Minor things that bother you

[renegade]

Rule #1: Never give anyone a jump-start.  It's the most direct route to shortening the life of your alternator

Some people put a higher priority on improving the lives of people over the lives of alternators...

When you need to replace one at a most inconvenient time/place/location, and at a cost you really can't afford ... your priorities will shift rather quickly.

... see below:

Yeah, but at the same time, if I were about to leave work and had a dead battery, I asked my coworker for a jump, and he replied, "Nah, I don't give jumps because it's bad for the alternator," and left me stranded, I am going to think he's a douche for the rest of the time I know him.

Two words:  Booster box.   They are way cheaper than a replacement alternator,  and will eliminate the douche factor.

[kenarmy]

People using England, Great Britain, and UK interchangeably.
People thinking Spanish is from Mexico. What????
People pointing out that someone else said the same thing from page 11 of ~50+ page threads in a negative way.

[formulanone]

Two words:  Booster box.   They are way cheaper than a replacement alternator,  and will eliminate the douche factor.

These are fine in places which perform lots of jumpstarts. Car dealerships, used car lots, or towing services and the like.

Otherwise, a typical booster box stays idle for long periods of time and either (1) fizzles out due to a lack of repeated usage (2) stays plugged in constantly and therefore also predictably becomes weaker with age after about 2-3 years. I bought one because I'd leave my car idle in an airport parking lot for a week and stupidly leave a map light on. So I'd charge it every few weeks, leave it in my hatch, and it successfully self-jumped my car and I'm good. By the time I'd needed it again, the power meter was dead after just 4 days of sitting idle in my trunk. After a few weeks, I noticed it couldn't even hold a full charge after unplugging it from an overnight re-charge, figuring it might help my wife out.

I have yet to encounter a failed alternator due to jumpstarting, although if you perform a jumpstart incorrectly, yes you can damage your alternator.

1. attach good battery positive cable clamp to battery post
2. attach bad battery positive cable clamp to battery post
3. attach good negative cable clamp to battery post
4. attach last negative cable clamp to a grounding piece of metal on bad battery car (make sure it's not plastic nor the battery itself)
5. personally avoid coming in direct contact with both vehicles' metal surfaces at the same time (eh, maybe an old wives' tale)
6. idle for 2-3 minutes (revving engine much higher is not necessary)
7. detach cables in reverse order (steps 4,3,2,1)

[JayhawkCO]

Two words:  Booster box.   They are way cheaper than a replacement alternator,  and will eliminate the douche factor.

These are fine in places which perform lots of jumpstarts. Car dealerships, used car lots, or towing services and the like.

Otherwise, a typical booster box stays idle for long periods of time and either (1) fizzles out due to a lack of repeated usage (2) stays plugged in constantly and therefore also predictably becomes weaker with age after about 2-3 years.

I have a little Viking one that I charge up every 3-4 months and take with me when I head into the mountains.  Always does the trick if necessary.

Chris

[Max Rockatansky]

Interestingly we used to have to deal with another type of "booster box"  in retail Loss Prevention.  Essentially it was a container of some kind that was lined with foil which tended to fool older EAS towers.  Some creative female shoplifters even taped the booster box to their inner thighs and would cover it with dresses.  A "booster"  also referred to someone who stole merchandise for resale and profit.

[kphoger]

1. attach good battery positive cable clamp to battery post
2. attach bad battery positive cable clamp to battery post
3. attach good negative cable clamp to battery post
4. attach last negative cable clamp to a grounding piece of metal on bad battery car (make sure it's not plastic nor the battery itself)
5. personally avoid coming in direct contact with both vehicles' metal surfaces at the same time (eh, maybe an old wives' tale)
6. idle for 2-3 minutes (revving engine much higher is not necessary)
7. detach cables in reverse order (steps 4,3,2,1)

For years, I used to just connect to all four battery posts (not using a grounding point on the dead vehicle).  Only recently have I switched away from doing so.  No explosions resulted from my prior method, but ... ummm ... your mileage may vary, I suppose.

And, for what it's worth, I've always heard you're supposed to hook "red to dead" first rather than second.  It probably doesn't matter, but it does save one step of back-and-forth walking compared to your outline.

[J N Winkler]

I think the best protection against being stranded by a dead battery is a friend or family member with a second car.  All of the other approaches have shortcomings:

*  Auto club--Won't respond in remote areas.

*  Rapid charger and extension cord--Doesn't work if the nearest building is too far away or there are no buildings with accessible exterior outlets within range of the cord.

*  Booster box--The problems noted in previous posts are endemic to battery-powered devices.  (I use an air compressor that runs off wall current when I need to adjust tire air pressures.)

*  Jumper cables--If you need a jump, you discover other people's incredible ability to avert their eyes and hurry along:  I've never known conversation even to reach the point of a douchey excuse like "Wish I could oblige, but it might kill my alternator."  More often the person willing to give a jump is on the other side of the parking lot and cannot pull close to your car without blocking in someone else who (of course) shows up and wants to leave right that instant, or simply doesn't have the juice to crank the starter fast enough for the engine to turn over.

Some people adhere to a philosophy of replacing car batteries after a set period of time (say, three winters and two summers) rather than waiting for the installed battery to reach the point where it can no longer start the car reliably.  This sacrifices usable residual life and thus results in higher running costs for periodic battery replacement, but it can save money if, for some reason, it is unusually costly or risky to be stranded.

