Similar experience with a 2010 Honda Odyssey, drove it for 10 years and never saw a crack even though I'm sure it took a beating.
Then we got a 2022 Passport and I swear every single trip has a new crack or chip. I was surprisingly fortunate to be talked into the windshield warranty as the sales guy has been through this exact thing and replacing these windshields with assistive tech is expensive. That warranty has already paid for itself and more including once full windshield replacement.
Huh, odd. I have a car with assistive controls and they also tried to talk me into this warranty but I declined. They mentioned replacement would require extra money.
I did end up getting a windshield replacement shortly after purchase (like 6 months into ownership a rock came out of a truck and hit my windshield). I got it replaced for the normal $100-$200 not from the dealership and the vision system has had no issues.
I've had a malignant melanoma, my mother and extended relatives had it as well (including a great uncle I never met who died from it), 4 (of my 9) siblings have had multiple, mostly those of use who have red hair/fair skin. I don't think I've ever heard of a greater risk of skin cancer due to genetics/familial occurrence than I have.
After my mother got it and had a huge chunk taken out of her leg when I was very young, we have had it drilled into our heads that the sun was going to kill us and we needed to cover up and lather in sun screen for even the slightest possibility of sun exposure.
Obviously that didn't help much as many of us still got it anyway, hah!
But yea there are some folks who are terrified of the sun. I personally think 15-20 minutes unfiltered sunlight is good for me, but beyond that I'm looking for the nearest shade or trying to cover up.
There is also the evidence that it usually doesn't happen on the hands or face which are chronically exposed, but rather areas that are normally covered.
I just had that conversation with a coworker last week, they started with 'I wonder if there is anyone left who isn't using AI daily?', and I had to reply with.. 'um well me actually'.
I only occasionally try it out for specific tasks and have never felt the inclination to try making it a part of any daily process, but his mindset was such that he couldn't perceive of anyone not wanting to fully dive in everyday and that those who didn't were missing out on significant value to their lives.
I remember living in Japan around 2001 and having to handle random addresses.
We had several atlas books of regions and neighborhoods. Looking up an address was an exercise in getting the right book for the neighborhood, then using an index which noted which block of the map that house number was in (eg 'c10' using a grid with numbers across the top and letters down the side).
Plotting a course from where you were to this location was also exciting and required patching together multiple maps.
Actually following that course in real life was another challenge altogether and really required visualizing what you saw on the map since, as noted, there aren't many street names.
I'm honestly surprised we were able to succeed at getting to places as often as we did.
I kind of miss that experience, just plugging an address into a phone and following directions is much less exciting.
The first time I went to Japan was also pre-smartphone, and navigating anywhere involved a combination of going to a convenience store with a written address and getting the clerk (hopefully a young girl -- they have better language skills!) to pull out the big white books for the area, look up the address in the index, etc. If you were in the unfortunate situation of needing to navigate in a puzzling neighborhood, you'd have to make a copy of the map or draw a little diagram, and then if you got lost, you'd use the random "neighborhood maps" posted on signs on major streets (these still mostly exist).
Guidebooks would often have little tiny maps drawn in the margins that tried to get you from the nearest train station, but even that could be a nightmare, because the typical downtown Tokyo train station has a dozen or so exits, and just getting to the right exit to use the map was a navigation puzzle in its own right. I got lost for the better part of an hour on my first visit to Tokyo station!
Doing this without any language proficiency meant that getting anywhere could take hours. Fun times. It's sort of mind-blowing how much easier it is for tourists now.
> just plugging an address into a phone and following directions is much less exciting.
Something I realised a year or two back: my mental model of breaking down a larger goal into smaller subgoals is navigation. If you want to get from somewhere in Los Angeles to somewhere in San Francisco, and that step needs to be broken down, it can be analysed into (a) get from LA to Harris Ranch, then (b) get from Harris Ranch to SF.
Obviously people growing up now don't think of things that way any more, because you don't have to be able to think of the equivalent of Harris Ranch on demand; what do you all use instead as a mental model?
First job was a delivery driver pre-Internet and Thomas guide was a lifesaver.
It's hard to explain to younger people my pride in that I was "good" at finding multiple addresses and plotting best course between locations, then knowing where phone booths were to call in on the road, etc. Definitely makes me appreciate GPS and mobile mapping apps.
I thought it would be in the article, but it only mentioned muscle mass. I believe lifting weights actually improves bone strength as well, but I don't have the references available that say that.
