c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices) to
drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here, I'll
snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
c186282 wrote:
the very very longstanding number.
Over there, do you have the option to migrate the number to a VoIP
provider?
My AT&T "Internet Air" connection has slowly become
worse and worse. NEVER as fast as their 2nd-gen DSL
and NOW, many times a day (oddly late evenings)
the 5G router just randomly goes to all-yellow
blink mode. NOTHING on the net about it. No, it's
not 'updates' ... some kind of major signal drop/err.
MAY have to go to an alt provider. Ugly for
a number of reasons, esp payments. Most
demand a bank routing number these days.
In the USA you have lots of protections
for credit card charges, but NONE for
direct-routing. I expect, have experienced,
evil in this respect.
Cut 'em off ... endless letters about how
they are gonna RUIN your credit rating. That
goes back to CompuServe at least .......
No, NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
Hardwire KEEPS WORKING even in storm and disaster
while the cell towers DROP one by one .....
I'm, alas, OLD now ... DO need at least one
really really solid communications channel.
Alas, in my current prob, ThunderBird does not
seem able to tolerate even a momentary drop in
the connection. Have to terminate, then restart
when the lights go green again. 50% of my posts,
well, have to SAVE them as drafts, kill the app,
then restart and post the draft. Sometimes it
does not remember ... crude copy is the backup,
not so great.
This is TBird + GigaNews.
Has anyone come across an obscure setting that will
increase TBird's ability to tolerate short connection
outages ? Might be seconds, might be minutes.
SO many settings, across several menus. Just can't
FIND what I want ... if it exists at all.
On 3/14/26 05:52, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices)
to drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here,
I'll snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
˙ I'll keep the hard-line as long as possible ... and
˙ they DO keep raising the price, hoping I'll cancel
˙ There ARE valuable virtues to hard lines. Been there,
˙ seen it, worth a little extra money.
˙ But, if I get fiber they WILL, for sure, use that
˙ as an excuse to tear down my hard-line and zap the
˙ very very longstanding number.
˙ Hmm ... any LAWYERS in the house ?
My AT&T "Internet Air" connection has slowly become
worse and worse. NEVER as fast as their 2nd-gen DSL
and NOW, many times a day (oddly late evenings)
the 5G router just randomly goes to all-yellow
blink mode. NOTHING on the net about it. No, it's
not 'updates' ... some kind of major signal drop/err.
MAY have to go to an alt provider. Ugly for
a number of reasons, esp payments. Most
demand a bank routing number these days.
In the USA you have lots of protections
for credit card charges, but NONE for
direct-routing. I expect, have experienced,
evil in this respect.
Cut 'em off ... endless letters about how
they are gonna RUIN your credit rating. That
goes back to CompuServe at least .......
No, NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
Hardwire KEEPS WORKING even in storm and disaster
while the cell towers DROP one by one .....
I'm, alas, OLD now ... DO need at least one
really really solid communications channel.
Alas, in my current prob, ThunderBird does not
seem able to tolerate even a momentary drop in
the connection. Have to terminate, then restart
when the lights go green again. 50% of my posts,
well, have to SAVE them as drafts, kill the app,
then restart and post the draft. Sometimes it
does not remember ... crude copy is the backup,
not so great.
This is TBird + GigaNews.
Has anyone come across an obscure setting that will
increase TBird's ability to tolerate short connection
outages ? Might be seconds, might be minutes.
SO many settings, across several menus. Just can't
FIND what I want ... if it exists at all.
c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices) to
drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here, I'll
snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
On 3/14/26 05:52, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices)
to drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here,
I'll snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
˙ I'll keep the hard-line as long as possible ... and
˙ they DO keep raising the price, hoping I'll cancel
˙ There ARE valuable virtues to hard lines. Been there,
˙ seen it, worth a little extra money.
˙ But, if I get fiber they WILL, for sure, use that
˙ as an excuse to tear down my hard-line and zap the
˙ very very longstanding number.
˙ Hmm ... any LAWYERS in the house ?
On 3/14/26 06:15, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
the very very longstanding number.
Over there, do you have the option to migrate the number to a VoIP
provider?
˙ Never heard of it. MAY exist, but VOIP is
˙ a poor substitute for an actual hard wired
˙ connection.
