In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Jesus, you ALLOW YouTube to send you notifications?!? Why??
I also refuse to watch shorts, I know for a goddamn fact my ADHD will just lock me the berkeley in and I won't stop for hours. It's made to do that, and you know what? Bear that sees the trap doesn't get caught, so berkeley that.
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
A "short" is just vertical video on a loop.
I'm down in Bowling Green today since my daughter had a single day of in-person exams. I brought her down last night, got a hotel, and I'll go pick her up to head back home around lunchtime when she's finished.
And it's another Blanton's day. Every single time I've been coming through the area anyway, it's been Blanton's on the shelf. I guess we're not making a stop at Buffalo Trace on the way home after all....
If you're going to not be open today, that's fine. But for the love of all that is holy and decent, don't let me book an appointment online if you're not going to be open. And if it's an unexpected closure, at least give me the courtesy of a notification email. I guess leaving work and being greeted by a sign in the door was the better option.
Ugh. Getting back into the routine of work after a long holiday weekend is usually bad enough- but given The Dancer has had the flu bad for the last 9 days and essentially not left the house (and thus spent almost all of her time either in bed or curled up on the couch) I spent far more of the time being a couch potato keeping her company- so getting up at 7am this morning was nearly impossible.
Though to an extent this might belong in the 'minor wins' thread as I somehow haven't seemed to have caught whatever she has (she's convinced it's just a flu, I'm more of the thought it's Covid since I got the newest booster 2 weeks before she got sick since I had a MD appt. anyway but she hasn't had the new booster). Hopefully it stays that way- and hopefully she gets better soon, as the next few weeks are usually crazy busy for her and she can't really be completely unable to work for another week.
Also- how the berk is Christmas just like 3 weeks away now? It being in the middle of the week (and the fact that the studio she teaches at put their Nutcracker the weekend before Christmas) really messed with our ability to plan for visiting both of our families like we usually do over the Holidays.
Finally... I think after we get back from traveling for the Holidays we really need to start more seriously looking into finding a friend/brother for The Bat. She really seems to need more activity and stimulation than we usually are able to give her (especially in the winter) and would probably be happier with another dog to play with. The problem with that is it will require a cascade of other things- we will certainly need to get a bigger bed (it's already the case if she is in certain spots that there isn't enough room) for example, and it will make travel a bigger challenge. Though thankfully since we already only stay places that allow a 'larger' (she's still like 15lbs lighter- and more compact by even more- than The Dog was and the in-laws used to have 120lb+ Great Pyrenees , so she just doesn't seem like a 'large' dog to us) dog don't tend to have a problem with there being more than one, but it still limits us just a bit more (and we don't know if the 2nd dog will travel nearly as well as she does- she essentially passes out in the back seat once we get on the highway and sleeps almost the whole time).
Mullets are coming back.
I logged into work today for the first time in six months and sent out a Proof Of Life email to the team. Within a half hour I got an email from a newer employee about a personality conflict that she wanted me to resolve. She said "I've never been so insulted." Really? First off, I read it and it didn't look that terrible. Second, is your skin really that thin? I've been insulted much worse than that at work.
I expected something like this would happen when I came back. I just didn't expect to hear anything less an hour into my first day.
Early retirement is looking better and better.
Second rant: I love SWMBO but holy crap she can be a pack rat. I opened a cupboard to grab some batteries and a bunch of crap fell out. Every cupboard, drawer and closet in the house is like that. If you can't even find anything and you don't ever use it then why do we need to hang on to all of this E36 M3?
The parts to fix the bumper and stuff on my daily (CX-3) finally came in and I picked up a Prius as a rental this morning since that or a Tacoma are about the only things I'd bother looking at other than Mazda's.
The gear select is left-forward for reverse and left-backward for drive.
Can anyone think of what input convention this is following?
BTW, the electronic parking brake disengages auto-magically when you put it in drive so I can't think of any logic in terms of grouping the two together.
Sorry, the only photo I could find is for a right-hand drive car but I'm sure you get the idea.
Thoughts???
In reply to RX Reven' :
Manufacturers still want to put the wackiest shifters they can imagine into cars, having to put Park on a dedicated button to prevent further Anton Yelchin incidents was just a minor setback.
GameboyRMH said:In reply to RX Reven' :
...wackiest...
Do I think Mazda's are so well thought out just because I've driven them forever or have I driven them forever because they're just so well thought out?
In reply to RX Reven' :
I think having to move it to the side first and then up/down is to reduce the likelihood of bumping it and putting it into gear.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
I have to wonder if there have been major budget cuts to the interior design departments. This stuff is basic.
Then again, I have to wonder what the reaction was like to the first console/floor automatic shifter (not in steering column). Did that exist before convention was established or was it much later?
RX Reven' said:The gear select is left-forward for reverse and left-backward for drive.
Can anyone think of what input convention this is following?
Prius.
It still doesn't answer why, but there's your precedent.
TravisTheHuman :
Then again, I have to wonder what the reaction was like to the first console/floor automatic shifter (not in steering column). Did that exist before convention was established or was it much later?
I mean, used to be the brake was often a hand lever on the outside of the car. Probably because horse drawn carriages did that.
I read a guy ruminating on automotive controls, somewhat paraphrased: "The transmission used to be roughly between the seats under the floor, and we had linkage going to a shifter on the steering column. Now, the transmissions are under the hood roughly in front of the steering column, so we have shifters on the floor between the front seats..."
I think the column shifted manual trans was largely an American thing, no? And I'm pretty sure that it didn't show up there until postwar cars.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I learnt to drive in the very early sixties on an Austin A55 pickup with "4 on the tree".
Austin / Morris stuck with them into the mid sixties - basically until the Mini, 1100 and Landcrab.
