I really don't mind boilerplate nearly as much as most people here on HN seem to. To me it's really no biggie if it helps structure things and make them explicit. I think it kind of goes along with the idea that typing code is not what takes the largest amount of time when you're doing software development. But the fact that I prefer explicit over implicit is another area where I think I diverge from the HN herd.
The ad was deceptively inlined in the article IMO. I read most of the ad before I realized it was an ad. I don’t begrudge anyone who wants to monetize with ads but I do think it should be clear what is sponsored. I felt fooled and I stopped reading right now.
The Volkswagen Transporter has a towing capacity of 750kg for an unbraked trailer and a maximum towing capacity of 2800kg for a braked trailer. That's 6000 pounds.
Good question. I don't usually think of towing stuff because that's seldom been a part of my life.
3500 pounds is what Honda lists for towing capacity (same as a 2WD Honda Pilot, even though an AWD Honda Pilot with exactly the same engine and transmission is more like 5000).
If towing capacity is defined as "what people can expect a thing to reliably do for many thousands of miles, in a row, over and over again" then I think a bone-stock Odyssey would roll over and die with 6000 pounds behind it.
Slow trip to the dump that's right over there across flat terrain? Sure, probably OK if it's rather heavy. Through the Appalachians? No; that's sounding like a bad day.
And the usual variables can be wiggled: A better transmission cooler can be added without too much difficulty (and Honda used to sell kits for this, themselves). There's seemingly-reputable companies that sell air suspension (read: adjustable) helper-springs for many years of Odyssey, and reports are that they're not particularly hard to install (as a DIY, in the driveway). Weight-distributing hitches help a ton (literally), but IIRC Honda doesn't list a separate capacity for that.
There's other vans with similar interior volume and features that are stated on the door sill sticker to tow trailers better.
And there's certainly some things that trucks like an F150 can get very right. Towing is one of them.
If a person wants to occasionally haul a decent-sized camper around or something, then owning a pickup truck may be exactly the right solution.
Transmission coolers and suspension kits are great but one of the things that’s really even more important is the ability to stop it comfortably. I think it’s prudent to build in a safety margin of at least 25%. More is better here.
And ideally, the trailer should have its own brakes and (mostly!) stop itself.
I've never found the brakes on an Odyssey to be particularly lacking on their own, even when loaded heavy in mountains. They're fine. 2-pistol calipers, decent-sized rotors. Nothing fancy, but also nothing lacking. The ABS behaves sanely.
The only thing I see people complain about is warping, but the causes of that are very varied (and may have nothing to do with anything actually being warped).
Like many vehicles, they get a lot better with good rotors that have cooling improvements, and well-selected not-ceramic pads.
It goes from "yeah, those are fine" to "Holy Toledo. My sunglasses just flew off of my face, and I think the seatbelt hurt my shoulder (but there was no crash, so it's fine)"
>> This is not true for most so-called Engineers in the US.
>> Anyone can declare themselves an engineer with no exam,
>> no sponsor, no assermentation and no real legal ties
>> to their shoddy work.
I don't think that's correct. While there are exemptions, each state requires anyone offering engineering services to the public to be licensed.
Just don’t minimize the window. Removing a window from the alt-Tab list is basically the only reason to minimize it in the first place on Mac. (Not reflexively minimizing windows does take some time to get used to if you’re coming from Windows, admittedly.)
you can use workspaces for that. for comparison, gnome on linux doesn't even support minimizing windows any more. you move windows/apps that you don't want to use right now to a different workspace.
On Windows there are applications that minimize to the tray instead of remaining on the task bar. That’s my most common reason to minimize, so that it disappears from the task bar when not in use.
i have used WindowMaker but also the original NeXTstep for years, and WindowMaker's integration with GNUstep apps and its emulation of the NeXTstep interface always felt incomplete.
No, I think you're possibly misunderstanding the issue. That option you mention allows one to change the sound used, which I suspect we all get, but instead the problem is there's no sound between breathing in and breathing out. You need three audible cues not two.
So it is hard? Not easy? I would agree with that position. I think the analogy with automatic transmissions misses though. Programming actual intelligence into a computer seems orders of magnitude more complex and difficult than building the gearbox for a car.
It is hard in the sense that it's an unsolved problem that emerges due to the way LLMs work. Perhaps some clever ML PhD will come up with a technique to solve it, but right now there's no clear solution.
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