Andrew Daviel
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Why do the cars keep shrinking on the roads, a lot shrinking at the same time (United Kingdom)?
Must be the Midnight Tow Truck driver. Leave a stick of red licorice under your wipers and he won't shrink your car. …
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Lawyer here. Need to update HR manual … to explain difference between WTF? And WTAF? -- including examples.
AFAIK, WTF is what the F? and WTAF is what the actual F? , a bit more forceful. F as in RTFM.
Are there certain types of cars that tend to make people speed without realizing it? What is it about these cars that causes that?
My father reckoned his Mercedes made him speed in the 70's in Britain. It was quiet and well-sprung and effortless, making as little noise in the cabin doing 80 mph as a Cortina doing 30.
Why do some experienced riders choose to start wearing protective gear later in life, even if they didn't use it when they were younger?
Because they have more money, and gear is expensive. Also, maybe they've heard more stories over the years, or had some close calls. And old guys don't heal as quick as teenagers or bounce back from injuries so well.
What makes middle seats on a bus more comfortable compared to front and back rows?
The back of some buses extend far beyond the rear wheels. The extra length acts as a lever to amplify the effect of any bumps or potholes the bus drives over. In some cases a passenger cam be ejected from their seat, or at least bounced into the air. The same amplification applies to sideways motion…
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What safety tips do you wish you had known before riding a motorbike in unfamiliar or remote areas?
I wish I'd known it was a reservoir and not a lake. Reservoirs have a fluctuating water level.
What are the biggest challenges for passengers when the driver's seat is on the side they're not used to?
Getting out of the car and remembering to look for traffic. If the car is “wrong” for the country, that is.
How do South-facing balconies compare to other orientations in terms of generating electricity from balcony power plants?
There are calculators for that. It depends where you are. In summer in higher latitudes it doesn't make much difference. East works in the morning, south at midday, and west in the evening. East and West may even work better because the sun is too high in the sky at noon.…
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What practical scenarios would make someone choose to install a 20 amp receptacle on a 15 amp circuit in their home?
Idiocy. They've got a device (or several) with a 20A plug. Instead of getting an electrician to install a 20A circuit with appropriate gauge wiring, they think they'll just swap the plug or outlet so it fits. That's a bad idea. If a device has a 20A plug rather than 15, it probably draws more than 15A…
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Why do some electric vehicle owners still keep a gas-powered car, and how often do they actually use it?
I have an electric car and an electric motorcycle. I still have a gas-powered truck. I’m too lazy to get rid of it, and it’s sometimes useful for moving heavy items, or moving actual dirt I don’t want in the car. I’ve got plenty of space to park it and I can afford the insurance. I have a travel trai…
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Why were slide rules so essential for science students before calculators became available, and what skills did they teach you that modern tools might not?
Because you often needed to work stuff out that required multiplication and division, like how many grams of salt to add to get a 1 molar solution, or what resistance to use to get a 250mA current from a 6V battery. And long division is time consuming. Anything you read off a tape measure or a meter…
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How can I quickly clear out my garage without throwing everything in the trash?
Rent a container and move everything into that. …
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What strategies do grid operators use to manage the load from electric vehicle chargers, and how does it affect electricity pricing?
My grid operator (electric utility) also operates a string of DC charging stations and promotes electric vehicles. Since they’re the ones building the infrastructure, I imagine they have a good idea of the load. They generate mostly hydroelectricity. The water’s still there if they don’t use it, and…
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What are some solutions to challenges faced by electric vehicle owners, such as being stranded in "charging deserts" far from public infrastructure?
If you drive any type if vehicle into the desert without enough fuel to get back, you're an idiot. But in principle an EV driver could erect a bunch of solar panels and wait for daybreak. Beats drilling for oil with hand tools.
How did programmers manage to create music and sound effects on early computers with limited resources, and what tricks did they use to make it work?
Back in the 90's, PCs didn't really have the power or storage space to handle big sampled audio files like WAV, but MIDI chips were common. That's an electronic standard that treats musical notes as simple data. So you could download MIDI files and play them on hardware, or use a music composer prog…
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What were some of the most creative non-mouse tools people used to interact with computers before the widespread use of graphical interfaces?
Back around the 80′s there was a thing called a light pen. Basically a photodetector you'd position on a CRT display which would detect the light given off by the phosphor, and use the timing information from the raster controller to convert that to an X-Y position. A similar thing like a gun was us…
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How were images and other non-text elements handled on those early text-based BBS systems?
As I recall, you'd use a program like Kermit to log on and browse, then when you wanted to download a file you'd switch to binary download mode. Some computers like Vax/VMS used a different file type with line records for text compared to binaries like images or executables. In Usenet or email before…
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How do you mark an anchor chain for depth?
I used to use tape, but that wore off. Then cable ties, but they're hard to see. More recently, I've spray-painted the entire chain in different colours every 30 feet, corresponding to 10 foot of depth for anchoring. So to anchor in 25 feet of water, I might let out all the blue, all the green, and h…
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What are the common challenges people face when trying to charge electric cars in older homes?
If your home is so old it doesn't have electricity, you have other problems. Like charging your phone. Otherwise, if you have a regular outlet that can run a hairdryer, you can charge an EV with a granny cord - a level 1 EVSE. And yes, a decent 16A 3-wire extension cord will work, just don't leave it…
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What are the issues with charging electric cars, and why do people find it complicated with different plugs and unreliable charging points?
