The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Tag: Rants

And kvetching, too

Why I Run Ad Blockers on All My Browsers

The latest new-to-me off-lease Dell PC arrived with Windows 7, which means that I must install UltraVNC (that’s uvnc.com, not the obvious URL, alas) to enable remote desktop access. Here’s what the download page looks like through a fresh copy of Firefox, without ad blocking:

UltraVNC Download – with ads

Notice that the prominent “Start Download” label-and-button in the middle of the page isn’t the one you want, nor are any of the other things that say “Download”. If you’re not a techie and don’t quite know what you’re looking for, there’s no hope for you.

Here’s what it looks like with all the ads suppressed:

UltraVNC Download – minus ads

Granted, that’s not the most user-friendly download site I’ve ever seen and, most likely, non-techies won’t venture there, but … suppressing the ads certainly eliminates a tremendous amount of noise.

WordPress places ads on my blog and I get a cut of the revenue, so I am not without a certain conflict of interest. I could forego the ad revenue (currently about 60 ¢/day), which wouldn’t eliminate the ads; WordPress simply pockets my cut in addition to theirs. I could also pay WordPress 30 ¢/day to completely suppress the ads (and get other features I don’t care about), for a net cost of a dollar a day to not show ads.

Hey, who wants to sign up as a Patreon donor? [grin]

2015-10-17
Road Conditions: October 2015 Summary

It took a while, but the owners of Janet Drive did a commendable job of resurfacing the giant potholes that were consuming the parking lot entrance:

Janet Dr at 708 Dutchess Turnpike entrance – 2015-10-05

That patch covers all the holes, has a smooth surface, and neatly joins the adjacent pavement without huge bumps. It’s entirely possible to do good repairs, if you just hire the right contractor.

Which doesn’t happen if you’re NYSDOT, unfortunately, as they regards a few random hand-tamped blobs on a section of Rt 44 (and Bike Rt 44, for whatever that’s worth) as entirely adequate:

Rt 44 – 695 at Quest Diagnostics – 2015-10-05 – no progress

The sinkhole on Rt 376 that we must dodge maybe four times every week continues to grow:

Rt 376 2015-10-05 – Northbound milepost 1110 – sinkhole

Somebody who should know better suggested the NYSDOT crew just ran out of asphalt after patching all around the sinkhole that I’d reported back in July, but …

The NYSDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator (yeah, she exists) assured me the engineers were studying the signal timing and would contact me directly:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-08-31 – Yellow 8 s after green with cars

That hasn’t happened after four months, so I’d say NYSDOT uses the word “study” to mean “stonewall”.

There are more examples, but, to make a long gripe short, I’ve (once again) proven to my own satisfaction that there’s no point in reporting bicycle-related maintenance problems to NYSDOT: it only annoys them and they retaliate by making things worse.

We just keep riding…

2015-10-08
Invisible Asterisk: Motorized Sidewalk Traffic
From the NYS DMV:
You cannot register or operate any of the motorized devices from the list below on any street, highway, parking lot, sidewalk or other area in New York State that allows public motor vehicle traffic. You may be arrested if you do.

[List of things]

Golf Cart (also referred to as Golf Car or Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) – a small motorized device with four wheels designed to carry people. You can’t register a golf cart as an ATV. Many low speed vehicles are similar in appearance to a golf cart, and can be registered and driven on New York State highways. 1

[More things]

1. For a low speed vehicle to be registered in New York
- it must meet federal motor vehicle safety standard 500 (49 CFR 571.500)
- its maximum performance speed must be certified by the manufacturer
- it must appear on the list of approved limited use vehicles
With that in mind, here’s a fairly common sight along Raymond Avenue…

Raymond Avenue 2015-07-14 – Vassar Golf Cart – approach

Raymond Avenue 2015-07-14 – Vassar Golf Cart – front

Raymond Avenue 2015-07-14 – Vassar Golf Cart – crossing

Vassar College regards as Raymond as its private driveway, with its fleet of golf-cart-class and tiny-pickup vehicles traveling the web of sidewalks and pedestrian crossings on and off campus. In point of fact, Vassar does own all of the property on both sides of Raymond from Hooker to Collegeview, but Raymond itself unquestionably has “public motor vehicle traffic”.

Vassar’s Annual Sidewalk Sodding Week occurs shortly before their graduation / alumnae homecoming ceremonies. The sidewalks and paths obviously weren’t designed for shared vehicular & pedestrian use, so the cart tires gouge unsightly ruts along the pavement edges; the sod prevents those muddy strips from marring the festivities.

The concrete sidewalks along Raymond take a beating from the vehicles, too, but the overall concrete quality (or lack thereof) may have something to do with that.

