Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[SiliconWizard]

The ones I had in mind are LCD-based, but are not displays. The LCD covers the whole plate and just hides the plate when it detects a flash. Pretty effective.

I wonder if a passive solution would work, something retroreflective perhaps, optimized for the upward angle where a pole mounted camera would be to overwhelm the dynamic range of the camera. The cameras they use must be pretty good, the security cameras I have at my house struggle to see a license plate in the evening when relying on the built in IR illumination.

I think there are some clear varnishes that work well for this. They are easily detected though as just using a flashlight is enough to detect the coating.

[PlainName]

hides the plate when it detects a flash

Wouldn't it be too late then? Particularly given LCD response times vs flash duration.

[IDEngineer]

Yeah, I'd think by the time the flash is detected and the LCD responds it's too late.

I was thinking that the plate image could be selectively displayed. Say, left blank under most conditions but if you get pulled over, a switch would fade in the plate image. If the officer looks again, the plate is there. Meanwhile, cameras - whether you know about them or not - can't capture an image.

[paulca]

A lot of cameras just take two photos.  Then they measure locations on the road as references and it calculates your speed based on how far you move between shots.

Now... if your number plate where to change during that delay, surely that can't be you.

On plastic shopping bags.  That law was passed here (first in the UK I believe) way a back around 2014 or something.

I went from having a box of single use  plastic bags under the sink to having a box of reusable plastic bags under the sink.

I did like how the retailers (Tesco/Asda) responded to the government though, total attitude.  The government said the retailer has to collect a 5p tax on the disposable plastic bag.  So ... the retailer instead sold you a much stronger reusable bag for 10p.  Government gets 0p.

To be honest the only real hassle for general shopping is remembering to bring bags with you, otherwise you'll need to buy some. 

Over here disposable plastic bags are still allowed for many things.  Raw produce, some pre-made foods, etc.  When I order online it all arrives in crates/totes without bags, but the meat and fish are placed in tied plastic bags and some, not all veg is isolated in paper bags.  This is just to prevent cross comtamination during delivery.

[paulca]

There are a few good mini-docus on YT about the international state of plastic recycling.

There are plastics in there which are valuable, valuable enough for a workforce to separate them out for processing.

There are plastics which simply cannot be recycled or cannot be recycled economically which goes straight to land fill and permenant disposal.  Or at least thats the idea, if 5% of it gets blown/washed into the sea, some nice charity somewhere will scoop it back up and return it to be blown back into the sea again.

The issue is the middle ground.  This is where most of the things like PET bottles lives.  It's on the margin.  For a while China was importing it, separating, grading and reselling it.  However they apparently determined that, when factoring in the worker health and hazards and the burden on the republic health services, it was not economical and banned it's import overnight.  The waste majority of that now sits in massive heeps in places like indonessia for whom the little money they get to take it is worth taking.... shame they are trashing their beautiful landscape for a few bucks.

[themadhippy]

This is where most of the things like PET bottles lives.

maybe they could use a material that can be recycled,something like erm glass,and heres an idea,how about a   deposit on the bottle to encourage you to return said bottles for recycling.

[paulca]

This is where most of the things like PET bottles lives.

maybe they could use a material that can be recycled,something like erm glass,and heres an idea,how about a   deposit on the bottle to encourage you to return said bottles for recycling.

Because glass is easy to recycle?  It's much the same as plastic.  The issue is glass gets mixed up.  Mixed glass is not worth a lot compared with single type glass, such as brewers and large producers might have.  It's also very, very energy intensive, heavy to transport etc.

The things that annoy me are multi-packs where each individual item has it's own plastic wrapper.  Not to mention the amount of time, energy, chemicals and resources they are putting into the packaging which immediately goes in the bin.  I'm not going to care if they start giving them to me in brown paper bags FFS, yet individual multipack items have inner wrapper with gold embosed print on them!  WTF?

Regarding PET bottles.  I wish there were keg filling outlets.  "Corny kegs" like used by CocaCola's distribution into pubs and restaurants.  Then you can just buy you fizzy pop/soda in a 19 litre keg and have no plastic waste.  Granted the outlay for keg, refrigeration and CO2 supply is a bit steep.

I am seriously considering looking for "flavoured water flavour concentrates" and making my own "soda".  The difficult part, however, is keeping it sane and bacteria free.  If the flavour concentrate does not contain any preservatives I'll have to add them.

