Everything Else

Hey, for like two years when I was 9 or 10 my main desktop ran Vista because I had a spare key. I actually quite liked Vista, but the audio drivers for my motherboard were XP only, so I never had audio on that box.

guardian452 wrote: Right, the last auto accident I was involved in I was walking in a crosswalk and was hit by a driver DUI (on oxys) who was turning left and didn't stop. The police let her go without even a citation. At least she was honest and admitted she shouldn't have been driving. I hope things like this can be prevented by AVs.

I think it is unwise to put intoxicated people behind the wheel of any vehicle. And autonomous vehicles, in order to have redundancy, are going to require manual override controls. Putting that in the control of someone is high is something I don't recommend in the least.

guardian452 wrote: Sometimes I weep for humanity. So did insurance buy that BS about your ABS not working, or was it just an excuse for mommy and daddy? Because whenever a young 20-something rear-ends an innocent victim, they always have someone else to blame. Some of us here actually know how ABS pumps work because we've had to sit through many long design meetings about their control software. So you were already on the brake and beyond the limits of the car on a public road. Just admit it.

I only race on private land. I don't speed on the highway, and hell fucking no in the Hampton-Roads Bridge Tunnel. I am lucky that there's a 3 mile stretch of private road that I am permitted to use for this purpose. 157 mph would put me in jail for over a month in VA as we have a punishment of every mph over 90 is 1 day in jail, at the judge's discretion, plus class 1 misdemeanor charges on top including up to 5,000 in fines. I would be retarded to drive like that on a public road. So what I said re. speeding a Cobra is not relevant to what I later said.

No, the ABS didn't fail. The system overcompensated. You see, the HRBT has asphalt cut into sections with steel expansion joints between them. It was steady 35 mph traffic and I was driving an automatic 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer ES. Not an EVO, not a fast car, and I was driving under the 35mph limit.

I was not distracted, the road was dry and I stayed ~60ft behind the car I rear ended. So what happened?

I hit the brakes, but I didn't hit it enough to trigger the ABS. One of the floor joints struck my wheels and likely locked one or more of my brakes, triggering ABS. The car skidded diagonally, passenger side first into the SUV. I could not steer around it, as ABS proponents claim to be an advantage, because to my left was a wall, to my right was a line of cars in heavy traffic. I could do nothing and there were other cars that wrecked ahead of us, but they were considered separate, as this crash didn't touch that crash.

I know you're an engineer but guess what, SO AM I. ABS systems work on the principle of toggling brake pressure to avoid wheel lockups. It does not work well when the conditions are anything other than level, dry pavement. I was traveling on a dry, yet downward grade, which puts excessive load on the front wheels, with uneven surfaces. ABS is a computer based system based on modeling and sensor input. It is far from a perfect system, and has often had people spinning out on ice here. You may chime in that ESC/TCS/DSC/whatever makes that not happen but that isn't true. It happens anyways. Because computers in cars are not and will not be ever sophisticated enough to reduce the problem to any wide degree.

Insurance in a tort state like VA doesn't care about how a crash happens. What they care about in a rear end wreck is who hit who. I hit the SUV, so I was declared at fault. Explanation would have made no difference because it wasn't going to change the outcome of the case. Pick and choose your battles.

However, I did get a "following too closely ticket" thanks to the asshole state cop. I hired legal counsel, drew up engineering diagrams and an explanation of the situation depicting what likely happened, along with some tests using a similar surface, with a similar grade, in a Lancer EVO at similar speeds. The evidence was sufficient to get the judge to dismiss it.

In 6 years of owning a drivers license, I've had a single speeding ticket, which was dismissed when a faulty VSS was determined to be the cause. I've had a single wreck. I am not proud of my record, but I refuse to consider myself a statistic and for that patronizing tone to be taken with me, when I'm far more responsible than I let on

So you're a walking, talking statistic driving society and regulation *towards* driverless cars and excessive surveillance devices.

I suggest you take the tinfoil hat off and stop reading internet screeds from salty idiots who think because they worked at a goofy lube for two months and learned how to change oil and tires they know more than the combined knowledge of an industry that has existed for well over a century. It's 2017 with 2018 models coming out, and there's still no trouble disabling these devices for whatever purpose you desire

You can disable TCS, but not ESC altogether, from what I have understood. ESC consists of several parts including skid control computer, yaw sensors and lateral acceleration sensors

Krokodil wrote: the computers are more interesting than modern ones.

We go in circle.

