Quote from Woz :

I get the feel the US market is very different than places like the UK. From what I know a high proportion of cars sold are auto where as most in the UK are manual and TC is far less common or an optional extra.

The NZ market is different again in that most cars we get as most are imports from Japan and most are auto. I laugh at the young hoons in their auto WRX, why get a car like that with a slush box

So true, and so sad.

Quote from Lateralus :

Um, no. That isn't true at all. A thousand million = one billion. A million million = one trillion. This is the case everywhere, except for a few silly places which don't use a base 10 number system.

See exactly how wrong you are here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion

BTW. The UK officially is the larger version but most people now think in the US version. As I said. It depends on what country you are from.

Quote from Woz :

See exactly how wrong you are here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion

BTW. The UK officially is the larger version but most people now think in the US version. As I said. It depends on what country you are from.

What is a billion in Australia lol

Hmm, interesting. I did not know that.

Quote from Lateralus :

Hmm, interesting. I did not know that.

The moral of the story is

Don't tell people what's what if you don't even know what it is yourself.

i know i always get jumbled up with numbers... like when tryed to translate for my parents when we where at the car dealership getting my impreza..

dealer:"so this car is 24 grands..."

me: (in chinese)"this car is worth 24(word for 10 grands)"

my mom*freaks out*:"what?!?! a compact sportscar is 240,000?!?!"

me:"oh, sorry, i ment 2(word for 10 grands) 4 thousand...he he he..."

Quote from JO53PHS :

The moral of the story is

Don't tell people what's what if you don't even know what it is yourself.

Well, in my defense:

Quote :

Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one million million million) - increasingly rare meaning in English language

So he was technically correct, while I was practically correct. So I'd say we tied. If anyone objects, pistols at dawn.

Quote from Lateralus :

Well, in my defense:

So he was technically correct, while I was practically correct. So I'd say we tied. If anyone objects, pistols at dawn.

Actually English is not the main language in the world, probably Chinese but I have no idea what is the correct version there That one matters though as they have a population of over 1 billion

Quote from JO53PHS :

What is a billion in Australia lol

No idea about the West Island as I live in NZ. I know the flags look similar, just that one star difference

TBH, I have no idea about what is the correct version in NZ. Only lived here 3.5 years and never had to use Billion etc in any meaningful way. Here it feels that everything is a mix of UK and US so all bets are off

Anyway. I think that is enough of that interesting sidetrack

Back OT

Quote from Lateralus :

Well, in my defense:

So he was technically correct, while I was practically correct. So I'd say we tied. If anyone objects, pistols at dawn.

I object, so I suppose:

We will start with....

:fence3d:

... which will be followed shortly by.....
:jedi:

...And If we don't come to an agreement then....
:chair:

Beating you to death with a chair is not really what I want to do though

and by the way... AUTOMATIC SPORTSCAR?!?! WHAT THE *****************************************************?!?~ if you are going to get such a nice car such as an impreza, get the maunual, and BTW, they f'd up the semi auto in the WRX

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

Woz, you're doing it again. I think 90% of the people here realized he meant Farenheight

You didn't read my post, did you? I meant °C, i just can't type that symbol on my laptop (for some odd reason ALT codes don't work).

Firstly the car was NOT moving at the time...

Quote from Wiki :

On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49¢ cup of coffee from the drive-thru of a local McDonald's restaurant. Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of her Ford Probe, and her grandson Chris parked the car so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. She placed the coffee cup between her knees and pulled the far side of the lid toward her to remove it. In the process, she spilled the entire cup of coffee on her lap.[7]

Liebeck was wearing cotton sweatpants; they absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin as she sat in the puddle of hot liquid for over 90 seconds, scalding her thighs, buttocks, and groin.[8] Liebeck was taken to the hospital, where it was determined that she had suffered third-degree burns on six percent of her skin and lesser burns over sixteen percent.[9] She remained in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting. Two years of treatment followed.

It does seem that while i was sue it was 180°C, it's Farenheit...

Quote from Wiki :

During the case, Liebeck's attorneys discovered that McDonald's required franchises to serve coffee at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C). At that temperature, the coffee would cause a third-degree burn in two to seven seconds. Stella Liebeck's attorney argued that coffee should never be served hotter than 140 °F (60 °C), and that a number of other establishments served coffee at a substantially lower temperature than McDonald's.

