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  #46  
Old August 7th 18, 02:26 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
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Posts: 10,881
Default Bluetooth query

Mayayana wrote:

"VanguardLH" wrote

| As far as all the "goodies" are concerned, a lot depends on what you
| want to pay for rather than does it really improve anything. I've seen
| folks complaining that someone spends a ton more money on a luxury car
| than their cheapo commuter car. Depends on how much you can afford.

That's some pretty fancy justification footwork.
I don't think it usually has much to do with what one
can afford. I remember back in the 60s the cliche of
dirt-poor existence was to live in a shack, with a big
TV and a Cadillac in the driveway. People buy luxury
because they think of consumer products as talismans
that hold happiness and success. They want to be
winners. Look at ads on TV. Luxury will make you a
winner. If you want luxury that shows you're a winner.
Why do you suppose people pay $4K to sit on a boat
for a week, being treated like royalty while they risk
a norovirus infection? It's a fantasy purchase. Those
people usually can't really afford it. They save up all
year at jobs they dislike so that they can act like
royalty on a cruise ship for a week.

People buy convenience for a similar reason. They
imagine a successful life to be one of relaxation
and entertainment. We want to be comfortable. Beyond
that we want to be titillated and we want to be winners.

That's not to say that extra features are necessarily
bad. But people don't buy luxury because they reasonably
calculate that headlight wipers will be worth an extra
$500. They just simply hope to be winners. They buy
luxury in an attempt to treat chronic anxiety and self-
loathing.

Woops... gotta go.... My automatic bread butterer is
almost done and I have to put a new piece of toast in....
I wish I could also have an auto-bread-jam-spreader
but right now that's only a dream, for when I win the
lottery.

|
| We all lust
| after different things.

Yes. But maybe a more interesting question would be
what is desire and what do we do with it. Do you assume
it should be fulfilled as much as possible? That's what an
animal does.


I can do without after I'm dead.
Ads
  #47  
Old August 7th 18, 02:49 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
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Posts: 10,881
Default Bluetooth query

Mayayana wrote:

My neighbors on one side are college students. But their windows are
never open!


That might be a good thing for you. Reduces the noise you hear when
they play their stereo. The young think more noise means more fun.

Also, if you get used to climate control it's very hard to adapt to
the sensations of changeable temperatures, especially as you get
older. So you end up having to stay in climate control all the time.


Acclimation would require the occupants to remain within the premises
for many days, if not weeks, to become that innured to a tiny
temperature and humidity change. Well, if the occupants aren't leaving
their home much, what does it matter if they become acclimatized to
their nearly-constant living conditions? How many folks around you are
members of the Polar Bear Club?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLqKBkldU5c
Most participants are men. Geez, my own sex embarrasses me a lot. Dumb
nuts. Oh wait, after they dive in, they don't have any nuts to see.

  #48  
Old August 7th 18, 02:52 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
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Posts: 10,881
Default Bluetooth query

Char Jackson wrote:

Mark Lloyd wrote:

I had a friend who almost lost a dog because of power windows. The dog
was sticking his head out the window, like dogs often do and must have
hit the UP button with a paw. She heard the choking and had to pull over
quickly.


She had to pull over? That meant she was driving. So why couldn't she
use the driver-side window controls? Of course, driving with the
windows open presents its own risk to the dog. Oh oh, where'd the dog
go?

Not just dogs; kids have died after getting their head caught in the
power window. That's why power window switches are no longer designed in
such a way as to allow that to happen.


https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...afer/index.htm

I'm surprise auto-reverse motors (they change direction when the load
gets too high, like trying to close on a kid's neck) are yet mandated in
the US. Even my electric garage door opener will reverse if the door
hits a restriction on closing. It has the optical sensors to see if
there is something low in the doorway but I can reach out and block the
door from closing which makes it go back up.

"autoreverse is required in the United States only in vehicles with
auto/one-touch-up windows and remotely controlled windows."

