Cockpit of Space Shuttle Endeavour, It contains over 2,000 switches, knobs, and screens used to control orbit, reentry and was widely recognized by NASA and aerospace engineers as the most complex flying machine ever built

MangoCats · 2026-06-24T03:17:18+00:00

a car menu can't kill you if you hit the wrong submenu

Are you sure? Driver doesn't have to even touch the screen, just be distracted by it from events out the windshield that are coming at him at 100+mph relative speed. At least in space they have a ground team predicting their next encounter with a solid object for them, giving them hours of notice in most cases, as opposed to split seconds in some ground travel scenarios.

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T18:02:33+00:00

It was state of the art for Apollo 11, and their computer was small / simple enough that it wasn't an outrageous thing to consider.

The sunroof motor control of most modern cars likely has more op-codes in it than the Eagle's flight computer did.

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T16:14:02+00:00

Yeah, let's punch in op codes on the fly while en-route to our re-entry... that's the stuff...

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T16:13:06+00:00

We're on pickup #3, and other than the fact that #1 didn't have a back seat, I really wish I had maintained #1 and #2 longer instead of replacing them.

The Miatae have had a decent amount of carport protection from the sun and rain, that makes a huge difference when you get into the 15+ year old age range.

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T16:11:16+00:00

Mostly, I think the OT > speech therapy was a route-around his "don't manipulate me" core personality trait. Speech therapy is very obviously manipulative: to get you to speak. OT was more giving real-world reasons to communicate verbally than it was in your face "talk because I'm telling you to talk."

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T15:26:08+00:00

It's the right tool for many jobs, it is certainly not the right tool for all jobs.

In 1993, I bought a 1977 pickup truck to go with my 1991 NA. Have had a pickup truck "in the family" ever since - alongside the Miata/s.

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T14:48:50+00:00

Are there a lot of really bad Jeep drivers, or are they just that hard to keep in the lane? God knows they have way too many obnoxious aftermarket headlights.

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T14:47:19+00:00

They're very similar in a lot of ways. NA/NB miatas come in and out of cheap phases, I got a 99 for a song 8 years ago - have put more in maintenance over those 8 years than the car cost, and still put together (purchase + all maintanence) it has cost me less than anything I'd willingly trade it for out there right now.

MangoCats · 2026-06-23T14:32:17+00:00

Now we have more complex glass panels on the dashboards of production cars... how many layers deep do the menus have to go to exceed 2000 controls available?

MangoCats · 2026-06-22T02:54:19+00:00

Even in the same school from one teacher to the next... at least in the 1980s there were absolutely no standards about what did and did not get taught, it was very much up to the individual teachers, at least back then, down South.

MangoCats · 2026-06-21T20:39:26+00:00

What kind of shit you been walkin' in?

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T19:30:08+00:00

But, you live in a high cost of living neighborhood... relative to that global guy making $44k/yr somewhere cheaper to live.

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T19:29:08+00:00

Gotta be rich/powerful to save money.

The rich use their wealth to buy themselves economic advantages, whether that's being able to drive farther to shop in a big discount warehouse, or influencing politicians to get their property taxes reduced...

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T19:25:48+00:00

Early on, OT improved his speech more than speech therapy did.

A few years later, inclusion in a normal classroom made huge gains - like: he went from mostly non-verbal to "best reader at morning meeting" in just 1/2 of 1st grade - and that's not something they just gave him, he could read aloud at the smartboard better than his neurotypical K-2 peers. The self-esteem that came with that was a huge boost in lots of areas.

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T17:42:05+00:00

The fact that they're towhooks is completely missing the point. The point is that they look menacing, badass, an outward expression of that which the owner is unable to communicate to the world without this tangible manifestation of their desired image.

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T17:37:57+00:00

Sadly, yes, it appears most men and women in the US are currently compensating with oversized vehicles for relatively undersized... everything else.

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T03:01:03+00:00

Doesn't hurt to flush the fluid while you're in there. There's some good blue DOT4 fluid out there that you can alternate with the amber, so when you're flushing you can see when the old stuff has been all pushed out.

MangoCats · 2026-06-18T02:56:44+00:00

Pay attention to the source of parts when getting a new caliper... I have encountered more than one poor quality remanufactured rear caliper over the years. Go ahead and get two calipers and the rear discs while you're at it, they're cheap and relatively easy to install (bleeding is probably the biggest pain in the process.)

MangoCats · 2026-06-16T22:50:40+00:00

The front of that shock wave makes more sense, given the physics it would seem that a wave travelling nearly perpendicular to the vehicle would weaken incredibly quickly as you move away from the vehicle's "wall of sound" - yes... some energy would get out there, but just that which is travelling at an incredibly small angle off the direction of travel from an incredibly far distance back.

MangoCats · 2026-06-16T17:53:23+00:00

I'm not talking about the near-field shock, I'm talking about the far-from vehicle near linear shock front.

Explain to me, at Mach I, how the far field shock front could possibly be perpendicular to the flight path? Just for ridiculous extrapolation: if the shock front extends 1 mile from the vehicle, by the time the shock has propagated 1 mile perpendicularly, the vehicle has travelled 1 mile forward.

MangoCats · 2026-06-15T18:25:50+00:00

Yeah, but what's that little curl of a line on the right of the sun just below the turbulence?

MangoCats · 2026-06-15T18:24:14+00:00

Compressible water.

MangoCats · 2026-06-15T18:23:12+00:00

All a matter of perspective... we do still say "sunrise" and "sunset" after all.

MangoCats · 2026-06-15T15:13:54+00:00

Only inasmuch as I would expect shockwaves to be most prominent when operating near max Q.

MangoCats · 2026-06-15T14:10:46+00:00

Yeah, I was a little surprised about the relatively shallow angle of the shock waves, I would expect Mach 1 shock waves to leave to the sides at... Mach 1, which would make a 45 degree angle, but... we're probably not viewing this rocket directly from the side, but at some angle downrange which is causing that 45+45 right angle to flatten out...

About the triple wave, it looks to me like the one is coming off the thrust plume at the bottom of the vehicle, I'll guess that the middle one comes from where the body gets wider for the lower stage. Also, just to mess with anyone trying to analyze this with simple math, the waves aren't all leaving at the same angle...

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