˙ I understand, hard-wires require PHYSICAL
˙ MAINT ... expensive for The Company. They
˙ really badly want to get RID of all that
˙ (and there ARE some legal aspect for
˙ hardwire in the USA, like QUICK repair).
˙ But the alts SUCK.
˙ Oh, TBird, set 'mailnews.tcp.timeout' to 10000
˙ instead of 1000. We'll see.
˙ It works pretty well during the day, but I'm
˙ more on a "third shift" schedule - note when
˙ this was posted˙ :-)
On 2026-03-14 11:07, c186282 wrote:
On 3/14/26 05:52, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices)
to drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here,
I'll snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
˙ I'll keep the hard-line as long as possible ... and
˙ they DO keep raising the price, hoping I'll cancel
˙ There ARE valuable virtues to hard lines. Been there,
˙ seen it, worth a little extra money.
˙ But, if I get fiber they WILL, for sure, use that
˙ as an excuse to tear down my hard-line and zap the
˙ very very longstanding number.
˙ Hmm ... any LAWYERS in the house ?
Here the change is enforced. Initially it was voluntary, but at the end,
it was enforced. They simply removed the copper exchanges. Two month notice.
Those places where fiber is not feasible, had to change to radio.
Ah, of course people keep their phone number.
This is TBird + GigaNews.
Has anyone come across an obscure setting that will
increase TBird's ability to tolerate short connection
outages ? Might be seconds, might be minutes.
Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-03-14 11:07, c186282 wrote:
On 3/14/26 05:52, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices)
to drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here,
I'll snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
˙ I'll keep the hard-line as long as possible ... and
˙ they DO keep raising the price, hoping I'll cancel
˙ There ARE valuable virtues to hard lines. Been there,
˙ seen it, worth a little extra money.
˙ But, if I get fiber they WILL, for sure, use that
˙ as an excuse to tear down my hard-line and zap the
˙ very very longstanding number.
˙ Hmm ... any LAWYERS in the house ?
Here the change is enforced. Initially it was voluntary, but at the end,
it was enforced. They simply removed the copper exchanges. Two month notice. >>
Those places where fiber is not feasible, had to change to radio.
Ah, of course people keep their phone number.
Same here (in the US). They (Verizon in my case) simply got "regulator approval" to decomission the legacy copper wiring, and away it went.
I switched the phone number that used to be on the legacy copper over
to a VOIP service and saved a bunch of money each month.
I no longer recall how much official notice we were given (the copper decomissioning occurred sometime 2018/2019 timeframe). I'd seen rumors
of the change coming long before Verizon provided the "official notice"
and had been preparing for the switch in any case.
On 2026-03-14 11:07, c186282 wrote:
On 3/14/26 05:52, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
They'll find reasons (expensive linesmen, expensive central offices)
to drop them soon enough.˙ Though I'm happy with VDSL speeds here,
I'll snap their hands off the day FTTP becomes available here ...
˙˙ I'll keep the hard-line as long as possible ... and
˙˙ they DO keep raising the price, hoping I'll cancel
˙˙ There ARE valuable virtues to hard lines. Been there,
˙˙ seen it, worth a little extra money.
˙˙ But, if I get fiber they WILL, for sure, use that
˙˙ as an excuse to tear down my hard-line and zap the
˙˙ very very longstanding number.
˙˙ Hmm ... any LAWYERS in the house ?
Here the change is enforced. Initially it was voluntary, but at the end,
it was enforced. They simply removed the copper exchanges. Two month
notice.
Those places where fiber is not feasible, had to change to radio.
Ah, of course people keep their phone number.
On 14/03/2026 07:38, c186282 wrote:
My AT&T "Internet Air" connection has slowly become
worse and worse. NEVER as fast as their 2nd-gen DSL
and NOW, many times a day (oddly late evenings)
the 5G router just randomly goes to all-yellow
blink mode. NOTHING on the net about it. No, it's
not 'updates' ... some kind of major signal drop/err.
MAY have to go to an alt provider. Ugly for
a number of reasons, esp payments. Most
demand a bank routing number these days.
In the USA you have lots of protections
for credit card charges, but NONE for
direct-routing. I expect, have experienced,
evil in this respect.