Now I know why my old '02 car has auto down AND UP: push the button past
a depression and the window will continue rolling down or up without
having to keep pressing the button. Handy when I drive up to a drive
through to get the window down with a single press but not have to
maintain pressure on the window switch. Handy, too, to roll it back up
but keep both hands on the steering wheel (since I'm likely having to
turn when leaving the drive through). The new car only has auto down:
it will continue rolling down when pressed and released, but no
continuos rolling up (my finger comes off the switch and the window
stops). And, yep, the new car has lever switches instead of rockers.
  #49  
Old August 7th 18, 03:39 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
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Posts: 752
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

Char Jackson on Mon, 06 Aug 2018 13:05:29 -0500
typed in alt.windows7.general the following:
On Mon, 06 Aug 2018 09:00:35 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

VanguardLH on Sun, 5 Aug 2018 21:29:09 -0500 typed in
alt.windows7.general the following:
pyotr filipivich wrote:

"Mayayana" on Sun, 5 Aug 2018 14:18:16 -0400
typed in alt.windows7.general the following:

I was most pleased to not have to get electronic ignition
or windows. Both are very expensive and superfluous.
Power windows might be nice when I get too old to
reach across to put down the passenger-side
window. On the other hand, they don't work at all with
the car turned off. That can be maddening at the beach
while you wait for the driver to get in and start the car.

Or you have to get in to turn the key, in order to close the
passenger side window before it rains.

I doubt 1-2 seconds to turn the ignition to On will matter regarding how
much water has rained into your car.


Yes,it is only "a couple seconds" more. It is an annoyance. And
yes, it probably takes less time to put the key in than to manually
crank up each window. But I'd like to be able to just open the door
and close the windows ("command switches on the driver's side"). Not
"open the door, scramble round to get the key in, close the windows,
and pull the key out."


When I was a kid, my dad had a pair of Lincoln Continentals that allowed
you to open/close the power windows without a key. On hot days, one of
us kids would get sent out to 'crack' the windows so the interior
wouldn't get so hot, then we'd have to go back and close the windows in
the evening. The keys were on top of the refrigerator, but they weren't
needed. My mom's cars, on the other hand, all either needed a key to
operate the power windows or they had hand cranks. We'd grab the keys
for the Cadillac and the Mercury, while the three Chevy's had the lowly
hand cranks.

My current vehicles both have power windows, but neither has the
capability to operate the windows without a key being present. Of
course, you don't actually insert a key anymore. These days, just having
the key nearby is good enough. I keep it in my pocket.


Hmmm - nope. "Of course, this being one of the Older Models
(1999), we did have such highfaluting technogizmos in those days."

First world problem and all that.


True that.

--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
  #50  
Old August 7th 18, 03:39 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default Bluetooth query

"Mayayana" on Mon, 6 Aug 2018 14:33:04 -0400
typed in alt.windows7.general the following:

|
That's how you know you've gone from middle
aged to elderly. For the old it's a lifesaver. But
there are costs. When I have my windows open
on a 70F day I find it sad to hear the neighbors'
AC starting up. There's wonderful fresh air outside,
probably cooler than the air in their house. I can
smell the phlox and the roses. Or maybe the
honeysuckle. Or the lilacs. I can hear the birds.
But people quickly get used to climate control
and then never open the windows, living cut off
from the outdoors. My neighbors on one side are
college students. But their windows are never open!


We got the ductless heat pump. Meh - over hyped. But it does
keep the front room and bedroom "cool" (below 75). I'm the one who
monitors the outside temp, and when it goes below 75, just open the
window and cut in the fan.

The back office has the old fashioned window AC, I leave it at 75,
and when the temps drop, switch from "recycle" to outside air. Let
the fan run all night, it cools enough.

--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
  #51  
Old August 7th 18, 12:13 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
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Posts: 2,679
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

In message , Mayayana
writes:
"Ken Blake" wrote

| Are cars with hand-cranked car windows still made? I haven't seen one
| in many years.


I haven't looked at a _new_ car for many years (possibly decades!), but
I _think_ they are still available in UK. (Not sure though: electric
ones may actually be cheaper to _make_ now.)
[]
I think it varies by company. At one extreme
is Tesla, which even updates software remotely.
I wouldn't be surprised if they monitor your bladder
and cross-reference that with Google maps, then
pull over at the appropriate rest area.


