Single-Source

You never want to buy something that has only a single source for parts.

The buggy broke the other night. We were on the way home and Mark hit the throttle and it took off - faster than it ever went before!  We were a little giddy at first, but when we stopped at a stop sign, it wouldn't start up again.   We pushed it to a parking lot (surprisingly little resistance!) and Mark walked home and got the car.

It was not a far walk - we do it (or used to do it before it got hot) nearly every day. He came back with the car and we had the "tow of shame" back home. Once home, I tested the system. The battery was making power (53 volts) and all the accessories (lights, horn, etc.) were working.  The BMS system (Battery Maintenance) is readable via app on my phone.  Charge was OK, voltage fine, temps fine as well.  I put the charger on it just to be sure.  The throttle potentiometer was putting out 0-5 KΩ like it should. The main power relay was working.  There was 53 volts in to the controller, but nothing coming out, even at full throttle.

I plugged in my controller programmer and there were no error codes but it showed motor voltage as zero at all throttle positions.  It also showed the "duty cycle" at zero regardless of throttle position (and it showed the throttle going from 0 to 100% and back as I worked the pedal). I am guessing it is the controller or possibly the motor.  The motor is only 30 years old and is rated for only 36 Volts.  I searched online and discovered these motors can (and do) run on 36 or 48V and series wound motors like this can be had all day long from various sources from $500 to $1000.  A place in Syracuse New York has a nice upgrade motor (11 HP!) that might bring our speed up to 25MPH and cost about $500.  They claim to be the only motor maker left in the USA (others are imported - guess where from?)..

But I suspect it is the "Curtis" solid-state controller that failed.  It varies motor speed by pulsing a solid-state relay based on the resistance of the throttle potentiometer.  These can be had all day long on eBay for about $120, so I ordered one and it should be here Monday.  If that doesn't fix it, I will break down and buy the motor from Syracuse.

This golf cart is rapidly becoming a ship of Theseus. And maybe I should have quit early on and bought something newer - like only 25 years old. There isn't much except the frame and transaxle that hasn't been replaced just yet.  Well maybe the springs.  I found a source for them online...

What makes these things somewhat affordable is that there is a plethora of parts available from a plurality of sources.  The EZ-GO Marathon may be outdated, but much of the hardware is the same as the later TXT models (with the series motor) so there are parts a-plenty.

You can rent golf carts here on the island and drive them around.  Red Bug Motors originally rented GEM electrics - once a division of Chrysler, now Bombardier.  They are nice buggies and all, but as I noted before, if you ever need service, the only place to get parts is from GEM electric through a local dealer.  I even tried to talk to a dealer out of my area to see if I could get better pricing - but was transferred to a local dealer.  Single-source for parts!

The stories I have heard about the GEM is that if the display panel goes bad, the entire thing shuts down and the panel is only available from the GEM dealer and costs a lot of money.  So you have no options other than to pay.   I wrote before about these Chinese-made carts sold at Lowe's (and elsewhere) that look cool and all, but where do you get parts for them if they break? 

Any piece of machinery is part of an underlying system of support, from consumable supplies to repair and replacement parts.  The IC engine car didn't take off until a network of service stations selling gas and providing repair service, was available,.  Before that, you had to buy gasoline at the pharmacy or hardware store and service was whatever your local blacksmith could conjure up.

A good supply of cheap parts is key. I can keep my old laptops running because no one else wants them and parts are cheap.  When they become rare and parts are expensive, well, the scheme no longer works and I will have to move on. Old cars at a certain age (15-20 years) can be a bargain as no one wants them and the dealers and wholesalers would just assume get rid of their inventory of parts before they become worthless.  After 20-30 years, parts become scarce and the cost curve goes up.

Today many automakers are trying to keep their parts and service proprietary such that only authorized dealers can work on the cars.  You want to add a built-in trailer brake controller to your F150, you can find the part online (as one friend did) for $50.  Ten minutes to install!  The dealer wants $70 to program the ECU to recognize the part - otherwise it won't work.  And this is true for many other electrical parts on a vehicle as well.  Fortunately, other than oil changes and new tires, the only repair I had had to make to mine was the sunroof "rails" which were like $150 online and took an hour to install.  Hope my luck keeps holding.