Bring back SodaStream but do it right!

[themadhippy]

I still don't understand why fluorescent lighting was quickly banned and LED lighting was put in its place which requires you to throw out the entire lighting assembly and replace it with a new one whenever a LED light board or its electronics die

no it dont ,you  can get led direct replacement for florry tubes

Because glass is easy to recycle?

no need to recycle,good clean out and refill,like we used to do, ive been using the same 500ml bottles for my home brew for years.

[paulca]

Not really a pet peeve, but I forgot the password for one of my trunk switches.  Had no option but to factor reset it.  Which dumps all the VLAN config, tagging etc.  Right bugger to fix again once the internet goes down and you can't access half the stuff.

[james_s]

I still don't understand why fluorescent lighting was quickly banned and LED lighting was put in its place which requires you to throw out the entire lighting assembly and replace it with a new one whenever a LED light board or its electronics die. They could have just made Fluorescent lighting more reliable, eg electrodeless inducting lighting works perfectly fine.

Induction lamps have many of the same problems as fluorescent lamps. They take time to warm up to reach full brightness, they contain mercury and the phosphor depreciates with use. Also RFI can be a challenge and the efficiency topped out at about half of what current LED lamps are achieving. I don't like the disposable LED fixtures but LED sources are far superior to induction.

[IDEngineer]

Not to mention that fluorescent bulbs are inherently more fragile than LED's. Also far more sensitive to cool temperatures which cause flicker problems. Fluorescent lights have far more disadvantages than advantages... their big plus was efficiency but LED's have destroyed that.

[mendip_discovery]

And, while I'm here...

Lack of joined-up thinking for roadworks. Current aggravation is a collapsed road on a rat run, so traffic that would normally go through there now has to go into town and back out. So, of course, on the only other main road in - to which they've diverted the through traffic - they've set up 4-way lights that take forever to allow for a possible cyclist to traverse the full length before switching queues. And if you happen to take the scenic route and go right around town to come in from the other way, there's a road closed on that route and more roadworks for putting in fibre. At 8am today it took an hour to do a journey that would usually take 20 mins in rush hour.

Ah another member that drives through Wells.

The fun we have had around here for a few years is a new firm doing Fibre to your door. They dig up holes all over the place then do 10 mins work but they are left there for 2 weeks and they even had the cheek to close roads for weeks causing traffic chaos.

[vk6zgo]

I've solved the plastic problem in my home. I simply don't buy any tools or products which have plastic in their outer casings unless I can't avoid it.

They had it right in the early 20th century. Make everything out of wood or metal or metal alloy. Why can't we produce a synthetic wood?

If I want a new desk fan I'm not going to be buying something brand new, I'll buy something made from metal or something that was built properly in the first place, eg a Sanyo desk fan from the 1980s one from the 1940s properly restored.

I still don't understand why fluorescent lighting was quickly banned and LED lighting was put in its place which requires you to throw out the entire lighting assembly and replace it with a new one whenever a LED light board or its electronics die. They could have just made Fluorescent lighting more reliable, eg electrodeless inducting lighting works perfectly fine.





I cannot avoid using plastic bags in my grocery shopping because i get my groceries home delivered. But the plastic bags are recycled.

I also cannot avoid buying prepackaged food which uses a lot of cellophane plastics, but what can be recycled is recycled. This part still keeps me up at night.

As for everything else you guys are just going to have to figure it out for yourselves. I for one am just going to sit back and relax and do my knitting with my mum.

Back in the day, we used real Cellophane, made from Cellulose.

It wasn't a lot different from tomato skin, & discarded material rapidly biodegraded.
It was also a bit fragile, so packaging using clear plastics of other types was enthusiastically adopted, so now you have to be Superman to open a "Lolly wrapper" & know that the discarded packaging will probably outlive you---ain't progress grand!

Re the knitting---I learnt to crochet when I was a kid, but never quite got my brain around knitting.

[TimFox]

Hillaire Belloc:

Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
Himself. It struck him dead: And serve him right!
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.

[jonovid]

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[vk6zgo]

Back in the day, we used real Cellophane, made from Cellulose.

It wasn't a lot different from tomato skin, & discarded material rapidly biodegraded.
It was also a bit fragile, so packaging using clear plastics of other types was enthusiastically adopted, so now you have to be Superman to open a "Lolly wrapper" & know that the discarded packaging will probably outlive you---ain't progress grand!