LOL!
[]
because everything was optional. So the base
price was low and you could get only the options
you wanted.


Though that presumably meant ordering from the factory, not the dealer;
on the whole I'd probably prefer to do that too, but would anticipate
getting poor service from dealers as a result. (Academic; I've never
actually bought a new car anyway, the closest being an ex-demo Lada.)

In my current Nissan Frontier I wanted an
automatic, so I also had to take AC, bluetooth,
cruise control, quad-speaker CD player. Those
were all classified as "standard, at no charge".
I didn't want any of them. (Though I do use the
AC.) At the same time, I had to pay extra to
get "optional" floor mats.


You put optional in quotes - what would have been there if you'd
declined the "option"?

The standard transmission was $4K less because
it wasn't bundled with all those other things. The
AC package would have been an option.


So you could buy a standard transmission without A/C (etc.), but not
auto? Interesting. Says something about the
manufacturers/dealers/whoever's attitude to purchasers of the different
transmissions. (In UK, with the possible exception of high-end cars, a
manual gearbox - as we call them - is still the default, although auto
is available on most cars if you want it, even small ones.)
[]
I generally prefer to add whatever extras I want
later. It's a lot cheaper. And all models are wired for
all options, up to a point. (I'm not so sure it would
be a good idea to refofit AC.)


I remember my Dad buying a very base-model car - I think it might have
been in the '80s, or possibly even the '70s - and fitting a radio to it
for him; I was surprised to find it not only had the wiring, but
actually had the speakers! (In the doors, anyway, which IIRR was
adequate for his wants. I'm pretty sure it was a Peugeot.)
[]
I've noticed that a big trend now is pickups
that have a steel, body-matching, hinged bed cover.
Essentially it's a 4-door sedan with a giant trunk.


(-:

There may come a time when people think it's
odd to sell a pickup without a bed cover. Then
someone will "invent" the work truck.

All these things go around and come around. In computers, it used to be
mainframes with dumb terminals (in extremis, even electromechanical ones
called teletypes); then the terminals got more and more included into
them, until we had the PC. Then it went round again, with servers and
"thin clients", ...

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Lewis: ... d'you think there's a god?
Morse: ... There are times when I wish to god there was one. (Inspector Morse.)
  #53  
Old August 7th 18, 02:58 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| I haven't looked at a _new_ car for many years (possibly decades!), but
| I _think_ they are still available in UK. (Not sure though: electric
| ones may actually be cheaper to _make_ now.)

I doubt that. I doubt even more that they could
be cheaper to repair. And cranks rarely need repair.
My first pickup was about 19 years old when a
spaced out teen slammed into it while it was parked
on a quiet side street. The driver's side window crank
was beginning to slip at that point. An electronic window
control probably would have failed long before. Similarly
with electronic ignition. A new key costs me maybe $3.
A new electric key costs more like $130. And my door
lock can't be hacked remotely.

| []
| because everything was optional. So the base
| price was low and you could get only the options
| you wanted.
|
| Though that presumably meant ordering from the factory, not the dealer;
| on the whole I'd probably prefer to do that too, but would anticipate
| getting poor service from dealers as a result.
|

That's a relevant point, but in my experience doesn't
apply. I've never ordered a car or truck. I'm talking
about what's *normally* available. My Nissan with only
the AC package was in stock locally. The two Toyotas
I bought were in stock locally. I need them for work
and with two of them didn't have time to wait. So
that's what I was talking about: The variations in what
companies provide normally.

Some companies won't let
you order less options at all. They define them as stock.
If you look at the factory stickers (I assume it's the
same in Britain as the US) one car for $30K might list
17 options included. Another for the same price might
have no options. It's all standard. If you buy a "white
collar car" you're likely to have less choice.

So it's two things: Can you buy a particular model
without electric windows at all, and if so, are there
any available without custom order. If the answer to
#1 is true then usually the answer to #2 will be true.
(Though with my Nissan I had to find the truck I
wanted online, through the Nissan site. The local
dealer then went to get it. They were in no hurry
to understand that they could have found that truck
themselves, preferring that I pick something on their
lot.)

