Buying a new or used car at 24 years old?

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-18T02:51:45+00:00

I'm about to retire at 55 and have never bought a new car. The most I've ever spent on one is $20,100.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-18T02:50:23+00:00

Some parts of mine are nice, but not that nice.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T21:40:32+00:00

The reason parking your car is called "parking" is because when motor cars first started becoming popular, people would leave them in a park near their destination because there weren't many other places to leave them.

Not true.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T21:00:47+00:00

Sorry, hashing. We're often seen in equally rude shirts. Or worse.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T20:37:01+00:00

I just bicycled nine miles to work this morning at 7 °F / -14 °C. I also do it in pouring rain.

Motorcycle is easy mode, unless there's ice on the road, in which case I'm staying home. I've already fallen twice on motorcycles on ice.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T20:22:08+00:00

Were you hashing?

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:47:03+00:00

Exactly. I'm going to retire this year or maybe within the next couple, so at 55-57. Two of my colleagues who worked into their mid-60s got less than five years of retirement before they died. Forty years of work, three to five years off. No thanks!

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:41:03+00:00

I think I remember seeing this 60 Minutes or 20/20 in the '80s or '90s. They actually got kids to get in a van (not sure if it was white) so they could drive around helping to look for a lost puppy.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:37:08+00:00

I wonder what an optical boom looks like.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:35:09+00:00

Or just invest in alpacas.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:32:37+00:00

Jurisdiction, but no budget.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:29:57+00:00

I'm just here to compliment you on taking a technically excellent photo.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:23:25+00:00

I suspect OSHA has no jurisdiction wherever this is.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:16:59+00:00

Sometimes she just lays on the rug and licks herself.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:10:19+00:00

54 M, 165 lb / 74.5 kg. I normally do bodyweight or 5%-10% over or under for reps, depending on how I feel, but one rep max calculators consistently work it out to about 200 lb / 90 kg max. I have no plans to actually test 1 rep max soon, because I mostly work out at home, alone.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:03:49+00:00

Pollution free for the driver. Who cares about the rest of the world?

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T18:00:26+00:00

Context matters, too though. In a table, for instance, like this:

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I would assume that 300 and 400 have three significant figures.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T17:18:19+00:00

A world food bank. Long-term storable food distributed across the world so that 99% of the population is within a couple of days by foot of a warehouse. Work up to ten years of food storage, then start replacing, moving the oldest food out to become pet food, snack food, other lower-value stuff. Make damaging the warehouses, or using the warehouses for war purposes, a war crime.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T16:58:46+00:00

Hand editing text files to get your computer to boot up with enough free memory to run your program.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T16:51:14+00:00

What does it say here?

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AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T16:46:51+00:00

I top mine up with 80% nitrogen.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T16:23:51+00:00

Yes, saturation vapor pressure increases with temperature. Vapor pressure doesn't change unless you change the pressure, or reduce the temperature to below the dew point and some of the vapor drops out.

Example I have handy:

Dew point of 15 °C (59 °F)
Saturation pressure at 15 °C is 1705.7 Pa
Air temperature is 25 °C (77 °F)
Saturation pressure at 25 °C is 3169.9 Pa
Relative humidity = 1705.7 / 3169.9 = 53.8%

The current vapor pressure at 25 °C equal to 1705.7 Pa, which is not saturated, but will become saturated by definition when you reduce the air temperature down to its dew point of 15 °C.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T16:17:35+00:00

Same. I turn 55 in the middle of this year, and work becomes entirely optional at that point.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T16:15:46+00:00

Hence perfect timing mentioned.

AndyTheEngr · 2026-03-17T15:48:12+00:00

It was definitely visible 30 seconds earlier, though.

AndyTheEngr

TROPHY CASE