A New Tool For Know-Nothings

[kaneohe]

Previously, knowing nothing, I only had one tool........rebooting.....seems to
fix lots of problems......not only computers, but phones, refrigerators, and other stuff containing electronics.

Today I tried to send a bunch of videos on google photos to myself as a trial.
Got the e-mail but some of the videos didn't work. Went back to the google photos site and found the same or intermittent behavior for both the original videos and the shared album videos. Wanted to fix the problem before I sent the same videos to DW but couldn't figure it out........so I sent them anyway.

DW got the e-mail and started viewing the videos....lots of noise and no complaints so it appeared it was working for her. Not sure why I tried it but recall that DSIL had suggested at one time that clearing the Chrome cache might work.....and it did.......so a second tool for the toolbox.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Back when I used AutoCAD for 8 hours a day it used to gradually get very sluggish. Cleaning out the windoze temp files always did wonders to speed things up.

 

[Car-Guy]

Previously, knowing nothing, I only had one tool........rebooting.....seems to
fix lots of problems......not only computers, but phones, refrigerators, and other stuff containing electronics.

You can add cars to your list too. My latest 2018 has all sorts of new electronic "things". They all work 99.9% of the time. When something goes haywire (about one a month) I just pull over somewhere and stop and restart the car. Works every time, so far. Scary when you think about what could happen when it happens to certain electronic features in a car.

 

[kaneohe]

You can add cars to your list too. My latest 2018 has all sorts of new electronic "things". They all work 99.9% of the time. When something goes haywire (about one a month) I just pull over somewhere and stop and restart the car. Works every time, so far. Scary when you think about what could happen when it happens to certain electronic features in a car.

Interesting.....had not heard of or experienced such things....but I have an older car. I've been having intermittent problems w/ dashboard warning lights.....most recently tire pressure........seems to come and go whenever it wants even tho the pressure is fine. Easy enough to ignore but someday I'll be sorry , I guess.

What kind of haywires have you seen?

edit to add: tool 2 apparently doesn't always work so discovered tool 3: close the window (tab) and reload....

 

[REWahoo]

You can add cars to your list too. My latest 2018 has all sorts of new electronic "things". They all work 99.9% of the time. When something goes haywire (about one a month) I just pull over somewhere and stop and restart the car. Works every time, so far. Scary when you think about what could happen when it happens to certain electronic features in a car.

This confirms it. I'm going to give up air travel for good.

 

[JoeWras]

This confirms it. I'm going to give up air travel for good.

Thankfully air travel still (apparently?) lives up to a higher engineering standard.

Sadly, in the auto industry, the agile-sprint method* of letting your customers help with test to find the difficult corner cases is infecting the system.

* - Yes, I know agile should include full test. Never see it happen, though.

 

[Car-Guy]

Interesting.....had not heard of or experienced such things....but I have an older car. I've been having intermittent problems w/ dashboard warning lights.....most recently tire pressure........seems to come and go whenever it wants even tho the pressure is fine. Easy enough to ignore but someday I'll be sorry , I guess.


What kind of haywires have you seen?

Off the top of my heads, here are some of the most common "bugs in the system" that I've experienced, just this year...

The most common is for the NAV system which seems to get confused and it tells me to turn where there is no road. Once it even told me to turn "right" while I was on a high bridge over a very wide river. I guess it thought I was in a boat. OK, those are easy to ignore unless you happen to be a "blond"

Rain sense windshield wipers turn on during a clear rain free day.

Auto braking feature activates when nothing is in the way. Especially sensitive when I'm turning a corner and it "sees" cars in another lane. (I've turned the auto braking feature off but it still gives audible alerts, which is okay with me.)

Remote/Auto start feature starts the car "whenever".. I've had this happen twice (that I know of). Must be some sort of electronic interference. The good thing is the remote/auto start feature turns itself off after 10 mins unless I get in the car and hit the start button.

Just a note. Some newer cars are starting to get some of their software updates OTA. I usually park my car in a garage (with a metal roof) at night and the signal can't get through. I've seen a message in the DIC (Driver Info Center) telling me the software updated failed. The next night I'll park outside and then the software updates are successful.

 

[MRG]

Thankfully air travel still (apparently?) lives up to a higher engineering standard.

Sadly, in the auto industry, the agile-sprint method* of letting your customers help with test to find the difficult corner cases is infecting the system.

* - Yes, I know agile should include full test. Never see it happen, though.

Oh yeah they fully test. You know when the first fool installs into production and their business is compromised.

We bought a smart TV when it becomes non-responsive it's time to pull the plug.

 

[imoldernu]

Two free programs work for me. Either one is enough. Both good.
Slim Cleaner... CCleaner.