As for service, I've never gone to a dealer for service
and never would. In the US they price gouge, exploiting
people who think only the dealer can fix it properly. My
local dealer would love for me to go in for periodic
checks and oil changes.

I did go in for a recall with my last Toyota. About
5 years ago, I guess. The model was recalled for excessive
rusting. For some reason, underbody coating is no longer
available in the US and my truck was, indeed, rusting.
So I took it in. They did some kind of idiotic painting
job, painting on something that looked like dirty motor
oil with rubber dust in it. The stuff never dried. Messy.
And it doidn't sem to slow the rusting, which is part
of why I traded it in later. The dealer I went to was
in a wealthy town. The staff for doing the recall work
appeared to be a dozen Brazillians. Apparently they
were importing low-wage "wetbacks" to save money
on the recall costs. As it turned out, they broke a bolt
on one of the exhaust pipe sensors and didn't fix it.
That quickly started making noise and I had to fix it.

| In my current Nissan Frontier I wanted an
| automatic, so I also had to take AC, bluetooth,
| cruise control, quad-speaker CD player. Those
| were all classified as "standard, at no charge".
| I didn't want any of them. (Though I do use the
| AC.) At the same time, I had to pay extra to
| get "optional" floor mats.
|
| You put optional in quotes - what would have been there if you'd
| declined the "option"?

It's carpetted. But without mats the carpet would
quickly become filthy, damp most of the time, and
salt-damaged in Winter. So the mats were worth
getting. I think they were something like $50.

On my first Toyota pickup the rear bumper was
optional. I made my own from 2x6 oak. (Red oak.
Not as hard and durable as English brown oak, but
still pretty tough.) One of my brothers has a
welding setup and he made me brackets for it. It
actually worked well. But now I'm older and I want
quality. So I have a nice chrome bumper, almost
as thick as a Coke can.

Ironically, the best bumper I ever had was on a cheap
Fiat 128, in the 80s. It had shock absorbers. Very
sensible. Most cars now in the US just
have painted plastic. You get in an accident and the
bumper flies off down the street. Then you can't get
it back on because the plastic brackets snapped in
the crash. It's actually not a bumper at all. More like
a skirt.

| So you could buy a standard transmission without A/C (etc.), but not
| auto? Interesting. Says something about the
| manufacturers/dealers/whoever's attitude to purchasers of the different
| transmissions. (In UK, with the possible exception of high-end cars, a
| manual gearbox - as we call them - is still the default, although auto
| is available on most cars if you want it, even small ones.)

I think there are two factors. One is what people want.
What sells. The other is a simple case of being forced
to buy extra things. But here a manual has become
unusual. I specifically wanted to switch because the US
has gone stop-crazy. New lights and 4-way stops pop
up regularly. It's got to the point that an 8 mile drive to
work might easily involve over 50 lights and stop signs. No
exaggeration. And the cops like to run scam traps, getting
anyone who doesn't fully stop at a 4-way stop in the
middle of nowhere. So it was getting very tedious
to drive, constantly starting over in 1st gear.

| I remember my Dad buying a very base-model car - I think it might have
| been in the '80s, or possibly even the '70s - and fitting a radio to it
| for him; I was surprised to find it not only had the wiring, but
| actually had the speakers! (In the doors, anyway, which IIRR was
| adequate for his wants. I'm pretty sure it was a Peugeot.)

Yes. I think most are like that. With my first Toyota
I bought a cigarette lighter at an auto parts store
and plugged it in. It's cheaper for them to just wire
in everything.

| I've noticed that a big trend now is pickups
| that have a steel, body-matching, hinged bed cover.
| Essentially it's a 4-door sedan with a giant trunk.
|
| (-:
|
I'm not sure there's any correlate in Britain. In
the US there's a big-stuff obsession. There's also
a macho obsession and a pioneer mythology. Brits
pride themselves on intelligence. Yanks pride
themselves on tough. In the American West and
rural areas, a pickup plays the fantasy role of a
horse. Supermarket clerks and car wash lackeys;
coffee shop waiters and gas station attendants;
even white collar workers; they drive around in a
pickup with a rifle rack in the back window, maybe
wearing a cowboy hat, and probably with rope in
the bed, just in case they come across John Wayne
needing help to pull his wagon out of a ravine
before some nasty injuns or bandoleros arrive.

| There may come a time when people think it's
| odd to sell a pickup without a bed cover. Then
| someone will "invent" the work truck.
|
| All these things go around and come around. In computers, it used to be
| mainframes with dumb terminals (in extremis, even electromechanical ones
| called teletypes); then the terminals got more and more included into
| them, until we had the PC. Then it went round again, with servers and
| "thin clients", ...

