vgoh1 · HackerTrans

vgoh1

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7 tahun yang laludiscuss

That is a good one. I should add to that, and this may be contriversal, that riding slightly faster than traffic is better than riding slightly slower. When I am approaching traffic, the ability to respond to traffic is in my attentive hands. When traffic is approaching me, I have to wonder if some texting teenager is going to ram into the back of me. Now, some might say that "speed kills", and that is true, so YMMV, that is my own personal take (and honestly it would take all the fun out of it going slower than traffic!).

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

A few tips from a long-time motorcycle rider...

1. When crossing a car that could potentially accelerate into your path, train yourself to keep a hand on your front brake.

2. Get better at emergency stops. Train your self to "wait for the weight", meaning progressively apply front brake so that the weight of the bike transfers to the front tire before full application. Practice emergency stops so you don't end up with a fist full of brake or over-hammer the rear. Try to train yourself to at least glance in the mirror when doing an emergency stop, to see if what is behind you could be more dangerous than what's in front.

3. Get your bike ready for emergency stops. Buy a bike with ABS, if possible. In the states, ABS is not yet the law for new bikes, but the decrease in insurance premiums usually means that ABS is practically free. Also, don't cheap out on tires - get high quality tires that match your riding (warm/cold, wet/dry, etc.)

4. Buy a tail light blinker - when your brakes are applied, it blinks the tail lights, and makes it much more obvious that you are stopping.

5. This may be a bit contriversial - I try to get near one side of the lane when I stop. My theory is that if a car is coming in "too hot", it gives them the chance to swerve and hit the car in front of you.

6. Be seen. I don't think that guy got the huge bike for visibilility like the caption said, I think he just likes Honda Goldwings. The real way to be seen is to wear neon (or at least loud colors) and add running lights to your bike.

7. After reading tons of accident reports in my area, I can say to be extremely careful when taking a passenger. There seems to be a lot of accidents on country roads with riders 2-up that get hit by cars or deer. My theory (also from taking on riders) is that the 2nd rider is a significant detriment to manuverability, and manuverability is the motorcycle rider's main positive safety attribute. Just take it slow when 2-up, and stay off the road when the deer are out.

8. This one I can't stress enough - don't become complacent. The majority of rider deaths are those over 50 in the U.S. Always look at cars like they are going to try to turn on you. Look at cars in the oncoming lane - are they slowing down? They could try to turn on you, cover the brake. I have found that this mindset gets pretty exhausting in urban traffic, and I have changed my riding habits to ride out in the country roads more than urban.

9. Wear a helmet and use the strap! I can't count how many YouTube videos of crashes that I have seen where the helmet ways lying 15 feet from the accident because the rider didn't strap it down.

10. Buy an appropriate bike. Smaller bikes are safer. It's in the U.S. safety statistics (DOT? can't remember which one) that the larger the bike, the more dangerous. My theory is that large bikes are less manuverable, which accounts for a lot of it. I'm not going to try to talk anyone of their liter bike, but please be realistic with your skills, and remember you can always trade up to more powerful as you gain skills. It took me 10 years of riding before I felt comfortable on my 125HP Kawi Z900. More a thing of maturity and restraint than the ability to control the bike (which has a great progressive powerband, easy to go slow).

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

The article must be misleading. Android would never have the latency or reliability to run things like traction control and fuel management. The engineers at auto companies are well aware of this, but perhaps the author of the article is not.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

I wholeheartedly disagree that automotive progress, on the mechanical side, has slowed down. The ride quality, handling, fit and finish, noise & vibe, chassis rigidity, fuel economy, reliability, have all been improving. Go back 10 years, go back 10 years before that, etc., and you will see incremental improvements. Beyond that, look at how much more "stuff" comes in cars today, but for the same amount of money. That means, as we cram more and more tech in a car, the mechanical bits are getting cheaper. The same is true for motorcycles.

What is really going on, is the improvements in the mechanical design are just not as flashy.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

This article makes me feel a little better about my life decisions. I started programming at age 12, but as my major I chose mechanical engineering because at the time, there was a lot of talk about the US software industry crashing and it all going to India.

I'm not going to try to portray mechanical engineering as all roses - the pay is a bit lower, and the chances of becoming a break-out rock start are much lower (think of the capital investment needed to build your own business). But the work weeks are a true 40 hours for at least 90% of weeks in most places, the work is much more varied (office, shop, lab, travel), and mechanical engineers with grey hair don't seem to have problems finding a job.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

I don't understand this argument. What does the population of the country have to do with anything? Shouldn't a country with a larger population have more power to make competitive advantages, and larger economies of scale, and therefore have an easier time?

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

Wow, Chrysler has made quite the turn-around, I just noticed from that chart. 10 years ago, I expected them to be out of business by now with their low reliability (which I believe is still one of the lowest). Chrysler has a pretty terrible reputation, but their minivans have a good reputation (I know, I own one with 90k miles, and it's an amazing value and has been very reliable). The Jeep brand is killing it, lots of die hard fans of the nameplate. They also made a good move rebranding Dodge Rams to just Ram.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

I bought a 90's car a few months ago - low mileage dependable Japanese car, nearly bare bones except for air conditioning and airbags (which were both optional equipment). In average condition, they go about $2k, mine was immaculate, so it was $6k. Truly like driving a brand new car from the mid 90's.

