Gas Pump Golf
gaspumpgolf.github.io
gaspumpgolf.github.io
For some reason I always think of this commercial when I am pumping gas, and how outdated it is. I feel like most people pay using a card now, and those that don’t usually have to pre-pay now, so the gas would shut off when they hit their amount anyway.
I do remember trying to hit round numbers pumping gas when I was younger, though.
Never did.
But after trying to hit $20 I’d just go back to letting it fill my tank.
Years ago—late nineties—long after almost all pumps had CC readers in them, at least in Miami where I lived at the time, and those that didn't were at least electronically connected to the attendant booth, I pulled off at a station in rural Georgia.
Old-style pumps with a mechanical display. You didn't have to pay first. I filled my tank, then went inside to pay.
The attendant asked me how much I'd pumped. I hadn't thought to remember the amount.
I said something like "oh, let me go check for you."
He replies "no need", then pulls out a pair of binoculars and reads the amount off the pump.
Recently, I get annoyed by a pump in NY that wouldn't accept any of my cards or my iPhone. It made me miss those days of mechanical pumps.
I can only assume this is a joke he plays on out-of-towners. Either that or some kind of temporal anomaly has happened and I bought gas in the '90s.
For how commodity gas is it's kind of surprising the number of strange gas station stories I've accumulated over years in the rural southwest, but I suppose that's exactly why. A lot of towns have a gas station because they're a long ways from the next one, not because they actually have a lot of business. The consolidation of gas stations into the modern four-pump-plus with convenience store lead to a lot of older one-pump stations closing, but the ones that held on got stranger. So you end up with oddities like a restaurant that runs a couple pumps in the parking lot on the side, so paying cash requires flagging down a waiter (this was, if memory serves, actually on the outskirts of Silver City and so not even really that remote by regional standards).
Interestingly here in Canada I have the opposite experience; it seems like only stations in high-crime and super high-volume locations require it. There's ~10-12 stations I frequent and only one requires pre-payment, and even then only between 11p-5a.
Another thing that got me the first time I visited the US, what's the deal with pumps requiring a ZIP code? I know the "trick for Canadians" (the three digits of your postal code followed by 00, i.e. A1B 2C3 becomes a "valid zip code" of 12300) but it seems like a pointless extra step and a potential privacy issue.
Requiring the zip code is just a barrier to that
Amusingly debit cards tend to be less of a pain this way since the North American countries are mostly on the same interbank network and the rules have changed less over time.
By the time I started driving, the law required pay-before at all gas stations. So I don't really get what the problem is. How does having the card make things different for Jerry? If he didn't have it, wouldn't he just give the clerk 37 cents and be just as well off?
At the gas pump, you could control how much you spent precisely. So many folks would slow down their pumps as they approached $10 or $20 or whatever amount they needed and then stop on the even number.
In the commercial, pay-at-the-pump is a new and novel feature, so Jerry can fill his tank up to the top without worrying about dealing with the nickels and dimes.
Also, if you break a dollar bill and get change, that change will likely end up in a change jar, which keeps it out of circulation for you and also takes time to wrap into rolls to trade in (they didn't have coinstar back then)
don't you mean how prescient it was? it was literally making the point that credit cards were the new way to pay, and as you point out, it came to pass
... but yeah, $15 plus tips for this game B)
> Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act
> a. Because of the fire hazards directly associated with dispensing fuel, it is in the public interest that gasoline station operators have the control needed over that activity to ensure compliance with appropriate safety procedures, including turning off vehicle engines and refraining from smoking while fuel is dispensed.
> b. At self-service gasoline stations in other states, cashiers are often unable to maintain a clear view of the activities of customers dispensing gasoline, or to give their undivided attention to observing customers; therefore, when customers, rather than attendants, are permitted to dispense fuel, it is far more difficult to enforce compliance with safety procedures
> c. The State needs stronger measures to enforce both compliance by customers with the ban on self-service and compliance by attendants with safety procedures
> e. Exposure to toxic gasoline fumes represents a health hazard when customers dispense their own gasoline, particularly in the case of pregnant women
https://www.nj.gov/labor/safetyandhealth/resources-support/l...
https://jwkblog.com/wordpress/fire-at-gas-stations-some-fact...
5k fires/year, 61% involving vehicles so about 3k fires/year, presumably from pumping gas.
But given how many billions (or maybe even trillions) of customer-pump interactions per year that’s a really low incident rate.
It would be interesting to see if NJ and OR with no self-serve have dramatically lower rates but I couldn’t find that info.
Even with suppression someone has to intervene to reduce it from suppressed to extinguished, and that’s usually the fire department.
The numbers are very small, but it’s not nothing.
The key point though would be seeing if these risks are far lower in OR and NJ, or not.
Edit: $20M, not $20B
I also wonder if it's OK that we let each state decide for themselves rather than creating a federal mandate with what is judged by leading experts to be the best solution.
No. That number is wildly wrong.
The hospitals, I guess? I'm making inferences from the judgement-making of...whoever, not second-guessing them.