Liebeck's lawyers presented the jury with evidence that 180 °F coffee like that McDonald’s served may produce third-degree burns (where skin grafting is necessary) in about 12 to 15 seconds (as a reference, the boiling point of water is 212 °F or 100 °C). Lowering the temperature to 160 °F (71 °C) would increase the time for the coffee to produce such a burn to 20 seconds. (A British court later rejected this argument as scientifically false.[10]) Liebeck's attorneys argued that these extra seconds could provide adequate time to remove the coffee from exposed skin, thereby preventing many burns. McDonald's reason for serving such hot coffee in its drive-through windows was that, because those who purchased the coffee typically wanted to drive a distance with the coffee, the high initial temperature would keep the coffee hot during the trip.[4]

Also, she didn't ask for the warning (all she wanted was some cash so she could have Skin Grafting that she needed but thanks to the US health care system couldn't afford...)..

Quote from Wiki :

Applying the principles of comparative negligence, the jury found that McDonald's was 80% responsible for the incident and Liebeck was 20% at fault. Though there was a warning on the coffee cup, the jury decided that the warning was neither large enough nor sufficient. They awarded Liebeck £100,000 (US$200,000) in compensatory damages, which was then reduced by 20% to £80,600 ($160,000). In addition, they awarded her £1.36 ($2.7) million in punitive damages. The jurors apparently arrived at this figure from Morgan's suggestion to penalize McDonald's for one or two days worth of coffee revenues, which were about £0.68 ($1.35) million per day.[4]

Wiki Article

Quote from Jakg :

You didn't read my post, did you? I meant °C, i just can't type that symbol on my laptop (for some odd reason ALT codes don't work).

Firstly the car was NOT moving at the time...



It does seem that while i was sue it was 180°C, it's Farenheit...


Also, she didn't ask for the warning (all she wanted was some cash so she could have Skin Grafting that she needed but thanks to the US health care system couldn't afford...)..


Wiki Article

Apparently McDonalds state in their Terms & Conditions that they will sue anyone who thinks their food/company is crap

She's still a daft woman, and sadly she's already had a sprog, which means yet more stupidity entering the world.

If I want coffee (or tea, or hot chocolate) I want it 'fresh from the kettle'. I don't want it pre-cooled down for me. Who wants a cup of coffee at 60°C? Whilst it's not that drinkable closer to boiling, I'd still want it to cool down in my presence, not by some articifical means.

Anyway, the world has gone litigation and politically correct mad. And it's come from the States.

This had been the most balatently off-topic improvement suggestion for a quite a while.

Quote from Jakg :

You didn't read my post, did you? I meant °C

I know - which is why I added that bit at the end about how even if you DID mean C it's irrelevant. I was just getting annoyed at him nitpicking at all these tiny errors in people's posts...

I don't understand why this thread sparks so much discussion and rage. It's completely pointless.

Quote from AndroidXP :

I don't understand why this thread sparks so much discussion and rage. It's completely pointless.

STFU NOOB!!!

Juuuust kiddinggggg

Quote from AndroidXP :

I don't understand why this thread sparks so much discussion and rage. It's completely pointless.

Actually in me it did not spark any rage at all. I actually wrote what I did in a calm calculating state of mind.

The discussion part is easy though. It highlighted differences in the "cultures" present here and thats always interesting. Even when things do get well OT.

It could be that nobody here was angry. Reading back I detect frustration from Stang at what he perceives as nit picking from me, hope I clear that up later

The rest just looked like unguarded words IMHO. Cant see any rage

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

STFU NOOB!!!

Juuuust kiddinggggg

lol

---------------------

Time for some zen shite now


When I write I write very direct. I NEVER sugar cost and I never worry if the words I write might cause offiense if someone reads in the wrong light.

I have lived long enough and in enough different cultures to know I will always find someone that will take offense no matter what I write, say or do no matter how I wrap it for them. That is just the downside of human language and communication.

Unless you can see a face move while talking there is no context

We have all had very different lives and so our perceptions, moralities, views on what is acceptable, right and wrong and are all different. Because of this we all read the same words and pick up a different tone

I am a software developer that spends most of my working life below the user interface level. So for much of my day I deal in very black and white mind states, things like units matter, everything has to be nailed down in meaning 100%.

When context is missing I try and get people to refine their word because english is a VERY imprecise language. Most flame wars start because people have read words in a light they were not meant. When people assume the real fights start

AndroidXP: I raised the coffee issue to highlight why TC is probably far more common in the court happy world of the US than say UK or other countries. We already know its an industry that calcuates the cost of deaths aginst the cost of fixing a car issue.


