random (snowy) bits

[cellio]

I had a new experience yesterday and today that I diagnosed today. You know how when a street hasn't been plowed but people drive on it, you get twin ruts for the tires? If you fit it can mostly work. (My smaller car doesn't always fit, but it was ok.) Between the ruts you have a higher pile of snow, which gradually gets packed down by cars.

On the Hot Metal bridge southbound, that pile of snow (now well-packed) is higher than my car's belly. So that's why I felt a distinct lack of control even though my tires only have 6000 miles, my car is reasonable, and I'm reasonably competent with driving in snow. The vibrations from the floor gave it away. There's not much you can do if your tires aren't in contact with anything.

I will take a different route tomorrow, assuming it's possible to drive to work tomorrow at all. (Round two has started.)

* * *

A coworker did something entertaining this weekend. He wanted to watch the Superbowl but still had no power Sunday night. He did, however, have a car, a power inverter, extension cords, a computer, and a neighbor with unsecured wireless. :-) (The converter did not provide enough juice to run his TV but his computer was ok. I think it was a laptop that no longer had enough battery life of its own.) Clever. I don't think he drew enough to interfere with starting the car, but if he had I guess, worst case, he could have called AAA for a jump. :-)

* * *

I was supposed to study with one of my rabbis tomorrow. We're reading midrash about the crossing of the sea of reeds. Today he sent mail: "I think the miracle of snow will get in the way of the miracle of the sea". Yeah, it's not like there's any place to park there...

Comments

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Nathaniel is thinking of taking my SUV into work tomorrow. I've been given permission to telecommute (woah) and even though he's more comfortable in his car, he thinks he'll need the extra ground clearance.

[cellio]

Policy would allow me to telecommute, but available hardware does not. :-( If you have a company laptop you're fine, but I neither have nor want one. We're not allowed to connect non-company machines to the company network (nor copy company data onto non-company machines to work). There is a limited, slow remote-desktop option, but only from a Windows machine running IE and sometimes not even then. There's no Mac support, and using remote desktop to get to my old PC so I can then get to work is silly. I don't care enough, yet, to rearrange the computer room to use the PC directly; if I can't get to work today I'll use PTO. Obviously for an extended problem I would choose differently.

[yuggazogy.livejournal.com]

So Microsoft's Remote Desktop for Mac isn't an option? How odd.

[geekosaur]

Sounds like they block RDP and use some web-based (and IE-only) "solution". (This is more secure how? I don't pretend to understand corporate decision-making.)

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Port 80 is inherently more secure than any other port. This is one of the fundamental axioms.

[cellio]

The only option for non-corporate machines is something called IVE, which I gather is customized to go through our firewall and whatever else is in place. It requires Windows and Active-X.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

High-centering is no good! And of course you can get in the situation where zero of your wheels are having any effect, not to mention damaging your undercarriage. :-/ I tend to drive offset from the ruts, but on a bridge that doesn't sound possible.

[cellio]

Yeah, I don't want to do that to my car, so now that I know that's what was going on, I'll be seeking out a different bridge today. (Yesterday the alternate was reported to be very icy but basically flat.)

The bridge I was on is two lanes, one in each direction, so not a lot of room to maneuver. I try to drive offset from the ruts too, but couldn't in this case. (My car isn't especially unusual in size, but it is a smaller car and it often seems like the ruts were made by wider vehicles. So if it's a bad fit anyway, why try?)

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

If you were feeling it scrape your floorboards, you might want your mechanic to check the underside of your car for damage. It probably isn't too likely that anything is broken, but who knows what might have fallen off of another vehicle and been embedded in the ice?

How about investing in a small pickup truck with a plow attachment? You know you want one--just like the guys from South Hills....8^P

[cellio]

Mechanic: good thought. Thanks.

This is a 20- or 30-year storm (or set of storms), as I understand it. That pickup truck with plow -- and the place to park it -- would have to be pretty darn inexpensive to make that pay off! :-) (I'm certainly not going to use such a thing as my everyday vehicle...)

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Back in 2004, there used to be this scruffy guy (sometimes two) sitting out in an old pickup truck right outside of the subway station.. with a laptop that seemed to be hooked up to their truck. It was enough to make me suspicious, until (after walking past them for several days and wondering if I should inform someone) I finally realized there was a coffee shop two doors down, and they were probably just leaching wifi. Powering it off of a car battery, though, seemed impressive.

[cellio]

I wonder if there was a DC-to-AC adapter involved, so they could plug it into the cigarette lighter. (Does that even work with something as hefty, power-wise, as a laptop?)

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

It wasn't the lighter socket, it was connected (through something) directly to the battery. Scary looking. They do sell laptop recharger adapters for cars, though, so I'm sure one could power a laptop much more cleanly through such a thing.

[cellio]

Oh, you really did mean the battery when you said "hooked up to their car". That's a lot of trouble to go to for a frequent activity.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Yes, and that was what made it look quite suspicious. ;-) The hood was open and what looked like jumper cables were attached to something which was plugged into the laptop, which the guy held outside the car. Very bizarre.