Re the knitting---I learnt to crochet when I was a kid, but never quite got my brain around knitting.

And is highly toxic apparently:

Production, however, uses carbon disulfide (CS2), which has been found to be highly toxic to workers.

Somehow I don't think society is sustainable. I mean if you're going to charge me $5 for a box of chicken nuggets that don't have any chicken in it and give me a belly ache and taste terrible and $8 for a box of real chicken nuggets that are gluten free but contain real chicken in it but the crumb is so rough and feels like I'm chewing sand... I dunno something's gotta give. For the love of god at least cut back on the amount of herbs and spices in the vegetarian alternatives!

I'm all for not eating the cute little chickens but lets be reasonable rational grown up adults here. I need protein and for me to get protein something else has to die. I actually have genuine medical needs for meat containing food, I went to the hospital once and the doctor there told me to stay away from any food that contains high amounts of herbs in it. I was vomiting up my guts at the time. Guess what vegetarian food contains in it? Lots and lots of herbs. At least the ones that I've tried are like that. It wasn't like I was doing a paprika challenge either, I was taking St Johns Wort at the time and my stomach just couldn't handle it.

https://www.cbi.eu/news/spices-and-herbs-essential-vegan-meat-alternatives

A wide range of spices is used in meat alternative products. The most popular mixes include dried onions, dried garlic, black pepper, garlic, chilli, paprika, ginger, and curry powder. Many also contain a wide range of herbs such as sage, rosemary and thyme.

As for your guys comments on LED vs Induction lamps. phooey!

Yes you are right but I don't have to like it. I mean going to a fully reliable and trustworthy light source such as LED is just asking for trouble. Where are all of the maintenance men and groundskeeper jobs going to go? There used to be jobs for groundskeepers, street sweepers, garbage men.

Oh but we will all just automate those jobs I hear you say or give them to a volunteer.

Well gee I'm sure AI will automate just about everything else too eventually.

Let that sink in for a second....

Ok, now I'll ask the question..

What are we all going to do once everything becomes automated?

Oh right we will just all go get more sophisticated jobs that require a lot of brain power... uh.... yeah about that... Have you seen the advancements in AI lately?

I don't know about you guys but I like induction lamps. I like things that break down, it gives me something to do. It gives me hope that there is a fighting chance against the living hell that corporations are dreaming up. No jobs, reliable technology that doesn't require repairing, efficient lighting, prepackaged vegeterian food that may or may not taste good and also possibly not give me a belly ache but there is always that possibility that it will. Are you sure that you guys want this kind of lifestyle?

CFL/Incandescent are a comfort lamp. Because I know that eventually I'll have to swap one out and feel useful and they produce a really high quality light source that doesn't trigger my migraines.

But by god is incandescent horribly inefficient.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch Summer Time Machine Blues from 2005 with my mum and do some knitting and pretend its the past.

I don't know if this future is something that I would want to be a part of, I mean people doing nothing all day? Thats my day to day reality and its just painful, its agonizing, its torture! I can't imagine it would be a utopia for anybody else.

CFLs are horrible--if you want fluorescent get the real thing---- a tube!
They produce a decent amount of light, are relatively efficient, & in domestic service, last for decades.

[james_s]

Not all CFLs are horrible, Philips, Osram and other reputable brands made some very good ones. I don't think anyone is making good ones anymore though, LEDs are superior in pretty much every way.

[vk6zgo]

Hillaire Belloc:

Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
Himself. It struck him dead: And serve him right!
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.

Capitalism. to flower properly, needs most people to have enough money to afford to buy stuff.
Unfortunately, rich people want to keep all their money & be the "Lord of the Manor".
The ultimate end of such a path is back to Feudalism, where even the rich lived in squalor---just much fancier squalor than the rest of us!

[CatalinaWOW]

Not all CFLs are horrible, Philips, Osram and other reputable brands made some very good ones. I don't think anyone is making good ones anymore though, LEDs are superior in pretty much every way.

The best of them did check all of the boxes.  Good light output, which did not vary as the "bulb" warmed up, near instant start up, dimmable and reliable in all enclosures.  But very few did check all of those boxes, and not all products from the good brands did.  Even the good models from the good brands had bad units come off the line at very significant rates.  My WAG based on my experience is that it wasn't much less than 1% duds that failed one or more boxes.  Which is only an order of magnitude better than the auto makers of the world achieve on products that are literally thousands of times more complex. 