Cut 'em off ... endless letters about how
they are gonna RUIN your credit rating. That
goes back to CompuServe at least .......
No, NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
Hardwire KEEPS WORKING even in storm and disaster
while the cell towers DROP one by one .....
I'm, alas, OLD now ... DO need at least one
really really solid communications channel.
Alas, in my current prob, ThunderBird does not
seem able to tolerate even a momentary drop in
the connection. Have to terminate, then restart
when the lights go green again. 50% of my posts,
well, have to SAVE them as drafts, kill the app,
then restart and post the draft. Sometimes it
does not remember ... crude copy is the backup,
not so great.
This is TBird + GigaNews.
Has anyone come across an obscure setting that will
increase TBird's ability to tolerate short connection
outages ? Might be seconds, might be minutes.
SO many settings, across several menus. Just can't
FIND what I want ... if it exists at all.
Move to a first world country.
On Sat, 14 Mar 2026 22:03:26 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:
I have TB + GigaNews also, and I have the same problem. For 100% this is
not related to Internet connection. The problem is with TB or with
GigaNews. I am unsure, because I upgrade TB from official Ubuntu repo to
115.18.0 (64 bity) version, and switch to GigaNews in the same time.
I've used news.individual.net for years. I use TB for email and used it
for usenet too, but at some point the Ubuntu version had various problems including formatting issue and I switched to Pan with slrn on another
machine as a backup.
https://news.individual.net/
I wasn't aware of it but 'Discontinuation of the NetNews / Usenet service
as of 30 September 2027'
The cartoon says 'FAREWELL, USENET! THE ERA OF USENET IS OVER'
I'll worry about it next year. I'm not super fond of either but most of
the technical stuff I'm interested in has moved to Reddit, Discord, and
other forums.
On 3/14/26 19:09, rbowman wrote:
On Sat, 14 Mar 2026 22:03:26 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:˙˙˙˙When I was younger and had money to spare I was a client of
I have TB + GigaNews also, and I have the same problem. For 100% this is >>> not related to Internet connection. The problem is with TB or with
GigaNews. I am unsure, because I upgrade TB from official Ubuntu repo to >>> 115.18.0 (64 bity) version, and switch to GigaNews in the same time.
I've used news.individual.net for years. I use TB for email and used it
for usenet too, but at some point the Ubuntu version had various problems
including formatting issue and I switched to Pan with slrn on another
machine as a backup.
https://news.individual.net/
I wasn't aware of it but 'Discontinuation of the NetNews / Usenet service
as of 30 September 2027'
The cartoon says 'FAREWELL, USENET!˙ THE ERA OF USENET IS OVER'
I'll worry about it next year. I'm not super fond of either but most of
the technical stuff I'm interested in has moved to Reddit, Discord, and
other forums.
Individual news.net.
˙˙˙˙They changed their way they billed and my cc was no longer acceptable for reasons not entirely clear.˙ They were a very good service and I wish they had not shut down or changed the payment method.
My AT&T "Internet Air" connection has slowly become
worse and worse. NEVER as fast as their 2nd-gen DSL
and NOW, many times a day (oddly late evenings)
the 5G router just randomly goes to all-yellow
blink mode. NOTHING on the net about it. No, it's
not 'updates' ... some kind of major signal drop/err.
MAY have to go to an alt provider. Ugly for
a number of reasons, esp payments. Most
demand a bank routing number these days.
In the USA you have lots of protections
for credit card charges, but NONE for
direct-routing. I expect, have experienced,
evil in this respect.
Cut 'em off ... endless letters about how
they are gonna RUIN your credit rating. That
goes back to CompuServe at least .......
No, NOT gonna go fiber ... for SURE they'd use it
as an excuse to zap my legacy hardwire phone.
Hardwire KEEPS WORKING even in storm and disaster
while the cell towers DROP one by one .....
I'm, alas, OLD now ... DO need at least one
really really solid communications channel.
Alas, in my current prob, ThunderBird does not
seem able to tolerate even a momentary drop in
the connection. Have to terminate, then restart
when the lights go green again. 50% of my posts,
well, have to SAVE them as drafts, kill the app,
then restart and post the draft. Sometimes it
does not remember ... crude copy is the backup,
not so great.
