new or various gadgets

[old3bob]

many years ago I bought a top of the line, super VCR for big bucks. (while all I really needed was a basic model)  A lot of the directions in its manual assumed I already knew the meanings of  all the electronic acronyms they used to explain things, but no many were more or less Greek to me.  (and there was no manual for acronyms)  

Edited November 12, 2020 by old3bob

[old3bob]

I used to do this but on a much smaller scale.  Note how careful the guy starting the engines is, those props can do a lot of damage to fingers or a hand.  Anyway it was fun, especially the stunt planes that could do flips and other tricks!  We also had "dog fights" when there were two planes and two guys flying at the same time while trying to chew up the others plane with their prop.

 

 

[Nungali]

9 hours ago, old3bob said:

we bought our very first new car in 2018 before that we had a used 2005 model.  The new car has all sorts of gadgets that I have not really figured out or have disabled.   I remember the first time I took the car on the highway and tried to pass someone when the brakes automatically came on, what the hell and how does that work for safety?!  On a sad and tragic note we should wonder how many accidents have been caused when someone was trying to figure out a device  in their car instead of having their eyes on the road.
 

 

I got the last model  Rover 75 before it had a huge horrible  out of place computer screen  installed  on the center console .  The only time I used modern gadgets in a car was a work vehicle , a van full of v.expensive camera gear , I was told to just follow GPS ... except it was going crazy saying I was driving through a filed and had left the road .

[Nungali]

8 hours ago, Apech said:

 

My new car tells me when to change gear (I ignore), squeaks if I cross a lane marking (annoying), beeps with increasing intensity if I leave my seat belt off even if parking (very annoying), tells me if my tire pressure is low (kind of useful), beeps if I get too close to another car (ok but off putting).  What happened to cars that you just drive?

 

You have to go retro ! 

 

 

 

 

[Nungali]

3 hours ago, old3bob said:

I used to do this but on a much smaller scale.  Note how careful the guy starting the engines is, those props can do a lot of damage to fingers or a hand.  Anyway it was fun, especially the stunt planes that could do flips and other tricks!  We also had "dog fights" when there were two planes and two guys flying at the same time while trying to chew up the others plane with their prop.

 

 

 

 

I got a compressed air aero motor plane for friends  little son  for his birthday . First we had to assemble it from a kit . he loved that but was very impatient for it to get airborne .  Eventually we finished , took it out into the paddock. After much mucking around we got it started and off it flew .  He was so excited  ,  off it went  ... across the  fields and over the forest  and .......    wait !  How do you get it back ?

 

... we where supposed to set the rudder  so it did a circle , but we didnt read that bit of the instructions           ... although he wasn't laughing  .... bye bye  air plane  ! 

[old3bob]

30 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

I got the last model  Rover 75 before it had a huge horrible  out of place computer screen  installed  on the center console .  The only time I used modern gadgets in a car was a work vehicle , a van full of v.expensive camera gear , I was told to just follow GPS ... except it was going crazy saying I was driving through a filed and had left the road .

 

oh yea, I've tried my on board driving app. but it has some glitch's or I do?  So instead I use google maps with fair success but even it can send one  down roads you don't really want to be on!  For instance I was driving all the way from the northern border of Texas to Austin in the south for the first time and also using google maps for the first time. (btw Nungali Texas is almost as big as New South Wales Australia) I asked Goggle for the shortest route which was a big mistake since it put me on little out of the way two lane back-roads.  Several stretch's of those roads didn't have any towns or gas stations for what seemed like a hundred miles or more!  So I'm thinking what if the car breaks down out here in the middle of nowhere,  then what in the heck am I going to do with night coming on and there being almost no one else on the roads to wave down for help and there also being sketchy cell phone service!  Could things go sideways like one those gory road trip movies where unfriendly locals make you disappear?  Anyway nothing went wrong and I stayed on the main highways during my return trip.  (which have their own set of dangers)

[old3bob]

17 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

 

I got a compressed air aero motor plane for friends  little son  for his birthday . First we had to assemble it from a kit . he loved that but was very impatient for it to get airborne .  Eventually we finished , took it out into the paddock. After much mucking around we got it started and off it flew .  He was so excited  ,  off it went  ... across the  fields and over the forest  and .......    wait !  How do you get it back ?

 

... we where supposed to set the rudder  so it did a circle , but we didnt read that bit of the instructions           ... although he wasn't laughing  .... bye bye  air plane  ! 

 

I know exactly what you mean, I remember chasing after free flight model planes that were going out of sight because of  lost rudder settings,  and peddling my little bike as fast as I could as a kid was sometimes not fast enough to keep the plane in sight....

[Nungali]

4 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 

oh yea, I've tried my on board driving app. but it has some glitch's or I do?  So instead I use google maps with fair success but even it can send one  down roads you don't really want to be on!  For instance I was driving all the way from the northern border of Texas to Austin in the south for the first time and also using google maps for the first time. (btw Nungali Texas is almost as big as New South Wales Australia) I asked Goggle for the shortest route which was a big mistake since it put me on little out of the way two lane back-roads.  Several stretch's of those roads didn't have any towns or gas stations for what seemed like a hundred miles or more!  So I'm thinking what if the car breaks down out here in the middle of nowhere,  then what in the heck am I going to do with night coming on and there being almost no one else on the roads to wave down for help and there also being sketchy cell phone service!  Could things go sideways like one those gory road trip movies where unfriendly locals make you disappear?  Anyway nothing went wrong and I stayed on the main highways during my return trip.  (which have their own set of dangers)

 

 

Jaguar bonnet ornament mobile

 

The rural Australian town of Paris arranges fatal accidents to visitors driving through. Townspeople collect items from the luggage of the deceased passengers whilst survivors are taken to the local hospital where they are given lobotomies with power tools and kept as "veggies" for medical experiments by the earnest town surgeon. The young men of the town salvage and modify the wrecked vehicles into a variety of strange-looking cars designed for destruction.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cars_That_Ate_Paris

 

[old3bob]

reminds me of Madmax...

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by old3bob

[old3bob]

For the outdoor folks, lighting a barbecue that has a bad sparker, or whatever:

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by old3bob

[old3bob]

the beauty of good welds...

 

[old3bob]

this big gadget is not pretty but it does make waves for surfers away from the great whites!  Hopefully a future version will blend in better with a lake and not look so industrial.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2020 by old3bob

[sagebrush]

Tasco 450 power telescope

Edited November 15, 2020 by sagebrush
trying to upload photo of telescope