Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates
daemonology.net
daemonology.net
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, and dump/restore all the state spread through 20+ browser windows, probably 30+ bash instances, and a couple repls. etc. It's really fucking annoying.
Another thing that ate 3 hours of my life recently: post reboot, zoom.us, which previously worked flawlessly, no longer works. I of course discover this as a meeting is starting.
1) update rarely, fix a lot of breakage at a time
2) update daily, run into each breakage as soon as it happens and fix it
3) never update, no need to fix anything
https://www.stavros.io/posts/provisioning-your-computer-one-...
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"
EDIT: Phew, fixed, good catch, thanks. There was a triple dash in the article, which Lektor interpreted as the end of the post :/
At least you found the cause.
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.
In terms of safety, not much good comes from asking people.
(That, or let's just all agree that CVEs are a threat to Internet security, and have a policy for always displaying a message like "Your device will reboot in 05:00 in order to install a critical security patch. Please save your work." and have the users take comfort that it's not just their computer, but half of the planet is rebooting with them. That solution is game-theoretically unstable, though.)
Keeps everyone happy and dramatically improves compliance.
Good article, but actually understates the problem. It's not just that nonsecurity updates are appropriately due lesser attention. It's that they are appropriately due negative attention. My computer works fine the way it is. I actively do not want it screwed around with. I make a necessary exception for security updates. To put anything other than a security update into that channel is an abuse of trust that was granted for an important purpose, and trust that is abused is liable to be lost.
The author's vehicle is a prime sludge candidate, although not as bad as people who go years w/o changes.
Loss of viscosity is a wholly separate form of degradation which along with accumulated Ph changes is responsible for the "every N miles" recommendation.
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).
Is it a difference between european and US made cars?
"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).
The standards for oil are tightly regulated in the EU.
But many brands meet that spec. It's really only white label conventional bottles that don't.
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)
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.
This is true in theory, but for most people the rest of the car will fall apart before the engine dies. All the rubber and plastic is degraded by air and sunlight which has little to do with any use patterns. (there are of course uses that put more wear on them as well)
A good portion of the cars are junked with so little use that they would have made it that far without any oil changes at all. Of course the oil would be like syrup, and the engine would show other signs of the abuse, but it would still be running well enough to make that last trip before the car is destroyed for other reasons.
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..
Parts stores still push the 3k miles/3 months (or did until very recently). Dealers and manufacturers don't, and haven't for at least 10 years.
Having pulled the tops off more engines than I could count, you can immediately tell an engine that gets regular oil flushes compared to one thats run on longer intervals. Sure, the engine might last your whole ownership without having a serious issue... But inside it'll probably tell a different story.
My last car was a bit of a beater, and we did the oil change more frequently. Reason was that it had a problem with the transmission (manual, as most cars here), and from time to time there would be little metal shavings in the oil! But apparantly this is less horrible than it sounds, and somewhat normal for old cars. There is even a little magnet in the oil vessel to collect the shavings. After a combination of learning this, and having lived in the states for a couple of years, I insisted on changing the oil more regularly.
But the oil of a manual transmission (and as well that of an automatic one) is normally separated from the engine oil, do I read it correctly that you had a car with those in common?
All cars have one or more magnets (for ferrous shavings)it is perfectly normal, but of course they are pretty much ineffective for other metals, and more generally other possible contaminants.
If he changed every 6 months, he'd be changing every 1000km. That's insane! I don't even refuel every 1000km!
Example oil change schedule for a modern car (Taken from Audi Q7 '09 service manual): 8.000km, 25.000km, 40.000km, 55.000km...
So ~15.000km between changes - or 7.5 years if you drive 2.000km per year. Now - obviously you wouldn't go 7 years without an oil and filter change but you should be completely fine changing every 1-2 years on a car that is driven so little (It's the aging of the oil that's the problem, not the distance driven)
> I envy you.
Still envy me when I say a full tank is $100? :)
Or actually, the car will be perfectly fine. Nobody changes their cars every 3-4 months in this here parts, and the sky hasn't fallen.
Cars usually get scrapped for some problem that is uneconomical to fix due to the age of the car, long before the engine is worn out.
There have been news stories about this too, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/17/us-drivers-str...
Software updates: Is the car running right or is there an issue?
Safety recalls: We're obsessed with the dog-whistle safety, but like anything else, there are trade-offs. Our Honda got recalled for the airbag inflators and I waited a few months before eventually taking it in. Result: No one died. I also have one car that has no airbags at all. I feel fine.