Technology

[BradC]

So I'm currently in a 737 at about 32,000ft half way between Canberra and Perth posting on AULRO, watching Supercars on the Foxtel app (in SD admittedly) and messaging my wife.

i know the chain of technology required to make all this work, but it still astonishes me. Mind you I'd hate to see the bandwidth bill for this flight,

[Fattima]

I know what you mean. A few years back I was on a high speed ferry between Hong Kong and Macau and bidding on a car in Australia.
I remember stopping and thinking, wow I'm living in a science fiction movie.

[Tins]

I recall hearing that there had been possible Australian casualties in Iraq in 2007. My son was in theatre at that time. It took a couple of days to know that he was fine. The phone line we were given when he deployed told us that we would be told before anyone else was a comfort I guess. I had comms in a way at that time.

Supercars? Astonishing what we take for granted these days.

I mean no disrespect.

[BradC]

I recall hearing that there had been possible Australian casualties in Iraq in 2007. My son was in theatre at that time. It took a couple of days to know that he was fine. The phone line we were given when he deployed told us that we would be told before anyone else was a comfort I guess. I had comms in a way at that time.

Supercars? Astonishing what we take for granted these days.

I mean no disrespect.

None taken, and believe me I'm astonished rather than taking this for granted.

In her lifetime my great grandmother went from "dates with boys" who came to pick her up in the horse and cart, to seeing a man walk on the moon to taking a 747 to Disneyland for her 80th birthday.

I'm just wondering the level of progress I'll see in what remains of my lifetime compared to what she saw over hers.

I can't eveimagine what you went through in 2007. Having better Comms probably would not have made it much better, nor easier.

I spend my life inside technology (when I'm not under my cursed D3), and I know intimately how it all works, but sometimes I still take a step back and look at it from a different perspective and I'm just amazed at what we have.

[ATH]

To me the improvement in communications is the most amazing. When we first came to Oz from the UK we had to book a phone call but now you can just dial and you're there.
Likewise when I worked in the bush when we reached a phone after an hours drive through some very rough "roads" we had to wind the handle to get the operator, tell her the number we wanted and they would connect you after verifying with the number that reversing the charge was OK.
I worked in Telfer back in around 1981 and we had to line up to use the one and only phone and the worst thing was if one of the wimmin on site got there before you...... her Mum worked for Telstra and they would gob off for bloody hours free while us lot who wanted to chat with the wife and kids waited and waited..... if anybody had murdered the her I reckon we'd have all cheered them. Only joking. She was a nice girl apart from that :)
That wasn't really that long ago maybe early 80s. Incredible stuff advances now.
AlanH.

PS. There was no TV to our camp back then either until they put in a satellite dish and that ruined our social life up the pub....... just a bit anyway. :)

[JDNSW]

There have been some recent advances, certainly, but I have to query the assumption that advances in recent years have been faster and more important than in other eras.

Just to quote a few -

In 1871 the fastest a message could be sent from London to Adelaide (or the reverse) was about a month; in October 1872, it was about four minutes.

In 1906 my mother saw her first motorcar, in what is now inner Sydney. She saw men walking on the moon in 1969.

In 1913 my father saw flying one of the first aeroplanes in Australia near Penrith. In 1943 he was an air raid warden at North Rocks, near Parramatta, and was employed building aeroplane engines for warplanes. He made some of the tooling for the first gas turbine engines made in Australia. He lived to see men on the moon, and supersonic flight.

While I was at primary school, we heard about the new ball point pens. They were forbidden, as leading to poor writing style.

When I started my first full time job, my job title was "Computer" - and that is what I did; calculations with pencil and paper. I had actually seen a real computer a year or two earlier; Sydney University had just switched on 'Silliac' while I was there. At the time, one of about two or three computers in Australia. It occupied several rooms, and had a mean time between valve failures of about fourteen hours. Input and output was by punched paper tape.

When I first started actually using a computer in 1973 in Melbourne, it occupied almost a complete floor of the office building, and worked on punch cards. By 1987 I owned my first PC (gave it to a collector a few years ago!).

[DiscoMick]

Reminds me of the time I was in a remote village up the side of a mountain in Burma, four hours by 4wd from the regional capital. I noticed I had mobile reception so decided to take a photo to text home. Then I noticed I had Wi-Fi! The village council had put on free Wi-Fi. So I took a photo of a buffalo looking in a church window and immediately sent it home. Amazing.
Even the beggars have mobiles.

