Modern Vespa

Yes but no.

Ignoring the reality of usb devices that exist and people want to use is just plain dumb.

True story: I once spent several very miserable (and long) weeks camped out in my office at work, trying to get Apple's first USB-equipped display project out the door. There were an endless series of problems, and being the software tech lead, I ended up saddled with solving a lot of them. There were truthfully some nights at 3am where I sat quietly at my desk and cried, because the problems were intractable and I was tired and the stress was off the charts.

One of the last problems that had fallen into my lap was an issue where a specific digital camera (owned personally by our VP), when plugged into the display with its device-specific USB cable, would not actually connect. One of the hardware guys, while trying to figure this out, disassembled the display (all the plastics) and noticed that the camera would connect, when the display was bare.

It turns out that the plastics around the USB port on the display were a little bit too large, and the semi-proprietary USB plug that came with the camera was also out of spec -- with an overmold that was both too wide and a connector that didn't protrude from the overmold enough. It wasn't a software problem at all, or even a hardware problem, really -- at least, not electrically. It was a plastics problem.

Apple fixed the plastics around the USB port on the display. I doubt the camera manufacturer ever bothered.

But for the time I spent being miserable, solving such a stupid problem, I can now comfortably say: fuck those guys. And fuck all the other geniuses that ignore the spec.

agree. I just feel "fuck them" to both sides of such a problem. hence my whinge

I (personally) very much dislike long devices with a USB plug on the end of them, not so much because of an issue with the spec, but because Archimedes had a valid point about levers. There is way too much probable danger in giving a USB plug that much lever to work with.

So I prefer pigtails where possible:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BYRH9DR/

essential thing for any modern laptop matching usb-c charging spec/fashion (or if you frequently have long cables plugged in):

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005279095150.html

I killed a laptop that was sitting on my coffee table by tripping over the cable before I bought one of these.

Those are quite useful!

Apple tried for many years to come up with a plug beefy enough to withstand someone tripping on the cord -- this was a genuine problem that caused actual damage -- but just ended up with large plugs (and jacks) that limited how thin the laptops could be. And even if it was beefy enough not to break, it would still knock the laptop on the floor and still result in damage.

And thus, the original MagSafe was born, in 2006. (The term has been re-purposed for the magnetic dock on iPhones, but it started on Apple laptops).

Now, I'm not saying the device above is ripping off Apple, but... yeah.

I was almost pissed off that this thread had slipped to page 2, but I'd missed it. I mean, this thread is a fixture!

Okay, so yesterday, not today. Hot day, hit close to 95F. I had some errands to do, then agreed to drive an hour to a party my cousin was throwing (good local band at his house in the country with refreshments, but outdoors). My wife decided she wasn't feeling that great, and the heat and humidity was going to be a killer, so opted to stay home. I decided to go full-on stoic.....

First off, put on the AC, wife starts complaining of a smell....even I could smell it. As it seemed to be AC related, I pulled the air filter. Somehow, ninja mice seem to lose their mission at the bottom of the cold air return. This was a twofer-one decomposed to powder, another fresher specimen. Cleaned that out, left the air filter out as it was pretty dirty (may have been overlooked in last years' chaos) and figured it could run without one for the moment. Went into town for some errands on my now road-worthy BV. Wife and I had planned originally to attend the local Pride picnic together; I decided to stop by alone expecting to see some people I know, and show general support. Rode into the park, saw nothing familiar, construction of a bridge stopped me halfway, so I circled from the other direction. Nothing.

Bought the needed air filter, came home to find it was the wrong size. Also found out I was wrong on the starting event of the picnic. I'd picked up a fuse for my BV to replace a blown one, that worked at least.....

Before heading off to my cousin's, I circled back into town to return the air filter and take another shot at the right one. Got that done, decided to circle around the park again. Nothing. '

Off to my cousin's. It's hot, humid and windy. At least the band was good. At one point went to get a bit of food and the wind blew half the chips off my plate. Another cousin kept my chair from blowing over at least. After an hour, I see a message from my wife telling me that the house was over 80 degrees and didn't think the AC was working. Beat from the heat and frustration, I head home, drag a portable AC from the basement, so that worst case scenario, we could survive the weekend. Get that set up, decide to install the filter, and at some point, look out the window at the unit next to the house and realize the cover that I'd purchased for it last year was still on it. In my defense, it's the first time I'd used one, but still, major screw up.

