• hotspur@lemmy.ml
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      7 days ago

      Right, or that back then they just didn’t care if you drank the battery because there wasn’t a hugely well-developed culture of lawsuits like we have now. Those fuckers in 1914-1950 were definitely down for a battery party, no doubt. The ones that made it now think that everyone had common sense because only the ones that did made it through.

  • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Taking away the instructions on how to service and repair a car was a result of capitalists wanting to make more money by forcing you to get your car repaired by them.

    Adding instructions not to drink battery acid is likely for companies to avoid getting sued because people will always argue that there was no warning about drinking battery acid so the company owes you compensation.

    This is a false comparison.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Also helps them get away with hiding shoddy/cheap parts.

      ~2018-2020 Hondas have defective air condensers. They aren’t rated for the refrigerant. They are basically guaranteed to fail. You also have to go to a dealership to get your AC serviced. There’s a warranty for the AC, but it’s that dealer that checks whether your AC meets the warranty or not (amazing how easy it is to find bits of debris and deny the warranty when no third party can double check.)

      You could crack open an original Xbox and do a lot of modifications with it. The Xbox 360 was designed to be as annoying to take apart as possible, possibly to hide the cheap components that lead to the red ring of death…

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 days ago

        The Xbox 360 was designed to be as annoying to take apart as possible, possibly to hide the cheap components that lead to the red ring of death…

        actually, this was probably to fit it into the very weird and particular form factor that microsoft wanted it to fit in.

        The red ring of death issue was actually due to faulty chip manufacturing, rather than bad cooling, it was an inevitable flaw due to manufacturing defects, rather than design failures. The heating and cooling cycles just greatly exaggerated the effect of the problem, that’s why it’s so closely linked.

        Also you could’ve mentioned the update fuses in the CPU, IIRC there are fuses that are blown when the system updates, to prevent you from going back, no matter what you do.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I mean I do agree with you. Planned obsolescence and whatnot is very real.

      But also, fixing a car from 70’s is very different than trying to fix a car from this millenium.

      As technology improves and becomes more detailed, it might also get harder to repair. This isn’t to be taken as a defense of companies which have used planned obsolescence. But even if there was a very user friendly car company, I think it would be more complex to adjust your valves today than it was 30-40 years ago.

  • AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip
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    Our generation has warning labels because their generation actually did it. Buncha lead addled boomers acting like we’re fools for learning from their stupidity.

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    7 days ago

    Who’s job is it to teach common sense? If you find the future generation lacking, that’s probably your fault.

    When I was a teenager, my dad gave me shit for not knowing how to change brake pads, and my response was “Who was supposed to teach me?”. Like, it’s not like I could afford a car working weekends, and he was always too busy to have me around whenever something went wrong. So next time he changed the brakes, he actuality taught me.

    • Riskable@programming.dev
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      7 days ago

      I just want to point something out: Knowing not to drink battery fluid is not common sense!

      Common sense is something that anyone would “just know” by instinct. Like not running out on to a highway with vehicles traveling at high speed. No one needs to teach that because it’s obvious from a glance.

      If someone had never encountered a highway and never heard of such a thing they might wander out onto one when there’s no traffic. Would that be a failing of common sense? No! Because that type of decision-making requires some education/experience.

      Lead tastes sweet! I haven’t tried it (haha) but there’s a reason why loads of children get lead poisoning by eating it every year. If you didn’t know that it’s poisonous and haven’t been educated about not eating/tasting random things you might just try the lead acid of a car battery! Especially if it’s really old and has become less acidic (that’s what sulfation does: Reduces the acidity).

      “Common sense” is actually just a practical form of, “basic education”. Not everyone gets it and everyone always has gaps in their knowledge. What’s common sense to one person isn’t to another.

      TL;DR: Common sense is a myth. We’re all born ignorant.

  • ArgentRaven@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Old cars could actually have their stuff adjusted, though. You’d have to tinker with the carburator if the weather was significantly colder/hotter, etc. to get it to run properly.

    Even cars in the 90s started getting too complex - electronic fuel injection, variable valve timing, and more. There’s no need to adjust the valves because the computer does it, and better than you could.

    • TwentySeven@lemmy.world
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      I wouldn’t say the computer adjusts the valves, variable valve timing serves a completely different function than an old fashioned valve adjustment.

      It’s true that most lifters are hydraulic nowadays, and self-adjust by filling with oil. So your point still stands, it’s just mechanical, not computer controlled.

      My 2017 Honda V6 does require valve adjustments, but I doubt many people actually do it themselves though. And most people probably don’t have it done at all.

      (I’m a hobbyist, not a mechanic, so anyone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)

  • d00ery@lemmy.world
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    many engines do not require this procedure. It depends on whether the engine is equipped with hydro-compensators: these are devices designed for automatic adjustment of the thermal gap. They work at the expense of the oil entering them from the engine (that is why, actually, and are called “hydro-compensators”) and completely exclude the necessity of periodic manual adjustment of valves.

    https://www.bradkimberley.com/valve-adjustment-what-is-it-why-is-it-needed-and-what-happens-if-you-dont-do-it/

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
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      I’ve never met an engine that doesn’t need valve adjustments, even with hydraulic lifters.

      Now the adjustment period is far longer today, like in the 100k miles range.

      Just be glad you rarely see shim/bucket adjustment these days. Boy was that a bitch.

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    I’d make a “print a pdf” joke, but honestly, that’s already an unnecessary “skill”.

    Sadly, technology has moved towards single finger usability and thrown out features in the process. Printing a PDF is now easy, because there’s a big button (that sells you a cloud subscription for some reason), but it’s also the only thing the app does.

      • lunarul@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        That comes out of the box with current versions of Windows. The era of Bullzip PDF Printer is gone.

        • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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          Yet its still a surprise to many. But I suppose that’s a knowledge gap not a skill issue. Now getting younger folks these day to follow a file directory, that’s a true challenge.

    • dx1@lemmy.world
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      PDFs are designed to be printed, that’s why they’re formatted as pages instead of continuous text like HTML. “Portable Document Format”. Unless I’m missing some reference you’re making here.

      • Randelung@lemmy.world
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        The joke to counter “you can’t even write cursive” and other boomer bs is “well at least I know how to print a PDF”, alluding to the abysmal tech intuition of some boomers, usually those in controlling roles like managers or CEOs.