And then there’s dumb devices like flashlights that may not have the resistor that negotiates a basic rate with C ports, barring it from charging. A-C cables work because they still allow 500mA without negotiation

Something that may help, if you do end up doing this manually, is utilizing alt+click to highlight in the pdf. It’ll select in a box shape instead of reaching the end of each line like a paragraph. Each line will then get pasted as separate rows in excel. It doesn’t split into columns, so you still have to go with individual vertical selections. It also will break apart multi-line entries like I saw in the description field on your sample, so this will have to be highlighted individually normally. But at least it adds a little speed to those triple coordinate items. Maybe.

It depends on what’s useful to know.

A microwave is a heating device. It’s not useful to know you’re using a 7a microwave on its own. Is it 120v or 220v? What’s important is the wattage, as an indicator of how much heat it can put into food in a given time. A 700w microwave is going to take longer than the instructions say but could be a 3.5a euro oven or a 7a north american oven.

With lights, wattage ignores the change in voltages as well. But it relied upon the tungsten incandescent being ubiquitous. The socket type defines the voltage, so you just want to know if it’s a soft 25w reading light or a 100w for a garage bay. But now, with the prevalence of fluorescent and then LED lights, wattage has become almost irrelevant. They usually list actual wattage in pale text and “incandescent wattage equivalent” in bold. I’m happy to say I’m finally seeing bulbs state actual lumens now, which is what really matters to the end user. LED lighting is now the least of your electric bill worries.

With a car battery, you’re seeing the options in a later stage of market uniformity. Cars used to very commonly have 6v systems, so the 12v system was distinct. Large trucks use 24v (though I think with dual 12v batteries). But for you buying a car battery, just about all passenger cars are 12v. It’s a specific size like “group 65”, so it’s a 12v of certain size and terminal placement. You do have some options for amperage, listed as CCA. You can’t give more amps to the starter, but rather the battery lasts longer per charge and drops voltage less when under load.

But, you will actually see amps listed on power tools. I guess they traditionally had very little export, so the voltage is constant for the market. You can compare amps and take a good guess how two saws will compare. Even still, many tools now list actual specs like rpm and torque

A high amperage device is not what’s at risk. The wiring is. With defined voltages (by way of plug type), devices can’t draw extra amperage, but you can certainly ask the wires for more amperage than they can safely provide. Fuses and circuit breakers do not protect the device, they protect the wires from burning off their insulation, shorting, or catching fire.

But as a caveat, a 120v device plugged into a 220v source will draw too many amps for the device.

Nobody is mentioning Vietnam? That’s the source of boomer complaints IME. France “abandoned” the US and the industrial war machine convinced the American veterans that it was France’s fault that the greatest military in the world couldn’t defeat communist Vietnam.

Honda goldwings use the starter motor run backwards and engage to the transmission directly for a reverse gear

I just wanna get this straight. OP posited that e-bikes are motorcycles. Your argument is they are not motorcycles because your local ordinances prohibit them.

JFC

No, I’m talking about non-registerable electric bicycles with pedals as intended by the post. I’m not talking about highway-legal electric motorcycles like Zero. Yes, you can buy illegal vehicles. People do. The laws are not enforced in the US. So if a law bans highway-speed bicycles but no one is around to enforce it and users continually break this unenforced law, then the distinction about the safe versions of e-bikes being woefully slower than regulated motorcycles is moot. The actual e-bike user base has demonstrable overlap with highway-legal motorcycles.

I’d bet a dollar it saves one traffic light and I’d bet a second dollar she lives within a quarter mile of the south end of the road. Opened for the relief of the most minor of conveniences.

You can buy e-bikes on amazon that weigh more and travel faster than a Honda Cub, a registerable motorcycle. They’re in Grom territory. This idea, at least in the US market, that they’re fitting into the two classes of safe e-bike is disproven with 30 seconds of observation in any city or adjacent suburb. The only riders pedaling are the leisure riders in parks.

Fortnine has two videos on the topic, one of the 60mph e-bike and one of converting a Cub to EV, making it faster than stock.

Remotes need to stop being wobbly little things with slick matte surfaces. Flat bottoms, glossy grips. I’m not trying to do a full claw game simulation

You lose focus on boring things that don’t have mental stimulation such as information or pleasure. You are distracted, therefore you are squirrel. Parrots have been recorded making tools, not just using tools. Therefore, they are human.

Humans are the only ones writing it down, spreading the most thorough forms of communication the planet has ever seen. That’s your superpower.

It’s fine. To add to it, I couldn’t edit my own comment yesterday to highlight why I went in a different direction. Now I have. It’s not the first time I’ve been called AI because I write lengthy things about topics in which I’m knowledgeable. Xkcd.com/3126

I didn’t say you or your question was stupid. I explained why that assumption isn’t right

No point saying the same thing already stated 20 other times here. I went after the opening statement because it’s demonstrably inaccurate

You’re welcome to that interpretation. I saw no point adding a 20th version of the same answers everyone else focused on. I went after the opening statement.

Edit: I saw no point in adding a 20th version of how locks are made. I instead opted to tackle a separate misconception in the opening statement.