[V8Ian]

Air in tyres! Whatever next? Gears that change themselves?

[PhilipA]

OK my most enduring memory of this type of thing is talking 50 years ago to my mother's governess.

She remembered the Kanakas in the canefields near where she lived in Howard and the building of the railways, the coming of electricity. After her coal miner husband died she as penance never listened to a radio again.
Talking of communications I recall as a very young child being driven by my dad in our 36 Studebaker to Bundaberg. The road was dirt between the canefields. So even in the 50s there was no bitumen road from Brisbane to Bundaberg.
Regards Philip A

[DiscoMick]

I remember when as a child our house first got electricity, in the 1950s. Does that count?

[loanrangie]

I remember when as a child our house first got electricity, in the 1950s. Does that count?No just makes you old [emoji12]

[JDNSW]

Talking of Electricity etc - it was only long after both my parents were dead that I realised both of them grew up, and went through their entire education including university, without ever living in a house with electricity. In Sydney, the largest city in Australia, this only became normal in about 1930. Few realise that although WW1 was the first major war where motor transport was a major tool, few even major cities had electric power except in special locations.

Going back to my own youth, although I grew up with power and water in our home, I remember when we got our first refrigerator - and the fact that nobody else in my class at school had one (late 1940s).

Technology has grown steadily throughout my life, and I find it difficult to say any period has shown faster change. Just to list a few 'new' things that have become household items in my lifetime (not their first appearance, but when they became commonplace in Australia):-

1940s; antibiotics, refrigerators, microgroove records, radiograms

1950s; car ownership, home telephones, television (1956), rural electricity distribution, decline of long distance train travel (replaced by cars), airconditioning in theatres and a few major shops, Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne now all sealed, mainframe computers start to be used commercially, electric train networks start to expand

1960s; air travel starts to replace long distance train travel and overseas travel by ship, portable radios, subscriber dialled long distance phone calls, automatic transmissions became available in popular cars, fax machines begin to replace telex, Australian oil production starts, steam trains fade out (replaced by diesel and electric), trams disappear in many places, standard gauge rail Sydney-Melbourne

1970s; First portable music devices (using cassettes), personal computers appear in businesses, air travel becomes cheaper on major routes with larger aircraft, disc brakes on popular cars, FM radio, last manual telephone exchange in Australia replaced, telegrams fade into history, diesel power becomes common in four wheel drives and light trucks, and starts to appear in cars, first oil crisis, standard gauge railway Sydney-Perth

1980s; Home computers (still rare), colour television, first mobile phones appear

1990s; internet becomes available to home users, first flat screen TV, solar power starting to appear on houses,

2000s; internet becomes widely used, mobile phones go from an expensive luxury to commonplace,

[austastar]

Hi,
My mother grew up in a farm house where the lighting was shellite, piped and pressurised to fixed lamps running silk mantels.
She could also name every piece of harness on a working horse, and rode one from the farm to the school bus when the drive was too boggy for the Tin Lizzy.
Cheers

[DiscoMick]

I remember kerosene fridges and lights, a hand-operated washing machine and we had a manual telephone exchange connecting the neighbours.
A grocery truck did the rounds on Wednesdays.
I am a senior citizen now. I worked out yesterday I am the oldest of 170 people at my work. In 2 weeks I'm presenting at a conference where I expect to be the oldest of 700 people. Definitely time to retire.

[Bigbjorn]

My mother's parents were born in 1870 and 1871. They lived virtually all their lives in the outback. Bourke, Hungerford, Charleville, Winton. They would tell about what a cause for celebration was the opening of the rail-line to their town. A bridge over the local river was often an election issue and cause for a grand opening party. The western highways and the Bruce Highway were not fully sealed until well into my working life. Around Winton - Longreach - Boulia not until 1988!!!!

Some of the stations on our mail runs had acetylene lighting systems. We often carried a drum of carbide on the mail trucks. Most though used kerosene lanterns and pressure lanterns. Some had electric lights from a battery bank. These usually had a small engine generator to charge the batteries. Most had a big console radio run from a large wet cell battery. When the battery was getting low it would go into town on the mail truck to be charged at the ice works and returned. Everybody, and I mean everybody listened to the ABC News and set their watches and clocks by the ABC time signal at the start of the News fanfare.

