What a day…
Posted By matt on December 23, 2003
This job is going to kill me.
I had 2 nosebleeds today. One lasted 20 minutes. I had another one last friday. I think the stress is getting to me.
Oh, and engineers shouldn't care about End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs) on the software that they write. Shut up and do what you're told.
It's just one of those days when you want to just whale on a bag while screaming “Fuck” over and over at the top of your lungs.
In other news, I broke Liz's car. This makes 2 things of hers I broke, nominally due to poor engineering.
1.) About a month ago a trip over her laptop power cord, spilling a bowl of popcorn in the process. Meanwhile, it's a good thing she had a hand on the laptop, because on Apple Powerbooks, the cord is locked in there securely. So securely that a good yank will pull the laptop off whatever it is on. The connector finally did give, and it bent. We were able to straighten it with pliers, but I'll probably end up having to get her another one eventually.
Now, on the Dells, you sneeze on the connector and it falls out. This has it's own set of problems; the plastic wears away over time and it falls out too easily, but I'd rather have it fall out than take my laptop off the desk.
2.) Her beetle's hood release is broken. The hood will not come out. So, today, I figure that I'll help her. Something is clicking under the hood, so it's trying, it's just stuck. Maybe the catch is sticking or something. I get in the car, find the lever (which is in an annoying spot anyway, and not labeled), and pull it lightly. I ask how hard I am supposed to pull it. She says “Hard, it feels like you will break it, but you won't.” So I pull the lever until it hits the underside of the dash. There is a “ptwang”. Apparently the cable has pulled out of the handle.
For the record:
- My Oldsmobile required about twice as much force to open as this does, and it never broke
- My Chrysler requires almost no force
- In both of these, the lever can traverse its maximum ark without bothering the cable. The Olds could be pulled up until it hits the dash, and the Chrysler can be pulled until the arm of the lever impacts part of the molded plastic housing, thus prohibiting any further travel.
This VW has no such prevention measures.
I am not impressed by this famed “german engineering prowess”.
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