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Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

daemonology.net

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Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#21

Post by alkonaut »

StavrosK wrote: post #17
alkonaut wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a difference though? If you see my other reply to the parent, I posted the US oil change schedule for a european car. It seems to be in line with what I experience in europe . Is it a difference between european and US made cars?

I know nothing on the matter, but it seems to me that it's a cultural difference. Americans are just more used to changing the oil often, so oil companies can sell them more oil even if they don't need it.

Found this http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/24/oil-change-intervals/

"For years the accepted oil change interval (as per carmakers) had been every 3 months or 3000 miles, whichever comes first. And why was that? It was because oils of yesterday broke down when left in the crankcase environment for longer than the prescribed interval. The combination of heat, friction, and the oil oxidizing over time resulted in an unholy clothing of the engine's internal parts called sludge."

That's an absolutely insane number, and I have never heard of that (I have had cars for 20 years that always were 10k to 15k km intervals, and simply done on a yearly or 18 months service).

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#22

Post by jacques_chester »

Another reason for the resistance is the pain of upgrading.

Anything that requires a reboot, for example, is likely to be held off for a long time. When people are at the computer, it's because they want to use it right now. They aren't there to watch it reboot a few times.

It's less painful once you scale past single systems. Insofar as you have distributed systems that tolerate some fraction of their instances disappearing and reappearing, you can roll an upgrade out across the system without users having to notice that it's happened. Where I work we do this very well -- we update and upgrade live production systems for CVEs and feature adjustments quite frequently without systems running on them being any the wiser.

Still remaining is the sheer amount of independent dependency tracks into any given software system. Operating system, multiple language ecosystems, multiple infrastructure systems ... once you include development dependencies and tools -- and you ought to -- the surface area to watch and manage goes up sharply.

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#23

Post by alkonaut »

Spooky23 wrote: post #20
alkonaut wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a difference though? If you see my other reply to the parent, I posted the US oil change schedule for a european car. It seems to be in line with what I experience in europe . Is it a difference between european and US made cars?

It's a difference in the oil used. The standards for oil are tightly regulated in the EU.

The manufacturers are pretty picky with what oils they recommend for their cars too. I mean if I need a "fully synthetic 10W-30" for my car for example (from the manual) - and the brands are all global megacorps (Shell, Havoline, Mobil, Castrol etc). So with the tight spec and global brands surely I must be getting the same thing in the bottle here as one gets in the US?

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#24

Post by barrkel »

jacques_chester wrote: post #22

Another reason for the resistance is the pain of upgrading. Anything that requires a reboot, for example, is likely to be held off for a long time. When people are at the computer, it's because they want to use it right now . They aren't there to watch it reboot a few times. It's less painful once you scale past single systems. Insofar as you have distributed systems that tolerate some fraction of their instances dis…

It's even worse if the machine reboots while you're away; the risk of lost work is massively increased.

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#25

Post by jacquesm »

StavrosK wrote: post #18
x0x0 wrote: post #2

I'll admit to putting off applying security patches because my laptop is a giant repository of state and it's a pita to bring it all back up again. I have to remember how to start postgres, the erb command to make rails work, figure out how my upgrade to bash subtly broke virtualenvwrapper, make sure I didn't accidentally leave anything open in vim in some random window or go through the whining about vim swap files,…

Do this, and you'll thank me: https://www.stavros.io/posts/provisioning-your-computer-one-...

Was that blog post meant to end like that? It looks as if a lot is missing.

The last lines for me read:

"The main script

First, let’s start with the main Ansible script:

~~~yaml This playbook is meant to provision a new computer. Run with: ansible-playbook -i , provision.yml"

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#27

Post by lucaspiller »

Spooky23 wrote: post #19
miahi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered how this oil-change scam still continues in the US. Modern cars with synthetic oils don't need an oil change every 3-4 months or 3000 miles. I always changed the oil according to the (European or Japanese) manufacturer's schedule (once a year / every 10-15000km) and had no issues with the cars (even >10 years old cars).

Most people don't use synthetic oil. In my case, it's cheaper to use non-synthetic oil and change it quarterly, which generally aligns with other maintenance activity. (Tire rotation, filters, lights, etc)

Here in Europe engine oil is typically always multi-grade, and often fully synthetic. I believe this is because standards are stricter here (although I can't find anything confirming this), and synthetic oil often leads to engines lasting longer and lower emissions.

This is why manufacturers have different recommendations for Europe. The formula of the oil is completely different to the US, so it can stay in the engine a lot longer.

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#28

Post by z29LiTp5qUC30n »

StavrosK wrote: post #18
x0x0 wrote: post #2

I'll admit to putting off applying security patches because my laptop is a giant repository of state and it's a pita to bring it all back up again. I have to remember how to start postgres, the erb command to make rails work, figure out how my upgrade to bash subtly broke virtualenvwrapper, make sure I didn't accidentally leave anything open in vim in some random window or go through the whining about vim swap files,…

Do this, and you'll thank me: https://www.stavros.io/posts/provisioning-your-computer-one-...

Or better yet https://nixos.org/ Make state something exactly defined.

Re: Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates

#30

Post by briffle »

miahi wrote: post #7
King-Aaron wrote: post #5

While I totally agree with most of the article, it made me grind my teeth at the frequency the author changes the oil in their car... That poor valvetrain will be full of gummy carbon deposits. RIP whoever buys the car second-hand.

I always wondered how this oil-change scam still continues in the US. Modern cars with synthetic oils don't need an oil change every 3-4 months or 3000 miles. I always changed the oil according to the (European or Japanese) manufacturer's schedule (once a year / every 10-15000km) and had no issues with the cars (even >10 years old cars).

Modern Diesels in the US have a 15,000 mile interval for oil changes.. but they still put a sticker in your window at both dealerships and oil change locations to come back in 3-5,000 miles.

My 'free oil changes under warranty' deal when I bought my truck required me to come in every 5,000 miles. Their computer system was setup for cars, and they had no way to change it..

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