In the late 1940's we lived for a time at the bottom end of New Farm. There were 26 houses in the street. I had to count them for a school project on where I lived. Four had motor cars, two Vanguards, a 1936 Hupmobile, and a pre-war Vauxhall converted into a builders ute. The same number of telephones. When a near neighbour got a washing machine I think every woman in the street went to look. Washing was done in a copper often wood fired out in the back yard. Flash people had a gas copper under the house. Most had ice chests and fridges did not become common until the end of the 50's. There were street lights at tram stops and intersections and none in between.

[rick130]

Actually Bundarra in NSW had the last manual telephone exchange in the 80's!
Friends had a property about 15km out of town, we'd have to crank the handle on the phone to ring the exchange and get a line out.
It would've been the mid eighties it was finally replaced.

[speleomike]

Actually Bundarra in NSW had the last manual telephone exchange in the 80's!
Friends had a property about 15km out of town, we'd have to crank the handle on the phone to ring the exchange and get a line out.
It would've been the mid eighties it was finally replaced.

Probably more reliable than the NBN :-)

[Aaron IIA]

I remember kerosene fridges and lights

I still have two kerosene fridges. They get lit when we have lots of friends come around. Gas absorption fridges are still common.

Aaron

[Bigbjorn]

Talking of Electricity etc - it was only long after both my parents were dead that I realised both of them grew up, and went through their entire education including university, without ever living in a house with electricity. In Sydney, the largest city in Australia, this only became normal in about 1930. Few realise that although WW1 was the first major war where motor transport was a major tool, few even major cities had electric power except in special locations.

Going back to my own youth, although I grew up with power and water in our home, I remember when we got our first refrigerator - and the fact that nobody else in my class at school had one (late 1940s).

Technology has grown steadily throughout my life, and I find it difficult to say any period has shown faster change. Just to list a few 'new' things that have become household items in my lifetime (not their first appearance, but when they became commonplace in Australia):-

1940s; antibiotics, refrigerators, microgroove records, radiograms

1950s; car ownership, home telephones, television (1956), rural electricity distribution, decline of long distance train travel (replaced by cars), airconditioning in theatres and a few major shops, Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne now all sealed, mainframe computers start to be used commercially, electric train networks start to expand

1960s; air travel starts to replace long distance train travel and overseas travel by ship, portable radios, subscriber dialled long distance phone calls, automatic transmissions became available in popular cars, fax machines begin to replace telex, Australian oil production starts, steam trains fade out (replaced by diesel and electric), trams disappear in many places, standard gauge rail Sydney-Melbourne

1970s; First portable music devices (using cassettes), personal computers appear in businesses, air travel becomes cheaper on major routes with larger aircraft, disc brakes on popular cars, FM radio, last manual telephone exchange in Australia replaced, telegrams fade into history, diesel power becomes common in four wheel drives and light trucks, and starts to appear in cars, first oil crisis, standard gauge railway Sydney-Perth

1980s; Home computers (still rare), colour television, first mobile phones appear

1990s; internet becomes available to home users, first flat screen TV, solar power starting to appear on houses,

2000s; internet becomes widely used, mobile phones go from an expensive luxury to commonplace,

I briefly worked for the AGL Coy in Sydney. 1960's. They had over 3000 staff at around 25 centres. The only building with air conditioning was three floors of one in Haymarket where the mainframe computer was. The computer had its own electricity sub-station and an engineering staff to maintain it. It was used solely for customer accounts, around 300,000 every quarter and probably had less capacity than a modern laptop.

When I first started at Social Security any client who was found to have a mobile 'phone or answering machine would get a visit from a field officer. These items were not only too expensive for an unemployed person to buy but were considered business equipment and begged the question was the client really unemployed.

[JDNSW]

Actually Bundarra in NSW had the last manual telephone exchange in the 80's!
Friends had a property about 15km out of town, we'd have to crank the handle on the phone to ring the exchange and get a line out.
It would've been the mid eighties it was finally replaced.

I thought it was the 1970s, but I could be confusing it with when my sister's phone became automatic - she was on a party line.

[JDNSW]

.....
In the late 1940's we lived for a time at the bottom end of New Farm. There were 26 houses in the street. I had to count them for a school project on where I lived. Four had motor cars, two Vanguards, a 1936 Hupmobile, and a pre-war Vauxhall converted into a builders ute. The same number of telephones. When a near neighbour got a washing machine I think every woman in the street went to look. Washing was done in a copper often wood fired out in the back yard. Flash people had a gas copper under the house. Most had ice chests and fridges did not become common until the end of the 50's. There were street lights at tram stops and intersections and none in between.