HP famously programmed its printers to only work with HP ink cartridges - inserting "copyrighted" code into a chip on the cartridge.  The only purpose of the chip was to assert IP rights to the cartridge.  As a (former) IP Attorney, that sort of shit makes my blood boil.

But, the market may speak, and already you can buy refillable inkjet printers (HP even sells one now - no doubt, they put nanochips in the ink /s) or other brands of cartridge printers that accept 3rd-party cartridges..  My old Canon B&W laser printer works like a Swiss Watch using 3rd party cartridges I buy on eBay.  But who prints anything anymore anyway?  All HP did with its nefarious schemes was to advance the death of printing.

There was a posting online where a Tesla owner claimed the "service center" charged him $2000 to fix the horn on his Tesla.  I suspect it was a faked "invoice" as it was awfully sparse in detail.  Nevertheless, one wonders where you can get your Tesla serviced other than the authorized service center.  Some owners have manged to "hack" repairs to their vehicles and exchange repair info online (as we did back in the day with BMWs and other "foreign" makes).  However, Tesla, like Apple, isn't taking this well and I have heard stories about warranties being voided or service centers refusing to work on cars that have had 3rd party repairs.  Apple was called out on this practice, no doubt Tesla would be as well, if these stories are true.

But again, maybe the market will decide - provided the market is an informed market. Most people buy HP inkjet printers not knowing about the cartridge scam.  They get frustrated that the cartridges don't last long and cost so much.  It is only after throwing a lot of money at HP that they learn the truth.  This is why we have (or used to have) laws about this sort of thing.

Similarly, a lot of people bought Teslas not realizing the CEO would lose his mind and turn into a right-wing nutjob.  Just kidding, but I suspect the earth-shoe wearing contingent is no longer keen on the brand.  And brands do have followings based on perceived social values - real or not.  Just ask Subaru - the official car of Lesbianism.  Ask any Lesbian - they will confirm this.

Speaking of Tesla and Musk, supposedly he finally got his $59Billion raise or bonus or whatever - at a time when the company is facing a price war in the EV marketplace and the initial enthusiasm for EVs is cooling off.  Is this just his last desperate cash-grab before the entire company collapses?  My gut instinct is yes.  He is ready to move on to brain implants, AI-bots and Mars colonies.  His interest in EVs is waning and the billions he was paid were not a guarantee he would devote more time to Tesla but a golden parachute on his way out the door.

I think we may see the horrifically over-valued price of Tesla shares - propped up, like Gamestop or AMC as a "meme stonk" by online incels - finally pop, particularly once Musk starts dumping stock to fund his next passing fancy or prop-up money-losing Twitter.  But we'll see.

If I was to buy an EV - and maybe in 5-10 years I would - I would want to buy something that has multiple options for both service and parts. And maybe in 5-10 years an aftermarket will exist to provide such service and parts.  But today?  EVs are still enough of a niche product that the aftermarket hasn't really caught up yet.  And manufacturers aren't helping matters much.

UPDATE: I installed the new controller and no joy.  It was then I realized the A2 (armature) wire was melted at the motor connection (and the bolt holding it on won't come off!).  Time for four-gauge wires and a motor upgrade, I guess.

I tested the motor with a jumper cable first and it worked!

So I spent an hour removing the nut which was welded in place and ran two older power wires in parallel.  I think in the fall I will spring for the upgraded motor and 4 ga wiring for the motor wires.

It's always something...

UPDATE: This may have been an example of operator error. I installed a new 4 gauge power cable to the A2 terminal but failed to provide enough slack in the cable.  As the axle moves up and down going over bumps (along with the motor) it tugged on the connection, loosening it. I think this caused arcing (we saw an intermittent drop in power on occasion) which welded through the connector, breaking the circuit.  The two new cables have a nice slack loop in them.

I still want to get a new motor and all new 4GA cables!  Next year!

Supreme Court Goes Woke! (Not Really)

Two recent decisions by the Supreme Court seem to go against its conservative image - or not.