If you are sick of the electronics, just get a "new" old car. You won't regret it. You can even easily replace the tape deck with a high quality head unit to get all the features you need, but done right because car audio companies are just better at doing infotainment type stuff, and you can get something unobtrusive.

Everything that I thought I would miss, or have a hard time adjusting to be without, ABS, power windows, power locks, traction control, remote start, etc., turns out, I didn't really need it. Yes, there is the safety aspect of it, but I guess that depends on what kind of a drive you are, and what type of area that you live in.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

Not sure what country you are in, but that's called civic duty, and helps society work.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

Just as we shouldn't make the assumption that fat people are lazy and gluttonous, we shouldn't make the assumption that skinny people have an eating disorder.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

Users who block ads often justify their "free lunch" because of the nefarious things that advertisers do - namely tracking and being a resource hog in their device. Sponsored segments on YouTube do neither of these. Also, YouTube creators who rely on sponsorships are often de-funded due to some pretty sketchy YouTube decisions, or just plain underpaid.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

I'm not sure how power was shared between the Koch brothers, but who fills in this power vacuum of a person who probably had more influence over the US than any president? I'm sure there is a succession plan, and I'm willing to bet they can be even more successful in the Koch agenda.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

First of all, humans are the only sentient beings in the known universe. Second, most humans have children because that is maximizing their quality of life - it is a living organisms instinct to replicate, and (most) humans are no different. If you feel different, check the stats on how many have children, and think, you may just be in a bubble. Humans have endured millennia of starvation and disease, try to keep our upcoming hardships in perspective.

Beyond reasons why it would not maximize our quality of life, collectively deciding to not have kids just would not do any good. You are taking people 'like you' out of the gene pool, while people who choose to not go with the collective will procreate.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

I don't believe for a second that buying a phone installed with HarmonyOS will ever be compelling to consumers. This is microkernel based, which makes me believe that it's not an AOSP fork, which means having compatibility with Android apps is not going to be straightforward. Think of the problems that Amazon has had filling their app stores with quality ports, and they are only selling tablets now because they are nearly giving them away for free, and also have tight integration with Amazon services, which some people like. PurityOS has a slight chance, but only if they can make it work within the niche audience that they are targeting. Microsoft couldn't make a phone OS work. Firefox couldn't make a phone OS work. It takes years to develop a catalog of apps. If Huawei were truly to be using this as a backup, they would need to start working on getting developers on their platform yesterday, not "in the future".

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

We are currently in "merger insanity". I'm wondering how many companies will be left before this ends?

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

No, I think stating that dark on dark is hard to see is just stating facts. As a former tattoo artist, I can tell you that the more pale, the better the tattoo and especially colors show up.

But comparing modern men to tribesmen, that might be a little...

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

We need to stop this culture of taking single sentences and vilifying people over them. People get tired, they get mad, temporarily confused, and can be good people 95% of the time, and a bit of a jerk other times. But the internet never forgets, so we as a people need to learn to forgive a bit more.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

Typical WSJ rubbish. Focus on anecdotes, like the guy who sacks over half of his staff because of a < 15% increase in minimum wage.

Having grown up solidly in the class of the "working poor", I can tell you a side of the story that is not often told - there is not enough difference in quality of life between "working poor" and just being on public assistance and unemployed. When you are unemployed, you get government benefits, and most people either have a side hustle (odd jobs under the table, or sometimes something blatantly illegal), or commit some type of fraud like claiming to live on their own when in fact they split rent between many people. I'm not judging here, it's just what happens.

So you get these people who make minimum wage, they aren't really living substantially better than those who don't work, yet they have to work 40 hours a week for some ahole with a Nepolean complex, and we wonder why so many people choose not to work?

The right-wing position is that we should slash benefits because of the lazy ones taking advantage of the system. The left-wing position is that all the poor are just misunderstood. My position is that, from experience, yes there are able-bodied people who are choosing not to work, it is a problem, and the proper way to deal with it is to make sure there are substantial benefits to having a job.

Yes, raising minimum wage will make a minor increase in unemployment, and will make a bit of hardship for a very small number of restaurant owners, those are valid points, that in my opinion are not terrible enough to keep the minimum wage low.

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

There is a Catch-22 in choosing to breed less, in order to be responsible. You are choosing to limit your genes, and in many respects limit your impact on our culture. Irresponsibility continues to breed, while responsibility doesn't. I absolutely agree that our CO2 emissions would be much lower with fewer people, but choosing yourself to have fewer children is not the answer. A lot of the world is choosing to have children at an older age, and this almost always means less children. A better strategy is to try to get more people from all cultures to share this trait (not forcefully, of course).

7 tahun yang laludiscuss

You need some mental help.