In the late 1940s the street I lived in (now suburban Sydney, but pretty rural then) had five houses. Three had cars - a 1923 Ford T, a 1928 Chevrolet 6, and I can't remember the other one, but from the styling, was also 1920s. Relatives that visited us by car had a 1926 Morris Cowley, a mid twenties Rover 9, and a mid twenties Austin Seven. But most visitors arrived by bus, even though it was a good walk to the bus stop.

Very few in Australia could get hold of post-war cars until the very end off the 1940s, and prewar cars remained common well into the 1960s. My best highschool friend was driving a 1934 Ford V8 in 1961 - I remember borrowing it; went like a rocket (for the day), but you needed to plan stops well in advance! Fun in city traffic (I drove it into downtown Sydney).

[jonesfam]

"Tell that to kids today & they won't believe ya!"

[PhilipA]

if you are talking computers, I was involved with them early on in Ford. I also did a programming course at Qld Uni in the early 70s. My first experience was with dealer stock printouts on a desk in Qld regional office .
I would take calls from dealers looking for particular specs and direct thenm to other dealers who had stock and also write SIDOs for build.
In about 1970 I was posted to Brisbane plant as the Sales company rep who took the orders(called SIDOs) and scheduled them into production.
IBM cards were punched by operators and to sort them you had to use a giant sorting machine which read them by individual number like a Friden, by say the first digit, then the second and so on.
Copies of the punch cards accompanied the cars along the production line and at each station eg body shop, trim line, Final assembly, rectification the punch card would be entered into the system.

When I later went to Broadmeadows, the computer was a Burroughs 4700 with 64K of memory.
There were 22 input operators in a room at Broadmeadows Plant which housed the mainframe and about 12-16 big Mercury reel to reel tape machines. By this time there was punch tape for production which accompanied the car along the line.

I was the user representative for an enhanced system being introduced and the programmer and I used to go in on the weekend and do dummy runs . It was special being in the room and switching the whole thing on and seeing it come to life. We would then put dummy cars in the system with different conditions , options etc to see if exclusions worked and ascertain any programming loops.
There was a strike at Broadmeadows in about 1975 and the strikers rioted and tried to break into the computer room to disable the machine and cripple the company.
You can now do all that on a watch.
Regards Philip A

[JDNSW]

Interesting commentary on technology I got in an email from my brother this morning:-

"
When we were small, some cars did not have ignition keys, and some did
not even have a self starter.

As we got older, cars always had ignition keys and a separate starter
button.

Then for many years all (or almost all) cars had a single keyed switch
which both turned the ignition on and off, and operated the starter.

In recent times, some car makers have started keyless systems, where
the car is unlocked or locked, and the engine started or stopped, with
a remote control.

So far this year in the U.S., 36 people have died from carbon monoxide
poisoning when they have driven into an attached garage, closed the
garage door, and gone to bed. Forgetting to stop the engine."

[DiscoMick]

When I started in newspapers the printing presses were hot metal. That's how old I am.

[PhilipA]

When I started in newspapers the printing presses were hot metal. That's how old I am

A few years ago I went to Chillagoe where they had restored a linotype machine.
I was amazed at the complexity and the close tolerances of the machine.
Remember that in 1892 there were no standardized threads but the machine had hundreds if not thousands of screws/nuts and bolts etc.
It was a great reminder that technology existed before computers.
Regards Philip A

[JDNSW]

..... Washing was done in a copper often wood fired out in the back yard. Flash people had a gas copper under the house. ......

Up to about when I was 14, the people next door had a wood fired copper that was actually built into the laundry (roof but no wall) at the back of the house. It had a bench next to it for sorting clothes. When I was about ten, their toddler, Frank, climbed onto the bench while his mother had gone into the house to get another basket of clothes, and sat on the edge of the bench to lower his feet into the copper. He recovered after a few months.

That family seemed to be a bit accident prone with the kids. When I was very small, the father was cutting hay with a horse drawn mower - one of those with an arm about four feet long with reciprocating blades - and their oldest son Spencer (about 5) was running along behind. When they turned the corner at the edge of the paddock, the cutter bar swung backwards. The kid hopped over it as it came back, but it got him on the back of the heel as the mower straightened up. Fortunately cut below the heel bone, leaving his heel pad a flap attached at the front. Again, he recovered, and there was no sign of it by the time I was old enough to notice. But he disdained the "little boys", so we played with the middle son (Tony), who was about a year younger - and disdained playing with Frank!