Modern computers are boring and less interesting, but they have power and software, which makes them more interesting for practical purposes, e.g. if you have to design your own PCB and build your own HOME made electronics.

Old computers doesn't have enough power, and when they have enough (e.g. Octane2, Tezro, Onyx2) ... they don't have software and they cost a lot of money (e.g. a Tezro is $2000 at least)

Even for my hobbies, I need OrCAD, I need Altium, I need SolidWorks, I need ISE (to play with fpgas). I can run none of them (and there isn't alternatives for IRIX) on any SGIs.

Raion-Fox wrote: You can disable TCS, but not ESC altogether, from what I have understood. ESC consists of several parts including skid control computer, yaw sensors and lateral acceleration sensors

it sounds phobia. Maybe?

To Raion-Fox and Guardian452, please stay on topic or move to another thread (i can split it for you) and please refrain from making personal comments.

I know both of you feel strongly about the subject of cars and automotive technology, which is absolutely fine. but i am not inclined to make a separate forum-section about automotive tech on this forum

I am building a new Xterm, made with Linux and X11R7, on a PowerPC embedded board.
Why? Because I like 'network computing' (NC) approach, and it's also an useful exercise for me.

I wish I had knowledge and budget for QNX,WxWorks, better kernels ...

Raion-Fox wrote: You can disable TCS, but not ESC altogether, from what I have understood. ESC consists of several parts including skid control computer, yaw sensors and lateral acceleration sensors

You are referring to two separate systems. "Traction control" reduces motor output to prevent wheelspin, and exists on some older cars with ABS (mid 90s-early 2000s). My trans am had this. Because the APP was cable driven it would literally kick the gas pedal back at you "ESC", "DSC", etc (everybody has their own name for it) modulates brake pressure to individual wheels to prevent wheelspin (this is often an improvement over TC because it can modulate each driven wheel separately) and also typically works to prevent oversteer.

There is one module which contains your "several parts". This is a Bosch unit on FCA VF (promaster/ducato) but they all work the same. Every carmaker has their own secret sauce "tuning". There is a microcontroller (a pretty beefy 32-bit unit) and 3 axis MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope. It reads the wheelspeed sensors. It can send a message to ECU to cancel motor torque. There is a pressure pump (like ABS pump) and proportional valve for each wheel (whereas ABS was only one "channel" of control) so it can activate one wheel at a time. Some FWD cars have one valve for both rear wheels.

Some tunes cut in before you even notice any slipping. The promaster is like this (well, duh. It's a little scary being sideways in a very tall 7000# cargo van) Some let you get darn near sideways. Mazda tends to strike a nice balance of (just barely) staying out of your way. You get a bit of oversteer, more than any sane person would want, but can't do anything silly without turning it off.

Anyways, if there is no button or menu to turn it off on the dash, you can always pull out the fuse or unplug the thing (my hand is on the plug...). You will get a warning light regardless. For some cars you will lose the brake booster pump as well, which is only an issue for EV/HEV and forced induction.

They tend to range between $200-$600 at the dealer parts counter.

It also enables one of my favorite features: the hill holder. If the car is stopped facing uphill (on the miata, it also works when downhill and the transmission is in reverse. But not the Ducato. Promaster comes with an automatic transmission so it's still there but fairly redundant) it will keep the car from rolling backwards until it detects forward motion and releases the brake.

This makes it a great car for teaching new drivers I've taught 2 people with the miata so far and it really helps with all of the hills around here.

There are some other neat tricks: the challenger (not my SXT of course, but, you know, the hellcat version) have a line-lock feature so you can heat up the tires for drag racing. I'm sure the mustang and camaro also offer this on their hot-rod models. Some cars (focus ST and other cars like that) use it as a sort of LSD. Which is why many of these hot hatches have so much brake dust on their wheels all the time.

dexter1 wrote: To Raion-Fox and Guardian452, please stay on topic or move to another thread (i can split it for you)

fine by me

dexter1 wrote: and please refrain from making personal comments.

Sorry

dexter1 wrote: I know both of you feel strongly about the subject of cars and automotive technology, which is absolutely fine. but i am not inclined to make a separate forum-section about automotive tech on this forum

Oh god, please not another auto rag website.

Auto tech section, but all auto tech must be IRIX powered. Anyone have an XIO card for OBD2 ?

I have an old Kvaser pci card with two CANs on it, it could go in a shoehorn. Drivers shouldn't be too complicated. You can get an ELM327 with a serial port on the other end.

