Coincidences

On a slightly-less sad-boy-hours note (and shorter to boot):

Driving my 5G around in the Olympian-esque slop today... have come to find a few more things I really don't understand why they exist in a Toyota, or any marque.

Fair warning: whinging involved. Caveat: I'l try not to repeat a flaw simply because I hate it so much and whinging's the only healthy outlet for me

• size of ICE air filter: this thing has to be replaced about twice a year here (high amts of damaging Fe₂O₃ whipped into the air by prevailing winds) and even earlier when driven in rain, due to moisture finding that dirt and moulds / mildews growing and blocking flow). And old Local adage says if you stick a broom handle in the ground here it'll sprout branches... so moulds esp go off during rain, making even expat Seattleites miserable and coughing. Some of this can always be mitigated by just using more filter media; may not even cause the OEM filter diameter to increase, just the size of its pleats. Nope -- $35 every time... which used to be the cost for two NAPA filters when I'd first moved back. Don't want to ask what the price of OEM cabin air filters are

• non-quickness of steering rack: My old jalopy Honda's was just under 2.5 turns LTL, but then bought the 10th-gen Honda which had a fully-electric and much quicker rack with a 2.2:1 ratio -- loved that. Parking wheels on a dime where I wanted them (marked on my parking space) was intuitive and consistent. But this 5G seems to have a slower ratio than the old Honda (2.7 LTL)... which makes parking pretty labour-intensive as I need often 2 tries to put wheels exactly where desired. Combo of the hi-pro but narrow-width 60-series tires, which also don't exert as much turning force against the ground at parking speeds. Seriously dislike taking two tries to park my own car in my own space, when in the last Honda could pull in & hit marks first-try every time

• what, the rear door switches again...?: Toyota's inability to resolve 5G rear door switch circuit problems, is not only uncharacteristic of the company ime... but expensive as well. Apparently the body shop didn't procure the recall part (an extra piece of loom) to install whilst new door were being assembled / installed... so have to schedule a separate appt, on my time, to both get the 20K svc and this recall done, meaning some kid has to disassemble the door again to put it in. Gonna wait until the paint's fully cured and hardened first, which means both these svcs have to wait another week at least

• who designed this wiper system?: Very much dislike that at my height... the Lamborghini windshield rake puts the top of the A-pillar very close to my head -- which of course increases its perceived size. Then Toyota greenlights a wiper mechanism that stops the L wiper, 1.5" away from the edge of the windshield, increasing width of said A-pillar by not being able to clear an area that wiper shoves all its grit and debris to. Not a problem on a more formally-angled screen. Of course wasn't until had to use wipers everyday for the whole drive this became obvious... but probably has something to do w/ Akio's desire to put design and sporting hard parts above milquetoast competence and user-friendliness. You want easy-to-see-out-of, futurist...? Buy a Camry or RAV4 so we can profit too, then. I tried, Toyota... but you made the new HEV Camry nearly as big as a '07 Avalon... and the lightest ICE-only RAV4 (ehhht) is just as wide and exactly as heavy as the most optioned-out 5G AWD (both ~3400 lbs). No could do, gentlemen -- 5G LE FWD is 3100 lbs, a class down in size and weight and much-better-handling than either HEV Camry and defo RAV4 HEV, the only one I'd even consider

/whinge OFF

/sulk ON

 

Kinda weird if calm sloppy morning today.

• saw a Hyundai Kona, brand-new one, with 'O N A' on the rear hatch. Now, I d unno if these are still dealer-installed prep things for K-cars (SK, not Chrysler, for you fogey gearheads)... but rather embarrassing to see that, on a '25 or '26 model, in the rain. If there's any one of those letters I'd not want falling off as a devotee to Korean cars... it's that one

full disclosure, have nothing against SK culture or exports like K-pop, K-dramas and K-beauty -- am even a subscriber to a few of their variety shows and learning Korean in prep for a possible holiday there -- which 15y ago wasn't going to happen vs. J- alternatives... plus prior to doing some research, was even considering a Soul EV. But SK cars are just not made to quite the std top JDM ones are, re: reliability / durability. At least not Toyota, tho SK's burying us feature- & EV-wise. Don't plan to shop K-car stores until they care more about stranding, as their ICEs still get recalled for stuff like preemie bearing wear and galling in VVT actuators and other non-babbit, machined bearing surfaces. Even their EVs have detractors for lack of transparency about svc life of their batteries and why older models don't get s/w updates new ones have OEM. Then there're factors grueling SK workplace culture enforces that causes problems for the customer, like making line workers work to near-exhaustion, where they make more mistakes. Love K-stuff but indefinite hold on autos I need to depend on, from that otherwise magical place.​