[Bigbjorn]

A few years ago I went to Chillagoe where they had restored a linotype machine.
I was amazed at the complexity and the close tolerances of the machine.
Remember that in 1892 there were no standardized threads but the machine had hundreds if not thousands of screws/nuts and bolts etc.
It was a great reminder that technology existed before computers.
Regards Philip A

In the 1960's I was in a share house with a guy who was a linotype operator. I was a tradesman fitter and turner and earning what I thought was a decent wage. I was stunned to see what the lino guy was paid and he said he could get a lot more if he got on with one of the newspapers setting classified on piecework. Jobs that were tightly held and kept within the newspaper chapels. He worked for a Greek printer in Darlinghurst and set the English language type. He told me he did a six year apprenticeship, 12,000 hours, and had to have a good Senior English pass to be taken on.

There were some amazingly skilled trades in printing. All disappeared within a few short years with computerised technology.

[ramblingboy42]

I thought it was the 1970s, but I could be confusing it with when my sister's phone became automatic - she was on a party line.

you may be right , I definitely know that party lines were still the go in the 70's in western NSW.

in 1975 I still had to book a trunk call to talk to Darwin from Broken Hill so I'm assuming manual exchange(s).....Darwin had just been mauled by Tracy so it might have been anything available.

btw, I had a gma(in law) in Caboolture was born in the 19th century and died in the 21st.....she could tell you story or two about technology on the farm.

[JDNSW]

Having to book a trunk call does not mean that the exchange is manual - could be just the trunk calls.

[rick130]

In the 1960's I was in a share house with a guy who was a linotype operator. I was a tradesman fitter and turner and earning what I thought was a decent wage. I was stunned to see what the lino guy was paid and he said he could get a lot more if he got on with one of the newspapers setting classified on piecework. Jobs that were tightly held and kept within the newspaper chapels. He worked for a Greek printer in Darlinghurst and set the English language type. He told me he did a six year apprenticeship, 12,000 hours, and had to have a good Senior English pass to be taken on.

There were some amazingly skilled trades in printing. All disappeared within a few short years with computerised technology.

I think we all tend to forget about how many trades, skills and jobs have already been lost already to the march of technology.
Change is something none of us can avoid.

[Saitch]

I have been able to watch my nephew play in the QISSRL competition in Bundaberg via "Streaming".
It is the Qld Independent Secondary Schools Rugby League comp. Good entertainment with around 40 schools participating. Some good players there!

[Tote]

Re Manual exchanges, we moved from Newbridge to Molong in 1979 and went from a dedicated number (newbridge 43) and underground cables to a party line facilitated by two wires strung on trees and the occasional telephone post that serviced 3 farms. It mostly worked when it wasn't raining. This was all replaced by about mid 1979 by newly laid underground cables and automatic phones, Newbridge was manual by the end of the year.
The exchange at Newbridge had 3 lines to the outside world, sometimes if you wanted to place a call outside of the exchange area you had to dial the exchange and they would call back when they had a free line.
Wanaaring was the last manual exchange in Australia, I used to stay at the pub when servicing the school out there and most times could barely get them to hear what I was saying when booking a room. It went automatic in December 1991 Australian telephony - history - Old Australian Telephones (https://oldaustraliantelephones.weebly.com/australian-telephony---history.html)

Regards,
Tote

[superquag]

Air in tyres! Whatever next? Gears that change themselves?


... and brakes that apply themselves !

[DiscoMick]

And wipers and lights which turn on automatically!

[JDNSW]

Interestingly, drove into town on Tuesday in thick fog (very, very, rare here). Most cars had lights on, but very few foglights. Around 75% of vehicles had only one headlight, possibly a function of automatic lights that get switched on and off very frequently, or possibly reflecting long service intervals and drivers that don't check anything. The few lightless vehicles (all cars interestingly) possibly were also ones with automatic lights that failed to recognise that bright fog needs lights.

[PhilipA]

To me many of these “advances” are just fashion.
a round headlight costs what $20? A fancy plastic one $ 200 and it goes opaque after say 6 years.
I still haven’t figured out how a round dial which goes wrong is better than a T bar or how an electric hand brake is better than a simple pull one.
climate control which blows you out of the car on a hot day? Give me a dial.
Keyless ignition? Who cares?
A windscreen with sensors costs multiple times a plain one. I can turn on headlights and wipers when needed.

