131–140 of 517 posts
My wife's car right now is low on windshield wiper fluid. It warns us at a particular spot while we are driving. Not a particular distance from home, a specific geolocation. First thoughts were that it was the amount of time as she went to something and came back. But it does the on screen and audible warning at that location every time, no matter what was driven before that, whether it was 5 minutes, 5 miles, an hou…
We had a similar problem at work in the late 90s. A member of staff reported that their mouse would stop working between certain hours of the day. It had apparently been okay in the morning, stopped working over lunchtime then started again later. On some days it would work perfectly all day long, but on others it would stop working between those hours. The biggest clue was it would always work perfectly on overcast…
There's an infrared beam and sensor. When the ice tray is full, it is supposed to block the beam, and then the machine stops making ice.
On a sunny day, there's enough bright light in our kitchen to fool the sensor so it keeps making ice.
We have a random magazine that we put on top of it to make it work correctly.
This reminds me of a GM minivan that my youngest brother-in-law drove, back in the '80's. He'd gotten it from his father, who was a career GM automotive engineer - and complained that, occasionally & randomly, it would not start. It seemed like the minivan's whole electrical system was dead... Brother-in-law was known to be "not so good" with cars - so his automotive engineer father didn't take the complaints serious…
GM cars are notorious for (sometimes) developing strange problems that would have you think they are possessed with the devil. (Despite post-1990 GM cars being near peers to Japanese cars for reliability overall)
American carmakers really needed that kick in the ass from Japan. Around 1990 was when my parents went from being protectionist, "buy American" to never buying another domestic car again in their lives. They were angry, angry at the reliability difference and angry knowing that domestic carmakers could have done better but instead relied on people like them to buy the flag.
This reminds me of the case of the 500 mile email: https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html
> Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. Vanilla is the most popular flavor? That makes me skeptical of the whole story. ;-)
It is, certainly would have been at the time anyone would be driving a Pontiac. But it is dubious that the store would have a separate case for it. And making a trip for it every night after you've had dinner? And an engineer spent days working on the problem in person? THe story is weird. Also, vanilla is good.
This is the only slightly credible bit IMO; companies sometimes do this! If you have a really weird problem in something you've sold a few million units of, you really, really want to know what that problem is, before more people start complaining.
The supermarket layout is clearly contrived to make the story work, though, and doesn't otherwise make any sense.
A month into summer, the internet started to die at around 1pm… then magically restore itself in the early evening before the tech would arrive. This went on for a solid week or more.
Eventually the provider agreed to send a tech immediately after we called. On first inspection, everything looked good. Thankfully he was diligent and found that an old pin based IC was likely expanding in the heat and every so slightly unseating itself in its socket. Properly seating it and adding some hot glue solved the issue.
Never underestimate heat dissipation in product design.
Ice cream is not that popular, so it could reasonably be stocked near the front of the store. But all the flavors are stored together, as you'd expect.
Engineers who make house calls are also not a thing in Detroit. You might see that happen in Japan, where airline CEOs have been known to make pilgrimages to call on the families of crash victims. But I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if the car companies have ever done anything like that.
This reminds me of a GM minivan that my youngest brother-in-law drove, back in the '80's. He'd gotten it from his father, who was a career GM automotive engineer - and complained that, occasionally & randomly, it would not start. It seemed like the minivan's whole electrical system was dead... Brother-in-law was known to be "not so good" with cars - so his automotive engineer father didn't take the complaints serious…
GM cars are notorious for (sometimes) developing strange problems that would have you think they are possessed with the devil. (Despite post-1990 GM cars being near peers to Japanese cars for reliability overall)
Like turning on the backup lights in a parking lot when the engine isn't even running.