The portable was churning out some good cold air, and the central air unit was now able to cool itself and keep running, so the house was bearable. Somehow the food my wife had picked up for dinner never got prepared, so I just collapsed in the chair and eventually crawled off to bed.

Today found out that the picnic I was looking for was actually this afternoon. As it's going to be the same temp today (sans wind), I think I'm staying home today.

It's a new week, so let's see...and cooling off after Monday.

It`s the same as "Dadburnit", but a little less agressive .

At the time my Malaysian Chinese medic. flatmate, I'm sure along with many other Asians for whom a rice cooker was a kitchen essential, was bemused at Apple with their self-proclaimed "ground breaking" magsafe connector. Something very similar had been a feature on many rice cookers for years.

Do you mean the magnet that magically cuts the power when the water has boiled off?

It may have done but to be honest usually I just ate the rice he'd cooked, without sweating the small stuff. That said rice cookers sure beat boiling rice in a regular pan.

From Wikipedia:

The basic concept of MagSafe is derived from the magnetic power connectors that are part of many deep fryers and Japanese countertop cooking appliances since the early 2000s in order to avoid spilling their dangerously hot contents.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe

Connecting dots after the dots have been drawn is much easier than connecting dots that haven't been drawn yet.

Put another way, hindsight is 20/20.

99* and somewhere around 70-75% humidity tomorrow.

won't miss that in CO.


speaking of CO, also pissing me off (still) is the fact that property managers will straight up cancel your walk-thru/tour of properties available for rent (renting til we get the MD house sold) if they find out you're more than 2 weeks from move-in.

wtf kind of business model is that, when the house has sat vacant for 3-5 months?

They're looking for money. How long until you actually move in, and would you pay rent for time prior to that?

1 aug is our target date.

and for the right house, yes i'd be willing to put up half of july or something just to secure the place.

i actually have offered exactly that with one i found--raspberry bushes out back, nice size back yard with an above-ground composter, open license to plant other food-based things or wildflowers for pollinators, a shed with a lofted reading nook and skylight, skylights on the second floor, pike's peak view, 2.5-car garage with 3-car driveway, finished basement, woodburning fireplace in the living room (and a lovey fire pit out back)......owner is military so hopefully the fact i'm retired mil sways 'em lol.

would have loved to have made the same offer for others but it was a blanket "corporate policy" to immediately cancel on anyone more than 2 weeks out.

My parents had laptops years ago. My Mom a pre-MagSafe MacBook and my Dad some horrible Thinkpad or something, both of which were never unplugged because my parents were old and "it's just better to keep them plugged in all the time, don'cha know, goshdarnit." Dad had "fixed" his connector where he had tripped over the cable and almost yanked it out of the power port. By fixed I mean with toothpicks and tape. Mom's G4 MacBook, on the other hand, she stopped using because she couldn't get the power cord plugged back in. I don't know how she managed it, but she bent pins inside the connector. I was able to stick a gage pin in between the connectors (+/-) to separate them enough to plug it back in.

I still have that computer. I love that little guy. I can still run OS9 in Classic mode. I pull it out once in a while to play "WarCraft II - Tides of Darkness" and a bunch of other old abandonware.

tl;dr - MagSafe is cool, don'cha know, goshdarnit.

Last month I connected my 2024 MacBook Pro M4 Pro to the TV via HDMI cable to work on homework. My wife happened to need something near where I had the laptop sitting on a TV tray and tripped on something. She fell towards the laptop (of course). I grabbed the laptop & TV tray with my left hand, and tried to grab her with my right. She ended up on her butt on the floor, but the laptop never left the tray, although the HDMI cable did get yanked out. Nothing happened to the computer or the HDMI port. The TV tray is slightly wonky now, though, but is still stable enough to use.

I was more concerned about her than the computer. She was more concerned about the computer than herself.

While enjoying a tasty breakfast yesterday morning at a famous bikers hangout
3 guys turned up who were all wearing the same cut downs with MC emblems on the back.