This is a great point, and I think lends itself to a better solution than taxes. Why give all the excess to the government, who will do who knows what with it? (actually it's pretty clear where the majority of it goes, and I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't spend it the same way as the government).
If someone attained their wealth with the help of others, why can't we enact regulations saying that the wealth must be divided amongst all of them? Sure you can have some differences for those at the top, but it shouldn't be orders of magnitude difference.
Then each of those individuals would be both better off individually as well as spreading that wealth farther across the economy instead of concentrated to a few individuals.
I'm probably too naive in my thinking here though.
If you're someone who feels that government will do "who knows what" with the money they get, I feel like there's a very strong obligation to look at & observe that fact, & see what might be done about it.
If we just say that the extremely well off have some burden, but maybe it's not entirely up to them & maybe people under them should have some day where that money goes: that creates perverse incentives where the rich person might shape who stays employed and who falls inline. Or even if not explicit pressure, maybe the rich person sets up various programs which obviously clearly benefit employees more so than others. It creates endless hard to read quid-pro-quo and other self dealing situations.
Rather than give the mega wealthy control over some societal obligation, it seems like governments can and should be in charge. If you disbelieve in government, I think there's a strong and high obligation to state how and where you think things are going astray, and I think there's a strong obligation to seek reform and improvement. Tearing down the United States & state governments or supplanting them with exterior powers is an act that, to me, seems blankety awful, with little clear advisement for it.
I like the state and don't think we should undermine it and I think should expect the ultra-richer to carry some burden, which they have so far escaped. I don't think we need to revamp the structure of government when we decide rich people should pay some burden too, which for the last ~4 decades they hasnt been the case.
This reminds me of a time I tried to install Ubuntu on an old thick Dell laptop many years ago.
Each time I would try the system would overheat and then crash. The existing (windows) system still appeared to work fine with light loads so I was pretty sure I just needed to get past the install and decided to try one more time.
It was winter at the time, I can't remember if it had snowed recently, but I think it was probably close to 40 degrees F outside. So I hooked up a wired keyboard and mouse, and then plopped the laptop outside on the deck and closed the door with only the keyboard and mouse inside. There was a window which I could see the screen through and start the install.
Sure enough with the natural winter cooling the install completed and I was able to use the laptop for a few more years.
Still, IMO a better solution is fixing the hardware. Many years ago, I had similar symptoms with an old thick HP laptop. I think I have paid something like $30 for the new fan assembly, it’s a large part which includes a fan, radiator and couple of heat pipes. The assembly connects to the motherboard with a small plug, no soldering was required. It only took half an hour (and a blob of thermal paste) to replace the part.
Opening it up and vacuum cleaning the fan from dust also can do wonders with old and "broken" laptops as a first step. Tiny bit of WD40 in the fan mechanic is the next, then thermal paste, then replacing parts.
(Advice, prevent the fan from spinning while doing vacuum)
Disconnect the fan cable from the socket so that the motor doesn't send pulses of energy back into your laptop. It probably won't harm it, but better safe than sorry.
So you "disprove" my statement with some rando on the Arduino message board that has less than 20 posts in their lifetime?
What makes you think they're an authority?
Brushless motor still have fly back voltage that has to be clamped. You may not need to install a diode in the fan, but I can guarantee you that this "inbuilt driver circuit" has such a diode.
And if you read the linked thread a bit more you'd see where they test it and it does produce -100V at shutdown. If there wasn't a flyback diodes it'd be burning out ic's left and right
As mentioned by another commenter, many of the compounds in WD-40 “dry” out, either by evaporation or oxidation (turning to lacquer/sticky goo like what you find in the oven). WD-40 is meant for penetration and water displacement, not desirable for achieving long term lubrication.
An example of something better to use is 3-In-One Multipurpose or Motor Oil.
Another FYI is that oils break down grease, which is found in bearings (WD-40 aggressively so), so it’s not generally desirable to apply oil to bearings, unless it’s already having issues and you just need some additional life out of it.
"If the fan is very old and no longer works properly, it just needs to be replaced. "
Sometimes it is really complicated replacing them with a danger of damaging stuff, if you have no routine. Then using something to spray is easier to fix it for some time. It helped in my cases, even though I will definitely try something else next time ..
I used to frequent overclocking forums and at the time a lot of this was crazy custom work instead of purpose built cooling products or things like water cooling AiO setups. I remember people building intakes into their window so the computer case sucked in cold winter air from outdoors. There was even a guy that installed a homemade water cooling setup and had the reservoir tank outdoors and piped through the window. I think the later had a real risk of freezing if his folding at home rig stopped working on very cold days.