Dodoid wrote: Auto tech section, but all auto tech must be IRIX powered. Anyone have an XIO card for OBD2 ?

The first time I saw truly interactive mapping software with high quality imaging, it was being demoed as a technology preview on an SGI Reality Center by SGI's Chief Technology Officer, Eng Lim Gho. The audience was perhaps 25 senior technical managers from companies who potentially had the kind of budgets to consider buying a walk-in Reality Center. I don't recall the exact date the demo took place, but to give you a sense of perspective, it would've been around 2000, perhaps even slightly more recently.

The audience was completely stunned by the demo; the ability to type an arbitrary address and to "travel" there onscreen almost immediately seemed like witchcraft! Functionally, it probably was equivalent to an elementary version of Google Earth or the satellite view of any other mapping tool, but it's the first time any of us saw something like that actually working in a live demo. It's a good example of how quickly the exotic has become the mundane. I recall some consternation among the SGI staff that the buzz among the crowd for the rest of the event was about the potential for computer generated driving directions, rather than buying Reality Centers.

Anyway, between the mapping tools, the visualization capabilities, SGI's historically deep ties to automotive design and manufacturing and to streaming video capabilities, it's not hard to imagine an alternate universe where everyone would be driving around with SGI "Octane" GPS/Entertainment Systems in their dashboards!

uunix wrote: Of course you don't have too.. it's you own business.. BUT..

When people come round your house and say.. 'wow .. what do you do with that stuff?' [Your' SGI gear]

What do you say?

I like to call it 'my dark side.'

Well, the obvious reason is ``in case the furnace breaks''. Might not work if you're living in Florida or snowless areas, though

miod wrote:

uunix wrote: Of course you don't have too.. it's you own business.. BUT..

When people come round your house and say.. 'wow .. what do you do with that stuff?' [Your' SGI gear]

What do you say?

I like to call it 'my dark side.'

Well, the obvious reason is ``in case the furnace breaks''. Might not work if you're living in Florida or snowless areas, though

You are not far wrong there miod, I work in the conservatory, and it's either freezing or like a furnace.. no in-between, and yes, some days I turn the whole lot on to heat me up.

Krokodil wrote: You did that too? In 2001 on my first computer with a Pentium 1 and Windows ME. I could not get a sound driver onto that computer since although it had a modem, I didn't have an RJ-11 cable long enough to reach to my room. The sound driver was too big to fit on a floppy and I didn't have anything more advanced for removable storage. So I played Wolf3D, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Streets of Sim City and Midtown Madness 2(barely) with no sound. Until one night quite a while later I installed Windows XP home and it had support out of the box.

I was about setting IRQs via jumper on ISA sound cards, but yes, you've got the idea. =)

I've also had a computer on which I could never use the ISA modem and the second serial port at the same time.
Since I only used both serial ports at the same time when I had an external serial modem, it was not a problem. But I always needed a serial port working to be able to connect my Logitech "First Mouse".

I have had a lot of experience moonlighting offsite and doing contract work throughout my entire strange journey. You meet all kinds of people, and when you get inside their home they always have some sort of thing they collect. It can be anything from western wall kitsch and model trains that fill their backyard in a lilliputian hellscape lined with tightly trimmed grass to expensive pre-1940 automobiles for which they have built a climate controlled barn. One thing I have never had to do is ask for an explanation, they always want to show it to me, show. Heaven forbid you let slip from your lips the slightest interest or foreknowledge because then you get offered wine and what not to go with the exposition. These hobbies consume people, their time, their money and everything else that passes through orbit. Painting, same thing, just look at the cost of a tube of titanium white.

I think everyone does this to one degree or another. Even people who claim they own nothing of value still collect things, even if it is just lots of friends or a handful of stickers you keep between the pages in your favorite paperback. Street kids got backpacks but you know it isn't clean clothes they keep in there, know what I'm sayin'?

It must be some trait of evolutionary biology, a component of our very consciousness.

uunix wrote: What do you say?

You don't need to explain a thing when you have nothing left but memories.

Y888099 wrote: Sure, her terrifying hobby.

The things you own end up owning you.

Dodoid wrote: For most people my age, their first computer ran Windows 7 or 10.

Same here. Their firsts were running either Vista or 7 probably. I remember when I was around 7 or 8 (I'm 16 now) I built an AMD Athlon 64 X2 computer for myself with my dad and I believe I had XP on it at first. It went through many different installs of early Ubuntu versions, Vista, etc. I remember thinking that the Windows 7 beta was really cool (and I loved the betta fish background, I actually had many betta fish as a child).

