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The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

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Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help thinking that people here in Scotland with convertibles (of which there are a surprising number) would probably use less than you per year ;-)

Can you elaborate please? I’m not getting the reference unless it’s some kilt thing

The convertible is still the car, not a convertible kilt(?!), GP is saying with Scottish as opposed to Californian weather there would be less changing. Say, a single open-top-weather period (two changes) per year. Or none.

(I imagine the Californian poster is changing twice per year too, just using 5-6 ties. With that reading the joke is Hey in Scotland you just keep it closed, never need any more ties.)

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#62
post #53

They're 47 inches long. Amazon (UK) has 48 inch long zip ties for $14.45 (pack of 12), 60 inch long for $18. Not quite as thick or wide, sure... But that's not what was in the headline :P

Those long ones are great for certain…. Niche interests. That rhyme with ink. Also, law enforcement.

Kink?

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#63
post #25
post #4

Alternatively, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_lacing

Electrician here. When I went to school around 2006 or so, we actually learned how to do this. Except more like a historical curiosity. It certainly looks beautiful when done right. Sadly, nobody has time or budget for beauty any more, and that goes for all the trades. And so, I carry around bunch of cableties in my toolbag every day. If only people would learn to cut the ends off correctly, so the next guy doesn't t…

Isn't cable lacing just inferior? Let's say you need to replace a chaffed/damaged conductor. With cable ties you cut the ones around damaged area, splice in a replacement, and slap new ties on there. With cable lacing, cutting the lacing anywhere would cause the lacing of the whole cable to lose tension and unravel?

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate please? I’m not getting the reference unless it’s some kilt thing

Gonna go out on a limb here and guess "lousy weather".

Scottish summer - finest day of the year! ;-)

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gonna go out on a limb here and guess "lousy weather".

Scottish summer - finest day of the year! ;-)

Let me guess, you don't need to look at the weather, you know it is THE day when your inbox is full at 9am of messages from most of your colleagues taking the day off?

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#67
post #40

I used 250lb zip ties to hold down my convertible top in the open position, as an alternative to paying $2000 to replace the motors. When I'd need to put up the top I'd cut the zip ties and when I'd want to put it down I'd put on a new set. With California weather and an indoor parking spot I only ended up using about one pack (10? 12?) a year.

I can't help thinking that people here in Scotland with convertibles (of which there are a surprising number) would probably use less than you per year ;-)

Is that a 'Scots are cheap and greedy' joke?

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#68
post #30

The maximum theoretical size for a zip archive is 16 exabytes (2^64 bytes). It's free if you have where to store it.

Should be doable on consumer hardware nowadays, if you cheat by using a file system that either supports sparse files (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file) or block-level deduplication (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_deduplication). You may need to use raw block I/O to create such file, and there will be lots of duplicated content in the archive.

Also: how hard is that limit? ZIP archives have their TOC at the end of the file and allow for inserting ‘junk’ that is never referenced in the ZIP’s table of contents. Isn’t it possible to add such junk to make an archive go over that limit (assuming that your file system allows files larger than 2⁶⁴ bytes)?

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scottish summer - finest day of the year! ;-)

Let me guess, you don't need to look at the weather, you know it is THE day when your inbox is full at 9am of messages from most of your colleagues taking the day off?

There's even a service for it: https://www.taps-aff.co.uk/

Re: The largest zip tie is nearly 4 feet long and $75

#70
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electrician here. When I went to school around 2006 or so, we actually learned how to do this. Except more like a historical curiosity. It certainly looks beautiful when done right. Sadly, nobody has time or budget for beauty any more, and that goes for all the trades. And so, I carry around bunch of cableties in my toolbag every day. If only people would learn to cut the ends off correctly, so the next guy doesn't t…

Sadly, nobody has time or budget for beauty any more It's amazing how ornately decorated early equipment was --- especially 19th century and earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cooke_and_Wheatstone_elec...

It's down to taste and materials too - in the past 50 years or so the general design trend is more minimalist, wood has become more and more expensive (and good quality harder to come by), etc.

But the main reason is of course cost, the linked device looks like a woodworker would spend a few hours to build it (although they probably had machinery to automate parts of the process already).

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