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Kids these days/los...
 

Kids these days/lost knowledge

Posts: 3635
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With an analogue gauge, for a quick read, your eye only has to feedback the position of the needle, and your brain combines this with previous knowledge of the scale of the Speedo, and these two things are combined for a rough reading.

This.

Those focusing on digital readouts are absolutely right that they're more accurate, but they're missing that you have to focus on them. It takes time for your eyes to focus from far distance to near and back to far, plus you need to look down (or up, if you're surfing Facetube).

Some time ago I remember watching some random aviation video where all the cockpit dials were aligned in a way that meant when all was tickety-boo, the needles were aligned straight up. This was on a multi engined something or other. I thought it might have been a Shack or Nimrod, but can't seem to find the right one.

Point was that a fly boy didn't really need to look at the instruments to superficially check them. Can't do that if they're digital.

I know that's a slightly different point, but the principle is the same. Another example, on my car, the 12 o'clock position is where the rev limiter is.


 
Posted : 26/09/2025 1:35 pm
Posts: 33961
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Posted by: Cougar

I have zero issues with people not being technically minded.  Some people just aren't wired that way, and this is fine.  I live with a technophobe, put a keyboard in front of her and she's an exercise in patience / frustration, but she has skills in other areas that I can only dream of.

That was my late partner. We only got back together after her daughters set up a Facebook page for her, which she never used, she popped up on my feed as ‘someone you may know’ about twenty two or so years after I’d last seen her, she had an iPad Mini handed down to her by her sister, which she struggled with, and only used as a last resort, and her phone was a cheap PAYG. She was about as untechnical as it’s possible to get, bless her! 😊


 
Posted : 27/09/2025 2:49 am
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Posted by: Edukator

No need to take the top off in the early 60s Winters, it was standing on spout of frozen milk.

1963. I was the first boy in my school to wear long trousers. Started snowing Boxing Day, finally started clearing in March. 


 
Posted : 27/09/2025 2:53 am
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Posted by: wbo

They don't even know how to sew leather onto wood nowadays!

I haven’t a clue how you do that. Use staples?  
I do, on the other hand, know how to properly sew leather, and I have the tools to do it with.

The arthritis in my thumb joints doesn’t make it easy these days, though. 


 
Posted : 27/09/2025 2:57 am
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Posted by: matt_outandabout

https://www.thelostwords.org/lostwordsbook/

Friends of mine are very good friends with Jackie Morris, who did all the illustrations for the series of books. As a result I’m the very proud owner of all the books she’s done with Robert MacFarlaine, signed by both of them. There’s been an exhibition in Bath of her original works for the book, and they are things of real beauty.

 


 
Posted : 27/09/2025 3:04 am
Posts: 16208
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Reading "35" doesn't require estimation, it's absolute.  

There's a difference between precision and accuracy. My car has a digital speedo and at an indicated 33mph, it's doing a true 30mph according to GPS. I don't find it any more useful than the dial in my old car.


 
Posted : 27/09/2025 7:25 am
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