On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 20:52:35 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 14/09/2013 6:32 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 07:50:19 +0100, Stephen wrote:
>>
>>
>>>> Well, some cars have computers in them now, that's true.
>>>
>>> Would you not consider a car's fuel control system a computer?
>>
>> Depends on the car.  Not if it's just a throttle cable.
>>
>>
> Maybe it is just me but I've not had a car that had a direct throttle
> drive for 20 years or so and I don't buy new cars. Current one is almost
> 10 years old and the one before that was 13 years old when it died on
> me.

Well, yeah, like I said, if it's not an EFI system, but those have been 
around for a while.

>>>> But the mechanical parts are still basically the same.
>>>
>>> Yes the bits that go roundy round are basically similar as is the
>>> structural nits. But how do you set up the spark plug timing on your
>>> car?
>>
>> I have no idea - but I could ask my father-in-law or brother-in-law.
>> IIRC, there's a timing belt/chain in older cars that don't use
>> electronic fuel injection.
>>
> It is the distributor that you adjust. Using a timing light connected to
> the #1 spark plug. The strobe effect makes a timing mark on the fan belt
> drive wheel appear stationary. The distributor is adjusted to that the
> dynamic timing mark is at TDC. IIRC

See how much I know about cars?  I changed the battery once and was shown 
how to change the brake pads once, but I'm no expert.  Amy knows a lot 
more about that sort of stuff - which makes sense, since she grew up in a 
family that works on cars (her brother teaches auto body repair at the 
local vocational/technical school where she grew up).

>> Not necessarily.  First, unplugging it isn't going to protect you from
>> a charged capacitor - any first year electronics student knows that.
>>
> That why I missed that out so not to take up more bandwidth and to
> respect you savy-ness.

;)

>>> So you can understand in a way why my boss's boss gave me a bollocking
>>> for working on exposed live equipment. (H&S to the forefront)
>>> He had no answer to my question "How do I trouble shoot if it is
>>> dead?" He went away, I powered it up, found the fault and all was
>>> well.
>>> Mixing techie and non-techie is a very hard thing to do.
>>
>> Well, sure.
>>
>>
> So that is where the problem lies. Manufacturers don't make a lot of
> money if they can't sell a product to lots of non technical people.
> And if you try to make a computer idiot proof, techies rail at the
> restrictions imposed.

Yep.  And that's the problem Patrick has.  The system is idiot-proof, but 
he's no idiot, and wants to do what he wants to do.  You can't mass-
market something like that, though, because the non-technical people who 
make up the "masses" are going to be idiots when it comes to technology, 
because they just want to drive to work, they don't want to fine-tune the 
fuel injection system.

> I want to buy a new laptop but I don't want Win 8 with "even your 5 year
> old can operate it" OS. Nor do I want Linux where I'll have to learn a
> new OS or not be able to run M$ office, for work compatibility.

So you have to compromise and get the mass-market option.

> I might as well ask here. Does anyone have any recommendations for a
> light weight laptop that has a reasonable spec to run PovRay and Blender
> and weighs a lot less the the 3kg (6.6 lb) DTR I have to lug around?

I've been happy with my Dell laptop, but I'm not sure how much it 
weighs.  It's a couple years old - the 17R (N7110 is another number I see 
associated with it), but is pretty speedy (i7 processor) and has plenty 
of memory (8GB, max for this model).

Jim

Post a reply to this message