If anything, I'm giving complete faith to the system here. My assumption is if they can send out a full fire-truck to respond to a call where clearly an ambulance would be sufficient, they're not doing it despite there also being a fire that needs response.
How much safer is it in NJ?
Your phrasing in the comment I initially replied to suggested that you believe the pump mandate reduces the number of fires. If that's the case, it should be demonstrable with data and it should be front and centre in every discussion, surely?
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/nyregion/on-politics-outc...
Me, I’m too type A and impatient to wait for attendants and I wish we had self serve.
Being able to refuel your car without stepping outside is really nice, especially in winter. There has been attempts to repeal that law to no avail.
The only drawback is if there aren't enough employees you may need to wait a while. This is especially annoying at Costco where there's always a line.
https://www.shell.fi/motorists/inside-our-stations/palvelume...
Personally I prefer to use a "cold station", as in, an unmanned station. Pre-pay with my phone, get out, grab a pump, stand around for a couple of minutes, get back in the car and drive off. No need to faff with people.
In most tank stations I've seen in Italy you have the served and self lines, the latter sparing you some cents/liter while in the former they will wash your windshield while the tank is getting filled up.
Isn't there a serviced lane in other US states?
Also, I remember full-service lines going away around the same time as "Regular" gasoline went away.
As a side note, barely-above minimum wage though it was, I loved that job. Kinda sucked in the Indiana winters, but otherwise stand outside all day and talk to people.
Side-side note: as a former "professional", I'll admit I got bored after 1976, so I have no score to post.
No, because there is no demand for full service at the extra amount it would cost to hire someone. I actually would not pay any extra for someone else to fill it, as I would prefer to not have someone else touch my credit card and risk overfill my fuel tank.
Maybe it changed in previous years, I have not been there in a while.
Since it costs slightly more, there's basically not a market for it outside the places where it's required.
It's also annoying if you're driving down the turnpike right after a snow-storm. The turnpike is clear but the attendants are snowed-in. Once waited for over an hour for the only attendant to pump, but we weren't going to make it to CT on that tank.
CT? so you could have gone ahead and bought in NYS but you wanted that cheap cheap NJ gas, didn't you!?
Isn't that basically the argument behind everything covid?
That's exactly the argument behind regulation to keep us from getting sick.
In South Africa they use chip and pin (also tap and go for small amounts, and tap and pin for larger amounts. Most gas is tap and pin).
Incidentally there is also no self-service for gas country wide.
The way it works is that each pump has a portable wireless card machine. The attendant fills in the amount, you tap, and if necessary he hands you the machine to enter a pin. They look away (in an obvious manner) for this step. He doesn't handle your card.
Incidentally this is true mostly everywhere - you handle your card, not the vendor.
Obviously you never give your PIN to anyone - much less shout it across a forecourt.
I do realize this changes the nature of the game, but maybe a better description of the rules is in order here? I released 2 or 3 cents early so that I can "top off", but this apparently isn't allowed.
Initially they could simulate pump-then-pay.
Then a brief time of pay-then-pump.
Then essentially pump-then-pay as it switches over to debit card.
Finally, pump-then-pay with a random chance of a massive score penalty, to simulate the modern "maybe my card got skimmed" gas pumping experience.
This game really lacks realism.
Oh, definitely! When I first started driving (which was, eek, more than 20 years ago) there was no such thing as prepaying for gas, at least for all the pumps in my area. You pumped the gas, then entered the store to pay for it. I always told the cashier the amount I pumped so I'm not sure if they would have the amount you pumped on their register or not. There were warning signs saying "drive offs will be prosecuted."
Year later, around 2004, I started paying for gas with a credit card at the suggestion of a friend. At first I was super uncomfortable doing so because a casual observer from a distance wouldn't be able to tell if you actually paid for your gas if you didn't enter the store. I'd take the receipt so I had proof I paid if anyone accosted me.
Shortly after that, around 2005-ish(?) I started seeing signs that said "cash transactions need to prepay."
Now I don't see any signs because prepaying is the standard procedure now.
Another difference between now and back then was kids (teens and preteens) would regularly pump gas for their parents (or whoever was driving). Not me, specifically, but I had a few friends who were always expected to pump the gas and pay for it if they were in the car. It was one of their assigned chores.
One thing that real gas pumps have is variable flow control. Once you get to the last 10 cents you can ease up on handle and gas will trickle in at a much slower rate. Also, if you stop a few cents short you can “pulse” it a couple times.
You must be fun at parties.
> I shoot for an exact number of liters
Checks out.
But, you've got my curiosity... what deep truth about "reality" is exposed by Gas Pump Golf?
No one did that, here, though. However, your responses _have_ been demeaning and reductive.
For non US players with little knowledge of the history of prices of petrol in the US, it's a fun way of seeing how it changed (and how incredibly cheap it still is). But that's probably not what they were trying to point out.
Update: I think it's also interesting to see the different approach to filling up your tank. Why do you shoot for an exact number of liters? I've only had to do that with two strokes engines, so I know how much oil I need to add for the correct mixture. Otherwise it's either a full tank or a certain amount of money to avoid getting small coins back (if I pay cash).
