Why do power drills have R and L?

[rbowman]

That's what the slider on your knee is, so you can lean really far.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

The body clock is normally reset each day when it becomes light, which is why it's important to sleek in the DARK (a night light in a bedroom is a bad thing).

I remember reading about an experiment where people lived in a cave for awhile, so they'd be away from all indications of what time is it. The normal free-running period of the biological clock is about 25.5 hours. Maybe that explains the desire to stay up late.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I'm pretty regular going to bed at midnight. I may be awake for a short time but get out of bed at 8, once a week of so it may be 8:30. Fifteen minute afternoon nap can be nice too.

When I was working, 7 hours sleep was typical but at work it was usually a 10 minute nap.

[Mike Duffy]

You are correct. We require 3 or 4 REM sleep cycles each night. Each one takes less time (~120m 90m 60m). And of course how long it takes to fall asleep depends on if one has recently eaten unfamiliar food or is under stress, like for example living in a cave.

[NY]

The problem is that supplier get lazy and try to make one pack that is sold in all countries, so they use icons and pictures instead of words. I sometimes wonder whether badly-drawn icons (the "WTF is that a picture of?" type of icon) are more or less understandable than a words in a foreign language.

At least you can look up a foreign word in a dictionary or feed it to Google Translate, but icons don't lend themselves to being listed in alphabetical order to make them searchable. And you get the thing that really pisses me off: a manual that uses icons that don't exactly match the ones on the appliance, so you have to play "which icon in the manual most closely resembles the one on the appliance". To work well, the icon in the manual and on the appliance should be identical in shape, aspect ratio etc, rather than being loosely similar as if someone has drawn an icon for the appliance and then has tried to describe an icon in words over the phone to the person who is writing the manual.

For an item that is sold in one specific country, that country's words for the items are better than *unfamiliar* icons.

Familiar icons are things like the play/record/ff/rew/pause/stop/record icons used on all tape recorders, MP3 players, recorder/player software etc. Once you've learned them, that knowledge is transferrable to any player/recorder of any technology and any manufacturer.

Unfamiliar icons are ones that are specific to one appliance, because you will probably never have seen them before: they don't appear in your mental "data bank" of icons and the corresponding meanings.

Washing symbols are a problem because a washing machine and a tumble drier, as real appliances, look very similar (square box with circular door) so you have to learn that the circle in square box icon is a tumble drier rather than a washing machine.

The real problem with washing is that you have to translate between the generic washing symbols and the programmes available on a specific machine. It would help if a washing machine used the washing symbols as the icons that depicted the programmes that were available: ie temperatures and amount of agitation. But instead they introduce an extra level of complexity: fabric type (cotton/synthetic/wool) and the distinction between eco and non-eco. In the case of eco/non-eco, it would be better to be brutally honest and say "short washing programme that gets clothes clean" (non-eco) and "long washing programme that leaves clothes still slightly dirty but it better for the planet" (eco) ;-)

I'm sure many of us end up doing most items on an average wash: 30 or 40 deg C, medium agitation (or "mixed fabrics), which may not be optimum but won't be too far wrong either.

For me, I have two mental barriers and translation problems to overcome when I see an icon:

1. What object (as a word) is depicted by the icon?

1. Having translated icon to object (word), what function of the appliance is intended.

I usually have problems at the first stage: what object does this drawing show? Once I've made that mental translation, the second stage, what appliance function is portrayed is relatively easy.

The best icons are the ones which are intuitive and don't have to be learned as a look-up table.

The ">" for play, "<<" for rewind and ">>" for fast forward are intuitive:

- a single arrow means play

- a double arrow in the same direction as play means play fast - ie fast forward (or shuttle forwards at high speed)

- a double arrow in the opposite direction to play means: play backwards fast - ie rewind (or shuttle backwards at high speed)

OK, you've still got to learn that square is stop, two vertical line is pause and red circle is record. I suppose ">" in red is the best representation for record, but it fails in that it uses *only* colour to distinguish play from record, whereas a red circle uses two things - colour and shape - to make the distinction.

[NY]

If it's a two axle rigid vehicle (as opposed to an articulated one) then the skill to learn is to delay starting to turn if the vehicle is longer than you are used to. You are not initially turning right in order to turn left, you are keeping going straight for a few feet more than if you were driving a shorter vehicle.

That's where a mirror that is angled downwards to show the rear wheels relative to the kerb comes in useful: you wait until you see the kerb curving away around the side road that you want to take and then you start to turn, confident that the rear wheels will then avoid clipping the kerb. After you've done it enough times, you learn where the front end is in relation to your view of the junction, and can use that instead of the view in the angled rear mirror to judge when to start turning.

When I'm reversing any vehicle, whether it's a small car, a larger SUV or a big van, the door mirrors are probably the thing I use most - much more than the view through the central rear-view mirror or over my shoulder (which won't be possible in a big van!). The main thing is to see where each rear wheel and each side of the vehicle is in relation to the kerb/hedge/brick wall/white line of parking bay that you are trying to fit between.

I usually enable to option which causes the door mirrors to dip automatically when reverse is engaged, so I can see my rear wheels (rather than just the side of the car), because the kerb that I am are trying to avoid hitting with the wheel is out of view either with the naked eye or with the door mirror aimed straight backwards.

[NY]

Yes there is. You could define a series of numbered programmes which all washing machines implement. You see that the washing label says "Programme

7" so you select that programme on your washing machine dial/menu. Simples. None of this "30 deg with two dots underneath" and having to translate that into the programme that your machine offers which most closely relates to that, using a translation like "one dot = minimum agitation, so wool programme; two dots is medium, so cotton; three dots is maximum, so synthetic".

It should be "same icon on label as on washing machine programme", to keep things nice and simple.

Does anyone (maybe from the UK, if it's UK-specific) remember in the early days of automatic washing machines a label and programme system where the label and programme *did* correspond? It probably pre-dates when we changed to the Euro or worldwide washing labels.

[Commander Kinsey]

I've never known one stick and I've had very old cars. The only way I run out of petrol is forgetting.

There is no lockdown, it's advisory everywhere except commie countries like China. I've in fact been driving around a lot to go hillwalking and buy 2nd hand stuff from Gumtree as I have more time to do DIY projects. It is nice having quiet roads though, and no pigs bothering with speed checks either!