I hate that analogy. (But that's OK. You didn't
know. It bugs me because it's part of the marketing
to make cloud sound like it makes sense when really
cloud is mostly just a power grab. People had
terminals off of mainframes because a usable
computer actually had to be the size of a room.
Services for PCs are an unnecessary scam invention
that are only now becoming possible, due to constant,
fast connections, but are still not relevant. For the
most part -- as with Office 365 or Photoshop --
they're not even running remotely. It's not a thin
client running remote "rich" functionality. It's a
powerful, multi-core machine with no reason not
to run all software locally.
I suppose a computer phone could be thought
of as a thin client. But making a PC thin client
would be idiotic. One can't even buy hardware
that limited. Last I saw, 16 GB was the lowest level
of RAM for sale, per stick.


  #54  
Old August 7th 18, 03:18 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

In message , Wolf K
writes:
On 2018-08-07 07:13, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[...]
I remember my Dad buying a very base-model car - I think it might
have been in the '80s, or possibly even the '70s - and fitting a
radio to it for him; I was surprised to find it not only had the
wiring, but actually had the speakers! (In the doors, anyway, which
IIRR was adequate for his wants. I'm pretty sure it was a Peugeot.)

[...]

In general, it's cheaper to build a standard base model prepped for all
add-ons than to build cars with different preps for different add-ons.
this is true for pretty well manufactured objects. Different models of
fridge will have the same handles, shelving, drawers, etc. And plugged
holes where the ice-maker or ice-water dispenser is attached in the
higher end ones.

Bits and pieces are often much cheaper than inventory control and
assembly costs.

I wouldn't have been that surprised to find all the wiring present, but
finding the actual speakers there, rather than as you say plugged holes
(or, more likely, just the push-on wires left hanging) did surprise me.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I'm the oldest woman on primetime not baking cakes.
- Anne Robinson, RT 2015/8/15-21
  #55  
Old August 7th 18, 03:21 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Bluetooth query

In message , Wolf K
writes:
On 2018-08-07 08:04, Java Jive wrote:
On 06/08/2018 23:37, pjp wrote:

In article , lid says...

I remember that (no need to lock doors) from when I was a child. It
would be nice to live in a place like that again.

I live ib a place like that.

Here in the UK, there are fewer and fewer places like that, though I
think many locals around here think this is one.* The truth is that
rural crime is on the increase, because there are rich pickings
stealing agricultural equipment and exporting it immediately after
theft, so that it's being loaded onto a ship about the time it's
noticed missing:
"Rural crime rise prompts 'medieval' defences"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45042294



The truth is that rural crime rates have in general been higher than
city crime rates everywhere. Country and small-town folk mistake low
numbers for low rates. Do the "incidents/100K people" math, and you'll
be amazed at how dangerous the peaceful countryside is.

Have a nice day,

True. Although it _can_ still be valid: if one in a hundred people is a
criminal, then the chances of your car surviving are better in
Tubleweedville, population 50, than in "the city". (And if one of those
_is_ a criminal, chances are the local cop might know who he is, whereas
in the city, probably less so.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I'm the oldest woman on primetime not baking cakes.
- Anne Robinson, RT 2015/8/15-21
  #56  
Old August 7th 18, 03:34 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Bluetooth query

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| The truth is that rural crime rates have in general been higher than
| city crime rates everywhere. Country and small-town folk mistake low
| numbers for low rates. Do the "incidents/100K people" math, and you'll
| be amazed at how dangerous the peaceful countryside is.

| True.

