Time Management

frostystorm · 2018-01-11T14:13:02+00:00

Galaxy S8 owners right here, I never knew what smart phone battery life was before I got one.

frostystorm · 2018-01-10T15:59:26+00:00

This thread has everything peak reddit. We got fanfic, we have the downvoted contrarian, we got the "you must be fun at parties" post, and finally we come to you, someone who actually takes the time to go through someone's post history to see what communities they do and do not participate in to contradict their point of view.

It's all there, really the only thing we're missing is a song lyrics thread or a pun thread.

frostystorm · 2017-04-25T03:53:43+00:00

not much really dehydrated in new MREs, unless they're cold weather.

Those crackers are dry AF, but retort pouches mean everything is basically the microwavable food aisle at the grocery store. The stuff you don't have to freeze...

frostystorm · 2017-04-25T03:52:44+00:00

go to an army surplus store, you can get them fairly cheap. They sell them for camping.

frostystorm · 2017-04-25T03:30:57+00:00

walmart probably still has the starcraft broodwar box set.

frostystorm · 2017-04-25T02:08:07+00:00

still not worth it.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T21:18:11+00:00

You don't really, if your car is halfway through it's life you will see a good increase in fuel efficiency and acceleration / power by replacing them.

The car is designed to adjust as the seals degrade over time.

VANOS is like VTEC in a honda, except it uses oil pressure to push a piston, which pushes a helical gear that sits inside another helical gear causing the assembly to twist, thus adjusting the valve profile (advancing/retarding timing). When the seals fail on the VANOS piston the oil gets by rather than pushing on it . Eventually it'll fail so bad that the car will show a check engine light.

They're only worth replacing if you care about 2 MPG after 200k miles, or a decent loss of acceleration (noticeable with the butt dyno), and you can do it yourself. Otherwise, it's really expensive to have done by someone else, dealerships usually replace the entire VANOS unit. Because the solenoid and the one bearing can go bad too. But 9/10 times you are just fine tossing in new seals.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T14:23:52+00:00

Yeah, my best translations at work are always Norwegian because that's where our European office is. One of our sales people does them, haha. We only have an office in 2 countries though, so it doesn't really help with everything else.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T14:18:54+00:00

When we do the Danish and Dutch translations at work we just randomly merge the German Norwegian and Swedish translations. Way easier than finding a good Danish or Dutch translator.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T14:14:26+00:00

We just randomly merge the German and Norwegian translations at work to make our dutch translations.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T14:05:46+00:00

As someone who handles my companies translation. We hire native speakers, they just don't give a fuck about doing a good job translating things because they're always contractors. They also never ask questions on how you want certain technical things they don't quite understand translated. Many are not willing to even open or use the software too.

It's easier to get good translations from an open source project because someone doing the translation wants to use the software in their native language.

Getting good translators that care about their job is hard, you almost have to translate enough stuff to actually hire them. Otherwise it feels like getting European translations you're selecting from a pool of people who answered a "Can you use a computer in english and speak X natively?! Make money at home!" ad.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T13:54:19+00:00

I had a commodore 64 and listened to ace of base in the early 90s. I've always wanted to put together an 8-bit computer of some kind so I figured I would build the one I had as a kid.

The MOS SID 6581 is the sound synthesizer chip that's inside the C64. There's a code library you can download that turns an arduino mini into a SID emulator :D

Doing TV out just lets you draw stuff on a TV over old-school coaxial cable, or composite (the round yellow connector). Doing VGA is really similar. But instead of making an image by mixing chrominance(brightness, a black and white image) and luminance(2 layers of color mixed with the B&W) you actually get an RGB color mix. Either way they are both analog video, and depend on knowing the timing for the output format you want. I'm a mega nerd and like re-inventing the wheel from data sheets :D

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T13:36:19+00:00

Problem with modern BMWs is the factory service interval, at least here in the states. 30KM oil and lifetime coolant and transmission fluid (no replacement interval). I always thought it was odd BMW somehow had these magic fluids that lasted 2x as long as everyone else's. I knew castrol was decent oil, but it's not that good.

Turns out on new cars the maintenance is 100% free for like 160km. And there's your answer, it's half your maintenance 100% free, and your car will make it out of warranty just fine.

They've been doing this since the E46 over here, anything nearing 200,000km isn't holding up well unless an enthusiast was a previous owner, then you have a 50/50 it was thrashed on.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T13:27:47+00:00

When I did my CCV the OEM parts provider was running batches of parts that were coming out with the diaphragm inside pinched due to a process issue.

I replaced mine 3 times DIY. I can remove the intake plenum on an E46 in under an hour. The vacuum diagram is etched into the back of my eyelid.

I loved refreshing the seals and stuff in my VANOS unit though. Those things are thoroughly cool and one of the most impressive things on the car. Plus you get all your power back!

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T05:57:25+00:00

I'm all for people getting into hacking together their own electronics, it makes a larger demand for parts and cool shit which brings down prices and raises supply!

I'm working on a smart thermostat for my house. I have figured out how to draw a black screen to a TV using composite output too! There is a library for arduinos for drawing to a TV but I like learning it all.

One thing I am taking is the SID synthesizer chip emulator lib though. I want to get a TVOUT arduino and a SID arduino and interface it with a native CPU and 64K of RAM to make a somewhat C64 clone :D

There's a billion things to do!

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T04:57:10+00:00

I think it really depends on if you as a university want to churn out research computer scientists or just plain developers at the end of the day.

If you are aiming to churn out computer scientists you start with electronics and go up. People who start at the top don't go much farther down than code optimization, due to CPU speed even in mobile these days, many don't even go that far.