I mostly just installed insanely loud tornado fans myself, which were in style at the time. This was before building a quiet PC was on anyone's radar it seemed.
Ive done that. I am doing that. Using the outdoors as a natural heatsink isnt crazy. In a couple months it will be -30 outside my window. Why should my computer fans whirl around constanly using 20c indoor air when literally inches away there exists and unlimited supply of -30c outdoor air? Some simple water cooling parts, a 30$ heat exchanger and a little radiator fluid. Net result is lower temps and significantly lower noise. The only practical problem is consensation, but with dew points of -30c even indoors that isnt much of a worry.
It's a neat hack but I have to wonder whether the hole through which you pass through the pipes leaks more heat energy to the outside than the fans take to run on an all-indoor system.
Plus, in the winter, you get "free" heating by running the machine completely indoors. Not actually free of course, but free as a side-effect of using the machine for other tasks. Had a friend who tried splitting his electrical service off into a cheaper heat-rate branch to run his bitcoin mining rigs and claimed they were the same as a space heater. I don't think the power company bought it.
I had this idea but never executed because it's only bitter cold outside for about 3 months out of the year. And then I'd basically be doing a semi-annual detachment/attachment of my PC from the wall and probably removing/adding an insert from a window for the other end of the loop.
This combined with my roughly 4 month itch to rearrange my office made it seem like much more of a pain in the ass than it was worth to ever actually do.
I've done it a few times. I find that seasonal temperature changes are not as much of an issue as I first thought. Automotive radiator fluid basically never freezes. And once you have a coolant loop running outside, your options are far greater. Even radiators are a unnecessary. I once has a coolant loop run outside to 20-gallon washtub sitting on the ground under a wood deck. No radiators or fans. The entire rig cost less than 100$. Just a tiny aquarium pump pushing water up the loop into the house. The tub was in thermal contact with the ground and was so massive that it took many hours for my computer to warm it up even in high summer.
I would assume folks would use antifreeze when doing sub-zero liquid cooling, that would prevent issues in all but extreme cold. It would have a bit of an impact on heat transfer though...
Though, at 40 F, you could have put on some socks, shoes, shorts and a t-shirt and sat outside, instead of peering out through the window in your underwear.
Or, were you fully clothed and this was in Florida or something?
(I half joke, but when it warms up to 40 F again in the Spring, in Minnesota we break out the t-shirts, if not shorts.)
This reminded me of early days running AWS SQS. We didn't charge for storage as message size was limited and the expectation was any message was going to be read immediately... But sure enough some users would just leave messages there forever and we could never figure out what they were trying to do except maybe exploit it for free storage somehow.
I think pragmatism would be the middle ground, or 'dealing with reality as best you can'.
I don't think it's possible to actually sit perfectly in the middle, won't you always end up thinking slightly positively or negatively about whatever situation comes up?
In that case I think that 'Expect the best but prepare for the worst' is a good mindset to have.
You don't get it. Your blindness is laid bare by this example.
You present this example to me as if the truth doesn't even matter. WHY did the person throw the rock? That is the truth behind it all. Seems like a critical part of a hypothetical situation that is entirely missing from your example.
Your biases are so strong that you didn't even feel a need to mention it. It's like talking about a flying turtle without describing why or how the turtle can fly. You inserted so much emotion and violence into this hypothetical situation that basically you are blinded by the fact that it's missing a critical point.
And that is the essence of what I'm talking about. A state of mind. If you can't view the situation neutrally. Then you are crippled. Forever blind from asking the critical question and realizing the ultimate truth.
But let's be straight here. The OP of this article is not in an emotionally charged situation. She's a neutral arbiter observing a changing world shielded from all the flying rocks being thrown all over the place. And from this neutral vantage point she makes a choice... she says, I choose to be biased... I choose to lie to myself... I choose to be an optimist.
Software Engineering salaries at Japanese companies range between $100-200k (with a normal exchange rate, right now it's closer to $80-160k), with no equity, for senior (10+ YOE) engineers. Most companies also include a yearly bonus that's equivalent to 1 month salary.
The highest paying Japanese companies tend to pay less than 1/2 of the total comp you can expect in the bay area, but may be closer to competitive to a comp package in somewhere like Atlanta or Austin.
Then we got a 2022 Passport and I swear every single trip has a new crack or chip. I was surprisingly fortunate to be talked into the windshield warranty as the sales guy has been through this exact thing and replacing these windshields with assistive tech is expensive. That warranty has already paid for itself and more including once full windshield replacement.