You both think that? Yet with no links or references.
I'd be surprised if it's true. And I would expect the US
to be different from Britain. In Britain, rural is not so
far away as it is in the US. Also, in the US most rural
people have guns and are prepared to take care of
themselves. Both of those factors discourage rural
crime. But I have no figures and don't know where
one might find such figures. If they exist, I'd be
curious about a comparison of types of crime and
also percentage of people who knew the criminal.
I'd expect the type to vary. For instance, if a drunken
teenager walks down the street kicking off rearview
mirrors, the same teenager in the country might light
a brush fire. Mischief in both cases. But different
results.



  #57  
Old August 7th 18, 04:02 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

In message , Mayayana
writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| I haven't looked at a _new_ car for many years (possibly decades!), but
| I _think_ they are still available in UK. (Not sure though: electric
| ones may actually be cheaper to _make_ now.)

I doubt that. I doubt even more that they could
be cheaper to repair. And cranks rarely need repair.


I agree the cranks themselves do. Though - here, anyway - there are two
types: one that operates a toothed spur that is attached to the glass,
and one that has a complicated arrangement using thin steel cable, that
goes round several pulleys, and is clamped to the glass. It was the
latter type I once had go faulty - the cable gets tangled, and you have
to be careful even with the new one not to get it caught on anything
while fitting it.

My first pickup was about 19 years old when a
spaced out teen slammed into it while it was parked
on a quiet side street. The driver's side window crank
was beginning to slip at that point. An electronic window
control probably would have failed long before. Similarly
with electronic ignition. A new key costs me maybe $3.
A new electric key costs more like $130. And my door
lock can't be hacked remotely.


I think you mean electronic _access_ (or locking or whatever). To me,
electronic _ignition_ is the thing that replaces points, and eventually
the rotor arm - and _is_ considerably more reliable (and I think capable
of working at all with parts sufficiently worn that the mechanical
system wouldn't play ball).

The _access_, I couldn't agree with you mo it's the thing I'm
actually most dreading for next time I have to change my car. I don't
_want_ it, for the reasons you give! I have central _locking_, which is
nice to have and relatively simple (i. e. I open/close the driver or
passenger door - with the key! - and the other three doors unlock/lock),
but that's still based on a mechanical lock; I _don't_ want a key that
costs a fortune, could be unreliable, and could be hacked. (OK, the
remote beepy to find the car in a car park would be nice, but only for
the finding - I can't actually get in until I'm at the car anyway, can
I! - so the remote unlocking doesn't actually save me time.) [My key
_does_ have a button in it - but what it does, or rather once did, is
light a little bulb (yes bulb!) in the key!]
[]
As for service, I've never gone to a dealer for service
and never would. In the US they price gouge, exploiting
people who think only the dealer can fix it properly. My


I feel the same. (Though with modern electronics, they probably can make
that true - unless there's legislation to prevent that. I buy cars older
than that - so far.)
[]
| AC.) At the same time, I had to pay extra to
| get "optional" floor mats.
|
| You put optional in quotes - what would have been there if you'd
| declined the "option"?

It's carpetted. But without mats the carpet would
quickly become filthy, damp most of the time, and
salt-damaged in Winter. So the mats were worth
getting. I think they were something like $50.


Oh, so they were truly optional. I here see in cheap shops sets of
universal car mats; I imagine they're not all that universal, i. e.
there are cars they won't fit, but they're a lot less than that!
[]
Ironically, the best bumper I ever had was on a cheap
Fiat 128, in the 80s. It had shock absorbers. Very
sensible. Most cars now in the US just
have painted plastic. You get in an accident and the
bumper flies off down the street. Then you can't get
it back on because the plastic brackets snapped in
the crash. It's actually not a bumper at all. More like
a skirt.


And/or they cost an arm and a leg, because they're colour-coded to the
car's paint job ...

