The Pitstop

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

2:11 AM

Russian Kamaz Truck Sends a Snow Jump

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Now this is gettin' it!

Really! A Super and Turbocharged Boxer Truck Diesel/Gas Engine with No Spark Plugs

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What do you all think about this engine?

Zaid

8:34 AM

12

Q: What are the financial decisions leading to "barn find" automobiles?

Where I live there are laws against letting vehicles to rot in one's backyard or dumping them in the forest, mostly to prevent soil pollution and the junkyard appearance. I understand different countries have different sensitivities towards pollution and the environment. But I'm really curious ...

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

1:34 PM

@Zaid - People really are clueless about cars.

@Zaid - The second answer (the higher scoring answer than the accepted one) is spot on. Money/value isn't everything.

Zaid

Yes. If I had the time to formulate an answer I'd probably also add that some repairs need a lot of time and planning

Plus there are priorities in life

It's not like most people enjoy keeping their cars in an undriveable state

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

You'd absolutely know about these things :o)

Zaid

1:52 PM

:/

JPhi1618

2:08 PM

Ha, I was just reading that barn find question.

"People make poor financial decisions" is the answer.

Also found this gem...

0

Q: 2-prong cord but 3-prong outlet

I received a new Insignia Voice Speaker for work. It has a 2-prong cord, but all of my office outlets are 3-prong. I'm not finding a converter for this arrangement. Is it safe to plug the cord in as is?

electrical receptacle cord-and-plug

How do you make it this far in life and not know that it's ok to plug a 2-prong cord into a 3 prong outlet?

Nick C

2:29 PM

@JPhi1618 That's why everyone should adopt UK type G plugs

British Plugs Are Better Than All Other Plugs, And Here's Why

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JPhi1618

@NickC, maybe that person has recently come to the US? I guess that is an explanation.

I especially like the plugs that cut power to the prongs unless a plug is fully inserted.

Nick C

@JPhi1618 Yep, that's the whole point of the British type - you can't even get at the live connection until the earth is connected

JPhi1618

@NickC, my only issue is that I had 240v = SCARY!! ingrained into me as a young child. Most outlets are 120v, but the 240v ones are big and scary and only for certain fancy, magical purposes. My dad didn't know a lot about electrics...

I know a lot about it now, but I always get a little more worried around 240v.

In England, 240v is everywhere! Just waiting to kill your children!

Funny how a childhood experience can trump logic even 30 years later...

Nick C

@JPhi1618 Which is of course nonsense - 240 is safer than 110 for the same power draw, as the current is less

motosubatsu

@NickC UK plugs are awesome - apart from the very specific circumstance of treading, barefoot on an upturned one. It's the only thing to trump treading on a lego brick in the same circumstances.

Nick C

2:44 PM

@motosubatsu That's a feature. It's especially designed to prevent burglars...

2

JPhi1618

Heh, yea. US plugs are pretty sharp too. Who has the little round prongs, is that France?

@NickC, does stack exchange in general have an "Answer in English" policy except for the foreign language specific sites?

Rory Alsop

@JPhi1618 yes

JPhi1618

Ok, I wasn't sure.

There was an answer in the DIY review queue in spanish.

Wasn't sure if it was ok to comment that only english is acceptable. (The question was in english, from a native english speaker)

Nick C

@JPhi1618 Yep: stackoverflow.blog/2009/07/23/non-english-question-policy

Myself

@JPhi1618 And Germany

Schuko

"Schuko" is a registered trademark referring to a system of AC power plugs and sockets that is defined as "CEE 7/3" (sockets) and "CEE 7/4" (plugs). A Schuko plug features two round pins of 4.8 mm diameter (19 mm long, centers 19 mm apart) for the line and neutral contacts, plus two flat contact areas on the top and bottom side of the plug for protective earth (ground). The socket (which is often, in error, also referred to as CEE 7/4) has a predominantly circular recess which is 17.5 mm deep with two symmetrical round apertures and two earthing clips on the sides of the socket positioned to ensure...

And you do not need to cover half length of the pins since the pins are covered by the protruding housing

Nick C

3:01 PM

@JPhi1618 Perhaps someone should decree that all questions should be posted in Cornish

JPhi1618

@NickC, thanks for that link. That's what I was looking for.

Rory Alsop

@NickC Yarr. I be up fer that!

Nick C

@RoryAlsop Or even better - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kentish_Sign_Language

not only is it extinct, but it never had a written form...

Wheras Cornish is popular in comparison, with over 500 speakers

Bob Cross

At that point, we should just switch to video game languages.

Or maybe I’ve just played too much Dragon Age

motosubatsu

3:19 PM

maybe all questions and answers should be written in pig latin

JPhi1618

@motosubatsu, the beauty of that is all existing questions could be displayed in pig latin using simple Javascript without having to change any actual data.

