limelight79

War of 1812. They burned the White House.

Here's my problem with all of the automation the manufacturers are adding to cars. Not even Autopilot level stuff is potentially a problem - things like adaptive cruise come to mind.

If there's some kind of bug in that adaptive cruise that puts my car into the bumper of the car in front of me before I can stop it, the very first thing the manufacturer is going to say is:

But the responsibility for safe driving, is on the driver...

And how do we know there isn't some stupid bug? Our car has plenty of other software bugs in the infotainment system; hopefully they were a little more careful with the safety-critical systems...ha ha, I know. Even the bugs in the infotainment are distracting. But what would the manufacturer say if there was a crash resulting from my moment of distraction, caused by the 18th fucking weather alert in 10 minutes for a county 100 miles away, a feature that I can't fucking disable?

But the responsibility for safe driving, is on the driver...

In other words, "We bear no responsibility!" So, I have to pay for these "features" and the manufacturer will deny any responsibility if one of them fails and causes a crash. It's always your fault as the driver, no matter what. The company rolls this shit out to us; we have no choice to buy a new car without it any more, and they don't even trust it enough to stand behind it.

Maybe you'll get lucky and enough issues will happen that gov't regulators will look into it (not in the US any more, of course)...but probably not. You'll be blamed, and you'll pay higher insurance, and that will be that.

So now I have to worry not only about other drivers and my own driving, but I also have to be alert that the car will do something unexpected as well. Which has happened, when all this "smart" technology has misunderstood a situation, like slamming on the brakes for a car in another lane. I've found I hate having to fight my own car.

Obviously, I very much dislike driving our newer car. It's primarily my wife's car, and I only drive it once or twice a week, fortunately.

Fun story on this image - I found it probably 25 or 30 years ago; no idea what the original source was. It was originally a .mac (old Macpaint file format). At one point I realized I had to convert it to something else, as the tools to open a Macpaint file were becoming rare, so I converted it to a BMP. I made a PNG for this post.

Good start.

I missed your earlier post. Those Atheos frames are insane. I weighed an Atheos Comp the other day at ~7 kg with wheels, tires, saddle, etc. And it wasn't even an S-works frame. I kind of want that bike now.

Ever hear the expression, "Hitler made the trains run on time“?

Thing is, he didn't. But everyone was afraid to report that they weren't running on time, so officially they always met their schedules.

That's where this is heading.

Don't forget that you're also getting better at cycling. So there would be improvement over time even if you hadn't changed to tpu tubes.

Unfortunately my knowledge of running an anonymous website is very limited.

I would like someone to create a website where we can list the enablers. All of them. Make a list. Start with Trump. Add everyone in his cabinet. Add all of his enablers, down to the people that voted for him.

We're fucked. It's all over but the fighting.

Until a few months ago, I was a statistician for the US government. 25 years. I'm so fucking glad I'm out, though I'm making far less than I used to, honestly not enough yet. But I'm glad I'm not under his thumb.

I put TPU tubes in my road bikes a while back, and I've tried a few different brands: Spingo, RideNow, and Wheelo, all from Amazon. I think I've had 16 or 20 total. My thoughts:

1. I notice it most when I'm turning the handlebars at speed - there's less rotating mass, so it turns more easily.
2. I don't notice much difference in regular riding, maybe a little faster acceleration and easier climbing. Note they might require a bit more energy to keep them rolling at "cruising speed" because there's less inertia. (I do not have a power meter to check this kind of thing.)
3. I've had mixed success with them:

• I've broken valves on a few of them, mostly Spingo brand. The valve stems are plastic. For the most part, I think I was pushing too hard on them because of a pump valve that was going bad and leaking, but I had one fail from another brand, even when I was being very careful and the pump valve was replaced.
• I've had no luck with patches lasting, even the ones some brands include. Probably okay to get you home, but apparently not much more than that. I've only tried one or two though.
• I love the small size in my saddle bag.
• They do seem to let CO2 out more quickly than butyl tubes. Keep that in mind if you use CO2 to inflate them in an emergency.
• I've heard rumors that some of the plastic valves don't like the cold CO2 inflation - maybe that contributed to my broken valves. I couldn't find anything definitive in the documentation for the brands, though.

Overall I do like them, and I keep buying them, but it's not a clear-cut win, in my experience.

My newest bike (which I bought used) came with an SMP Dynamic saddle. I ended up swapping it with the saddle on my previous bike for fit reasons, but when I do use it, I find it's pretty comfortable.

Not for long!

(Too soon?)