Petty annoyances

[Highway]

For some reason, my wife's phone decided to overheat and split its case. Unfortunately, new phones for the yeararen't out on the street yet, so I think she's just going to have to live with it for a couple weeks.

[D.A. Ridgely]

Desktop computer crashed, already in for repairs. I hate my laptop keyboard and Windows 10 or whatever it is.

[JD]

And speaking of computers, I am really wishing I had not upgraded my Mac to Catalina. I know that my computer is very long in the tooth; it's one of the oldest supported by Catalina. But it is so damn slow and laggy compared to when it was running Mojave, and a ton of my old software stopped working because of the upgrade. I'm half-tempted to revert back.

[Hugh Akston]

And speaking of computers, I am really wishing I had not upgraded my Mac to Catalina. I know that my computer is very long in the tooth; it's one of the oldest supported by Catalina. But it is so damn slow and laggy compared to when it was running Mojave, and a ton of my old software stopped working because of the upgrade. I'm half-tempted to revert back.

About a month ago I did a clean wipe of my desktop system, and I installed Mojave. Mostly because Catalina doesn't support 32-bit applications, which includes many of my Steam games. Mojave has given me no trouble so far.

[JD]

I have learned that you can actually install Mac OS under VirtualBox now, which I didn't think was possible last time I checked. (Which either says something about how long ago I checked, or how good my research was.) I'm giving it a try now; so far the installation is going pretty smoothly. That obviously won't help the overall dragginess of the host system, but at least it will permit running older apps.

[Warren]

I'm running a late 2015 & 24 GB iMac, no issues with Catalina. I did have to let go of some 32bit apps, but nothing I can't live without.

[JD]

Google's image search is now all shitted up with video results. IMAGES AND VIDEO ARE NOT THE SAME THING

[lunchstealer]

Google's image search is now all shitted up with video results. IMAGES AND VIDEO ARE NOT THE SAME THING

I can tolerate this with .gif but is it returning YouTube type shit?

[JD]

Google's image search is now all shitted up with video results. IMAGES AND VIDEO ARE NOT THE SAME THING

I can tolerate this with .gif but is it returning YouTube type shit?

Yeah.

Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 4.32.01 PM.png (365.94 KiB) Viewed 4822 times

[lunchstealer]

booooooooo

[Hugh Akston]

DDG image search doesn't do that. But without safe search on, pretty much any string will return results of a dude with a cock in his ass.

[Warren]

DDG image search doesn't do that. But without safe search on, pretty much any string will return results of a dude with a cock in his ass.

*DDGs "Trump Biden"*

I am very disappointed in you Hugh. Very disappointed.

[Ellie]

DDG image search doesn't do that. But without safe search on, pretty much any string will return results of a dude with a cock in his ass.

I'm not NOT interested...

[JD]

I am starting to think I may not have a choice about reinstalling on my Mac. Programs are beginning to hang frequently, and Time Machine will often stick at "Preparing backup..." for hours or days. The other day I emptied the Trash and THAT hung. I'm running disk first aid from recovery mode right now, so we'll see if that helps...

[Highway]

I'm now a member of Triple A Roadside Service! Because that's about the easiest way to get help when you kill the battery in your car waiting for the vet to finish treating your cat while you wait outside. Fun times when the car just says "Everything has an error and no, you can't start the car."

[lunchstealer]

I'm now a member of Triple A Roadside Service! Because that's about the easiest way to get help when you kill the battery in your car waiting for the vet to finish treating your cat while you wait outside. Fun times when the car just says "Everything has an error and no, you can't start the car."

Youch. Is there any portable-power-pack type thing that can be used with an EV for emergency power to get to a charging station? I know you can carry a thing to charge off a standard 120 plug but that takes forevah. I had a friend with an earlier Leaf who came to meet us in Denver from Longmont (about a 30 miles as the crow flies, closer to 40 if you go over to the interstate) and realized that he was really close to the point of no return on his batteries. He had to run his emergency charging cable through the window of the bar to add as much juice as he could to add some margin of safety. Charged for two hours and didn't add many miles of range.

AAA's roadside service response times can be pretty abysmal. I personally have had good luck (in the '90s, before I started getting my roadside assistance through my insurance provider) but Sandy and many others have had hours-long-wait-in-sketchy-neighborhood horror stories.

[Highway]

I'm now a member of Triple A Roadside Service! Because that's about the easiest way to get help when you kill the battery in your car waiting for the vet to finish treating your cat while you wait outside. Fun times when the car just says "Everything has an error and no, you can't start the car."