Man, now I have to search for a Chrome pig latin plugin.

Damn, there's not one. Now I might have to write one.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

US standards on electrical plugs are best. We had Ben Franklin, the Father of Electricity. We ended up with Nikola Tesla, who was the man. And we had Thomas Edison, who stole everything great from Tesla.

Nick C

Didn't Edison steal pretty much everything

?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

@NickC - Well, I wouldn't doubt that at all ... after the way he corn holed Tesla.

JPhi1618

I picture Tesla getting schooled at a bean bag toss now.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

3:35 PM

@JPhi1618 - He'd get schooled long enough to zap you with about a million volts of electricity.

Tesla really was the man. It's too bad he was treated as such, because I think he had a lot more in him. How much potential knowledge about electricity was lost because of how Edison treated him.

Myself

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I am quite pleased that Westinghouse beat Edison

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

@Myself - :o)

Myself

found that in my electrical installation, I am pretty sure it is not supposed to look like that

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

@Myself - Looks reasonable to me ... just a few extra bits & pieces ... nothing to worry about.

JPhi1618

@Myself, kinda melty... Could have been a bad connection, or something shorted out.

How much rep do you need to see upvotes and downvotes? I think I used to be able to when we were in Beta...

Nick C

3:47 PM

@JPhi1618 750 - mechanics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/established-user

The privilege caps haven't changed yet

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I've just been reading his wikipedia article. I didn't know he lived for over 40 years in hotels

JPhi1618

@NickC, thanks. I forgot you had to click the number.

I thought it was a hover or it would just show up...

Nick C

@JPhi1618 no problem

Zaid

Anyone here into podcasts?

I just found one by NPR called Car Talk

JPhi1618

Like Click and Clack?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

@Zaid - NPR ... heh

JPhi1618

3:52 PM

The Car Talk?

@Zaid, just know that they are all reruns and haven't been in production for a while.

Guy I worked with listened to Car Talk and would post the riddles for us to work on every week.

Produced from 1977 to 2012... That's a good run.

It is a good show.

Bob Cross

4:11 PM

Horsepower vs Torque - A Simple Explanation

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Zaid

@JPhi1618 good to know

Bob Cross

Only problem with that video is that he basically conflates wheel and engine specs. Better power band equals staying in gear longer equals mechanical advantage at the wheels

JPhi1618

7:31 PM

Man, like 90% of the question on Interpersonal Skills are "How do I tell someone something without just saying it."

The answer of "Just tell them" would work pretty well for most of the questions.

Bob Cross

7:46 PM

“How do I get away with being passive aggressive?” Like every other jerk out there. (See, that was passive aggressive right there!) 😉

JPhi1618

Exactly. Right now on HNQ is "How do I tell a coworker to stop drinking my water?", well start with "Hey, could you please not drink my water?"

I mean, what else do you need?

Rory Alsop

8:50 PM

I regularly need to step away from that site, because I just want to say that @JPhi1618. But I come back remembering that some people have literally no idea how to speak to others.

JPhi1618

Yea, I guess it's a spotlight on how bad social anxiety can be.

Ceshion

I mean and also how badly we are lacking a good structure for teaching social skills in the context of the information age

JPhi1618

Yea, it's like, have you never had to deal with people outside of your house before?

I guess some people are very isolated.

Ceshion

Oh, I think it's incredibly easy to be-- people can just hang out on the internet all day and call it socializing, even if they never interact with anyone and just watch everything happen

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

9:09 PM

@Ceshion - I guess, if you call looking through someone else's eye watching "everything happen" ... maybe that's your point. I've always understood there to be three truths in the world: your truth; my truth; cold hard truth. When you look through a lens, whether it's the internet or what have you, you're always going to be seeing something other than the "cold hard truth".

JPhi1618

Lense... Rory and Nicks bad spelling are wearing off on you.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

@JPhi1618 - Meh

@JPhi1618 - Happy now???? ;-)

JPhi1618

Today I'm proud to be an American.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

ROFL! I'm always proud to be an American ;-)

Ceshion

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 More my point was that the interactions we have on the internet, for as much as we can try and try and try to say otherwise, are simply different than the ones we have in person, and I think we see that constantly in how people speak so much more harshly to each other on the internet, we see it in how lonely people feel even given apparent contact, and in this-- I don't think that socializing over the internet is really, at this point, sufficient to replace real interactions

2

but people use it that way and so it leads to these problems

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

9:19 PM

@Ceshion - I couldn't agree more. We have to have human interaction.

Ceshion

Right, you're lacking huge parts of how humans communicate and bond, from pheromones to body language and tone, which are things we can compensate for using the dialects we've developed for the internet, but there's no way the lower-level parts of our brains will react to them in the same way

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