[MCRoads]

Now that I know this it us super annoying. The longest bridge structure in the US is NOT the Ponchatrain Causeway. It is, in fact, on I-55/I-10/I-310. It is 14 miles longer than the causeway!

Here are the google maps directions for proof:

I-55/I-10/I-310: https://goo.gl/maps/QFbWkzBYkNEBPwq6A
Ponchatrain Causeway: https://goo.gl/maps/vFrEqCenaKwdvPLB6

This bridge structure is 4 miles longer than the longest officially reccognised road bridge, in Bangkok!

The reason it probably isn't counted is that Louisiana considers the I-310, I-10, and I-55 parts separate from each other. We need to rectify this! This extremely niche fact needs to be published!

[webny99]

The reason it probably isn't counted is that Louisiana considers the I-310, I-10, and I-55 parts separate from each other.

If they touch land in between, I would consider them three separate bridges.

[webny99]

Another minor thing that bothers me:

When you have to fill out a Word document and the length of the underlines increases as you type! 

[MCRoads]

The reason it probably isn't counted is that Louisiana considers the I-310, I-10, and I-55 parts separate from each other.

If they touch land in between, I would consider them three separate bridges.

That's the thing though... they don't! You go straight from one bridge onto the next! It is seamless!

[JoePCool14]

Another minor thing that bothers me:

When you have to fill out a Word document and the length of the underlines increases as you type! 

You mean as you're filling in a spot with a blank underline already there? Just delete the underline before typing what you need to add.

[webny99]

Another minor thing that bothers me:

When you have to fill out a Word document and the length of the underlines increases as you type! 

You mean as you're filling in a spot with a blank underline already there? Just delete the underline before typing what you need to add.

Yes, that is what I mean. The only problem is that if it's a form I'm submitting, I'm never sure if it's OK to remove the underline or not.
(I guess it's probably fine and I shouldn't get hung up on something so trivial... but even deleting the underline seems unnecessarily time-consuming.)

[kphoger]

Wow, someone needs to learn how to make a better form.

[webny99]

Wow, someone many companies needs to learn how to make a better form.

FTFY, and I couldn't agree more. Once in a while, I'll encounter a form with proper fillable fields (it is possible, even on Word and I believe also .pdf), but usually, I end up printing the form, filling it out by hand, and scanning it back to myself.

[kphoger]

Wow, someone many companies needs to learn how to make a better form.

FTFY, and I couldn't agree more. Once in a while, I'll encounter a form with proper fillable fields (it is possible, even on Word and I believe also .pdf), but usually, I end up printing the form, filling it out by hand, and scanning it back to myself.

Heck, just use Excel instead.

[webny99]

Wow, someone many companies needs to learn how to make a better form.

FTFY, and I couldn't agree more. Once in a while, I'll encounter a form with proper fillable fields (it is possible, even on Word and I believe also .pdf), but usually, I end up printing the form, filling it out by hand, and scanning it back to myself.

Heck, just use Excel instead.

Actually, now that you mention it, I have seen that occasionally, but not often enough to think about how much better it is than Word. I might even recommend that in the future!

[1995hoo]

People who don't put carts into the corral neatly.  It's amazing how many times I'll put a cart away in one that's "full" but which magically gains room for double the amount of carts when I fix it (yeah, it bothers me so much that I actually take the time to organize them into a row of small carts and a row of big carts).

....

vdeane's presence was needed at the Wegmans near us. "If I just shove harder, the cart will fit!"  (Picture doesn't show the big sign saying to put the small carts on the left and the big carts on the right.)

[interstatefan990]

The fact that there are many millions of miles more road than I will ever be able to explore in my lifetime.

[frankenroad]

Wow, someone many companies needs to learn how to make a better form.

FTFY, and I couldn't agree more. Once in a while, I'll encounter a form with proper fillable fields (it is possible, even on Word and I believe also .pdf), but usually, I end up printing the form, filling it out by hand, and scanning it back to myself.

Heck, just use Excel instead.

Actually, now that you mention it, I have seen that occasionally, but not often enough to think about how much better it is than Word. I might even recommend that in the future!

I frequently develop fillable forms for use at my job - I always use Excel.  It allows free-form as well as drop-downs.  I even mock-up forms in Excel that come to me as paper forms.  It takes a little while to get the spacing and stuff right, but that time is quickly recovered if the form is used frequently.

[US 89]

When you have to poop right after you finish your shower.

[kphoger]

When you have to poop right after you finish your shower.

No doubt!

(Wait a minute...  How do you know when I have to poop?  Or when I finish my shower?)

[zachary_amaryllis]

People who drive honkin' ass big pickups that can't park them, taking up 2 spaces.

similar:
the main drag in town has center-of-street diagonal parking, and often one has to divert around them because they've left the ass (or the front) end hanging out into traffic,

*if you can't park it, you can't drive it*

[kphoger]

People who drive honkin' ass big pickups that can't park them, taking up 2 spaces.

I get the impression that a lot of these folks don't even care that they're taking up two spaces.  They feel entitled to two spaces.

[snowc]

People who don't put carts into the corral neatly.  It's amazing how many times I'll put a cart away in one that's "full" but which magically gains room for double the amount of carts when I fix it (yeah, it bothers me so much that I actually take the time to organize them into a row of small carts and a row of big carts).

....

vdeane's presence was needed at the Wegmans near us. "If I just shove harder, the cart will fit!"  (Picture doesn't show the big sign saying to put the small carts on the left and the big carts on the right.)

wait they have wegmans in virginia?