satellites numbered 201-214! :hmm:

 

[Urwumpe]

I saw reports on the web that some new (high-end?) smartphones on the global market can already see the Chinese BDS navigation system satellites on top of those GPS and GLONASS ones! (sorry, no Galileo just yet) I wonder if your phones can do that? To see if this is possible with your phone, use apps like this or this (Android) and see if you can get satellites numbered 201-214! :hmm:

Depends on the GPS receiver used - this one is usually simply printed on the processor die (ARMs are pretty mutable) and some newer receiver templates already support the Chinese signals.

Most of satellite navigation is software today anyway, you would just need a small software update to also decode Galileo signals, if you can already decode GPS.

 

[kamaz]

Sunday: computer hangs during boot. Reboot. Boots up into desktop, after some time, the mouse moves, but I cannot do anything. Hmm. Looks like the SSD drive is failing. OK, there's no important data on the machine, so I'm going to keep it running a bit longer.

Monday: antivirus says that it cannot find it's kernel module.

Tuesday: the computer says that I have 6 important updates, only one actually installs.

Wednesday: machine boots up into chkdsk. It shows a lot of errors.

Thursday: My e-mail inbox in Thunderbird shows up empty. Sent mails are still there, so the profile is intact, just the inbox file got eaten. Windows update stalls.

...and that's where I am at the moment.

Any idea what I could try to investigate?

(BTW, it is probably NOT the SATA controller -- the machine works OK with another HDD which is encrypted -- if the controller was failing then the other HDD would also be acting up.)

 

[Fabri91]

How old is the HDD used?

Regarding the intrepid metal four-wheeled autopropelled chariot of my posts above, I spoke too soon. Error message showed up again this evening. I guess it might be some sort of actuator which is activated only after a bit (EGR system being activated only after warmup? Have no idea, I'm shooting in the dark).

 

[Urwumpe]

Part of that is that our standards for issuing a driver's license aren't, and can't be, as high as they are in Germany. Except in a few big cities like New York, our public transportation system may as well be non-existent, and almost everywhere is too far to walk to from almost everywhere else. As a result, to deny someone a driver's license is pretty much to condemn them to poverty, so everyone who is not an obvious and immediate danger to themselves and everyone they share the road with (as opposed to just a ticking bomb) is granted a license.

I know... and if you go by bike in the USA, you are either considered highly suicidal... or you are Tex. :lol:

 

[kamaz]

How old is the HDD used?

Windows install date is 2014-03-20.

...Looks like I could probably do a warrantly claim on the drive if I still have the receipt. Do you know any tools I could use to check if it's actually faulty?

 

[Fabri91]

I meant, how old is the physical drive? If all else works with another drive, it might be the culprit, but short of cloning everything to a spare known good drive or formatting everything on the suspect one I don't know how to check if the problem is software based or if the drive is beginning to die.

 

[Linguofreak]

I know... and if you go by bike in the USA, you are either considered highly suicidal... or you are Tex. :lol:

It's not so much suicidal as almost purely recreational. Even bikes are too slow for the average daily commute in the US.

 

[Urwumpe]

It's not so much suicidal as almost purely recreational. Even bikes are too slow for the average daily commute in the US.

Well - if you look at the average speeds on a typical urban US highway, even a snail would overtake the commuters.

I know what you mean there, the modern city design in the USA is not really functional... it is just mass suburbia.

 

[kamaz]

I meant, how old is the physical drive?

I think I only installed Windows on it once, so it follows that the drive was bought in early 2014. 1 year old at most. SSD.

Uh.