Dodoid wrote: Getting back to how I explain my hardware, my friends obviously aren't bothered by me owning things that don't affect them, but they probably think I'm strange for owning a ton of old computers (8 SGIs + parts, Sun Blade 2000, 7 ThinkPads, 5 old Apple machines, Atari 600xl, etc) and not just selling them to replace my X220 with a MacBook Pro (something I actually used to have, but replaced with an X220 ). My family is fine with the machines so long as I keep them in my bedroom or "lab" (more of an asssorted mix of working and nonworking systems of numerous ages with monitors on top of everything and random ethernet cables all over the floor, rather than your traditional idea of a "computer lab" like in a school).

Also same here. My friends aren't bothered by it, some think it's cool actually, but some have asked how much it's all worth and if I'd just sell it all to upgrade stuff. (obvious answer: no). Though I don't have any SGI machines yet (mostly old game consoles, old PCs, and old Apple machines), I have an Octane that's supposed to be arriving on Tuesday as far as UPS tells me (hopefully they don't mangle the package too much...), so hopefully it works. I also have a sort of "lab" situation going on. The room next to my bedroom used to be my parents' home office, but we reorganized a lot and they let me use the room for my computer stuff. You can see my beautiful cable management for my internet connection here:

(The random ThinkPad AC adapter is there as I have two of my ThinkPads sitting on top of a server that's on the shelf directly above. I love ThinkPads.)
The raspi is setup for a VPN so I could just use it on networks to bypass the firewall (such as at a place I regularly go Monday through Friday when it's not summer or other breaks.). I don't have that much room, but my parents also don't mind as long as I keep stuff in here and keep it somewhat neat. What does kinda suck though is that none of my friends are that technological, so I don't really have many to talk to about this kind of stuff.

To answer the question of OP, though, I've always been messing with computers and stuff like that (I also have some older game consoles), people don't really ask anymore. New people that I meet have always been pretty accepting of it (I don't know why someone wouldn't), but I'd imagine some people definitely find it funny or odd.

Glad to hear you're getting an Octane, LarBob! What specs?

My school bypass is Tor. I would rather the school board not have my IP, though they may already. Privacy sucks here. I will copypaste something I wrote on Reddit about school computers and the school relying on Snapchat for announcements.

Oh no, they're getting rid of Windows.

In favor of Chromebooks and Google Drive... Also, say hello to WiFi that requires you to sign in with your student number so that they can monitor your web activity even on private devices, encouragement to log into Google accounts they control and have the passwords to on personal devices, all out blocking of hard to censor/surveil internet protocols, and MAC address based tracking. A few months ago I discovered an old handwritten poster from at least 5 or 6 years ago with login credentials for an anonymous WiFi account (they still track MAC, so I spoof it) but it's throttled to crap to encourage you to use the one tied to your real name. At the beginning of each year they give you a sheet of paper with a list of URLs on them and a big dotted line to sign on. The URLs are well over 100 pages total of PDFs detailing just how much they love invading your privacy, but it's all 7 pages down under buzzwords like "cyberbullying prevention" and it's all in their special, almost obfuscated brand of legalese.

Google Classroom is the one tolerable one, really. If we used it like you're supposed to, Google could probably collect a lot of information on you, but really all students use it for is passively checking due dates. I keep it in a separate Qubes OS VM just to be careful.

To be fair, online announcements are handled by Student Council, not the administration, so they use what they're familiar with (snapchat). I wouldn't say you have to "encourage" people to consider social media to be a norm though. Essentially everyone I know/see on their phone in class is an avid user of either Instagram or Snapchat.

My school board wants to make sure they know everything about you and record everything you do online, both at school, and if possible, at home, because "cyberbullying" and "safe space". I'm at school right now, so I'm posting this over my mobile data just to be safe (Nekochan is not HTTPS). Sucks that while Canada's government is a bit better privacy wise than the US, at school I may as well be in China.

Dodoid wrote: Glad to hear you're getting an Octane, LarBob! What specs?

It's a dual-processor R10000SC 250 MHz machine w/ 2 GB of RAM and SI graphics. The machine has the older style front. It also came with the original mouse, owner's manual, original cpu module, 6.5.8 irix media, and some other goodies (other, much lower amounts of RAM and another HD). I ordered a 13w3->hd15 adapter which is probably coming tomorrow, though the machine probably won't arrive until Tuesday.