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Thunder Chicken

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My dad and I sent the head and cylinders out to be machined, but did the assembly work ourselves, largely on the driveway and using tools from Harbor Freight (torque wrenches being among the biggest exceptions...). Not too hard, especially with the tuner community in the mix.

Many auto stores lend (not rent) specialty tools (torque wrenches, pullers, etc..). You basically get charged the full value of the tool onto your credit card, but you can use it and return it and get a full refund. If you don't ever return it, they consider it bought. Some let you keep it 90 days, some don't have any deadline to return at all.

The only problem I really have is logistical - I need two cars for me and my wife to get to work. Having my car tied up in a rebuild for a significant period of time would suck. Buying a new car to keep two operational cars in the fleet defeats the purpose. Maybe the thing to do is to preemptively buy a used engine/transmission, rebuild that, then swap it in. I would have another engine kicking around, and I don't have much space to keep it in.

Plus I need to worry that as a rookie I'd eff up something in the rebuild and have to do it all over again, maybe having a car out of commission when I can't afford it.
 
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Urwumpe

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Some fun fact:

26 people died in Germany of microgravity since 1980.



Nobody really knows why microgravity is even listed as cause of death, but the best theory around: Microgravity had the ICD-9 code E928.0 ... when you swap the final digits, you get E982.0 "car exhaust". Since switching to ICD-10 in 1998, only one person died of microgravity (X52) .... X25 is "Contact with other venomous arthropods", X51 is travel and motion, X53 is lack of food.
 

Andy44

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It's not microgravity that kills you, it's the sudden onset of acceleration at the end of the microgravitic period. AKA "deceleration sickness", also known in NYC as "concrete poisoning".
 

Thunder Chicken

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It's not microgravity that kills you, it's the sudden onset of acceleration at the end of the microgravitic period. AKA "deceleration sickness", also known in NYC as "concrete poisoning".

Sounds like an obituary:

"Thunder Chicken passed away last Tuesday from the sudden onset of acceleration after an extended bout of microgravity. The funeral will be closed-casket. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Orbiter-Forum."
 

Urwumpe

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"We have to inform you about the passing away of Karl Ranseier. Karl Ranseier was the most unsuccessful astronaut in the universe. He started his career circling around his parents. His biggest success was the discovery of water and microbiological lifeforms near the Dutch shore. He died yesterday afternoon from sudden onset of acceleration after falling from the fixed service structure of his rocket."
 

mojoey

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Discovering the flemish isn't really an 'achievement'.
 

jedidia

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Had to abort an important examn last week because the setup of the computers we had to write it on wasn't working properly for the whole class. Turns out that the cause of this was that the image from which the setup was installed experienced the tender love of a crypto locker. This school just continues to inspire my confidence :facepalm:
 

Enjo

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Can't you smell my T levels?
Yesterday I learned that my polish friend in Germany died of cancer...
Although she was mid-40, she was still hot... and very nice :(

That's the second polish friend in Germany, that I lost this year. Another one hanged himself in a forest that I see from my balcony in Hildesheim... The depressive Hildesheim killed the poor guy.

His pride never let me help him, although I had exact solutions to his problems. What's tragicomic to me, is that he repaired my sofa, that my wife and I had broken together when we... you know :)
 
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Urwumpe

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The depressive Hildesheim killed the poor guy.

I hardly remember Hildesheim as extremely depressing sight (Go a bit east to Salzgitter or a bit north to Hanover for comparison)... But that doesn't really matter if you are depressed anyway. Depressed people would even feel bad at the Copacabana.
 

Urwumpe

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Some small warning here:

The internet connection issues of the German Telekom provider since yesterday evening seem to be caused by a massive world-wide attack against an known vulnerability in the TR-069 protocol on Port 7547. Goal seems to be to extend a Mirai-like bot net.

https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Port+7547+SOAP+Remote+Code+Execution+Attack+Against+DSL+Modems/21759

The SOAP envelope send to the modems attempts to download and run an executable in a Linux-like environment.

My modem also had a small glitch yesterday, will need to check if any misconfiguration was attempted (but I doubt it, AVM should be safe).

The known to be affected modems are Speedport devices (rebranded from various manufacturers for the Telekom).

---------- Post added 11-29-16 at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was 11-28-16 at 05:58 PM ----------

Update: AVM devices are reported by AVM to be immune to the attack, I can confirm it here with a sample size of 1.

Telekom reacted by offering a free day of mobile internet as work around and:

 

PhantomCruiser

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Anybody have plans for Gatlinburg this holiday? Due to the wildfires there might not even be a Gatlinburg. A big section of Pigeon Forge is being evacuated tonight too. We finally got some much needed rain, but I'm not sure how much it'll save.

Two of the girls the kiddo danced with have jobs at different venues in Pigeon Forge. One is at the Smokey Mountain Opry, the other at the Hatfields and McCoy's. Both of them have reported that they are safe.

The Park Vista hotel in G-burg is a pile of ashes. If anyone has visite Gatlinburg, that's the hotel up on the hill from Ripley's museum and the needle.

Looks like the Aquarium of the Smokies is surrounded. The staff was rounded up in a mandatory evacuation earlier this morning.
 
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Linguofreak

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People I have been angry at today:

Canonical
The Linux kernel team
Nvidia
The GRUB development team
Me
AT&T
Canonical
The Linux kernel team
Maybe Intel?

To count my blessings, as bad as that sounds (what with the "Grub development team, me" bit), my computer was not at any point unbootable.

But I'm not going to be able to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 for who knows how long.

Bonus points to anyone who can reconstruct my evening based on the above. :)
 

PhantomCruiser

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Being angry with AT&T is called being an AT&T customer. Just the way it is.

I mean seriously, look at their corporate logo. Then look at the Death Star. Coincidence? I think not.
 

Urwumpe

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I am angry at the construction workers, who needed to make a full kilometer of the bypass to Gifhorn a single lane road with traffic lights letting only two cars pass for each direction.... and that for having three small trucks stand on the side of the road and a dozen workers, of which 4 had been doing the work and 8 had been standing around or helped moving the trucks a few meters further down....
 

tl8

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I am angry at the construction workers, who needed to make a full kilometer of the bypass to Gifhorn a single lane road with traffic lights letting only two cars pass for each direction.... and that for having three small trucks stand on the side of the road and a dozen workers, of which 4 had been doing the work and 8 had been standing around or helped moving the trucks a few meters further down....

Wait, I thought you Germans were efficient at that sort of thing?
 
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