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tsomctl

1,976 karma · joined October 2, 2013

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tsomctl··on The Fijian island being strangled by vines
English ivy is a ground spreader, at least where I live. It won't grow on the ground if it gets a lot of sun, but ground shaded by trees will turn into a thick mat that is impossible to pull up. Some yards have it growing as a ground cover in the flower beds. You can't pull it off walls or the ground easily. It grows tendrils (roots?) into anything porous, which makes it extremely difficult to pull up. If it's growing on the ground, it's just a thick mat that is impossible to pull up. And while I wouldn't call it a fast spreader, if you ignore it for a couple of years, it will start to take over.

Source: I used to work for a yard company, and I have it in my own yard.

tsomctl··on The factory that only builds white Toyota Land Cruisers
Toyota does make seals (Koyo), bearings (Koyo again), and forgings (Aisin). Dunno if they roll their own steel, but would be surprised if they don't.
tsomctl··on Elizabeth Holmes: 'They Don’t Put Pretty People Like Me in Jail'
https://bioagewho.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Martha-Stewa...
tsomctl··on My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets
> The most difficult part for me was getting the screw holes lined up for VESA mount.

Use a blind hole transfer punch. You can make your own with the right sized bolt and a grinder.

https://www.amazon.com/TTC-Blind-Hole-Spotter-Diameter/dp/B0...

tsomctl··on Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
I've sold lots, some of which were obviously chopped out of vehicles with a sawzall (vehicles that I legally owned, btw). They've always scanned my ID, took my thumb print, and mailed me the check after a couple of days.
tsomctl··on Math Stack Exchange is a waste of time? (2017) [pdf]
I had a math professor who I'm pretty sure was borderline autistic. His son actually was autistic. While he wasn't the best math teacher I've ever had, he was very good. (Didn't help that I can't comprehend delta-epsilon proofs.)
tsomctl··on Which emoji scissors close (2020)
> My last post was about either How to transport a convex object on a camel or Android Studio’s “Code contains easter egg” inspection. Find out which.

I realize one option is supposed to be ludicrous, but based on this post, either option is possible.

tsomctl··on I was messing around with img2img and I created this monstrosity
Everything old is new again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping
tsomctl··on Heavier cars are safer for their drivers, but far deadlier for everyone else
That was true 20 years ago. The question is how much do you ease up the brake on that specific wheel, and then how much do you reapply it? You need to know the coefficient of friction of the road to know this. Modern controllers are doing a physics simulation of the entire vehicle, and part of this is the weight transfer as you go around a corner (which is partially influenced by the CoG). They then do a physics simulation of the hydraulic brake circuit so it knows how long to run the pump to build up the desired brake pressure.

Now of course this is combined with stability control (since that is required by law) and both of them are controlled by the same code.

(On a related note, I've spent way too much time reverse engineering the calibration for the ABS for a Silverado truck. Ridiculously huge program, ridiculously complicated, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the source code is a mess.)

tsomctl··on Dodge Reveals New Charger Daytona EV
I was woken up by my neighbors Dodge Charger 11:00 last night. There's a special place in hell for these fuckers.
tsomctl··on Dodge will discontinue its Challenger and Charger muscle cars next year
Or, like my wonderful neighbor, want to remove their muffler to show off how awesome they are.

More seriously, a successful electric car needs a chassis that's been engineered to be an electric car. You can convert a normal front engine, rwd chassis, but it's always a compromise.

tsomctl··on Almost every Ferrari sold since 2005 is being recalled
Visually? Really? Didn't know that. I only own and work on old vehicles, and those all have a float with a magnet that triggers a reed switch.
tsomctl··on Almost every Ferrari sold since 2005 is being recalled
> and a software patch that lets a driver know if their brake fluid reservoir is running low.

You mean like every single other vehicle ever made? I thought this was a law. Also, if all it takes is a software patch, then that means there already a fluid level switch in the reservoir. Unless they are doing some magic computation that measures the brake fluid pressure and the brake pedal position that's able to detect air bubbles in the line. Modern ABS controllers are already doing a full physics simulation of the hydraulic brake circuits, so it's possible.

tsomctl··on Making Quieter Technology
> "I'd better not annoy _that_ guy, he might reach through my window and rip my head off and then go home and murder my family and pets".

