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GeneralRe: XZ Utils Pin
jochance5-Apr-24 4:50
jochance5-Apr-24 4:50 
GeneralRe: XZ Utils Pin
Jeremy Falcon5-Apr-24 5:30
professionalJeremy Falcon5-Apr-24 5:30 
GeneralRe: XZ Utils Pin
0x01AA5-Apr-24 9:58
mve0x01AA5-Apr-24 9:58 
GeneralRe: XZ Utils Pin
Rick York5-Apr-24 10:10
mveRick York5-Apr-24 10:10 
GeneralRe: XZ Utils Pin
Jeremy Falcon5-Apr-24 11:33
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TNCaver5-Apr-24 11:07
TNCaver5-Apr-24 11:07 
GeneralMy Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. PinPopular
Roger Wright4-Apr-24 19:09
professionalRoger Wright4-Apr-24 19:09 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
OriginalGriff4-Apr-24 20:13
mveOriginalGriff4-Apr-24 20:13 
Cars have improved immeasurably since I started driving - the last big accident I had was in the 80's in a company pool car: a Ford Cortina.

To say that this car had had a hard life was an understatement - it started as a sales rep's car (and in those days the reps expected to take the client out for a boozy lunch) and became a pool car when the rep got to 75,000 miles. As a pool car, nobody gave a damn what happened to it so servicing was ... unlikely. It was probably two years old when I was handed the keys for a troubleshooting software job a couple of hundred miles away that turned out to be a hardware problem. It lurched to the right when you accelerated, and to the left when you braked. But I couldn't get my computer and data analyser on the bike, so off I went. 5 boring days* of sitting in a library waiting for an intermittent problem to happen later** and I headed for home.

It was starting to get dark by the time I joined the M1 (think first "Interstate" in the UK) and traffic was building up for rush hour. Suddenly, I saw stopped traffic ahead of me and jammed on the brakes, fighting to keep the car in a straight(ish) line and came to a stop maybe four feet from the car in front. Still holding the foot brake down I reached for the handbrake and glancing the mirror in time to see headlights moving fast.

The car behind didn't slow at all until he hit me, and then the next thing I remember was someone saying "get that guy out of there, his petrol tank has split". Did they mean me? From the smell, yes. the drivers door wouldn't open, so I kicked my way out the passenger side and got away from it. It was a write off: several feet shorter than it started, it had been rammed so hard into the car in front that it was a write off as well, and the car ahead of that was damaged. I was fine, but my back hurt where the computer equipment had slammed into the driver's seat, but that was all soft tissue and no permanent damage.

I was lucky: the fuel didn't catch fire, I wasn't trapped in there. Took me six months to a year to be comfortable sitting at traffic lights in case the guy behind didn't stop though.

Nowadays, airbags would have gone off, the fuel tank wouldn't have split, crumple zones would have taken the worst of the damage. And cars would call the emergency services for you and unlock the doors automatically. And emergency braking systems would have mitigated or prevented the accident - a couple of years ago, I was waiting to turn off the road when the driver behind wasn't paying attention; his car was and it stopped short. Bruised his ego, and the seatbelt bruised his chest - but no accident occurred and we both drove away. They make cars more complex, more expensive, but they work, and work well!

* And 5 very boozy nights in a hotel bar.
** It did: when a new member signed up they laminated a new library card for them and that sent out enough crap via the mains to disturb the hardware my software was running on.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
Phil J Pearson4-Apr-24 22:16
Phil J Pearson4-Apr-24 22:16 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
Roger Wright5-Apr-24 4:43
professionalRoger Wright5-Apr-24 4:43 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
BernardIE53174-Apr-24 20:41
BernardIE53174-Apr-24 20:41 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
Roger Wright5-Apr-24 4:46
professionalRoger Wright5-Apr-24 4:46 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
Mike Hankey5-Apr-24 3:17
mveMike Hankey5-Apr-24 3:17 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
Daniel Pfeffer5-Apr-24 3:24
professionalDaniel Pfeffer5-Apr-24 3:24 
GeneralRe: My Horoscope Has Been Telling Me To Expect Big Things Heading My Way Lately. Pin
Gary R. Wheeler6-Apr-24 6:40
Gary R. Wheeler6-Apr-24 6:40 
GeneralWordle 1,021 Pin
StarNamer@work4-Apr-24 13:13
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GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 Pin
Amarnath S4-Apr-24 13:39
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Sandeep Mewara4-Apr-24 16:53
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GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 Pin
Shane01034-Apr-24 18:17
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GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 Pin
GKP19924-Apr-24 18:31
professionalGKP19924-Apr-24 18:31 
GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 Pin
ChandraRam4-Apr-24 20:15
ChandraRam4-Apr-24 20:15 
GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 Pin
OriginalGriff4-Apr-24 20:48
mveOriginalGriff4-Apr-24 20:48 
GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 - 4 4 me Pin
pkfox4-Apr-24 20:53
professionalpkfox4-Apr-24 20:53 
GeneralRe: Wordle 1,021 Pin
Sander Rossel4-Apr-24 22:04
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Cp-Coder5-Apr-24 2:09
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