[Tombie]

To me many of these “advances” are just fashion.
a round headlight costs what $20? A fancy plastic one $ 200 and it goes opaque after say 6 years.
I still haven’t figured out how a round dial which goes wrong is better than a T bar or how an electric hand brake is better than a simple pull one.
climate control which blows you out of the car on a hot day? Give me a dial.
Keyless ignition? Who cares?
A windscreen with sensors costs multiple times a plain one. I can turn on headlights and wipers when needed.

Bit disconnected from the real reasons there...

The fancy plastic light allows better spread of light, as well as aerodynamic design. And doesn’t shard glass everywhere - nor do they break as easy from a stone strike.

Very few dials go wrong.

Electric handbrake allows other functions - drive away, steep hill, auto on (a commonly not done thing amongst many) and emergency stop functions - straight and true from over a 100km/h.

Climate control - set correctly won’t do as you claim. When people get in a hot car and turn the dial to 16 is when it goes pear shaped! It won’t blow colder at 16 than at 21, it just blows more....

Keyless ignition - absolute pleasure - no keys needed, no rattling against the steering column, no lock damage from piles of keys hanging out the barrel.

And finally automatic rain sense windscreens - what, all of $50 more... over the life of the car I will take that.
As for auto on headlights, it’s amazing how many vehicles without their headlights on that I see each week - anything that helps this is worth it.


By the same reckoning; a copper land line, a telegram to send your post or an old 2400baud BBS, no microwaves, hurricane lanterns etc are the pinnacle of technology and should never have advanced beyond as it all got ‘too fashionable’

You’re sitting at some high tech device, why? Because it makes life easier/simpler. Why should this not apply to one of the items we humans spend a significant amount of our time in?

[Graeme]

I don't know how well this story fits this thread, but I walked into the local Service NSW office this week to renew my drivers licence. I was asked if I'd like to renew it online, to which I replied that I can't because I have to do an eye test. I was told that the eye test could be arranged then again asked if I would like to renew online. Do I know the Service NSW web-site address? No. Do I have email? Yes. Can I access it here? I think she wanted to email me the address.

Can't I just go to the counter? OK - here's your ticket. One person was waiting and less than a minute later I was called.

Technology for technology's sake!

PS I started as a trainee programmer 50 years ago.

[DiscoMick]

Organizations want people to access their services remotely and do it themselves so they can cut the number of service staff and reduce costs.
Customer convenience is irrelevant.
Don't get me started on self service checkouts at supermarkets.

[PhilipA]

The fancy plastic light allows better spread of light, as well as aerodynamic design. And doesn’t shard glass everywhere - nor do they break as easy from a stone strike.

I have to note that glass can also be moulded into complex shapes. The Plastic ones are CHEAP to make that is all.
I have never broken a headlight ad they used to cost very little anyway.



Climate control - set correctly won’t do as you claim. When people get in a hot car and turn the dial to 16 is when it goes pear shaped! It won’t blow colder at 16 than at 21, it just blows more.

Disagree It must be cold down there. Get into a car at35C and the temp at 22C and you get blown away.



Electric handbrake allows other functions - drive away, steep hill, auto on (a commonly not done thing amongst many) and emergency stop functions - straight and true from over a 100km/h.

BUT they are the most troublesome single item in a D3 as evidenced by this forum. And they are only on the back wheels like a yikes Toyota. A drum will also pull you up and can also be used downhill as it works on all four wheels.



And finally automatic rain sense windscreens - what, all of $50 more... over the life of the car I will take that.

On a BMW when I last checked a few years ago they were $1000 more as they had to be genuine not aftermarket.


As for auto on headlights, it’s amazing how many vehicles without their headlights on that I see each week - anything that helps this is worth it.

Now you are talking something completely different,ie the effect on you. I contend that the huge number of one headlight cars is a far greater problem and this does nothing to help that issue. I do agree that the ubiquitous daylight running lights do help ID a one eye as a car.
There are many worthwhile advances including remote central locking, cruise control, and maybe power windows, oh and computer control of engines and transmissions. ABS has never been proven to reduce accidents but out of ABS came traction control and Automatic Stability Control although one wonders whether hoons will kill themselves somehow anyway.
Of course now crims can steel your fancy keyless entry car by capturing your data or by just attacking you in your house.