This is TBird + GigaNews.
Has anyone come across an obscure setting that will
increase TBird's ability to tolerate short connection
outages ? Might be seconds, might be minutes.
SO many settings, across several menus. Just can't
FIND what I want ... if it exists at all.
On Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:23:05 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
When I was younger and had money to spare I was a client ofIndividual
news.net.acceptable
They changed their way they billed and my cc was no longer
for reasons not entirely clear. They were a very good service and I
wish they had not shut down or changed the payment method.
They were using a European version of PayPal, something like Click'n'Buy. Every year MasterCard would flag the transaction and call to verify the charge. Quite a few years back they switched to PayPal and it's a lot smoother. I can handle 10 Euros a year. Besides it keeps me in touch with
the exchange rate.
Way back my ISP had usenet. It was rather slow and I could get usenet from Berlin a lot faster than 8 miles away. The ISP dropped it since usenet required a lot of spinning rust when drives were measured in GB not TB. Individual.net was free at that time.
https://news.individual.net/
I wasn't aware of it but 'Discontinuation of the NetNews / Usenet service
as of 30 September 2027'
The cartoon says 'FAREWELL, USENET! THE ERA OF USENET IS OVER'
I'll worry about it next year.
On Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:23:05 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
When I was younger and had money to spare I was a client ofIndividual
news.net.acceptable
They changed their way they billed and my cc was no longer
for reasons not entirely clear. They were a very good service and I
wish they had not shut down or changed the payment method.
They were using a European version of PayPal, something like Click'n'Buy. Every year MasterCard would flag the transaction and call to verify the charge. Quite a few years back they switched to PayPal and it's a lot smoother. I can handle 10 Euros a year. Besides it keeps me in touch with
the exchange rate.
Way back my ISP had usenet. It was rather slow and I could get usenet from Berlin a lot faster than 8 miles away. The ISP dropped it since usenet required a lot of spinning rust when drives were measured in GB not TB. Individual.net was free at that time.
My advice is: you should switch ASAP to some commercial Usenet
service provider, because currently you can not pay for
news.individual.net Usenet service. This mean you will make "secret
debt". This is very dangerous, at some value of this debt, on the
"final court" after death, they can punish such parasitan to be ant
or bee in next life (among other possibilities) in order to get back
their human debts by daily physical work.
Where would today?s billionaires end up?
W dniu 15.03.2026 o˙22:25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:05:43 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:It depends if they are moral or immoral.
This mean you will make "secret debt". This is very dangerous, at
some value of this debt, on the "final court" after death, they
can punish such parasitan to be ant or bee in next life (among
other possibilities) in order to get back their human debts by
daily physical work.
Where would today?s billionaires end up?
On Sat, 14 Mar 2026 22:03:26 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:
I have TB + GigaNews also, and I have the same problem. For 100% this is
not related to Internet connection. The problem is with TB or with
GigaNews. I am unsure, because I upgrade TB from official Ubuntu repo to
115.18.0 (64 bity) version, and switch to GigaNews in the same time.
I've used news.individual.net for years. I use TB for email and used it
for usenet too, but at some point the Ubuntu version had various problems including formatting issue and I switched to Pan with slrn on another
machine as a backup.
https://news.individual.net/
I wasn't aware of it but 'Discontinuation of the NetNews / Usenet service
as of 30 September 2027'
The cartoon says 'FAREWELL, USENET! THE ERA OF USENET IS OVER'
I'll worry about it next year. I'm not super fond of either but most of
the technical stuff I'm interested in has moved to Reddit, Discord, and
other forums.
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:30:18 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:
W dniu 15.03.2026 o˙22:25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:05:43 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:It depends if they are moral or immoral.
This mean you will make "secret debt". This is very dangerous, at
some value of this debt, on the "final court" after death, they
can punish such parasitan to be ant or bee in next life (among
other possibilities) in order to get back their human debts by
daily physical work.
Where would today?s billionaires end up?
But doesn?t your ?secret debt? principle work both ways? If you build
up a big profit in one life, do you get reborn as something higher in
the next life?