The gamer's motivation: most pumps I see have 3 digits past the decimal. Exact dollar amounts are easy-mode, exact volumes are hard-mode.
People do that, but I feel most of these cents worth of fuel will be just left in hose instead of flowing out...
I think it provides a real-world feel for how gas prices have changed over the decade, which is a neat value add for a 4 minute game.
It is a Volvo S60, 2016 or 2015 I think. So this shouldn’t be a problem, yet, it is. Even if you’re pushing it with your own finger, it pops out less than half of the tank full. Pretty weird. Does this at every gas station I think.
She did not see the humour.
New 'Diesel' DLC is now available for $29.99
I wanted to see how many "levels" there were so I started to click the button repeatedly just to end the game. Then I noticed the "you did better than X%" message. I can't get first but can I get last!?
Even using keyboard events, it still says I'm better than 1%. Either someone is still...more wrong/faster...or 1% is the lowest it can go? Haha!
I guess since it was the late 80's, instead of calling someone for help I just asked a stranger for $0.25 to use the phone. I went inside and prepaid $0.25 worth of gas - about 1/4 gallon at the time. The cashier didn't even flinch. I literally pumped it into a plastic bottle I found, walked to my car and gassed it up.
I made it home and grabbed my wallet and decided to see if it had enough gas to make it to the gas station. It did. All better.
#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride#useroverride * {user-select: all !important]
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stopthemadness-mobile/id158308...
On the other hand, if they made a game where you held down a button to buy a certain amount of teraflops, it would probably go the opposite direction over time!
Scary accurate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Mitchell_and_Webb_Look#...
But I tend to watch it the whole series every month or so. It’s fun to put on in the background.
I feel like the brain surgery sketch is very close to the perfect sketch. It’s a simple joke, you can see where it’s headed before it gets there, but it’s still executed well.
Anyway, worth it to me.
2. Hook this up to Plaid and to let people compete using their credit cards to be first to hit the number at the pump.
3. Profit!
-- Edit: Heck, skip #1 and just sell ads on the site.
A score submission looks like this, in a POST body to /new-score:
{"score":58.92,"placeholder":"olivia","id":"64904","logs":[{"year":1931,"price":0.17,"target":0.25,"sale":0,"id":"v5v8"},{"year":1957,"price":0.31,"target":1,"sale":0,"id":"s8x3"},{"year":1976,"price":0.59,"target":4.23,"sale":0.01,"id":"d8v2"},{"year":1992,"price":1.13,"target":10.99,"sale":0.04,"id":"z2q0o9"},{"year":2005,"price":2.3,"target":0.39,"sale":0.05,"id":"c1s2j1"},{"year":2012,"price":3.64,"target":42.24,"sale":0.08,"id":"g1j2k5"}]}
If you mess with the logs so that the "id" fields are incorrect, then the server responds with "invalid". If you leave the logs alone and only change the main "score" value then it still responds with "ok" or "top", but it doesn't appear to actually insert the score - I suspect this is supposed to frustrate efforts at cheating.
I'm not sure whether using the word "placeholder" to refer to the player's name is an unintentional bug or not. I haven't played the game sufficiently well to see if a legitimate high-scoring submission to /new-score looks different. From what I can tell from the source, if you score well enough, it creates an input box and allows you to input your own name, and this input box has "placeholder" text set. If I just randomly change "olivia" to something else then my submission gets rejected with "invalid". I haven't yet worked out where the "olivia" string in "placeholder" comes from. It's a different name every time.
I also haven't yet worked out where the main "id" number comes from (64904 in the above). If I make small changes to this number then the submission still seems to be accepted, but large changes result in "invalid". I'm guessing this number is some sort of fuzzy-ish checksum on the player's name, but I haven't worked out where it comes from.
There is also a page at /tally which seems to map score values to integers (mostly 1, but some not) which I also haven't worked out the purpose of.
Fwiw, you are correct that the digits in "id" is the duration of milliseconds. The letters in-between are random (found this in the source).
If you're able to time any of the stages right, then you can find the missing variable: rate of gas dispensing (in this game, it's 6 seconds per gallon or 0.1666 gallons per second).
For example, in 1931, the price is $0.17/gallon, and they want you to dispense $0.25 worth of gas. That's as little as 1.47 (0.25/0.17) gallons, or as much as ~1.52 gallons. That means you want to hold the button for between ~8825 milliseconds and ~9175 milliseconds. If you divide that ~1.5 gallons by ~9000 milliseconds, you've found the rate, 6 seconds per gallon.
To generate your log entry for 1931, you'd then have something like this: {"year":1931,"price":0.17,"target":0.25,"sale":0.25,"id":"k8j9g5l8"}
To generate your log id for any given year: Target / Price * 6000 = total milliseconds to hold the button. Just put a random letter in front of each digit and you're good to go.
Are people really criticizing the realism of someone's hobby project game? Really, you want better documentation or it to work perfectly on mobile browsers? You immediately need to hack the API?
It's a short little game. Enjoy it for what it is.
Especially when it's not your (general you, not you specifically) time or money on the line, who are you to criticize what someone spends their free time building?
May I remind you of the name of this forum?