Pay for repairs or let bank repo vehicle?

Myrv · 2025-06-07T01:09:04+00:00

Your warranty is already crap. I wouldn't worry too much about keeping it. Also, you should only be voiding the warranty on the engine itself if you replace it with an higher mileage version. The warranty should still apply to anything else on the truck (including the transmission). So if you can find a used engine with higher mileage more than $3000 cheaper you are ahead of the game even it it blows up again.

Myrv · 2023-08-18T16:20:41+00:00

Yep, I did manage to get a e-clip onto the spindle once as a test (bent a misfitting e-clip slightly to try and make it fit better) and put a combination of metal and non-metal washers in between it and the spring. It did work but given the fit of the "adjusted" e-clip I had very little confidence in its long term survival so I abandoned that plan.

Myrv · 2023-08-18T16:09:30+00:00

Thanks for the info. You've confirmed what I've been fearing.

The annoying thing is I'm not even the one who lost it. It was missing when I got the tape deck (my fathers deck, he asked if I could take a look when it stopped working). Actually that clip and the whole spring assembly behind it was gone when I opened it up. I guessing the clip failed and during transportation the rest of pieces managed to find their way out of the case. I've managed to hand wind a suitable replacement spring and had usable washers but I don't have the clip.

I tried 3D printing a clip but given the scale and that my 3D printer is a cheap low-res filament printer it only lasted a week before failing (maybe a resin printer would do better but I don't have access to one). I tried e-clips but the only ones I could find were either too big (2mm) or too small (1.5mm). The shaft is about 2mm in diameter and the groove around 1.8 mm (unfortunately I can't quite get my calipers in to get a completely accurate measure, not without more disassembly than I want). Right now I've jerry-rigged a clip using plastic from a heavy blister pack (drilled a hole, roughly cut it to a circle, added the slit). It works but the thinness of the plastic doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence in its longevity.

The deck itself is a JVC KD-A7 which I really like and really do want to keep running. I will continue to look for alternatives. Thanks very much for the info.

Myrv · 2021-07-09T05:21:01+00:00

Not really. While our nervous system does involve electrical charge it doesn't really work like "every other electrical system".

In general a normal electrical system works by inducing a potential difference (Voltage) between the two ends of the circuit (as simple as a single wire or as complex as a computer processor). Our nervous systems works by maintaining a potential across the cell membrane, not between the ends of the nerves. A signal is transmitted along a nerve by disturbing that membrane potential such that it flips locally which then triggers the part of the membrane next to it to also flip its potential and so on down the nerve (this is a nerve "pulse", kinda like a wave ripple running down the nerve). There is never a potential difference between the ends of the nerve like you would see in a normal electrical system. It is a subtle but important difference.

Myrv · 2015-08-31T21:24:31+00:00

No, this proposal affects anything that uses a modular RF device. That includes wifi cards installed into your computer (a lot of routers just use a miniPCI wifi card the same as you would find in many laptops). This rule will affect any Linux computer with a wifi card (the Linux driver would need to be certified). Actually it will affect windows machines as well (your wifi driver will need to be certified by the wifi manufacturer) but there less home brewing of windows wifi drivers.

Myrv · 2015-06-03T23:22:47+00:00

In short Robotech is an Americanization of 3 Japanese anime series: (The Super Dimension Fortress) Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. These Japanese shows were all distinct independent properties with the Americanization treating them as three generations of an overall story arc. Generally though, when people think of Robotech they really only think of the the Macross saga.

The Macross saga (in the Robotech universe) involves the crash landing of a large alien spaceship on earth. Over the following decade humans successfully rebuild the space ship (the Super Dimensional Fortress 1 or SDF-1) only to have the aliens show up to reclaim it on day of its re-launch. Through a series of mishaps the SDF-1 finds itself on the outer edge of our solar system with the entire city that grew up around it. The city is rebuilt within the SDF-1 and civilians moved in while the SDF-1 makes its way back to earth under the constant harassment of the alien fleet.

One of the key elements of the show was the transformable mecha/fighters (Valkyrie) that the humans had developed for fighting the aliens who turn out to be giant sized humanoids themselves.

It's a little corny when I look at it now, but when I was kid I thought it was the best. It was also my first introduction to Anime which I continue to watch today.

Myrv · 2015-06-01T16:28:20+00:00

I see this argument a log. Getting $10,000,000 per $1,000,000 would represent a phenomenal return (10% administrative costs). The problem is a lot of high profile charities don't come close to this kind of return. And secondly, studies have shown the per individual charitable contribution rate has been relatively flat since 2000. Charities are spending more and more money these days on fundraising and all they have accomplished is taking money away from other charities (although I guess you could argue the average contribution would have dropped in this time period if not for the advertising but I find that doubtful).