W dniu 16.03.2026 o˙03:36, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:30:18 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski??
wrote:
W dniu 15.03.2026 o˙22:25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:05:43 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski??It depends if they are moral or immoral.
wrote:
This mean you will make "secret debt". This is very dangerous,
at some value of this debt, on the "final court" after death,
they can punish such parasitan to be ant or bee in next life
(among other possibilities) in order to get back their human
debts by daily physical work.
Where would today?s billionaires end up?
But doesn?t your ?secret debt? principle work both ways? If you
build up a big profit in one life, do you get reborn as something
higher in the next life?
So if you earn more money it is registered not only in bank account,
but also in your soul chakras.
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:00:19 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:
W dniu 16.03.2026 o˙03:36, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:30:18 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski??
wrote:
W dniu 15.03.2026 o˙22:25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:05:43 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski??It depends if they are moral or immoral.
wrote:
This mean you will make "secret debt". This is very dangerous,
at some value of this debt, on the "final court" after death,
they can punish such parasitan to be ant or bee in next life
(among other possibilities) in order to get back their human
debts by daily physical work.
Where would today?s billionaires end up?
But doesn?t your ?secret debt? principle work both ways? If you
build up a big profit in one life, do you get reborn as something
higher in the next life?
So if you earn more money it is registered not only in bank account,
but also in your soul chakras.
So what happens to the huge surplus of this that the billionaires rack
up, in terms of what they get reincarnated as next? Is there some step
higher than a regular human being?
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:00:19 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:
W dniu 16.03.2026 o˙03:36, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:30:18 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski??
wrote:
W dniu 15.03.2026 o˙22:25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro pisze:
On Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:05:43 +0100, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski??It depends if they are moral or immoral.
wrote:
This mean you will make "secret debt". This is very dangerous,
at some value of this debt, on the "final court" after death,
they can punish such parasitan to be ant or bee in next life
(among other possibilities) in order to get back their human
debts by daily physical work.
Where would today?s billionaires end up?
But doesn?t your ?secret debt? principle work both ways? If you
build up a big profit in one life, do you get reborn as something
higher in the next life?
So if you earn more money it is registered not only in bank account,
but also in your soul chakras.
So what happens to the huge surplus of this that the billionaires rack
up, in terms of what they get reincarnated as next? Is there some step
higher than a regular human being?
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily drive...
On 3/16/26 09:05, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE excuse to
zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
Um ... I never had much trouble with carbs. Once in a great while you
might have to replace the bowl gasket, but otherwise.
But EFI is perfectly good now too - UNLESS the 'brain' has a fart,
then you're screwed.
In any case I have 'survival' reasons to hang on to the landline - so
I'm not going to give them ANY excuse.
On 3/16/26 09:05, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
˙ Um ... I never had much trouble with carbs. Once
˙ in a great while you might have to replace the
˙ bowl gasket, but otherwise.
˙ But EFI is perfectly good now too - UNLESS the
˙ 'brain' has a fart, then you're screwed.
˙ In any case I have 'survival' reasons to hang on
˙ to the landline - so I'm not going to give them
˙ ANY excuse.
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:05:08 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
Two of my bikes still have carbs. No problem. When a friend got a real job
he bought a Volvo. We'd spent our college years keeping old junk running
and knew our way around engines.
This was the early '70s and the Volvo had a primitive ECU under the
passenger seat and I managed to kick a cable loose getting in. The car wouldn't start, so we got out and popped the hood. We realize we were in a brave new world when the damn thing didn't even have a carb.
Years later when I bought a Toyota I assumed the ignition wires were under the plastic shroud. Wrong again. Each plug has its own coil. I can't say I miss the wires. I had a first generation Audi with a computer that decided the ignition wires were bad every 15,000 miles and wouldn't start. I
carried a spare set. Replace the wires, and I was good for another 15k.
There wasn't any misfiring or other symptoms, it just decided it needed
new wires.
I can't wait for AI automotive control systems making random decisions.
Years later when I bought a Toyota [...]
I can't wait for AI automotive control systems making random decisions.
On 2026-03-16, rbowman wrote:
[...]>
Years later when I bought a Toyota [...]
I can't wait for AI automotive control systems making random decisions.
Well, probably not random, but as far as disastrous decisions go,
doesn't Toyota already have that in their "Unintended Acceleration"
offering?