Regards Philip A

[Tombie]

That they can, they can also steal normal keys so that doesn’t matter too much. [emoji41]

Climate control - multiple aspects - temp and fan speed can both or singularly be auto. Whilst it’s not hot here at the moment - I still don’t get blasted at 22 when getting in at -3c. My D4 never blasts straight to face, its smart enough to distribute everywhere until it starts to close the temperature gap.

Back to the glass lenses - pedestrian safety and compound shapes are the major benefits of poly....

I’ve had a few glass units broken over the years. Lovely star cracks... the Poly ones just have nicks and cuts on the front.

[DiscoMick]

Google workers can listen to what people say to its AI home devices

Google workers can listen to what people say to its AI home devices | Technology | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/11/google-home-assistant-listen-recordings-users-privacy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard)

[scarry]

Organizations want people to access their services remotely and do it themselves so they can cut the number of service staff and reduce costs.
Customer convenience is irrelevant.
Don't get me started on self service checkouts at supermarkets.

All banks are like this as well.

Its a PITA just going there to get some forms signed,or pick up a new credit card,there are very few staff.

[Tombie]

All banks are like this as well.

Its a PITA just going there to get some forms signed,or pick up a new credit card,there are very few staff.

Best thing I did was leave my Brick and Mortar bank.

[Bigbjorn]

I have to note that glass can also be moulded into complex shapes. The Plastic ones are CHEAP to make that is all.
I have never broken a headlight ad they used to cost very little anyway.


Disagree It must be cold down there. Get into a car at35C and the temp at 22C and you get blown away.


BUT they are the most troublesome single item in a D3 as evidenced by this forum. And they are only on the back wheels like a yikes Toyota. A drum will also pull you up and can also be used downhill as it works on all four wheels.


On a BMW when I last checked a few years ago they were $1000 more as they had to be genuine not aftermarket.

Now you are talking something completely different,ie the effect on you. I contend that the huge number of one headlight cars is a far greater problem and this does nothing to help that issue. I do agree that the ubiquitous daylight running lights do help ID a one eye as a car.
There are many worthwhile advances including remote central locking, cruise control, and maybe power windows, oh and computer control of engines and transmissions. ABS has never been proven to reduce accidents but out of ABS came traction control and Automatic Stability Control although one wonders whether hoons will kill themselves somehow anyway.
Of course now crims can steel your fancy keyless entry car by capturing your data or by just attacking you in your house.

Regards Philip A


All this "nice to have but unnecessary" stuff was known in the marketing dept. as "comfort & convenience items". In the Sales Dept. they are known as "selling tools". Used by salesmen when they get in a ****ing contest against another make. "Ours has more **** on it than theirs" "But ours has all this other ****. Ours is the best buy".

[Tombie]

There’s a reason for the belief that the only 3 types of creature that reside at the bottom of the cesspool are Lawyers, Politicians and Car Salesmen [emoji48]

Each time one of them opens their mouth they are either lying or about to cost you a lot of money.

[scarry]

Best thing I did was leave my Brick and Mortar bank.

Yes,something we should do,may be a bit difficult as we run a business,but i am sure it can be achieved.[biggrin]

[Bigbjorn]

There’s a reason for the belief that the only 3 types of creature that reside at the bottom of the cesspool are Lawyers, Politicians and Car Salesmen [emoji48]

Each time one of them opens their mouth they are either lying or about to cost you a lot of money.

You missed the worst example. Land Sharks and Real Estate Criminals.

[V8Ian]

There’s a reason for the belief that the only 3 types of creature that reside at the bottom of the cesspool are Lawyers, Politicians and Car Salesmen [emoji48]

Each time one of them opens their mouth they are either lying or about to cost you a lot of money.
That's a pretty broad generalization.

[DiscoMick]

Bit hard on lawyers?

[V8Ian]

Bit hard on lawyers?
Of the three lawyers whose professional services I have availed myself, two were excellent and reasonable in price.

[JDNSW]

Getting back to technology, in the last few days we have had a couple of examples of the piutfalls of reliance on technology, especially "putting all your technology eggs in one basked".

Firstly, a couple of days ago, a Telstra problem meant most ATMs and EFTPOS facilities Australia-wide stopped working for a large part of the day. Then yesterday the MyGov website fell in a heap for half the day.

While this sort of thing has been happening forever, the effects of each of these incidents gets greater, as we become more reliant on them. This sort of event means that a fully cashless society is likely to be a dream (or nightmare?) for many years.