• usually Tues are the rush-around day of the week (along w/ Thu), but today was oddly serene. Very light traffic from upcountry, which is where a bunch of the traffic comes from -- could be from flooding still affecting those comm'ys. Man, compared to living on the Kitsap Peninsula in WA... I'd literally be thumping 50 mph betw a half-mile of 40m trees in the backroads to the highway, then 60 mph in an inch of water, raining so hard the noise of drops hitting my visor'd hurt my ears thru earplugs. And nothing washing away, just torrential flooding on the day then 2d of draining. Here, things don't have bedrock to flow thru, only a loosely-bound jumble of volcano-thrown basalt boulders -- takes millions of years to metamorphose into bedrock -- so every layer the water cuts through, eventually ends up in the ocean, or begins to roll like a stack of marbles. What a mess...

• do love the lack of splatter on the car, not having washed several weeks now. Detail at the body shop and being inside did help... but am surrounded by Altimas and Sonatas on this commute, looking like they just qualified for a WRC Safari Rally stage How about you tweakers just slow down and stop tailgating and pounding through puddles w/o thinking maybe? Splashing thru mud, guess you'll FAFO why you shouldn't do that -- mud likes to harden into adhesive clay, when exposed to 210F radiator vanes

• have been doing the 'tap brakes whenever I see a yellow light turn up ahead' and 'tap brakes when I see a red at the faraway light once I crest the hill blocking it', at least 4y now... and seems more and more people are also doing same, which is nice. Caveat, they're doing it in rainy conditions, which should be all the time... but'll take the win. Just makes sense and drops the temp on red mist quite a bit, when people can stop driving like kids and save bother stopping and accelerating again. Just need to lead by example

• and yes, the team at the window at the corporate SB, I'm forced to go sans Target kiosk, has finally figured out how to make my drink as desired, good job team Guess the longer line every morning served the memo? That's what I'm hoping

 

Welp, the coincidence today isn't so much something from the table, but from the machine used to look up things during sessions.

My OS recently had a middling-important upgrade, mostly to include another one of its machine lineups. No problem there. However, a variety of users apparently hated it, for all kinds of odd bugs during the upgrade. Not being one of these, vented collar and carried on.

Wasn't until certain odd bugs began to roost in my own machine (mind you, not the same as read about in higher-specs), that I began to seek why -- and turns out the solution was simply shut down and restart, rather than reboot. Can't hate that... and did seem to fix the issues, boom-juice

Bringing up my settings... found the OS version had incremented to an odd "( )" version number, which I'd never seen before in any update. Hmm -- okay, never seen the OS update itself w/o my say... so was treated as a hi-pri security patch instead? Couldn't find much about why this was done, or if restricted to my vintage of machine. But things worked, so head down

Until yesterday, when yet another update notification glowed on-screen. Different version number, more important. Security upgrades mostly. Okay, well better bung 'em in...

So... owned more machines than I can remember, with this OS (since late '90s). Ups and downs defo, and the world's familiar with why, so not beating that horse. But strangely first time ever installing an update, frustrating to this level.

Used to work in the cube-farm trenches of IT for a very rich but shite employer (not sure those two aspects aren't mutually-exclusive)... so whilst not a power user (can't afford to, tbbh), am Pavlov-familiar with Tier-1-level problem solving. And the way this update behaved, should be a model for how not to issue a so-called update to your teeming ecosystem masses.

Everything about updates on this machine for literally decades, has been tick-tock-reliable. Just enable the process, reboot to let the machine wake up in its new clothes, carry on. Started out that way this time too... but with a few concerning signs things weren't the usual swan above water...

First, the download didn't fully complete, before commencing to put all its install ducks in a row -- never happened in 25y, not once. Then during that phase, wait time went from 30 mins to 5, in maybe 1 min? Recent major versions of the OS seemed faster at this, so thought were just another evolution. But then read '5 mins' before installing... 5 mins goes by, then 10, 15 and 20. The timer on the update process's never been this inaccurate... so cancelled the update and did some reading.

Similar users (updating from the same "( )" version) had waited hours before seeing an error msg and code. Like that code's gonna solve anything for anyone sub-developer on the totem pole. Also, "( )" seemed to be the only users who'd been waiting this long, most cancelling and letting the power-user initial-adopter cadre light up the company to this issue.