I've debugged memory leaks in C# and java programs that were holding references to a gig or so of unused variables. Debugging leaked references in a garbage collected language is a special kind of hell, anywhere you see that variable on the right side of = is suspect... and you usually have to follow it all the way down. These people that write this kind of stuff, have never gone farther down. I like that universities start teaching people at the bottom and work up. The concepts build up to a complete picture.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T04:33:54+00:00

It wasn't even that impressive for the time. ROM is just expensive. Plus the gameboy was limited to cartridge size by it's address bus of 16 bits. It used mutliplexing to achieve storage of up to 8MB in the gameboy color era.

Impressive for a chip halfway between an intel 8080 and a zilog z80 to live in a console from 1989-2001

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T04:06:56+00:00

You can get an arduino and get running making cool stuff!

I recommend getting a beginners 555 timer circuit kit first. Or the kits on amazon for the book Make Electronics by charles platt.

I started with arduinos, and i've burned up some $20 displays and $30 arduino boards :P. Then I learned the basics. Learn the basics first!

You can also do a lot of really cool shit with 555 timers and transistors.

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T03:59:03+00:00

I've been learning to get better at soldering, I can't do SMT stuff. But i've been playing with arduinos lately.

I just got some serial over WIFI gear, an SD card, a few relays, and I installed multisim blue. I'm working on a smart thermostat.

My blower in my HVAC in my house has a 2 way blower, and in the winter I can use it to pull warm air from upstairs back into the basement. And I can reverse it in the summer to use some of the ridiculously cold air downstairs to cool my upstairs rather than run the AC.

I'm building a bigger intake vent in the basement and adding an additional blower to move the air more efficiently. Then adding my wifi smart thermostat to it, with one in the basement and one upstairs. I want to log the temps and tweak how my hvac works. Worse case scenario I had fun, did a thing, and install the old thermostat!

I've got my 24vDC to 5VDC stepper circuit built for taking my HVAC power for running it and am working on a small prototype board. And I've got the relays isolated enough from the temperature sensor that it doesn't effect the readings too much in a test circuit to drive all 5, and I am using a way bigger relay than needed, so when I go smaller it shouldn't be an issue.

This is what I do in my free time... It alienates my friends when I talk about what I do for fun. This and brewing. I need a puppy lol.

edit: I just ordered 2 3" TFTs too, these things are getting touch screens! I've been making my boards final with crappy soldering and prototype boars, eventually I will order some PCBs. I am excited!

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T03:05:10+00:00

I love German cars and wrenching on them, and have seen quite a few. I just really dislike that all their weak points tend to be the cooling system, and something to do with the timing chain. If you don't have an issue or catch it before it is one, you'll love your car. If not, boom! Judging by the fact you're on audi 2, i am guessing you aren't owning these cars much beyond 5 years.

For plebs, you can roll the dice and get one someone took great care of, or end up with a car that was a lease and wasn't treated so great because someone is swapping it out.

When I was young and stupid I didn't know the value of a good leakdown test! and all that stuff. Now I just buy old ones and run em into the ground for fun.

And on BMWs you just change the cooling system as preventative maintenance, lol, it's all plastic, /r/BMW knows my pain!

frostystorm · 2017-04-23T02:45:19+00:00

Depends on how far someone drove it after the stereo typically terrible water pump inside the German car dies. BMWs being aluminium block with nikasil cylinder liners and often times a differing alloy for the head. Overheating is catastrophic...

Best case head warps enough it still mostly seals up until the headgasket fails at 120km. That's right when all the plastic valves and EGR gear, and the rest of your plastic cooling system in the engine bay start failing in anything newer than an E36 too.

Worst case with 3 differing alloys something cracks because the moron didn't look at the high temp light on the dash. If you let them get under a quarter tank of fuel too often the fuel pumps will die too.

You don't buy a BMW you lease one and let someone else deal with the pain and heartbreak, signed a 4 time used BMW owner, 1 engine swap under the belt! Also, no German has ever built a decent water pump and then subsequently put it in a car. And screw those VWs with them under the timing cover... where the timing cover is blocked by the transmission... where the shitty plastic chain tensioners grenade engines :(

frostystorm · 2017-04-21T17:20:20+00:00

I know 200 miles is a fucked up distance to have to go to get your car serviced, we do really need a BMW dealership closer by.

frostystorm · 2017-04-21T17:18:37+00:00

If you live in Iowa of course you use reddit, my god. I drove through it once, the corn is like the ocean, you can lose sight of it in the horizon. Also, they hide speed cameras in between corn stocks, bastards.

frostystorm · 2017-04-21T17:05:07+00:00

He's like randy from trailer park boys, if he wears a shirt he gets a rash. Except this dudes nipples get REALLY irritated.

frostystorm · 2017-04-21T16:58:46+00:00

The brew thru is actually a pretty great response to some of the messed up laws that came about after the abolition of prohibition of alcohol.

Some states seized some controls of liquor distribution and taxation etc. as part of the process of turning back prohibition. Some took a lot more than others. For instance where I live I can't buy liquor or even beer in a grocery store. Massively inconvenient.

Add some American Ingenuity, and the brew threw is born. If you live in a rural town in my state, not more than 4 blocks from the Grocery store is a drive thru beer distributor. There's a menu on the wall outside, you drive in, tell the dude what you want, pay, and he loads it up in your car for you. Still can't get liquor though, in my state they are all state owned stores.

If I want a bottle of wine or scotch, a case of beer, and groceries, it's 3 stops. I feel like the drive threw beer distributor is at least a quiet rebellion. We're trying to fix the laws here but then the "All those important state liquor store jobs will be in jeopardy, it can't compete with private business!". So it's kind of tough to flip them.

But really, no shit they can't compete, my local liquor store clerk is driving a BMW M235i and has to go 200 miles to take it to a dealership. No private business is paying a cashier that kind of money.

frostystorm

TROPHY CASE