This spiffy tiny-pickup golf cart used by the NYS OPRHP sports a Limited Use Auto plate:

Limited Use Auto 2015-08-21

It’s sucking a socket at the west end of the Walkway Over the Hudson.
2015-08-22
Sharing The Road on Raymond Avenue: Part 2

A few days after I didn’t get sideswiped at the Vassar Main Entrance Rotary, we were returning from errands. Traffic is light, but Raymond Avenue doesn’t provide much clearance. This orange car is about as far away as one can expect:

Raymond Ave 2015-06-30 – door opening – 0

Two seconds later, however, there’s a door opening ahead of Mary (clicky for more dots):

Raymond Ave 2015-06-30 – door opening – 1

I’m shouting “DOOR! DOOR! DOOR!” in the hopes that the driver won’t step directly in front of Mary, but most likely the orange car whooshing by three feet away made more difference:

Raymond Ave 2015-06-30 – door opening – 2

Fortunately, there wasn’t any overtaking traffic and, during the four seconds after the orange car passed us, we could move to the left:

Raymond Ave 2015-06-30 – door opening – 3

The driver’s body language suggested that, until we passed her, she remained oblivious to the outside world and, in fact, she was probably annoyed that two cyclists came that close to her.

“Sharing the road” requires two parties. Raymond Avenue’s design doesn’t encourage motorists to share the road and certainly doesn’t provide a fair playing field for the most unprotected party in the transaction.

Broken by design, I’d call Raymond Avenue, and that’s pretty much what NYSDOT’s original planning documents admit.

2015-07-07
Making the Asterisk Visible

Spotted a new sign at the Van Wyck Road entrance to the Dutchess Rail Trail:

DCRT at Van Wyck Rd – ATV Patrol sign

The tiny print on the top sign still reads No Motorized Vehicles, but the bottom sign makes it explicit that that particular prohibition applies only to ordinary citizens.

Which matches up with the Sheriff’s ATVs I spotted a weeks earlier:

DCRT – Sheriff ATV Patrol – Page Park

As of late May, the No All Terrain Vehicles signs were still up. Maybe they still are.

According to the New York Times style guide and other reasonably erudite sources, the plural of ATV should be ATVS (or, if you have the luxury of mixed case, ATVs), not ATV’S.

2015-07-04
Right Turn On Red: After Stop, After Yield

With the green left-turn arrow indicating red for opposing traffic, everybody’s in the proper position. I’m crossing the stop line and leaning into the turn at about 15 mph:

Right On Red – Tucker at Friendly – 0 sec

New York State allows a right turn on red, but you’re supposed to stop and yield to other traffic. In that picture, the oncoming car is definitely stopped.

Three seconds later:

Right On Red – Tucker at Friendly – 3 sec

She hugged the curb to turn into the gas station entrance just to her right, which was the only thing that saved me. Braking hard in a turn slides you under the oncoming vehicle, ramming a school bus head-on is bad form, and sideswiping a car at speed never ends well.

I suppose I just don’t look nearly as fast as I am. Which, given the fairing and spinning feet, is hard to imagine.

2015-05-24
Monthly Image: Left Cross

It’s the start of a new riding season and we’re returning from a concert at Vassar. I’m cranking 20+ mph, pushed by a gusty tailwind.

T minus 7 seconds:

Cedar Valley Rd – Left Cross – T-7

The white car approaches the intersection a bit faster than usual, which leads me to expect a New York State Rolling Stop-and-Go right turn directly in front of me.

T minus 5 seconds:

Cedar Valley Rd – Left Cross – T-5

The white car slows enough that I now expect a stop with the front end well onto the shoulder. A quick check in the mirror shows no traffic behind me: I can take the lane if needed. This intersection always has a large gravel patch spanning the shoulder, so I must move closer to the fog line anyway.

T minus 2 seconds:

Cedar Valley Rd – Left Cross – T-2

The white car comes to a full stop, not too far onto the shoulder, and my fingers come off the brakes. I gotta work on that fingers-up position, though.

… Whoops, a classic left cross from the black SUV!

T minus 1 second:

Cedar Valley Rd – Left Cross – T-1

I’m now braking hard, barely to the left of the gravel patch.

T zero:

Cedar Valley Rd – Left Cross – T-0

Well, that was close.

Somewhat to my surprise, the white car hasn’t crept any further onto the shoulder.

The SUV driver gives me a cheery wave, as if to thank me for not scratching the doors. I never make hand gestures, but I did tell him he does nice work.

It’s hard to not see a faired long-wheelbase recumbent, head-on in bright sunlight, not to mention that I’m wearing my new Sugoi Zap Bike Jacket in Super Nova retroreflective lime green with retroreflective lime green utility gloves.

I. Am. Visible. In. Any. Light. Dammit.

It is, apparently, easy to mis-judge a bike’s speed, although driver-ed courses used to recommend that you err on the side of not trying to beat an oncoming vehicle. Perhaps that recommendation has become inoperative?

The corresponding maneuver by a car passing you is known as a right hook.

Memo to Self: Always look at the license plate to give the camera a straight-on picture.

2015-04-15