Hmm. So in prep for the obvi T1 questions anyone with any authority* on forums will robotically ask... made good the wait by looking into whether anything I did or configured w/ my setup, caused my hand not to be blocking the two fingers yoinking for my eye sockets

OS security, fine -- well duh, that's what an OEM's update better know how to navigate and dance past. Malware apps, couple of dodgy settings, so disabled and set aside. No diff, still hung up at exactly the same pothole. Tried safe mode and disk debug, nada. Tried shutting down and resurrecting right into the update, same-same. Did a variety of smol things better left to your imagination, nope.

The only thing left, was the router and its security. Non-intuitive, as no other OS updates have even batted an eye at the router's own security in more than a year. But why not, nothing else's working, time to peel stuff off the wall.

Found one toggle that for some reason, glared at me Oh fine, I'll turn you off. Saved and got out of the router's head.

Tried yet again (seventh time now). Yup -- hung at exactly the same spot, 5 mins neé 20. But to see a bit under the hood what were happening, brought up the task mgr. Now could see the process for the update were consuming as much as 250% CPU, then resting, then faffing again, in roughly 45 sec intervals. The hell...?

But wasn't until the task's time-in-thread were almost 15 mins, that something odd happened: the update took, and rebooted into the new version. As if nothing were wrong

Sieeeu not sure what the f***. What g oddamned veneer-wearing dev mgr at the mothership greenlit an update that says to wait 5 mins for the install prep, then actually takes 15 to begin installing, not a whit of notice why to the user? And why did that one router OS toggle, make that wait indefinite? 'Oh yeah, no one'll mind waiting 20 mins, 60 mins, however long -- they'll get it if something's wrong and cancel, then check their own sh*t'. Well, douchenozzle in your corner office, *I* f***ing mind, your customer who spent a couple grand on your machine and thus your finance-urchin-in-a-Model-S mgmt style

Looking at what that toggle did, not sure how it looped the update into oblivion... but disabling did get the update to take, despite still not being anywhere near 5 mins wait -- how the hell do you expect users not to cancel before it takes?. The download's never jumped to install prep with >1G of it left in the pipe either, at least displayed as such. Someone in charge at the mothership w/ OS development, needs to decrement their med pot scrip down a couple notches -- pretty sloppy

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* or arrogance, academic difference w/ tech types tbh. Am reminded of incel Roddy Ho on Slow Horses

 

Okay simpler (shorter) one today...

So the term ALICE has meant a few things in my time -- ALICE is a type of LBE (Load-Bearing Equipment) spec on US Army personal combat gear, standing for All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment. Its replacement may be more recognisable to those not scraping the rind of grandpa-age (or maybe you're already, hey ubu): MOLLE. Funny how US Army personal gear systems sound like girl's names 50y now*

The name Alice also refers to Alice (Wonderland) for symptoms related to anticholinergic toxidrome (symptoms of poisoning)... a deep-cut note in my reference notebook I'd not looked at p rolly 10y before researching this post : hot as a desert (hyperthermia), red as a beet (erythema, or flushing), dry as a bone (dry mouth, urinary retention), blind as a bat (mydriasis or dilated pupils), and mad as a hatter (delirium). Not to be confused w/ diagnosing Alice In Wonderland Syndrome, which is psychology.

Lastly in financial terms, ALICE means Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed -- 60% of Maui residents and 45% of state, including myself. We get sh*t on because we're employed so don't qualify for aid in state of but cannot travel due to low pay for overhead and no time off, & limited college or continuing professional education for same. Had one planned vacation >1wk, in the past 30y. Even in the grind of mil, got 2 wks / yr guaranteed. Coped in the WA era by racing and roadtripping on weekend / long weekend... which were barely compensated for by admittedly-high-for single-dude, near-6-figure paycheck... which shows exactly where we are in society, if this were the case 20y ago...

So, were online yesterday relaxing after the usual hamster-wheel busy-work post-client... and saw the ALICE financial term pop up in my YT suggestions. Oh hits home I thought... esp given some Maui residents who actually lost homes in the '23 fires, just had their brand-new homes flooded by insufficient margins of error designed to cache some of the storm above their comm'ys -- still raining out there a month later... so yet again, someone effed up royally, trying to ramrod certs thru. Sounds familiar, which is pathetic.

Then woke up today, to watch a quick suggested Seth Meyers 'view w/ Eisa Gonzalez... and saw the name of the movie she was promoting: Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice.

Alice is a feminine name meaning 'noble', from Germanic Adalheidis --> Old French Adelais (also related to Adelaide) --> Aalis --> Alice.

Wonder what that all means for today

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* not including the also-long-lived IIFS system from '88 - '01, as that were more modernised ALICE than its own system. Plastics made components a lot cheaper to fab and evolve, plus were lighter and didn't make as much noise as metal clips and buttons