[pcprogrammer]

Unfortunately, rich people want to keep all their money & be the "Lord of the Manor".

It is even worse, they not just want to keep all their money, it needs to become more and more.

[coppice]

Not all CFLs are horrible, Philips, Osram and other reputable brands made some very good ones. I don't think anyone is making good ones anymore though, LEDs are superior in pretty much every way.

I've never seen anything that great from Philps or Osram, but Matsushita made CFLs with very impressive light quality and longevity. It certainly could be done.

[paulca]

I accidentally bought 2 CFLs when I bought Phillips outdoor lights for the house.  For some reason, even though I was looking for LED lights specifically I didn't check these.

The immediate issue I have with them is, when first turned on, they are dim and at the extreme end of "warm white".  It then takes them a good minute or more to brighten and cool in colour.

This is great for lights that get left on a lot, but these are like "patio" lights which are turned on while you head out to the garden/garage and switched back off 1 minute later.

Neither do they get used often enough to bother changing them until they expire.

On expiry....

I had a CFL go bad on me one day.  A big fat 150W equivalent 18W job.  Was the bulb in my upstairs landing which was directly above the switch.  I flipped it on and "BANG!", sounded like a 'ing shot gun and I literally dropped onto the ground.  Not for fear of "gun shot", but from such a loud noise directly over my head being as far away from that as possible seemed to be my reflex response.  Luckily the bulb base contained almost all of the detonating capacity, because it was properly sealed, glued etc.  A cheaper one may have just sprayed hot copper dust, electrolyte and sparks all over me....   like the last cap I blew up with mains voltage accidentally.

[SilverSolder]

I think the most horrendous invention ever made was the hybrid halogen/CFL light globe. Sounds good on paper but eugh. And from memory I had one that failed where the halogen light globe was left on at the same time as the CFL was still on. The high voltage halogen filaments are extremely fragile also and fail easily.

With lights in my house that are turned on then quickly turned off I use warm white LED from a reputable manufacturer, Osram or Philips. I don't use LED in the bedroom or living room, I use CFL. for everywhere else in the house its LED.

I use incandescent in the living room (on a dimmer, set low!).   Can't beat the glow of glowing metal!

[mendip_discovery]

Quality Managers that are glued to thier desk.

Had a grumpy email come in today stating lots of % of error stats etc for a job we did suggesting we need to do a 8-D report etc.  All around some certificates issues the other day. Admittedly my colleague made an error on the date, it was only the 3rd day back for 2023 and he got stuck in 2022. There was one for me, supposedly I got the serial number wrong.

I have changed he model etc to protect the innocent but. Lets say I just calibrated a Datron 1281 and I used a 8 digit number for the serial. Then you get an email stating that the serial is 1281 would you find that interesting. So I rang him, it took a moment for the penny to drop. He then said but the database says 1281, I asked what the item said on the side where the details are and he said he has never looked at it and he is new to the firm.

I get these a few times a year and it's quite fun when the next time I visit I pull it up and point out the data in the database could be wrong. If I am wrong I am wrong and I will admit it but I do get annoyed when I get blamed for stuff and it turns out they made a mistake becuase they are glued to a desk and never look at the item in question and just assume the database is perfect.

Sorry for the rant, it's been a long day onsite.

[james_s]

I accidentally bought 2 CFLs when I bought Phillips outdoor lights for the house.  For some reason, even though I was looking for LED lights specifically I didn't check these.

The immediate issue I have with them is, when first turned on, they are dim and at the extreme end of "warm white".  It then takes them a good minute or more to brighten and cool in colour.

This is great for lights that get left on a lot, but these are like "patio" lights which are turned on while you head out to the garden/garage and switched back off 1 minute later.

Neither do they get used often enough to bother changing them until they expire.

Those lamps use a mercury amalgam rather than elemental mercury. They are better at controlling vapor pressure so amalgam is used in lamps that are especially compact, contained within an outer bulb or rated for use in enclosed fixtures. The downside is that amalgam lamps take considerably longer to warm up and vaporize the mercury. They're really only suitable for applications where they are turned on once for the day and then run for a considerable amount of time. They're great for dusk till dawn service or things like commercial buildings where the lights are turned on in the morning and off when the business closes.