In one recent decision, the court held that the Federal Government will have to pony up money to help pay for management of tribal healthcare, now that it is being taken over by native tribes.  This was a split decision 5-4 which may indicate a growing gap between some of the more moderately conservative judges and the extreme right-wing. Tribal leaders fought to have self-determination in managing their tribe's healthcare and the government went along, but failed to provide funding to administer the program.  I was sort of a left-handed gift (Indian giving? Sorry!) in that while giving the tribes what they wanted, by not funding the mandate, essentially nullified it.

The conservative minority played that same old tired violin song about how this was best left up to Congress to implement - knowing full well their supporters in Congress would block any legislation to provide such funding.  The old song-and-dance from the Right.

So maybe in a way it was a minor victory for centrists and the left, in that there are apparently cracks in the conservative majority and the court is not entirely heartless and bound by "strict interpretation" of "plain text" and other legal chicanery used to avoid making decisions.

In another recent decision, the court held that plaintiffs (a number of doctors) didn't have "standing" to sue to prevent access to the abortion drug mifepristone.  While this may seem like an about-face from its previous decision in the Dobbs case, Dobbs didn't ban abortion outright, or indeed, at all.  It merely relied on this tired trope of "States Rights" to argue that abortion should be handled at a State level, not a Federal one.  And of course, this has caused chaos as some States (looking at you, Texas!) have threatened to prosecute women who travel outside of their State to obtain an abortion. States rights to meddle in the affairs of other States, apparently.

What's next?  Arresting people in Texas for smoking weed in Colorado?  I don't want to give them any ideas!

But once again, "strict interpretation" of the "letter of the law" leads to odd bedfellows.  In this case, the conservative wing of the court is not passing judgement on the legality of this drug, but rather refusing to "legislate from the bench" and punting to Congress to decide.

And it goes without saying that if a conservative Congress is elected in November 2024, well, they will try to outlaw the drug.

But it is weird how this "plain text" interpretation of laws and the Constitution (as opposed to the "penumbra" approach) ends up in strange places.

Perhaps some members of the court are having second thoughts about dramatic moves to the Right.  It has happened before - Justices change their views over time, as they no longer need to heed some political master (other than Clarence Thomas, who needs to make payments on his motorhome).  Some conservative justices end up disappointing their puppet masters, as they brazenly cut the strings.

But I'm not holding my breath.  I am sure Kavanaugh will say, if Trump is elected this year, "Well, the Constitution doesn't explicitly say you can't run death camps!"

"Strict Interpretation" for thee, but not for me!  When it starts to rain, conservatives suddenly find a need for their penumbra.

Missing Out On AI?

Maybe obsolete software and hardware will become valuable commodities in the future!

The latest brouhaha with so-called "AI" is a pissing match between Elon Musk and Apple.  Musk, as is his habit, is seeing a new technology getting a lot of press, so he wants to get in front of the parade and tell everyone he invented it.  He was supposedly an early investor in OpenAI and then left when they wanted more money.  He sued them, claiming that OpenAI was planning to no longer be "open" but sell its services to commercial users.  Then he dropped the suit after e-mails emerged where he apparently advocated for the same thing.

People who pointed this out were banned from Twitter because, you know, free speech absolutist.  Between Trump and Musk, I feel like I'm living in a daycare center for preschool kids.  Oh, no, not another tantrum! Time Out! Go sit in the corner young man!

But it goes on.  Musk diverted a zillion chips (and that's a lot!) from Tesla to his own AI project (supposedly) which, if true, would be a massive conflict of interest.  Imagine the President of GM having company employees paint his her house - for free.  There would be a shareholder derivative suit!

But the fun continues.  Apple is promising to put AI into its O/S somehow, which will surely mean the platform will be even more stable than before! Of course, you'll have to have the latest-and-greatest Apple phone to participate in this nightmare.

Whew! I am safe! My woefully obsolete hardware and software won't support these latest "innovations. The Galaxy 7 "Active" won't even update anymore.  Thank God!