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended
...
On 16/03/2026 13:50, c186282 wrote:
On 3/16/26 09:05, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Constant jet blocks here.
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE excuse to
zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
Um ... I never had much trouble with carbs. Once in a great while you
might have to replace the bowl gasket, but otherwise.
Fuel injection mandated the use of fuel filters.
And electronic ignition made for a far more reliable and timely spark
But EFI is perfectly good now too - UNLESS the 'brain' has a fart,Your choice. I will get rid of mine when I can find a SIP provider that
then you're screwed.
In any case I have 'survival' reasons to hang on to the landline - so
I'm not going to give them ANY excuse.
suits what I already have. Not what they want to sell me.
Since I had fibre installed I have had no reason to call ISP for support ever.
Some stuff is just 'clever science man say shiny new thing make
everything better', some is a real advance in utility and reliability
Fibre, fuel injection and electronic ignition are stiff that works.,
Chrome, tailfins and I-phones are just marketing bollocks
On 2026-03-16 14:50, c186282 wrote:
On 3/16/26 09:05, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
˙˙ Um ... I never had much trouble with carbs. Once
˙˙ in a great while you might have to replace the
˙˙ bowl gasket, but otherwise.
My R5 carburettor needed cleaning every oil change (every 10000Km). It
had a vent hole in its small gasoline reservoir, and dust entered that
way (my guess).
If I did not clean it, the iddle carburetor jet became blocked.
On 2026-03-16, rbowman wrote:
[...]>
Years later when I bought a Toyota [...]
I can't wait for AI automotive control systems making random decisions.
Well, probably not random, but as far as disastrous decisions go,
doesn't Toyota already have that in their "Unintended Acceleration"
offering?
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended
...
No rumour. There was an actual lawsuit against Ford (which the victim
won). Among the evidence that was uncovered, it was revealed that
Ford?s executives knew there was a likelihood of a rear-end crash that
could cause a fire leading to serious injury or death, but they
calculated that the expected cost of the lawsuits would be less than
the actual cost of fixing the problem.
The jury did not look kindly on that.
Also a running gag <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Qj58o87sY>.
On 2026-03-16 21:04, rbowman wrote:
On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:05:08 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙ ˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
Two of my bikes still have carbs. No problem. When a friend got a real
job
he bought a Volvo. We'd spent our college years keeping old junk running
and knew our way around engines.
This was the early '70s and the Volvo had a primitive ECU under the
passenger seat and I managed to kick a cable loose getting in. The car
wouldn't start, so we got out and popped the hood. We realize we were
in a
brave new world when the damn thing didn't even have a carb.
Years later when I bought a Toyota I assumed the ignition wires were
under
the plastic shroud. Wrong again. Each plug has its own coil. I can't
say I
miss the wires. I had a first generation Audi with a computer that
decided
the ignition wires were bad every 15,000 miles and wouldn't start. I
carried a spare set. Replace the wires, and I was good for another 15k.
There wasn't any misfiring or other symptoms, it just decided it needed
new wires.
I can't wait for AI automotive control systems making random decisions.
Ha!
My car has a canister with coal (graphite?) absorbing the vapours from
the gasoline tank. Then a valve allows those gases in the intake to be burned. That valve is computer activated several times per second (has a name that I forget). It broke. As a result, the computer could not
regulate gasoline flow correctly and the idle varied, probably fuel expenditure was worse.
Then the display said "engine failure", yellow alarm. As a result, the computer decided the engine was not reliable and disabled the anti-skid system. As a result, another alarm went up, and the car would refuse to accelerate to 120 Km/h.
And no, the computer log did not say exactly what was wrong. The boss
(older than the other chaps) in the garage recognized the symptoms when
I said that idle varied. He had another car recently with the same problem.
Two visits. In the first one they blamed the economic gasoline I was
buying.
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:47:05 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended ...
No rumour. There was an actual lawsuit against Ford (which the victim
won). Among the evidence that was uncovered, it was revealed that Ford?s
executives knew there was a likelihood of a rear-end crash that could
cause a fire leading to serious injury or death, but they calculated
that the expected cost of the lawsuits would be less than the actual
cost of fixing the problem.