So I saw my first NACS charger a couple of days ago, which complicates things a bit. But it's not any worse than gas pumps with 3 different grades of gas, and diesel, and maybe marked fuel for boats and farmers, and possibly alternates like CNG or even hydrogen. I've had an attendant give me diesel…
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How did advancements like the 32-bit architecture in the 386 change what people could do with their computers?
The 386 was the first processor that could run Linux. The 286 could not as it had no MMU. In 1994, Linux was a reliable multi-user multi-tasking Unix clone for free, with a native internet connection and the ability to use NFS network shares. Windows was none of those things.…
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So I drill two holes in a tiled wall next to a toilet basin to install a toilet roll holder. I don't use a stud detector to check for electric wires or water pipes, is it dangerous to do this?
No, it’s not dangerous. In North America houses are typically built with 2x4 studs for interior walls. Pipes and electric wiring are run down the centre of the stud. So there’s at least an inch of space between the wallboard and any wiring. If for some reason a wire is closer to the surface, there’s…
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Why were VT100 terminals used with the PDP-11/70, and how did people cope without graphical interfaces like we're used to today?
Why were VT100 terminals used with the PDP-11 ? Because they were good. Also because they were also made by DEC and some of the PDP software relied on escape sequences supported by the VT100. It’s become a ubiquitous standard now for terminal emulation, but back when it was hardware there were compe…
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What are the typical tasks an operating system performs that prevent a CPU from reaching 100% utilization?
Huh ? I often find my Linux system running at 100% on all cores with the fan going full speed, because a browser tab thread is stuck in a Javascript loop or something. Or maybe I’m doing something actually useful like converting video. Running at 100% isn’t a problem. Most things are interrupt-driven…
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Why do Canadians drive so fast on the highway even though Canada has moose and ice on it's highways?
Haven’t you heard the term “Crazy Canucks” ? Besides, we don’t always drive fast on ice. But yeah, there was one time I was coming down a hill on a snow-covered 2-lane road at what I thought was a reasonable 70km/h when I was overtaken by a fuel tanker. He did make the bend at bottom. I figure as a pr…
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How do bikers keep their helmets safe from theft?
Hsve you looked at the inside of the average motorcycle helmet ? It would be like stealing someone’s used underwear. Besides, it probably wouldn’t fit.
What were the biggest frustrations with using slide rules and early computer systems, and how did you adapt to those limitations?
Frustration using side rules ? My new slide rule was always slightly sticky, unlike my old one that I’ve lost. So though it had more scales, like a Pi scale for calculating area, it was finicky to get the numbers to align properly. Slide rules were “good enough” for most real-world problems. Want to…
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What is the stupidest thing that someone has stolen from you?
Many years ago when our VW Rabbit was fairly new, we came back to find a rear window smashed. Someone had stolen my wife’s old bag which had been on the back seat. Total contents, one old contact lens case, sans contacts. Total resale value, $0. Value to us, not a lot more. Damage to the car, $300 d…
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How do sailors cope with the anxiety and excitement of launching a boat they've built themselves for the first time?
I imagine it depends whether they built it from a kit or plans, or designed it themselves with little prior experience. There were thousands of people in Britain that built Mirror dinghies from kits successfully. The first boat I built was a kayak, at school. One of the teachers had made a bootleg mo…
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How do sailors keep track of everyone on board during a man overboard situation, and how fast do they need to respond?
Someone needs to respond within seconds. The person spotting the MOB yells “man overboard” until relieved, and keeps looking and pointing at them until they're rescued. If a small boat is launched, they may not be able to see the victim over waves till they get close. Unless definitely identified as…
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If you were in a situation where you lost critical system files, what's your first go-to recovery strategy?
Copy them back from my backup copy on a second internal disk. Or reinstall the whole package from the package cache. If that won't work and the system won't boot normally, boot to a shell bypassing the graphical subsystem and all the normal startup commands. If that won't work, boot from a different d…
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What exactly happens when you run "rm -RF /" on a Linux system, and why is it so disastrous?
You'll get an error message about unsupported options. Bash is case-sensitive; the correct syntax is “rm -rf /”. If you type that you'll get an error about insufficient permission. Unless you're running as root, which is generally deprecated nowadays in favour of sudo for granting granular permission…
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Why do people choose to build their own boats for ocean crossings instead of buying one, even if it's not necessarily cheaper?
I’ve not done it, or know anyone who has. But I’ve read stories over the years. There is no mass market for ocean-crossing sailboats. The majority of boat owners are weekend sailors who stick close to shore. They want to have fun swimming in a sunny cove. They want to watch TV and drink martinis. So t…
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How does the process of removing Windows and installing Linux work, and why can it be so complicated?
Removing Windows and installing Linux is basically a matter of downloading a Linux installer to a USB stick and booting that. Why can it be so complicated ? Well, the whole process of installing any operating system (Windows included) can be complicated if you don’t know anything about computers. Not…
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Is the time and money trade-off of using public rapid chargers during long trips worth it compared to just sticking with a petrol car?
Who cares ? The point of an electric car is not to exacerbate global warming while still having a personal vehicle that will take 2 kids and a dog. We can’t all live in an air-conditioned bunker eating hydroponic vegetables from a fire-proof greenhouse. There is no Planet B. The fact that EVs are quie…
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What are some affordable parts of Canada where I can move to maintain my current income and enjoy a lower cost of living?
Tricky. At some point I was looking for the cheapest and most expensive houses for sale in BC. The most expensive were in Vancouver, the cheapest were in small remote communities. Which would be at the end of long supply chains, so food and everything else would probably be more expensive or unavaila…
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