I was on eBay the other day and snagged another Toshiba C-series (C655) laptop for $30.  Now I have four - and a box of spare parts to boot.  It is in working order with 500GB of hard drive (the max this machine will support - I use about 1/3 of it) and 4GB of RAM which I can easily upgrade to eight.  It has a broken hinge (they all do) but I am adept at fixing those now, with superglue and baking soda. The only downside is someone loaded (or Microsoft auto-loaded) Windows 10 on it, but we can fix that with all our legacy copies of Windows 7 Ultimate, which is far more stable and easier to use.

State of the art?  Hardly - they started making this series in 2010.  Yes, it is a decade-old technology, but it runs my two-decade-old software just fine.  Word 2000 and Quickbooks 2002 as well as Adobe Acrobat 8 are all paid-for and work just fine (and Adobe has no IP rights to my creations, either!).  Of course, this is a temporary solution - eventually they will make it so I can't use these machines. Chrome already informs me, ominously, that they cannot update Chrome to the latest adblock-proof version unless I upgrade my O/S and of course, that would require a new computer.  I learned the hard way, years ago, that the latest-and-greatest O/S effectively bricks older computers or phones.  Best to turn OFF "autoupdate" on any older machine!

(And yes, my Canon laser printer makes nice B&W copies using generic third-party cartridges, printing hundreds and hundreds of pages without complaint or asking for a royalty.  I will have that printer until I die!).

But in the meantime, it got me to thinking, maybe I am sitting on a goldmine!  When AI takes over the Internet and even your phone and computer, where will people go to seek refuge from this nightmare? And the answer is, equipment so obsolete that it can't run AI programming.  After the upcoming wars between man-and-machine, survivors will covet old-school machines such as these.  Linux will be a firewall to insidious AI infiltration!

Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  In its effort to finally rid itself of its "Don't be evil" heritage and render its search engine utterly useless, Google now has AI responses (in addition to "sponsored content") as the first hits on its search results.  The net effect is that Google, once the card catalog of the Internet, is rendered useless.  Keyword searching had its limitations, to be sure, but AI searching is far, far worse, telling you what it thinks you want to know rather than what you need to know.

And what it thinks you want to know is where to spend more money, at the highest prices possible, on utterly useless crap you don't need or even want.  We need a Google for Google - a search engine that scans the search results and then searches them for really relevant data.  These days, the best hits seem to be on the third or fourth pages of results - if Google even deigns to show you those.  Time was, a simple search produced pages of hits.  Today, you get one page of sponsored content and increasingly, the "there doesn't seem to be anything there" message.  Really Google? You searched the entire database of planet Earth and found nothing?  I don't believe you.   You are just lazy.  No one wants to work anymore - not even AI bots!

I miss the days when I could go online and with a few keystrokes find the lowest price on goods on the planet.  I could go on Amazon or eBay and find great deals at astounding prices.  Today?  Well, half the items for sale on eBay are just arbitrage (reseller) bots relisting an item sold directly from Amazon for $5 more.  And Amazon always steers you to the highest priced option, it seems, particularly if they are selling it directly.

I guess it finally happened.  The "Personal" computer is no longer personal, but merely a portal to download and display carefully curated data from our corporate overlords.  The Internet is no longer an equal-access database for everyman, but a set of silos all under lock-and-key.  The bottom line is you gotta pay-to-play.  And it seems most people willingly do so - spending real money to put useless "flair" on a cartoon character in a video game, for example.

We need an online revolution to take back what is ours from the Zuckerbergs, Gates, Bezos, and Musks, of the world.  So long as we keep playing - and paying - they will own us.

The Clickbait News Part XXXIV

OMG! Boeing is going bankrupt!  Not exactly.

A recent article online says that Boeing's plane orders are "tumbling" and of course, if you read the comments about the article (which are NOT from Airbus trolls and don't forget it!) you'd think that Boeing was on the brink of bankruptcy or something.

Granted, Boeing is facing a lot of issues, but seems to be working through them.  A lot of the "problems" I think, are just people piling on.  Online sleuths have divined a sinister plan to assassinate "whistle-blowers" - but that of course, is just ridiculous hyperbole.