Other recollections from the day were the Ford Consul / Zephyr family which didn't get a floor shift until the Mark IV in about '67 plus Thames and Bedford vans.
dculberson said:In reply to RX Reven' :
I think having to move it to the side first and then up/down is to reduce the likelihood of bumping it and putting it into gear.
I agree with your thinking completely and I have no problem with its use (BTW, there is also a trigger on the shifter which traditionally serves that function but I can change gears without pulling it so I have no idea what it does).
My objection is that you push the shifter forward to go backwards and pull the shifter backwards to go forward...input directionality should always match response directionality...this is not rocket surgery, this is super duper, duper basic stuff.
See point number four in the link Travis the Human provided...it's 2024, I would expect even a little Mom & Pop operation to understand the principle at this point...any guesses why a huge corporation like Toyota decided to deviate from a very well established convention???
Edit...
I think Pete has provided a very compelling answer.
In earlier generations, the Prius had a vertically mounted shifter so there was no relational directionality at the time. Basically, Toyota overlooked future-proofing the shifter language forcing them to choose between legacy Prius owners and universal design convention.
If I were in a position to make the call, I would have prioritized convention but OK, I bet Pete provided the correct explanation and I find that very satisfying.
In reply to RX Reven' :
In a traditional automatic shifter, you pull it back to go forward, then forward to go backward, so that makes sense.
Mercedes column shifters are the same... push it up to go backward, down to go forward, like a regular column automatic.
We're just used to a park position being at the front of the line. Not all automatics ever did this, often Park was a separate lever and the shifter was just RNDL. You put the trans in Neutral and then flipped the Park lever. Corvairs and other transaxle GMs did this by recollection, and I guess technically pushbutton Mopars too, they didn't have a button for Park, they had a separate lever next to the row of buttons.
Don't get me started on PNDLR...
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Oh my gosh, here's the ordering in my CX-3 and Reverse is clearly forward of Drive...taking away Park threw me off and caused me to erroneously think that conventions were being violated.
Lesson learned...I'm 60 and I need to account for a reduction in my "cognitive elasticity".
At least Mazda didn't use a knob. Or a faux shifter that doesn't actually physically MOVE anything, yet has a motor to move the lever when the trans decides to shift itself into Park.
Why different just to be different? I have no idea. Maybe with the electronic controls, they are playing with new ideas to see what sticks, like they did 70-80 years ago.
If anybody makes a touchscreen shifter, I'm going to quit my job, quit driving, and take up babbling angrily at squirrels under a bridge.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:TravisTheHuman :
Then again, I have to wonder what the reaction was like to the first console/floor automatic shifter (not in steering column). Did that exist before convention was established or was it much later?
I mean, used to be the brake was often a hand lever on the outside of the car. Probably because horse drawn carriages did that.
I read a guy ruminating on automotive controls, somewhat paraphrased: "The transmission used to be roughly between the seats under the floor, and we had linkage going to a shifter on the steering column. Now, the transmissions are under the hood roughly in front of the steering column, so we have shifters on the floor between the front seats..."
I think the column shifted manual trans was largely an American thing, no? And I'm pretty sure that it didn't show up there until postwar cars.
I don't know about other cars, but Ford went to column shifted manuals for 1940. (They only went fully synchronized the year before, which makes the '39 trans the only fully-synchronized floor shift box they offered, and very sought after for hot rods.)
Well, berkeley. The backup car is now broken too.
This is starting to suck.
Yay. Because this week is going so well already, the dryer decided to E36 M3 the bed.
Check Amana website for parts, lead time weeks
Check other appliance shop online, lead time weeks
Call 4 repair shops, voicemails at all of them.
Check delivery times at Lowe's for another dryer, after the first of the year
Good thing it isn't 30 degrees on average so I can hang out a clothes line. Oh, Pennsylvania in December, of course 30 is the high.
Works fine for the wife's 2 dozen berkeleying loads of laundry every weekend, but I try to do my once every two weeks load and nope.
berkeleying pieces of festering E36 M3, all the appliances. berkeleying bullE36 M3 berkeleywad parts houses.
And where, you may ask, is the closest laundromat? 30 minutes away because nobody I know with money wants an all cash business with grants attached for cleaning up dilapidated buildings and turning them into functional tax generating buildings instead of eyesores.
In reply to RevRico :
We're in the middle of a Lowes replacement for our oven (because you can't buy the one part that seems to go out on an 8 year old Frigidaire) and I can't recommend it at this point.
Had to pay extra for their install contractor to come measure to make sure the exact same size oven by the same maker would fit. They then added $400 to the basic $250 installation because they have to "move" the electric hookup. Not sure how they know that, since the guy that came out to measure didn't remove the old oven or do anything to look for the existing electric connection, nor did he even mention it. But I had to pay it up front to get the install scheduled. I'm probably going to have to contest the CC charge to get it back if they don't actually do the work...
Then they scheduled the install date without even contacting us to ask if that date would work.
So far, we're a month in, and it's supposed to be installed next week. The Lowes guy was impossible to contact without physically going to the store and cornering him, and then was nothing but excuses about his failure to return calls/emails.
Not impressed.
CAinCA said:I logged into work today for the first time in six months and sent out a Proof Of Life email to the team. Within a half hour I got an email from a newer employee about a personality conflict that she wanted me to resolve. She said "I've never been so insulted." Really? First off, I read it and it didn't look that terrible. Second, is your skin really that thin? I've been insulted much worse than that at work.
I expected something like this would happen when I came back. I just didn't expect to hear anything less an hour into my first day.
Early retirement is looking better and better.
While there's no getting out of considering her complaint, I'd be having a discussion with her about the wisdom of asking someone who has been out of the office for the last six months to address a conflict of this kind-- it's not a good look.
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