BTW: I never realised she was the passenger in stopped car. Knowing that now actually makes me feel she was actually even more stupid.

I have only seen one person spill coffee in their lap. I was at a friends, a group of 8-10 of us in the lounge watching TV. One mate all of a sudden jumped up and stripped in great panic with everyone thinking WTF.

We then found he had been sat on sofa with a coffe cup in lap, jumped at the film and emptied the coffee in his lap.

He did not sit there for 90 seconds thinking "hmmm, yep that hurts a lot". It was painful enough that he just stripped in public to get the hot liquid away from his skin. She sat there for 90 seconds in the hot liquid. I can almost hear her thoughts "Aaaaaargh, **** that hurt. What should I do. I know I will just sit here and see if it goes away. Aaaaargh. **** no. Still hurts. Hmmm what should I do. ....." goes on and on lol

i've just read thorugh all this thread and had to go to top of page as i couldn't remember what the blooody suggestion was in the first place !!


re traction / stability control availability, i was amazed to find the other day that the previous model skoda fabia's have one or the other depending on spec. given their power output and their suspension and mechanicals being vw derived i wouldn't have thought they needed it given that an '80s small hatchback with same power and worse tyres / suspension development managed quite well without it.


however i do remember told a true tale about an eldery customer who bought a new 1300 fiesta from our local ford dealer in about 1980, trading in her 1100 mk2 escort. she brought the car back, complaining of a strange noise from the engine when she pulled away, the mechanics couldn't find anything but she insisted it was there so the workshop foreman went in the car with her. everything was ok till she pulled out onto the main road and exclaimed "there's that engine noise! ". actually it was her spinning the inside wheel as she , having being used to rear wheel drive and a badly out of tune 1100cc's "power", droped the clutch at about 6000 rpm.

way off topic :- we had a customer who insisted we changed the rear axle in his cherished cortina estate as the diff was whining, we couldnt hear it ( i should mention there was no radio fitted for reasons which wil become apparent so there was nothing to hide any noise ) but he insisted and provided an axle. a week later he wanted another one fitted as it also had a whine, once again we couldn't hear anything but said we'd do it. the suppliers agreed to provide another unit so we swapped it. a week later and you can guess what he's complaining about. understandably the suppliers didn't want to know and were beginning to question our ability to remeber things like diff oil, he wanted to bring trading standards in and it was all beginning to get messy.

then our YTS lad was moving it and beign a typical 18 year old had a set of earphones in listening (despite being warned not to ) to his walkman and coments on how much interfearence there was from the alternator. the penny began to drop, this old guy had 2 hearing aids so we quickly went well over the top on surpressing every elctrical item we could. we called the axle supplier and trading standards and they all agreed to that we should tell him we'd changed the axle again and see what happened. as predicted the "diff whine" was cured and we had a happy customer.

at times i did feel guilty about him paying for an axle and the labour to fit it but on reflection, we'd told him there was no fault, we'd changed the bloody thing twice, surpressed his car so effectively they probably based the stealth bomber on it and had gone through a month of agro for a job which we'd actually charged less than what we normally would have because of his age and we felt sorry for him.

oh and then the git went and traded it in for a new mondeo saying that he'd only wanted to change the axle so it would be ok for the next owner !!

Quote from tinvek :

oh and then the git went and traded it in for a new mondeo saying that he'd only wanted to change the axle so it would be ok for the next owner !!

Classic. So why didn't you just tell the guy the truth?

Quote from Bob Smith :

Classic. So why didn't you just tell the guy the truth?

Because he paid for the first axle replacement, when that wasn't actually the trouble to begin with... right?

to be honest he was a really nice old guy who thought he was doing the right thing for other future owners and drivers, if he'd said he was going to get rid of it we'd have told him not to bother as the dealer would have fixed it, having said that he wouldn't listen when we told him the axle didn't need changing so probably would still have ha dit done. basically he went awya happy as he'd got the job done and he had the piece of mind that he woulndt leave problems for another person.

the fact he'd turned all of us into nervous wrecks who were thinking of booking in for hearing tests is besides the point

Lol. I remember about 6 months ago, before I correctly wired my car, I had the wires to the outdoor PA speakers mounted in the car running under the dash right next to all sorts of stuff, and I could turn on the speakers and get all kinds of awesome sound effects as I revved the engine due to the interference. Sometimes it just sounded like a huge turbo, and sometimes it sounded like the Batmobile. It was pretty funny.