Random Thoughts

[Flint1979]

I'd rather have the Michigan State Police in front of me than behind me.

[kphoger]

Why do some hotels try to make you sit down for grab and go continental breakfast items?  I can understand not wanting cooked food in a room, but pre-packaged items seems odd.  Every once in awhile I run into a hotel that actually cares about this and apparently today was one of those days.  I ran into obstruction attempting to leave the breakfast area with an apple, pear and unopened bagel.

My pet peeve is when a hotel breakfast has a carafe of hot water but no tea bags.  At the one I stayed at Saturday night, the supply kitchen was accessible from the dining area, so I raided the drawers and cupboards till I found the box of tea bags, took one of them for myself, and put the whole darned box out by the coffee.

[kphoger]

And Minnesota's highways seems to be unique in that there aren't any frontage roads to be found on their freeways, and very few flyover ramps on the interchanges.

Was this your first time leaving Texas or something?

Although I will concede that Minnesota seems to have had a serious and long-lasting love affair with cloverleaf interchanges...

[J N Winkler]

Although I will concede that Minnesota seems to have had a serious and long-lasting love affair with cloverleaf interchanges...

Back in the early days of MTR, the prevalence of cloverleafs in Minnesota and system interchanges with left exits in Wisconsin were used to support an argument that northern states have fewer Maltese cross stacks because of the severe winters.  I never felt that made much sense because if California (the most populous state with the second highest number of stacks) and Texas (the global outlier in stacks) are left out of consideration, there are not that many more stacks in states with generally warm winters.

And now Wisconsin has its first stack with the redeveloped Zoo Interchange.

[thspfc]

Although I will concede that Minnesota seems to have had a serious and long-lasting love affair with cloverleaf interchanges...

Back in the early days of MTR, the prevalence of cloverleafs in Minnesota and system interchanges with left exits in Wisconsin were used to support an argument that northern states have fewer Maltese cross stacks because of the severe winters.  I never felt that made much sense because if California (the most populous state with the second highest number of stacks) and Texas (the global outlier in stacks) are left out of consideration, there are not that many more stacks in states with generally warm winters.

And now Wisconsin has its first stack with the redeveloped Zoo Interchange.

The Marquette was completed in 2008, the Zoo in 2018.

[J N Winkler]

The Marquette was completed in 2008, the Zoo in 2018.

Yup.  The Marquette is a multi-level interchange but not a Maltese cross stack.

[hotdogPi]

Regarding things that should be near-equal (e.g. election results, male:female ratio of the general population in a specific location, chance for certain events to happen that are near 50%):

Why does "4:3" or "402468 to 301851" look like a blowout while "57%" looks fairly close?

For example, https://strategy.channelfireball.com/home/rewards-of-diversity-tracking-the-representation-of-diversity-in-mtg/ shows the female:male ratio of artwork in Magic: the Gathering cards. It begins at about 0.65:1, which feels a lot more unbalanced than "40% female, 60% male". Now, it's 1.14:1 female, which is 53% female. In both cases, the percentage feels much closer to evenly split than the ratio.

[GaryV]

Why don't meteorologists study meteors?

[Big John]

Why don't people sleep in restrooms?

[ZLoth]

Anyone have that "box of cables"? I have several small toolboxes (the cheapest plastic ones I can find) of cables sorted as follows:

• NEMA 5-15P to C13 Power Cables (computer-type power cables)
• NEMA 1-15P to IEC C7 2-prong non-polarized power cables
• IEC320 C7 to NEMA 1-15P 2-prong polarized power cables
• NEMA 5-15P to C5 (Mickey Mouse) power cables
• HDMI Cables
• HDMI Adapters (mostly HDMI to miniHDMI)
• Displayport Cables
• Displayport Adapters (mostly Displayport to HDMI)
• miniDisplay (Thunderbolt) Adapters (including to HDMI, DMI, and VGA)
• USB Power Bricks (mostly low-power)

Plus, I repurposed a 20 Drawer Rolling Storage Cart which consists of:

• Ethernet cables of various length from 1 foot to 20 feet
• USB 2/USB 3/USB-C cables and adapters
• Audio cables
• 1 foot power cables
• Velcro cable ties

...and, I still end up with a box full of cables (a good of it being coax cables).

[vdeane]

One thing that I've thought would be cool is if radio presets could be set up as a customization grid instead of a simple linear system.  On my Civic's system, I have to keep one the same between FM1 and FM2 to make switching between the two easy (when switching sources, the right/left buttons that move between presents momentarily change to switching between sources, even though the "source" button iterates between a small number of sources, making this unnecessary, so going directly from FM1-1 to FM2-6 would require a momentary pause and not be seamless), and on the DOT Prius, it's all one big bank, which takes care of that but adds a new problem in that some stations require a lot of button presses to switch between.  A grid where I could assign "coordinates" in addition to frequencies would solve that problem, as I could use left for west, up for north, right for east, and down for south.

[Molandfreak]

And Minnesota's highways seems to be unique in that there aren't any frontage roads to be found on their freeways, and very few flyover ramps on the interchanges.

I hate the fact that the old US 65 alignment was mangled between exit 84 and 85 on I-35 in Lakeville. Now it's a built up area where you have to take a pretty lengthy detour if you want to follow surface roads.

