Thursday, February 05, 2015

Thursday Night Linkage

A hottie redheaded wifey explains how to avoid Valentine's Day.  I wasn't really paying attention to what she said.

"Journalism" was never a real profession to begin with.  I think the baby boomer infested MSM proved that and removed it far far away from being the "4th branch of government."  But hey, you get your Masters in Journalism all you want.  Real people will just start blogs.

Before you become a mechanic.

Your funny ha ha for the day.

6 comments:

Spitty said...

The redheaded wifey has lost weight over the past few years. You should see her old vids.

Quartermain said...

Valentine's Day is just another day to me and I treat it as such.

Kristophr said...

The economy effects everyone. Building trades also suffer when shit goes bad, and the jobs in the Bakken are being put at risk by the current US-Russia economic war.

JK Brown said...

The mechanic link is interesting. There is "work" but not enough to pay for the investment in training and tools.

I watched a few more of his videos. Buried in one on code scanners was a demo of a pro tool (scanner, scope, touch screen laptop, $6000). But that tool had a database for troubleshooting or as it was characterized, the tool would train the mechanic. Sure there is basic knowledge needed but the tool was getting to be the more valuable participant in diagnostics. A later video reviewed a new wireless scanner that could do similar just not in a very big way...yet.

The other thing I learned was how many freakin' computers are in your car. And they all cost big bucks if they fail. I know if the airbags deploy on 5-yr old car, it is pretty much totaled due to their replacement costs, but it is also becoming that if you need much diagnostic/repair at all when labor charges are $100/hr.

How long before there is a "robot" who reads the codes, runs some acoustic diags, perhaps analyzes the exhaust then spits out a replacement parts list?

Nathan Young said...

I've been going down the road of becoming an automotive/diesel technician for over a year now. (School and some shop experience.) I can tell you that the sheer amount of knowledge that a technician has to have is astounding. Anyone who thinks that a scan tool is going to replace a technician is wrong though. Scan tools just provide a technician with information to help him diagnose the problem. Its the technicians job to use the info from the scan tool, digital multimeter etc. to put together a list in his head of possible causes for the problem.

JK Brown said...

They discuss the need to know how to use the information, but they also point out the professional tool links to information out in the internet and in databases. But neither precludes a future machine that collects more data from doing the diagnostics and telling the technician what to do, thus reducing the skill requirement of the technician.

In any case, as I mentioned after a car is only a few years old, anything that requires significant diagnostic time, like intermittent problems are most economically solved by throwing away the old car. It's a tricky mental issue but if not careful, you can easily spend more for a repair attempt than the car is worth.