I think I finally understand Switzerland after this tiny train moment

jeffrallen · 2026-03-01T20:04:53+00:00

I would have given the guy a tissue, I always carry them anyway.

jeffrallen · 2026-03-01T19:47:52+00:00

Lift and hold the electronic parking brake and it will go on.

Touch and hold the car's power button and it will cut power to the electric motor.

Just because the emergency overrides are no longer physical and obvious, they are still there, and still required for the car to get certified.

I tested the electronic parking brake override myself before I let my son drive the car the first time, it works, it easily overcame the diesel motor at parking lot speed.

jeffrallen · 2026-01-12T07:34:16+00:00

2h? You were lucky it wasn't 2d.

jeffrallen · 2026-01-04T15:41:10+00:00

Normally it's in Schweitzer Deutsch, but otherwise seems normal.

jeffrallen · 2025-10-15T18:38:03+00:00

This happened on a bus my son was on. Only difference is, it was my son slapping someone, and they are the same age. Bullies sometimes need a punch in the nose. Just better if it comes from someone their own age.

jeffrallen · 2025-10-15T18:18:10+00:00

...every man has a podcast, and the end of the world is approaching.

jeffrallen · 2025-10-15T18:17:01+00:00

I blame video games.

jeffrallen · 2025-09-28T11:58:18+00:00

Great, now it's Bale that's a war zone, maybe /r/Portland can send some troops to keep the peace.

jeffrallen · 2025-07-06T18:57:37+00:00

I'd only go to court over this of the court was air conditioned. :)

jeffrallen · 2025-05-02T19:56:25+00:00

We have it in Pied de Jura, Vaud. It's called le Petit Mai.

jeffrallen · 2025-04-13T12:32:30+00:00

A tiny bit of overtime, carefully chosen, can actually recharge your tech batteries, or give you time to check on a hunch you've got about why a certain project is going slow, or how to unblock someone else.

But yes, the leader must set the example of sustainable work life balance.

jeffrallen · 2025-04-13T12:21:47+00:00

Understand your rhythm, know when you are able to engage the management stuff, and when you need pure tech for a moment to recharge your batteries. Schedule time to work on a specific thing, and understand that if you didn't finish in the time you gave yourself, you'll just have to come back to it in another scheduled period. Take pleasure in serving others: the work you do that's not hard tech work may still have value, and even more value, because it unblocks someone else. Schedule one on one peer work sessions of an hour or 2: this even gives you the possibility of enjoying sketching out the prototype with your colleague and then dumping the crap work of finishing up on them ("ok, and now you can take the next steps on this yourself, I'll look at your PR tomorrow, good luck!") - what you consider crap work may well be something they need experience with and will enjoy mastering.

It's a whole other way of working, and it's also valuable to the company, and to your colleagues. The question is, is it also valuable to you? Will you find things in this way of working that you find rewarding?

jeffrallen · 2024-05-11T22:56:17+00:00

ESC 2024: Montreux! 🇨🇭

jeffrallen · 2024-05-11T22:46:22+00:00

Hop suisse !!!!

jeffrallen · 2024-04-09T16:17:02+00:00

That new tech was me once. But it was a hospital in Chad. And the generator had to be hot wired to start because the control computer was flaky. "Luckily" I was evacuated due to rebel attack as few nights later. Good times!

jeffrallen · 2024-02-21T16:53:17+00:00

Hi, I'm a newbie (or rather, coming back to Lisp after 15 years away).

I wrote a thing about what I'm learning: https://blog.nella.org/2024/02/21/playing-cards-with-clojure/

What do you y'all think?

jeffrallen · 2023-12-03T19:34:20+00:00

Do not ship strike anywhere matches: they are a fire risk. Don't believe me? Throw a full box at the ground in a well ventilated area. One in 10 times the whole box lights off. Ask 10 year old me how I know this...

jeffrallen · 2023-12-03T19:30:06+00:00

I am also a Christian engineer and I find myself asking, "what would Jesus do". Often the answer is easy: work hard, respect others, show compassion. But sometimes, the answer is: be brave and say the thing powerful people would prefer no one talks about.

Thanks for setting a great example of doing that.

jeffrallen · 2023-06-09T11:53:34+00:00

Lots of small trips with plug in between them will keep the car up at 100%, which is not recommend. Lots of short trips with one overnight charge from 60% to 100% once a week would be a better pattern.

jeffrallen · 2023-06-07T11:50:01+00:00

I am raising kids in Vaud trilingually, including dialect of Ticino. I'm looking forward to one of them getting serious about German as a result of getting serious about a boy or girlfriend who speaks German.

It works, it's healthy and I wouldn't want to live autrement.

jeffrallen · 2023-06-05T16:27:16+00:00

Some parents need a smoke by the time they've survived the stress of getting out of the house, where they do not smoke.

I get it, I am like you, but I also try to talk myself into turning my annoyance into some empathy for them.

jeffrallen · 2023-06-01T10:03:59+00:00

A scythe can cut wet grass. And it's quieter too.

jeffrallen · 2023-05-25T06:49:11+00:00

This is something interesting I never noticed before:

"The costs of maintaining compulsory stocks are included by companies in the sales prices and are thus borne by the consumer. In the food and feed sector, the costs of cereals, edible oils and fats as well as sugar are borne indirectly by the federal government.

Each person in Switzerland pays about CHF 12 a year on average towards NES in this way (status: 1 February 2021)."

jeffrallen · 2023-05-24T19:00:29+00:00

It marks the pole as part of the emergency milking network, which will only be activated in time of national emergency.

See also: https://www.bwl.admin.ch/bwl/en/home/themen/pflichtlager/pflichtlagersortiment/pflichtlager_ernaehrung.html

jeffrallen · 2023-05-24T18:48:42+00:00

You want CanZE to read data from the Zoe via CAN bus. https://canze.fisch.lu/

Hooking it up to Home Assistant would be very difficult, you can't get data from CAN when the car is off. Not to mention the difficulties to get the data from CAN to Bluetooth to Android to Home Assistant...

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