Rider 1 was on the longest Low Rider I've ever seen that I think was based on a Harley but the rider looked like Santa.

Rider 2 was on a Harley based Chopper but it had a Akrapovic exhaust on it which was a little bit strange. This guy looked like a Dentist.

Rider 3 Had a Japanese 4 cylinder based Chopper but it looked like he'd picked everything shiney out of a catalogue and bolted it on because that's what everyone else had done so it must be acceptable. This guy looked like a pretender and wanted to be accepted.

While my breakfast buddy and I were watching these guys roll in a batch of guys on Sports Bikes followed each other in but this batch were all wearing Black T Shirts over their leathers with their club name written on the back just in case they forgot who they were.

It all felt a bit desperate and sad. Trying too hard to belong etc.

Edit - A guy arrived on a mint BMW GS 1250 with full touring gear wearing an immaculate BMW jacket and pants with a fresh out of the packet Day-Glow waistcoat.

No one talked to him so he left.

I often find the ones who would be first to ask belligerently, "What are you looking at?!?" are the same ones that have gone to great pains to give you something to look at. Best to just leave them alone.

Gary Larson said it best :

It just felt a bit surreal.

All of this effort just to belong to some kind of collective.

note to self:

avoid famous bikers hangouts

The f€£#¥!!heat!

Not so much pissed off as saddened. On my way home from the Vespa Parade Day yesterday, Scarlett, my '81 ET3, took a while, like 10 seconds or so, to return to idle when I stopped at the last set of lights before home, and the same when I got home.

Searching suggests that it's an air leak. No bueno for riding. I called Bello Moto today - I'm taking her up there on the carrier on Saturday for their tech to look at, and unless he can fix the issue on the spot, I'll leave her there and bring Primrose, my wrecked '79 ET3, home.

So - no more scooting for a week or two, either until I get Scarlett back, or I get Roland, my trusty rusty P200E, working, whichever comes first!

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

Ha, that's an interesting observation.

I just find it amusing the lengths that some men will go to to feel accepted by the crowd and have the desire to belong to something supposedly bigger than them.

what treatment?

Don't agree to that.

sad to think that one of my favourite movies of all time wouldn't even be made today..

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/danny-boyle-wouldnt-make-slumdog-millionaire-today-cultural-appropriation/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-gb

I worked with a guy several years back. Really great guy. We used to drink beer and play guitar together a lot. He was an engineer at the aluminum plant and I ran the metrology lab, so we worked closely as well.

Back in the day he was a mohawk wearing, Black Flag listening skateboarding anarchist. One day we were walking out of the store with lunch, him in his company striped shirt, blue slacks and Detroit Lions baseball cap. Outside was a bunch of young skateboarders and they made us both smile.

He looked at me and said, dead serious, "You know ... I just realized the whole time I was doing all that, the only person I was impressing was myself."

I said, "Randy, I think you just grew up a little today."

It was a profound moment. I need to shoot him a message.

Seriously hope no-one ever says that to me!

Talking of Black Flag, did you hear about Henry Rollins setting up a Museum dedicated to Punk.

That's why he's gone a bit quiet recently.

I was reminded of this yesterday. A big pet peeve of mine.

Anyone - but especially professional lawn care services - that mows an area directing their discharge chute toward adjacent traffic with the guard either strapped up out of the way or removed completely, turning their lawn grooming machine into a catapult for whatever they happen to run over (rocks, sticks, dead cats) endangering anyone on the wrong end of their lawn cannon.

I recall the greatest automotive journalist......IN THE WOOORRLLLDD.....once covered this.

Don't buy SPIDI brand gloves.

I bought these and in 12months the seams in a few spots were giving out. No, I did not have the wrong size.

Tape applied to keep the rain out until I get around to go shopping

The man is a walking run on sentence. I saw him do a spoken word show and I was out out of breathe by the end of it.

Looking forward to his museumy thing

I believe that it's going to be in Nashville.

I thought that Punk kicked off in New York.

Hey ho.

No comment needed.

(Costco parking lot yesterday)

Stunning work.

Kinda surprised it's not an Audi.