While it is good that people bring malfeasance to light, bear in mind that a lot of people who obsess about exposing what they see as wrongdoing, are, well, a little unhinged.  There was a guy in the famous Scientology copyright case, who spent all his time online trying to debunk Scientology.  He was pissed-off because he gave them a lot of his money and felt used.  Rather than move on and move away, he decided to dedicate his life to "saving" other idiots from joining the cult respectable mainstream religion.

Well, one thing I learned is that idiots don't need saving, and the guy ended up in court and sort of losing it all, on the altar of being an activist.  Sadly, a lot of these "little guy standing up for the rest of us" types are more than a little crazy.  Consider the windshield wiper guy - they made a movie about him, but it wasn't quite the heroic battle they made it out to be.

I mean, I get it - it is all Edgelord to make ominous comments that Epstein didn't kill himself but was assassinated before he could turn State's evidence.  But the reality is, people kill themselves in jail all the time, which is why they take away your shoelaces when you get busted for even a traffic violation. Jail is depressing as hell.  Besides, Epstein was the defendant - he had no leverage to get a plea deal.  And they already had the names of the perpetrators - and victims willing to testify, too.

But as GM learned the hard way, attacking your critics only serves to embolden them.  Ralph Nader would have faded from history if not for the fact GM sic'ed private investigators on him.  Nader wrote a similar scathing critique of the Volkswagen but no one cared because Volkswagen didn't react.  When someone calls you names, it only is effective if you act like it bothers you.

It makes no sense that Boeing would assassinate a "whistle-blower" after they already blew the whistle. Only in the movies does killing off an informant quash information.  Good thing those whistle-blowers never wrote anything down or documented anything!  The whole premise is just childish bullshit.

Anyway, getting back to the article, they make a big deal out of the "fact" that Boeing sold "only" four planes last month and none of them were the 737 Max.  OMG!  The chickens have come home to roost!  Shut down the production lines!  Lay off the workers!  Boeing is going broke!

Well, not exactly.  At the very end of the article after you scroll through several ads, is this teeny, tiny, tidbit:

Despite the slow pace of recent sales, Boeing still has a huge backlog of more than 5,600 orders.

Now it is hard to find reliable numbers online about how many planes Boeing "delivers" in a given month.  I have seen numbers as high as 50 and as low as 24 (recently, due to FAA scrutiny, I suspect). Even using the upper-end number, Boeing has over a nine-year backlog of plane orders - enough to keep them busy for nearly a decade.

Of course, in the wacky world of commercial aviation, an "order" doesn't mean much, other than saving your place in line.  Orders are made and then rescinded all the time (in fact, Boeing lost one order last month, reducing its "sales book" to three for the month).  An order for a plane that may not be built until nine years from now might not mean much, other than a generalized desire to eventually replace aging aircraft at some point.

The point is or isn't that Boeing is good or Boeing is bad or the 737 is a shitty plane or not. The point is, "news articles" like this are pointless piling-on clickbait designed to get engagement. And they know that people will click on a "Boeing sucks!" article as they are the whipping-boy du jour and hey, maybe someone is shorting the stock.  Well, not "maybe" - right?

And a "tumble" to four sales in one month is about as relevant as The Chevette Index - drawing conclusions from limited data.   Not to mention correlation versus causation.  Perhaps one reason Boeing sales might be slowing is that with the backlog of orders, airlines might be looking more closely at Airbus.

Sure, you can say a lot of bad things about Boeing. For example, how they used an anti-dumping complaint to try to destroy the Canadian aircraft industry (and not for the first time!).  Boeing took a radical step in designing the 787 "Dreamliner" which tried out too many new technologies (e.g., composite fuselage, lithium-batteries) all at once - and paid the price.  Every aviation pioneer who tried "too much, too soon" paid the penalty and lost sales to competitors who took a more incremental approach.  Airbus learned this with the A380 as well.

That might explain why they pushed out the 737 MAX based on an antiquated design, rather than starting with a clean sheet - they had run out of clean sheets after the 787.  Perhaps!

Or perhaps, like Lockheed, they will realize there is far less risk - and a guaranteed profit - in military sales and eventually will leave the passenger airliner market, particularly if China is able to ramp-up its efforts down the road.  It could be a different world in 10 years.