[dlsterner]

Anyone have that "box of cables"? I have several small toolboxes (the cheapest plastic ones I can find) of cables sorted as follows:

• NEMA 5-15P to C13 Power Cables (computer-type power cables)
• NEMA 1-15P to IEC C7 2-prong non-polarized power cables
• IEC320 C7 to NEMA 1-15P 2-prong polarized power cables
• NEMA 5-15P to C5 (Mickey Mouse) power cables
• HDMI Cables
• HDMI Adapters (mostly HDMI to miniHDMI)
• Displayport Cables
• Displayport Adapters (mostly Displayport to HDMI)
• miniDisplay (Thunderbolt) Adapters (including to HDMI, DMI, and VGA)
• USB Power Bricks (mostly low-power)

Yes, I have such a box, which seems to be in chronological order ... such as audio cables on the bottom, then a layer of RS-232 cables, a layer of SCSI cables, layer of FireWire, a layer of USB ...

I liken that box to an archeological dig.  The deeper you go the older it is.

[algorerhythms]

Anyone have that "box of cables"? I have several small toolboxes (the cheapest plastic ones I can find) of cables sorted as follows:

• NEMA 5-15P to C13 Power Cables (computer-type power cables)
• NEMA 1-15P to IEC C7 2-prong non-polarized power cables
• IEC320 C7 to NEMA 1-15P 2-prong polarized power cables
• NEMA 5-15P to C5 (Mickey Mouse) power cables
• HDMI Cables
• HDMI Adapters (mostly HDMI to miniHDMI)
• Displayport Cables
• Displayport Adapters (mostly Displayport to HDMI)
• miniDisplay (Thunderbolt) Adapters (including to HDMI, DMI, and VGA)
• USB Power Bricks (mostly low-power)

Yes, I have such a box, which seems to be in chronological order ... such as audio cables on the bottom, then a layer of RS-232 cables, a layer of SCSI cables, layer of FireWire, a layer of USB ...

I liken that box to an archeological dig.  The deeper you go the older it is.

My cable box is so old and tangled, that it was originally used as the Gordian knot.

[J N Winkler]

My cable collection (not really a box) is like Troy after Schliemann finished with it--four or five cities from different eras plus areas of disturbed strata left by desperate searches for something to allow some device or other to connect.

[formulanone]

I always say I'm going to streamline all our unnecessary cables, adapters, and connectors but I usually just find more of it, which leads to me just re-organizing it.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU'LL SAVE THE DAY WITH THAT 60-FOOT RJ-11 CORD

[Poiponen13]

Just I noticed that I have been on this forum longer than kirbykart. I can't believe that.

[ZLoth]

Anyone have that "box of cables"? I have several small toolboxes (the cheapest plastic ones I can find) of cables sorted as follows:

Yes, I have such a box, which seems to be in chronological order ... such as audio cables on the bottom, then a layer of RS-232 cables, a layer of SCSI cables, layer of FireWire, a layer of USB ...

I liken that box to an archeological dig.  The deeper you go the older it is.

9-pin or 25-pin RS-232 connectors? Or some 9-pin to 25-pin adapters? I would have thought they would have gone out of style with Dial-Up Modems, but then some older equipment uses RS-232 as a terminal interface to access the console.

Unfortunately, I did some major purging at the end of 2018 which meant that some of those obsolete cables had to go into electronics recycling. Like I said, some of it was obsolete. While I didn't have any SCSI, I had some IDE cables (long obsolete and replaced with SATA), plus some VGA and DVI cables. Both are very obsolete compared to DisplayPort (highly preferred) and HDMI, thus the dedicated boxes. If I really need one of those obsolete cables, I'm sure I can get it from Amazon.

[Max Rockatansky]

Just I noticed that I have been on this forum longer than kirbykart. I can't believe that.

Sometimes I can't believe you're still here either.

[kkt]

Anyone have that "box of cables"? I have several small toolboxes (the cheapest plastic ones I can find) of cables sorted as follows:

Yes, I have such a box, which seems to be in chronological order ... such as audio cables on the bottom, then a layer of RS-232 cables, a layer of SCSI cables, layer of FireWire, a layer of USB ...

I liken that box to an archeological dig.  The deeper you go the older it is.

9-pin or 25-pin RS-232 connectors? Or some 9-pin to 25-pin adapters? I would have thought they would have gone out of style with Dial-Up Modems, but then some older equipment uses RS-232 as a terminal interface to access the console.

Unfortunately, I did some major purging at the end of 2018 which meant that some of those obsolete cables had to go into electronics recycling. Like I said, some of it was obsolete. While I didn't have any SCSI, I had some IDE cables (long obsolete and replaced with SATA), plus some VGA and DVI cables. Both are very obsolete compared to DisplayPort (highly preferred) and HDMI, thus the dedicated boxes. If I really need one of those obsolete cables, I'm sure I can get it from Amazon.

I've still got some SCSI cables.  I liked their design.  Screw in place, they did not accidentally jiggle loose at the most inconvenient time like USB.

[kphoger]

I'll always keep some composite (3 patch) and component (5 patch) cables.  Whenever we rearrange our entertainment center or buy a new device, I always end up needing one or two A/V cables, so I keep those around to just rip one or two off from the set.

[kphoger]

- What is the greatest goat of all time?

[Max Rockatansky]

You mean excluding Goat Jesus?

[kphoger]

Not necessarily.  Is Jesus the GGOATOAT?

[formulanone]

- What is the greatest goat of all time?

I just like that searching "famous goats" on Google literally supplied me 20 different answers in the first 20 results.

Which means there is a greatest goat of all time and there is no greatest goat of all time.