“Made on the same assembly line means it’s the same product” is a myth from people who have no experience in manufacturing/sourcing and are just mad about inflation and do not have a professional interest in the product. The specs are rarely the same. There are often typically significant differences in material, tooling, QA/QC, and warranty. Yes, there are plenty of examples where the upcharge is not justified, but it’s neither the rule nor the exception. It varies wildly across the market. I have my places where I buy premium, I have my places where I buy bottom tier.

For the common end user of household products, the closest they’ll get to understanding this is buying the Amazon, Alibaba, or Temu “version” of something. There will be a dozen differences that make the product worse. Maybe that’s fine for your use. If you think all toothbrushes are the same, try the free ones from a hotel. The handles are small, weak, and usually have sharp mold parting lines. But sure, they were likely made at the same place that made the $6 Colgate because the bristle-placing machine is the most important part of the process.

Meanwhile, towards the other end, a casual household end user will likely never exceed the capability of a hardware store wrench, so they’ll think it’s insane to pay more for a Snap-on at 4x the price. But it makes a difference to someone using and abusing it 8x a day, depending on its function to get paid. If it does break, the warranty replaces it immediately. Lifetime warranties from non-professional brands are notorious for stating it’s the lifetime of the product, not your lifetime, and it expired when it broke or wore out.

At the extreme end would be something like aircraft parts. The “same” bolt at the local store is 1/20 the price. But the aircraft bolt is a higher grade (more expensive), has much tighter tolerances (more money spent on control, higher scrap rate), has backing traceability documentation (money spent on labor and tracking systems), and is likely checked 100% to dimensional spec (money spent on labor and time). You could find the same bolt at the store. You will find a bolt that’s almost the same. You may find a bolt that’s completely wrong. None of that uncertainty is allowable in an aircraft bolt. Those “minor defects here and there” like your toothbrush claim are not acceptable, so systems must be in place to prevent them from escaping. You order a bolt, you get the bolt you ordered. Hundreds of lives depend on it.

The smelled your CO2 plume and saw your heat concentration

Only if we level the global payscale, living conditions, and economy. Otherwise, as long as wealthy nations have vastly more disposable income than poorer nations, they will continue to be exploited. The cost of labor to commercially repair something in the EU or North America is typically higher than the cost to have someone build a new product in India or China, ship it there, warehouse it, and ship it to your door.

I fix things. I always have. I tinker everywhere. It’s not profitable. I can only do it for myself or for friends and family for free. If overall functionality is already lost, I always try to figure it out. I saved a nice gaming monitor from a friend’s trash by finding the capacitor on the main power port hadn’t seated right before soldering, so it was temperamental. Took 2 disassemblies and 3 hours to find and fix, but has now been running for 6 years flawlessly. When it malfunctioned, it had NO life at all, which likely narrowed it down to between the power socket and the main board. I bet your local labor price on ~2 hours plus risk/profit fee is comparable a new low end monitor.

I do lots of automotive repair for myself. It’s annoying as shit in forums to see people complain “there’s no good mechanics anymore, they’re all parts replacers now” and in the next reply say “just buy a new brake drum/rotor because it costs the same to have yours turned (refinished)”. As if the “parts replacers” can do the refinishing for free. They’re mad about the inflation/exploitation combo but taking it out on some other person suffering the same market imbalance.

There is a reason all the cool hack and repair videos now largely come out of Asia. It’s not just sheer population numbers, they’re activities that largely don’t happen in NA/Eur anymore.

Not sure to what depth of decisions you’re talking about, but it sounds like low-impact stuff if they’re instant. The vast majority of decisions made throughout the day have no real impact on your life in any measurable way.

I like a dumpling restaurant near me. I pick anything in my top 5. Why not #1? Because I don’t know which is the best dumpling. I can spend an hour trying to perfectly gauge my mood against their offerings, or I can settle for, potentially, 5th best in one minute. That’s #5 out of 40. If you ask me why I chose that particular type, I’ll say I don’t know, and then formulate my inner thoughts into a coherent sentence. It’s not lying, it’s just translating feelings into words. Feelings that represent a decision that will likely not affect my life. The important decision was to eat, not find the #1 dumpling. Plus, yes, it’s nice to give yourself reassurance that you made a good decision. Again, it’s not lying to yourself to make yourself believe it, it’s reminding yourself that you made a fine decision. It’s decided, so you may as well seek the benefits. If it’s the wrong decision, you can’t undo it, but you can make new decisions to change course.

How often do you make wrong decisions as opposed to simply less-than-the-best? Probably pretty rarely. Sure, there could be larger school or career choices, but you have no way of knowing how life would have played out on the other path. Maybe you’d make more money, or maybe you’re only seeing the highlights reel from someone else. Maybe your current path is hitting a dead end, but maybe the other path included the worst manager of your life. Maybe you got stuck in surprise traffic, but maybe you avoided being part of another accident. Life moves forward and you’re still walking.

If you find yourself dwelling on every decision, taking too long to decide, second guessing it after committing, and then feeling regret that there was a better option despite fulfilling your actual need, those aren’t pensive thoughts. That’s probably anxiety.