Youch. Is there any portable-power-pack type thing that can be used with an EV for emergency power to get to a charging station? I know you can carry a thing to charge off a standard 120 plug but that takes forevah. I had a friend with an earlier Leaf who came to meet us in Denver from Longmont (about a 30 miles as the crow flies, closer to 40 if you go over to the interstate) and realized that he was really close to the point of no return on his batteries. He had to run his emergency charging cable through the window of the bar to add as much juice as he could to add some margin of safety. Charged for two hours and didn't add many miles of range.

AAA's roadside service response times can be pretty abysmal. I personally have had good luck (in the '90s, before I started getting my roadside assistance through my insurance provider) but Sandy and many others have had hours-long-wait-in-sketchy-neighborhood horror stories.

No, this was actually just the 12V battery, which apparently the car will completely freak out about and not even try to start. The guy who responded actually just had one of the rechargeable jumper systems, and with that hooked up, the car would start up to allow me to drive it, and there was more than half of the propulsive battery charge. It wouldn't turn on the gas engine until after I drove to where there was a hill, and then the engine came on and cleared out all of the errors as it started charging.

ETA: I wanted to add that the world is trying to pile up the annoyances today. Just spent the last hour having the power go out 4 times for like 5 minutes each, interrupting what I was doing a couple times. So I decided to just go take a nap, and when the power came back on I turned on the ceiling fan for some circulation, only to then note that it was making some pretty unsavory noises, like the bearing had failed.

[Jadagul]

I finally bought a $50 portable jump-start battery kit, and this seems like a really good purchase.

Will hold a charge for like a year and is good for multiple jumps.

[lunchstealer]

Ah good. I'd forgotten that you'd gone with --- Accord hybrid?

Now I can't recall if that was in addition to a Leaf or replacing a Leaf or if you'd just toyed with the idea of getting a Leaf but not pulled the trigger. Or if you never talked about a Leaf and I'm just either conflating you with someone else or suffering a tiny and inconsequential delusion that nonetheless I should probably talk to my neurologist about if it persists. Or something.

[Warren]

I finally bought a $50 portable jump-start battery kit, and this seems like a really good purchase.

Will hold a charge for like a year and is good for multiple jumps.

*Amazon's*
Holy crap! A kiloamp out of a box as big as a couple cigarette packs? (Ask your mom)
What's the technology? Can't be capacitor because a capacitor leaks charge. Is it a battery? What kind?

[Jadagul]

Batteries have gotten a lot better over the past decade. A _lot_ better.

I got the random Wirecutter recommendation, which was under $60. It's a lithium polymer battery. And I was really surprised when it got in how small it was; it fits in my trouser pocket. I was expecting like a cubic foot or something.

Managed to start a car with an end-of-life battery that had drained so far that I couldn't unlock the doors without a physical key, though it took about ten minutes of trying. (Car now has a new battery; I was jumping it to drive it to the mechanic.)

[Highway]

Ah good. I'd forgotten that you'd gone with --- Accord hybrid?

Now I can't recall if that was in addition to a Leaf or replacing a Leaf or if you'd just toyed with the idea of getting a Leaf but not pulled the trigger. Or if you never talked about a Leaf and I'm just either conflating you with someone else or suffering a tiny and inconsequential delusion that nonetheless I should probably talk to my neurologist about if it persists. Or something.

I was about to buy a Leaf, but getting down to the end of the process, it just wasn't working out: too much money for too little vehicle. Plus, the Accord Hybrid came out and I found out about it, and it had 90% of the things I liked about the Leaf (electric drive) without the range anxiety, cheapness of make (cause at the end of the day, the Leaf is a Nissan economy car), and at a lower price.

I'd still like a battery electric vehicle, and there are a lot better ones available now, even while avoiding Tesla.

[lunchstealer]

Even today's Leaf is a lot more car than the previous gen. Timothy is commuting in one from Santa Fe to Albuquerque and back every day.

[Warren]

Batteries have gotten a lot better over the past decade. A _lot_ better.

If a thing you carry in your trouser pocket can throw 10+ kilowatts, I'd say so. Cause damn.
It's the high amperage that gets me. That was always a problem with dry cells.

[Jadagul]

Batteries have gotten a lot better over the past decade. A _lot_ better.

If a thing you carry in your trouser pocket can throw 10+ kilowatts, I'd say so. Cause damn.
It's the high amperage that gets me. That was always a problem with dry cells.

Thing I have is rated at 300 mA continuous (for 12V, I assume), but 1700 mA peak. which I think works out to 3.6 watts continuous and 20 watts peak? But I don't actually understand electronics at all.

(It's not really supposed to start a car from a totally dead battery, but I did manage it. Drained like 2/3 of the battery capacity and took fifteen minutes, though.)