Common practice. A good part of my college statistics course was finding
the sweet point where the cost of rigorous QA was greater than the cost of replacing defective devices.
On 3/16/26 17:00, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-03-16 14:50, c186282 wrote:
On 3/16/26 09:05, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 16/03/2026 04:51, c186282 wrote:
I've explained why I won't go fiber - it would be THE
˙˙ excuse to zap my great old landline phone forever.
I bless the last day I ever had to have a carburettor in my daily
drive...
˙˙ Um ... I never had much trouble with carbs. Once
˙˙ in a great while you might have to replace the
˙˙ bowl gasket, but otherwise.
My R5 carburettor needed cleaning every oil change (every 10000Km). It
had a vent hole in its small gasoline reservoir, and dust entered that
way (my guess).
˙ FUEL FILTERS dude !!!
˙ Never had a car without one. Cut and added
˙ one if they didn't come with.
If I did not clean it, the iddle carburetor jet became blocked.
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended
...
No rumour. There was an actual lawsuit against Ford (which the victim
won). Among the evidence that was uncovered, it was revealed that
Ford?s executives knew there was a likelihood of a rear-end crash that
could cause a fire leading to serious injury or death, but they
calculated that the expected cost of the lawsuits would be less than
the actual cost of fixing the problem.
The jury did not look kindly on that.
Also a running gag <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Qj58o87sY>.
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended
...
No rumour. There was an actual lawsuit against Ford (which the victim
won). Among the evidence that was uncovered, it was revealed that
Ford?s executives knew there was a likelihood of a rear-end crash that
could cause a fire leading to serious injury or death, but they
calculated that the expected cost of the lawsuits would be less than
the actual cost of fixing the problem.
The jury did not look kindly on that.
Also a running gag <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Qj58o87sY>.
On 17/03/2026 06:10, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:47:05 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended ... >>>No rumour. There was an actual lawsuit against Ford (which the victim
won). Among the evidence that was uncovered, it was revealed that Ford?s >>> executives knew there was a likelihood of a rear-end crash that could
cause a fire leading to serious injury or death, but they calculated
that the expected cost of the lawsuits would be less than the actual
cost of fixing the problem.
Common practice. A good part of my college statistics course was finding
the sweet point where the cost of rigorous QA was greater than the cost of >> replacing defective devices.
Yes. US Robotics had 'lifetime guarantees' on their modems.
When mine was struck by lightning, I sent it back and got a new one in
the post
It's almost impossible to proof electronics against a direct strike to
the telephone wire...cheaper to simply replace the odd modem.
Likewise the cost of ensuring every 'new build' meets 'disability regulations' vastly exceeds the cost of giving every paraplegic a
$50,000 grant to modify their house to their needs.
In the case of the Pinto though, lives were at stake.
On 2026-03-17 01:47, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended
...
No rumour. ...
Also a running gag <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Qj58o87sY>.
Who did that gag? :-D
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 01:47:50 -0400, c186282 wrote:
But if I can find a '57 Chevy that's not all
bond-o and thick paint I'll buy it.
We had a '57 Chevy and it already had some Bondo around the headlights
when we traded it in on a '62 Rambler Classic. That left me with a
distaste for the entire Romney family. My father liked it because it had
15" wheels rather than the 14" other manufacturers were going to. And it
did have the handy bed option which didn't impress the parents of teenage girls.
My fave were the late 60s Fords and Chevys.
The 200ci Ford straight-6 was reliable and super easy to service.
I had a '62 Falcon Futura with the straight-6. I don't name things but I referred to it as the Thunderchicken since it looked like a scale model T- Bird, black vinyl roof and all. It must have had some Jeep DNA since it
would go anywhere. My next Ford was a '73 Mustang that was baffled by an
inch of snow.
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:48:07 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-03-17 01:47, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:02:45 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
Rumour had it that the Pinto's gas tank would explode if rear-ended
...
No rumour. ...
Also a running gag <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Qj58o87sY>.
Who did that gag? :-D
It?s from this movie <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286/>, ?Top
Secret?. One in the long line of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker films (think ?Airplane?, ?Naked Gun?, ?Hot Shots!? etc), where the script is so
full of gags that the plot shows serious signs of giving way at times.
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