Reminds me of a funny from a few years ago: one person was suggesting
that bumpers (I thought the US called them fenders?) be a standard
height. Someone else said that's daft, otherwise you'd have to have them
the same height on a Rolls-Royce as on a mini (that was the original
mini, which was tiny, not the current BMW one). Then someone produced a
picture showing that, in fact, the bumpers on those two cars _were_ at
the same height. Cue very sheepish look from one person ...

| So you could buy a standard transmission without A/C (etc.), but not
| auto? Interesting. Says something about the
| manufacturers/dealers/whoever's attitude to purchasers of the different
| transmissions. (In UK, with the possible exception of high-end cars, a
| manual gearbox - as we call them - is still the default, although auto
| is available on most cars if you want it, even small ones.)

I think there are two factors. One is what people want.
What sells. The other is a simple case of being forced
to buy extra things. But here a manual has become
unusual. I specifically wanted to switch because the US
has gone stop-crazy. New lights and 4-way stops pop
up regularly. It's got to the point that an 8 mile drive to
work might easily involve over 50 lights and stop signs. No
exaggeration.


Hmm, 12½ to the mile - wouldn't surprise me in London ...
[]
| I remember my Dad buying a very base-model car - I think it might have
| been in the '80s, or possibly even the '70s - and fitting a radio to it
| for him; I was surprised to find it not only had the wiring, but
| actually had the speakers! (In the doors, anyway, which IIRR was
| adequate for his wants. I'm pretty sure it was a Peugeot.)

Yes. I think most are like that. With my first Toyota
I bought a cigarette lighter at an auto parts store
and plugged it in. It's cheaper for them to just wire
in everything.


I haven't seen a car here that didn't have that power outlet, for years.
(Or that didn't have the lighter actually in it when new, though that's
often got lost in older cars.)

| I've noticed that a big trend now is pickups
| that have a steel, body-matching, hinged bed cover.
| Essentially it's a 4-door sedan with a giant trunk.
|
| (-:
|
I'm not sure there's any correlate in Britain. In
the US there's a big-stuff obsession. There's also


Here, there's not really _room_. Due I think mainly to health and safety
regulations cars have got _bigger_, but most houses in towns and cities
don't have anywhere to _put_ a big truck. We do _have_ them, but they're
a lot rarer.
[]
even white collar workers; they drive around in a
pickup with a rifle rack in the back window, maybe
wearing a cowboy hat, and probably with rope in
the bed, just in case they come across John Wayne
needing help to pull his wagon out of a ravine
before some nasty injuns or bandoleros arrive.


I carry jump leads and an X-shaped wheelbrace - much more likely to be
helpful to someone in difficulties! (Plus I get great satisfaction if
I'm able to give a jump-start from my Å*koda to, say, a BMW, Mercedes,
or similar ...)

| There may come a time when people think it's
| odd to sell a pickup without a bed cover. Then
| someone will "invent" the work truck.
|
| All these things go around and come around. In computers, it used to be
| mainframes with dumb terminals (in extremis, even electromechanical ones
| called teletypes); then the terminals got more and more included into
| them, until we had the PC. Then it went round again, with servers and
| "thin clients", ...

I hate that analogy. (But that's OK. You didn't
know. It bugs me because it's part of the marketing
to make cloud sound like it makes sense when really


I was thinking as I was writing it that it wasn't quite right, but the
principle of "old ideas being reinvented" remains.

cloud is mostly just a power grab. People had
terminals off of mainframes because a usable
computer actually had to be the size of a room.
Services for PCs are an unnecessary scam invention
that are only now becoming possible, due to constant,
fast connections, but are still not relevant. For the


Couldn't agree more. I'd love to turn most of them off - I just don't
have the inclination to spend the time finding out which ones I can, and
as you say, it's not necessary now due to the (wasteful) surplus of
processor power and bandwidth.
[]
of as a thin client. But making a PC thin client
would be idiotic. One can't even buy hardware
that limited. Last I saw, 16 GB was the lowest level
of RAM for sale, per stick.

The unit cost does keep pushing up the bottom. You'd have hoped that,
say, 386- or 486-based PCs would now just cost a few bucks (and be the
size of a paperback book), but it became uneconomic (in terms of
returning profit for the manufacturers) to make them, so they just
disappeared altogether. (Sure, you can get them second-hand, and use
them as a media/print server or similar, but only if you're a geek, as
they're full size boxes. And unreliable due to their age.)