But in the meantime, this "article" is just trash - designed to get Boeing-haters to click on it, just as Newsweek has gone to an all-Trump-hate format.

I never bother to click on Newsweek articles anymore.  In every case, the click-bait headline overstates the case if in fact, does not manufacture it.  This sort of shit only provides ammunition for Trump's claims of victimization.

Click-bait.  Ugh.

The IT Loop!

You need an e-mail address to log in.  You need a phone number to set up your e-mail address!

Mark wanted to go to Michaels to get art supplies because, you know, he's an artist.  He has been tapped for another gallery show in 2025, which means he has to get busy now making things to have enough for then.

Michaels is one of those stores I love to hate. They offer 70% off coupons, which means the "regular retail price" is little more than a joke. And if you don't sign up for their frequent flyer discount plan, well, you end up way overpaying for your stuff.  So we set up an account and thought all was well and good.  Just type in your phone number at checkout and save!  Well, that and you can download the "app" and display bar codes from virtual coupons to get these 70% off deals or $15 off on a purchase of $50 or whatever.

So, on the way there Mark says, "can you go on the phone and see if there are any coupon deals at Michaels?" which I do.  But first, it wants me to update the "app."  Oh boy, do I hate smartphones!  Why do apps need updating every five days?  Oh, right, the IT Geek Employment Act of 2021 - guaranteeing perpetual and unnecessary updates to software into perpetuity!  Gotta keep those incels busy!

So ten minutes later the app is updated and I log in - or at least try to.  It asks me for a username (e-mail) and password.  I type in what I think is the correct combination and it says "error."  So I hit the "forgot password" link and enter the e-mail address.  "No such e-mail address found!" it says - for both our e-mail addresses.

OK, I'll just set up a new account.  I enter the e-mail address, name, and phone number as requested and it bombs out, saying, "there is already an account with that phone number!"

I try again several different times, but no joy.  It has no record of either of our e-mail addresses, but when I try to set up an account, it blocks me because our phone numbers are already associated with an existing account.  Perpetual do-loop.

And shitty programming.  And no, I don't want to spend an hour on the phone talking to someone in the Philippines or India trying (in vain) to get it fixed.  No thank you!

Fortunately, the coupons are still visible but today there is only one - 70% off on framing.  The can do a good job on framing at Michael's (depends on who you get - like so much else of corporate retail these days) but boy-howdy do they charge high prices!  I ask at the front why there are no coupons online and they explain they are charging "regular low prices" this month instead of using coupons.  Maybe the public has succumbed to coupon fatigue.  If so, this is a good sign.

A bad sign is that, other than three "Goth" teens (they still exist!) we were the only ones in the store.  How they stay in business is beyond me.

We tried visiting the Hobby Lobby (sort of a Jesus Office Depot to the Staples of Michaels) and weren't too impressed there.  It was also empty of customers and while they had some nice things, almost all of it had Jesus on it.  They did have some great deals in the closeout section on real authentic Biblical artifacts, though!

UPDATE: I finally got it to work today for some reason, but it insisted I set up a new account, so our "rewards points" were wiped out.  I was able to log in on the laptop, but on the phone, I got the message shown above - and it won't go away!  Even reloading the app brings it up again!

For some reason, it has Mark's "store" listed at Wichita Kansas.  When I try to change this, the local store comes up, but the bar to "change my store" won't work.  Glitchy!

BAD PROGRAMMER!  NO CHIPOLTE FOR YOU!

UPDATE II:  It is interesting, but the "coupons" and "deals" are all directed toward ordering online.  Is Michaels going to become an online store and ditch brick-and-mortar?  It would seem so and the huge expense of renting store space, staffing it, and stocking it, isn't going to even begin to pay for itself based on the foot traffic I am seeing.  Something is up!

The "everyday low prices" idea is attractive to ME, but as the experience with JC Penny illustrates, a lot of older woman love sales and coupons and they are not attracted to everyday low prices, even if they are lower than "sale" prices.

Americans think a 1/3-pound burger is smaller than a 1/4-pound burger, too.  You can't fix stupid!

But you can market to it!