 

[Car-Guy]

Thankfully air travel still (apparently?) lives up to a higher engineering standard.

Or maybe the pilots aren't talking to the public! I'm sure they have seen their share of software anomalies.

 

[MichaelB]

Or maybe the pilots aren't talking to the public! I'm sure they have seen their share of software anomalies.

Maybe we only hear from the survivors.

 

[Car-Guy]

Maybe we only hear from the survivors.

 

[travelover]

............When something goes haywire (about one a month) I just pull over somewhere and stop and restart the car. ............

I just tap on the side of the carburetor. Usually just a stuck float.

 

[Car-Guy]

I just tap on the side of the carburetor. Usually just a stuck float.

Ah, those were the good old days. Sort of the same "fix it" category as using a pair of pliers to jumper across a bad solenoid to start the car.


I think it was Jay Leno that once said, all's you need to work on old cars is a screw driver, pliers and a hammer.

 

[joeea]

Sadly, in the auto industry, the agile-sprint method* of letting your customers help with test to find the difficult corner cases is infecting the system.

"Agile/Sprint" and "letting your customers help with test" have absolutely nothing to do with one another.

 

[MRG]

Ah, those were the good old days. Sort of the same "fix it" category as using a pair of pliers to jumper across a bad solenoid to start the car.


I think it was Jay Leno that once said, all's you need to work on old cars is a screw driver, pliers and a hammer.

I recall a 7/16" box end wrench was used to tighten the air line that fed the brakes on an old log truck we were looking at. Of course once it was on, the wrench stayed on the line. I remember the guy explaining he always had a extra wrench when he was in that old truck.

 

[Car-Guy]

I recall a 7/16" box end wrench was used to tighten the air line that fed the brakes on an old log truck we were looking at. Of course once it was on, the wrench stayed on the line. I remember the guy explaining he always had a extra wrench when he was in that old truck.

I can see that happening. Reminds me when working "under the hood" of an old car. If you dropped a "tool" it would simply bounce around a little and then fall to the ground. With new cars, if you drop a tool "under the hood" it's probably not going to fall all the way to the ground and you may never find it again. I can remember the days when I could climb up and sit in the engine bay to work under the hood. Not anymore. And no, it's not because I put on weight!

 

[MRG]

I can see that happening. Reminds me when working "under the hood" of an old car. If you dropped a "tool" it would simply bounce around a little and then fall to the ground. With new cars, if you drop a tool "under the hood" it's probably not going to fall all the way to the ground and you may never find it again. I can remember the days when I could climb up and sit in the engine bay to work under the hood. Not anymore. And no, it's not because I put on weight!

+1

My first pickup was a 68 Ford F-100 4x4. A small family could live under the hood and probably grow vegetables.

My 13 GMC 4x4 you couldn't put a gerbil cage under the hood.

Of course there's other differences too. [emoji12]

 

[Chuckanut]

My 72 Toyota Corono had the oil filter sitting high up on the engine. To remove it I just popped the hood open, reached in with the oil filter wrench and remove it. Since the drain was positioned at the bottom, most of the oil was drained out. No Fuss and no mess. I could reach the drain pan plug easily from the front of the car without the use of jacks or platforms to raise the car. Oil changes literally took 15 minutes if I had everything ready. My current car has the oil filter so well hidden underneath the engine that it takes a major effort just to get to it. And getting to the plug no requires that the car be upon blocks a few inches. Thankfully, I only change oil once every 8000 miles instead of every 3000 miles.

 

[JoeWras]

"Agile/Sprint" and "letting your customers help with test" have absolutely nothing to do with one another.

In the textbooks. Not the real world. At least not my world.

 

[MRG]

In the textbooks. Not the real world. At least not my world.

+1

Many organizations see their agile efforts turn into "the cowboy coding circus". I've seen it happen many times. Megacorp had to redefine what agile meant many times.

I've seen agile done long before there was a manifesto. It can work with the right controls.

 

[Retch The Grate]

Relevant, and funny. And (only slightly unfairly) surprisingly accurate:

hmm, not sure why the image link doesn't work.
Clearly need to turn the website off and back on again.

 

[jazz4cash]

You can add cars to your list too. My latest 2018 has all sorts of new electronic "things". They all work 99.9% of the time. When something goes haywire (about one a month) I just pull over somewhere and stop and restart the car. Works every time, so far. Scary when you think about what could happen when it happens to certain electronic features in a car.

Yeah scary. I remember in the 80s when cars were going electronic and Bill Gates (or someone of his profile) suggested cars should be made more like computers. The joke was you couldn’t just cycle the ignition, all the occupants had to get out, close the doors and get back in. My newish car is pretty good so far.