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I'm the oldest woman on primetime not baking cakes.
- Anne Robinson, RT 2015/8/15-21
  #58  
Old August 7th 18, 04:11 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Bluetooth query

In message , Mayayana
writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| The truth is that rural crime rates have in general been higher than
| city crime rates everywhere. Country and small-town folk mistake low
| numbers for low rates. Do the "incidents/100K people" math, and you'll
| be amazed at how dangerous the peaceful countryside is.

| True.

You both think that? Yet with no links or references.


You snipped my followon, which was mostly "true, but:" - in part
agreeing with what you've said below.

I'd be surprised if it's true. And I would expect the US
to be different from Britain. In Britain, rural is not so
far away as it is in the US. Also, in the US most rural
people have guns and are prepared to take care of


Though one gather that plenty of people in cities have them too
(especially the criminals)!

themselves. Both of those factors discourage rural
crime. But I have no figures and don't know where
one might find such figures. If they exist, I'd be
curious about a comparison of types of crime and
also percentage of people who knew the criminal.
I'd expect the type to vary. For instance, if a drunken
teenager walks down the street kicking off rearview
mirrors, the same teenager in the country might light
a brush fire. Mischief in both cases. But different
results.

The increase in rural crime here, according to reports on the box this
morning, seems to be mainly the theft of expensive agricultural
machinery, to be taken abroad. (Though as with most reports, I don't
think it's a sudden increase - just something the media have decided to
report on for no obvious reason. [Maybe some statistics have just been
released. But they don't usually give a reason for their choice of
subject.]) This being a somewhat smaller country, as someone said in one
of the reports, "they're on a ship by the time someone notices they're
missing."


--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If it jams - force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
  #59  
Old August 7th 18, 04:41 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

Wolf K on Tue, 7 Aug 2018 10:11:28 -0400 typed
in alt.windows7.general the following:
On 2018-08-07 07:13, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[...]
I remember my Dad buying a very base-model car - I think it might have
been in the '80s, or possibly even the '70s - and fitting a radio to it
for him; I was surprised to find it not only had the wiring, but
actually had the speakers! (In the doors, anyway, which IIRR was
adequate for his wants. I'm pretty sure it was a Peugeot.)

[...]

In general, it's cheaper to build a standard base model prepped for all
add-ons than to build cars with different preps for different add-ons.
this is true for pretty well manufactured objects. Different models of
fridge will have the same handles, shelving, drawers, etc. And plugged
holes where the ice-maker or ice-water dispenser is attached in the
higher end ones.

Bits and pieces are often much cheaper than inventory control and
assembly costs.


I'm reading how more and more, automakers are all buying major
components from the same range of suppliers. That is, Ford no longer
makes its own trannys, etc. So what is available for the high end
market now is because BMW has a deal for exclusive use for the next
couple years, and then the "innovation" will move down the make and
model, eventually "everybody" will have 8 speed "automated
transmission".

tschus
pyotr

--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
  #60  
Old August 7th 18, 04:41 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
pyotr filipivich
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 752
Default Electrical window controls. Bluetooth query

"Mayayana" on Tue, 7 Aug 2018 09:58:02 -0400
typed in alt.windows7.general the following:

| Though that presumably meant ordering from the factory, not the dealer;
| on the whole I'd probably prefer to do that too, but would anticipate
| getting poor service from dealers as a result.
|

That's a relevant point, but in my experience doesn't
apply. I've never ordered a car or truck. I'm talking
about what's *normally* available. My Nissan with only
the AC package was in stock locally. The two Toyotas
I bought were in stock locally. I need them for work
and with two of them didn't have time to wait. So
that's what I was talking about: The variations in what
companies provide normally.


I bought the Mazda truck on a Saturday afternoon. I'd been up all
night and day, got towed in the last fifty miles, and I needed
something to get me to my friends place for the 4th, and then home.
"The truck I want is on this lot."
If the "fleet white" truck had been an extended cab, I'd have
gotten it, and would have explained the change (from"eggshell") as "I
finally washed the truck. Makes a great difference, eh?"

tschus
pyotr






--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
 




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