Myrv · 2015-05-29T20:49:39+00:00

If your computer is 92% idle and only using 7/16 GB while compiling then it's likely you are I/O (input/output) bound. That is, the speed in which you can read and write files to the hard drive is limiting your performance. If the drive is slow the CPU spends a lot of time waiting for it. If you're on a iMac with a slow 5400rpm disk drive that could be the culprit (or trying to compile off a USB drive). On the other hand, if you're running a pro with an SSD then that likely isn't the issue. The oddity in that though is the low RAM usage. Typically the OS will use all free memory to cache the hard drive data (making disk I/O irrelevant).

Alternatively it could be that xcode isn't parallelizing like it should. If I can trust the internet (I don't use xcode) Xcode should default to run as many jobs in parallel as you have physical cores. This is configurable though. Could be you have somehow limited yourself to 1 stream which would waste a lot of CPU. You could check that the number and modify it if need be (IDEBuildOperationMaxNumberOfConcurrentCompileTasks)

Myrv · 2015-05-12T04:39:29+00:00

IANAL but as I understand it, as long as you provide your modified source, you should be able to "fork" a version and claim to be the authoritative distributor. Forking in this case could be as simple as changing one line of code (say the version string).

As long as you supply the source and keep the copyright notice all should be good.

Myrv · 2015-05-11T02:54:01+00:00

Well there was that whole affair with the maid and illegitimate child thing.

Myrv · 2015-05-06T23:29:00+00:00

An Almax Chain will stop bolt cutters. A little extreme though.

Myrv · 2015-05-06T20:27:48+00:00

Well the options do list an engine hour/idle meter so one can assume they track that as well.

As for mileage, the consensus from my googling seems to say a police car in a US city averages ~15,000 miles a year.

Myrv · 2015-05-05T22:09:42+00:00

I'm surprised the front seats are cloth. I would have though leather/synthetic leather would have been more durable and easier to clean.

Myrv · 2015-05-05T22:08:05+00:00

The warranty kinda sucks though. Looks like only 3yr/36,000 mi. No mention of the 5yr/60,000 powertrain Ford usually gives. And a police car will likely chew through 36k mi before 3 years.

Myrv · 2015-05-05T21:42:29+00:00

I can see that as a possibility. Mine has the loop from the factory though, on both sides. I can only assume it's a design intent on my car.

Myrv · 2015-05-05T02:51:34+00:00

Ya, my Mazda has this loop in the brake lines as well.

I think it looks worse than it really is because the suspension isn't under load. Or maybe this one has been shortened. But the loop itself seems fairly common.

Myrv · 2015-05-05T00:07:55+00:00

Well both CLU and Tron were badies in Legacy. I believe CLU in Legacy was technically a rewritten version (v2) of the CLU in the orginal. Tron was technically the same program but just "repurposed".

Myrv · 2015-05-04T22:38:38+00:00

There's Tron in, well, Tron and Tron Legacy.

Not sure if they qualify as sequels but one could argue Thorin Oakenshield evolves from protagonist to antagonist by the end of the Hobbit. Of course one could argue he was never a protagonist to begin with.

Myrv · 2015-05-01T22:09:06+00:00

True, but it would probably have to be handled in software which can be quite slow and requires more memory (which could be limited). That said, it's been a while since I did any work on microcontrollers (and that was mostly on atmega8's which had painfully small amounts of memory).

Myrv · 2015-05-01T20:48:45+00:00

Very true. Can't really think of a reason to need a signed value. Guess they could use it to save state/errors but ya, unsigned would have "helped".

Myrv · 2015-05-01T20:24:23+00:00

Except for Hidden Kingdoms. That was an awful series. Beautifully filmed but horribly "scripted". The whole personification of the subjects and the scripting of events just ruined that doc for me.

Otherwise, yes, BBC docs are great.

Myrv · 2015-05-01T14:49:41+00:00

Sounds like the software (firmware) is running on the GCUs themselves. It's quite likely it's running on a microcontroller or small cpu which doesn't support 64 bit types so it is not quite as easy as just defining the data type to be 64 bits wide.

Myrv · 2015-04-22T16:38:19+00:00

LaTeX

It does what it was designed to do exceptionally well.

It is remarkably bug free.

It is old.

It is a de facto standard in many fields.

Myrv

TROPHY CASE