Do people actually think that? I always thought they were just cosplaying.

tsomctl··on My customized Wim Hof breathing method
I have a family friend that recently had 2 strokes. The doctors are confused because he has none of the risk factors for a stroke. Really, he pretty closely follows this: (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32143344). However, he's been practicing breathing exercises for years and his resting heart rate is ridiculously low.
tsomctl··on Windows lost market share in the last decade
My grandparents bought a game camera at Costco, so they could see what animals were in their yard at night. I had to help them view the pictures on the SD card. It came with some app to view them, or you could just stick the SD card into any laptop. Figuring that was the easier route, I opened up my grandma's laptop and gave them instructions on how to insert the SD card, open Windows Explorer, navigate to the D drive, no wait sorry now it's the E drive, open DCIM, right click here, double click, now single click. 5 minutes later I realized how fucking stupid this all is and installed the app on her tablet.
tsomctl··on The case for bad coffee (2015)
Perhaps. But that's how Starbucks works, by buying shitty beans and dark roasting them. It also makes it easier to have consistent coffee (consistently burnt, that is).
tsomctl··on Sony completes $3.6B deal to buy Bungie
Two things, that are obvious to gamers but really confused me:

Sony owns PlayStation.

This is the Bungie that made Halo. Yes, Microsoft owned them at one point, but sold them 15 years ago.

tsomctl··on Ask HN: Should I sell my vintage computer collection?
> I'm scared that when I die my wife will sell all my cars for what I told her I paid for them.

(Not my joke)

tsomctl··on New Arizona law makes it illegal to film within 8 feet of police
Your examples aren't of this law being abused. This is the whole point of it. The writers know exactly what's going to happen.
tsomctl··on Auto manufacturer family tree: Who owns what?
> A lawsuit settlement agreed to by Eberhard and Tesla in September 2009 allows all five – Eberhard, Tarpenning, Wright, Musk, and Straubel – to call themselves co-founders.

Granted, he wasn't there to sign the articles of incorporation, but he joined very early.

tsomctl··on American Seating’s original and largest market was school furniture
I was working across the street from the high school today, and was watching some kids race down the street in office chairs. But they weren't cheap Costco ones, they were metal and obviously from the school. I was thinking that they must be really well made.
tsomctl··on Electrocuted birds are sparking wildfires
As a hobbyist electrical engineer, one of the most important things I've learned is that at high voltages and/or high currents, our nice lovely lumped element model is not always accurate. There's enough stray inductance and capacitance in random places that with a very fast voltage spike, anything is possible.
tsomctl··on MI officials fast-track bridge fix after man says it 'collapsed under my feet'
While I agree that it's a somewhat mundane article, there's normally comments that make it interesting. For example, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31436869
tsomctl··on The Migration Of Engine ECU Software From Single-Core To Multi-Core
I've been reverse engineering a modern ABS control module. It has 2 cores, and they are separate CPU's with their own memory (although one cpu can access the RAM of the other CPU) and role. One reads/writes the CAN bus and does verification on that data, the other CPU is the one that monitors wheel speed sensors and determines when to control the solenoid valves. There is a cleanly defined area where data is copied from one CPU to the other.
tsomctl··on New Secret Service report details growing incel terrorism threat
9/11 shows what happens when those weirdos are intelligent and get some funding.
tsomctl··on Auto accidents and “isolation and disruption”
So should I go 5 mph in wooded areas to avoid hitting deer?
tsomctl··on New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars
I had a neighbor with a Dodge Charger with no muffler. I talked to a police officer about it. He basically told me that he himself drove a loud car, and his neighbors complained to him about it because he leaves for work at 5:00 AM, and that's the nature of sports cars and you just have to get used to it.
tsomctl··on Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?
That feels like an additional sentence was added every time someone screwed up their machine and called support.
tsomctl··on Starlink Premium
At my cousin's property (which I spend a lot of time at), for a little less than their monthly price, AT&T gives us an analog telephone line with local calling. That's it.
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