Some Blog Site

Most car critics judge a car’s quality by the panel gaps. The smaller the gaps, the better the car. My 20-year-old Jeep has no such pretenses. In fact, the headlights were designed with a large gap on purpose – to change the turn signal bulbs, you have to remove a screw and the only way to get to that screw is between the bulb covers.

To those who criticize the build quality of this Jeep, what’s your car going to be doing when it is 20? I don’t care as much about build quality as I do about the design quality. If the vehicle was designed to last, that’s the quality I want. I take build quality out of the equation by buying used cars. If it wasn’t built well, it’s either been repaired or junked after 10 years.

I personally think it is a bad user design have the screw there, but I don’t mind the gaps themselves.

I bought a used lawn mower (Hustler Mini Z zero-turn) when we moved into our new house almost two years ago. Hadn’t talked to the seller since then.

Until just recently.

He called me, out of the blue, and asked if I still had the mower. He regretted selling it and wanted to buy it back. And he was willing to pay what I originally paid.

I wasn’t really that attached to the lawn mower, and this guy did seem to be. There was some suspicion that he knew something I didn’t. Maybe it was a collector’s item and he could sell it for double. Should I keep it and prevent him from profiting? Or should I keep it and deny him the joy of using the lawn mower he wants.

I didn’t have a good reason not to sell it, other than a vague suspicion. So I sold it back to him.

My justification was along the lines of this: if he had approached me two years ago with the proposal that I could borrow a zero-turn mower for almost two years at no cost to me, would I have accepted that offer? Sure would have.

It does feel a little different than that offer, but the basic concept is the same.

My wife’s reaction was “But now you’ll have to go buy another mower.”
My response: “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

So I got a used Worldlawn Viper ZTR. Sounds fancier than it is. It’s slower than the Mini Z was, but it has a wider mowing deck, so the mowing time should even out.

The tires don’t have a good grip (i.e. they slip on the wet grass rather than moving the mower) so I’ll get some new tires with better traction. My plan is to not only get a different tread, but also get a bigger size so the top speed will increase.

What appliances/tools/machines do you have that you wouldn’t sell back for the same price you originally paid?

The worst part of a Slinky is when it gets twisted together. Once the coils get intertwined, I would much rather throw it away than try to get it untwisted. And in the rare case when it does come unstuck, the Slinky is never the same. There’s always a noticeable gap where the metal got bent and can never be put back to its original shape.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I ordered two coil springs for my Jeep and opened the box to find this:

I was glad that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Just a slight tug and they came apart.

My son wrote something on a piece of paper and then showed it to me:

He has a bright future as a EULA writer.

The weather had been iffy, so I decided to check if the game was still on. The organization’s website told me this:

“Updated: Today”

That’s worthless. What if the website guy typed in “Updated: Today” yesterday and never changed it?

That’s one of the more annoying trends in web services: giving the relative time instead of absolute. For example, your inbox says it was updated 3 minutes ago. And it has said that for the last half hour.

Dear user-interface designers: try to give information with absolute times/dates, not relative. That way I know if the information is stale.

In my line of work, I deal with safety systems. There are all sorts of mechanisms for ensuring data is new and correct. I don’t expect rolling counters and checksums, just a normal date and time display. Don’t try to make my life easier by oversimplifying the data – you’re making it worse by making the data unreliable.

I think the current Apple CEO should commission a microwave before he leaves the company, whenever that may be. There is a golden opportunity there.

For example, here is the control panel of a normal microwave.

And here is the control panel of an Apple microwave.

No, I did not change just the logo.

I have no suggestions right now as to what that first button would do, but it would be a way for Mr. Cook to cement his name to remain in the product after he’s gone.

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2016 SFS List of Baby Names that Combine Similar Pronunciations. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2016 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

It was just Mother’s Day, so the SSA released the name rankings for 2016. Last year’s champion, Jackson is again the most popular boy’s name in the US. And it is widening the gap over Aiden – Jackson’s count is going up and Aiden’s count is going down. No controversy for the girls – it’s Sophia again. Her numbers are going back up, but all the top girls’ numbers are going up so that doesn’t mean much.

Some Stats

• There was not a lot of change at the top for the boys. The top 7 names are the same, and in the same order except William and Jacob swapped spots at 6 and 7.
• The top 6 names for the girls are the same as 2014, it’s just Ava and Isabella swapped spots at 4 and 5.
• Noah is once again the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 3.
• Emma is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 3.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (279/1000 vs. 186/1000 alternates)
• Kason took the prize for the most spelling variations for the boys at 8. Last year, Aiden, Kayden, Kason, and Cameron had 7 or more variations, but not this year.
• For the girls, Adaline once again claimed the title of most variations – still at 7.
• Sophia is still the runaway favorite for the girls, but the gap is closing. Sophia is on the decline.

2016 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!