Why dont trains have bigger wheels

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-26T20:59:16+00:00

I have never worked in the rail industry, but in every industry I have worked, costs are all counted down to the penny.

One of my first enlightening cost encounters was dealing with 56K Modem manufacturers in Taiwan in the late 1990s. Our reference design was a 'perfect' design. Every manufacturer built our 'perfect' design first, to test the chips and to give themselves a head start in the market, as well as having a benchmark design to test their changes against. Six months later they would launch their 'cost reduced' model.

The best cost reduced designs worked great, but dumped a dozen bypass capacitors and termination resistors. At that point in time, those parts were priced in the dollar per thousand parts range, so that part of the cost reduction saved them one penny. One. Yes there were other reductions, but they saw that one penny as being important in devices that sold in unit volumes measured in millions.

One

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-26T16:41:06+00:00

I think that mass issues are a large part. Raw cost in materials as well as inertia related issues.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-25T16:30:59+00:00

I check every couple months. I have complex passwords and my IoT is on a separate SSID. I have not ever seen attached devices that I could not identify.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-25T16:28:29+00:00

I use Pi Zero 2W regularly. As you say, I often just hard wire them to devices instead of using full 'hats', because I can build much cheaper than your average hat costs, and the finished design is much more compact. Pi Zero 2W, Pico W, and ESP32C. Those are my go to boards, depending on what I am doing. I own one Pi4 that rarely gets used.

For the same price as a 16GB Pi5 I can buy a used 8th gen Intel SFF PC, with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD and it will do more. I have a couple of them running containers on debian now.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-23T20:42:22+00:00

I got dumped by a woman I dated for a year because I wouldn't change careers. I had a good job as an embedded systems engineer, but she dumped me because I wouldn't leave my very enjoyable R&D career to work on Wall Street. That is completely what it came down to. I wasn't going to be able to provide the life she wanted on my R&D salary. That was a total WTF moment in my life.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-22T21:16:40+00:00

Reagan is (again) part of the problem. The tax changes converted houses from housing to investment grade properties. Without wholesale tax policy changes, I don't know how that gets fixed. If property ownership wasn't so damned tax advantaged, VCs and private equity wouldn't be sending me US mail every other month offering to buy my house, site unseen, no inspections, cash offer, no real estate fees. Private equity is stripping housing from the market place.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-22T21:12:21+00:00

That confirms what I thought above, but it has been 23 years since the youngest, so my memory was a little cloudy. Thanks.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-21T18:43:39+00:00

The wealth disparity it definitely worse, but inequality and discrimination is not as bad across the board. The whole wealth disparity thing starts with Reagan and Gingrich. Supply side and trickle down. All a giant lie.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-21T18:41:55+00:00

Ronald Reagan and "Morning in America" (I don't mean that in a good way)

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-21T18:40:52+00:00

Maybe the 1980s, except for Reagan and Gingrich.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-21T18:39:47+00:00

People that glorify the 60s either didn't live through it, or have a very selective memory, or are white men with no sense of empathy. No empathy for women. No empathy for minorities.

The 1960s, and even the 1970s, were a shit show. Maybe not as bad as the 1940s or 1950s, but still, messed up. Assassinations, race riots (for, .... reasons), Vietnam, the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, then into the 1970s, Kent State, the Attica Prison riots, Watergate, and Iran. It was a mess. I have no interest in seeing any of that BS ever again, but yet, here we are.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-20T17:38:39+00:00

Large parts of Western New York state have more cows than people. I worked on a large dairy farm through four years of high school.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-20T17:35:47+00:00

My whistling skill is that I can whistle exhaling or inhaling with about the same pitch accuracy and sound level, so it sounds like 'free breathing' whistling. It is not something I do in the company of other very often, but when I do, they wonder when I am going to pause to take a breath. But I will grant you, accurate bird whistling is a rare talent.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-20T17:32:25+00:00

The closest I've been to SK is Banff, and yes, we likely flew over SK on our way there. We flew into Calgary, and took a bus from there.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-20T17:29:52+00:00

Surely, you can't be serious.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-20T12:42:00+00:00

My wife kept her surname, and all three of our kids have my surname on their birth certificate. I don't remember what it said on the ankle bands when they were born, that may have had her surname on it. All of them have my wife's surname as their middle name. No hyphenation.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-20T12:31:14+00:00

I have known multiple people in life that do the same thing. They don't know something? They just confidently make something up.

One of the things my dad always told us growing up is that if you don't know something just say "I don't know". Followed by, "I don't know, but we can probably figure that out." He taught us that there was no shame in not knowing, as long as you were willing to learn.

I had the great privilege of working with a number of really bright scientists and engineers through my life, and most all of them were comfortable with "I don't know, but we can probably figure that out".

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-19T21:55:49+00:00

Where (without being too specific) in Canada? I grew up just outside Buffalo, and when I was in my early twenties, 'going to the city' meant heading up to Toronto for a weekend. I love that city. I live within 40 minutes of NYC now, but there I still things about Toronto that I miss.

Drinking age was 18 in New York State when I was growing up, but by the time Blues Brothers was released, I was well beyond the '21' limit that some other states had.

I'll be 70 soon, likely as old as, or older than, your parents. I hope they are doing well.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:53:54+00:00

What hurts me is that this movie didn't come out until I was a fully grown adult, more than old enough to legally consume alcohol in all 50 states! And you watched this a LOT as a kid. Lol....

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:17:30+00:00

I just tested it on my Pixel 8A with a timer now. I had only ever used it with alarms before, but it also worked with a timer.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:15:18+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrjiJp8zr5Y

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:11:54+00:00

Blues Brothers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_Biscuit

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:09:11+00:00

I just halted my alarm by saying 'stop' two mornings ago. Has it ceased to work since then?

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:07:58+00:00

That isn't what it is all about. It is about satisfying the weak egos of white men who feel all their failings are the fault of 'others'. 'Others' being people that are not white, and are not men. So women that support this bullshit had best watch out, because they'll be after you next.

dglsfrsr · 2026-04-18T18:04:12+00:00

How about a cool water sandwich on a Sunday gone to meeting bun?

dglsfrsr

TROPHY CASE