At 12:18 PM 5/31/97 -0400, you wrote:
> Computer discourse snipped
I make my living with computers. That does not mean that I like them, or
consider them the best thing since baked bread. IMHO, the only reason
computers exist in modern automobiles is to provide the user with some kind
of acceptable power and performance while appeasing the public masters who
decree what and when we can drive (EPA - otherwise known as ecoterrorists)
(Nomex suit donned - flame away). I cannot work on my wife's car ('95
Achieva), nor would I care to. I drive a 1964 Impala SS every day (until
Maggie hits the road again, anyway). I can work on it. One morning not too
long ago, it died on me on the way to work. If that had happened to my
wife's car, I would have been trying to find a way to pay a monstrous (and
unforgivably so!) mechanic bill. As it was, I fixed my Impala with a pocket
knife and a pair of pliers (coil wire shorted out to the exhaust manifold -
just a little bit too long). It is this that I think most people resent
about automotive computers - 1) we didn't ask for them - they were mandated
2)we don't know what they're doing and have no easy way to discover that
information 3)they are outrageously expensive (read higher automobile
costs). With all of that said, I am still glad that my wife drives a modern
auto, because I can assume that she is safe when she is on the road, and
the possibility that I may have to get her some dark night on some dark
road populated with weirdos in minimal. That doesn't mean I have to like
it, though!
Sam Staton
'73 B Rdstr (Maggie)
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