Random Rant Thread (no moto content)

Checkswrecks

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Since a couple of you have web-sites and blogs too, it may be worth sharing a shake-down I'm currently struggling with.
...
Bottom line is to be extremely aware of the photos you are using on your web-sites and blogs, because knowingly being raped SUCKS.

:mad:
btw - A good tool to start with is Google Images, then Tools, then the Usage Rights feature.
 

cyclemike4

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ky
Since a couple of you have web-sites and blogs too, it may be worth sharing a shake-down I'm currently struggling with.

When setting up my site a year ago, I used photos of things I'd been involved with and one was of an airplane after a foreign accident. I'm pretty sure I took the photo and definitely was a part of the Government investigation. As usual, the Govt (in this case a foreign one) provided a lot of our photos to the press because media are not allowed on accident sites and while governments do not copyright photos and retains usage rights, the press MAY copyright them when they do distribution. When I made my site, I used a copy of that photo off the web and knew enough to not use one with a copyright marking. So I took the photo, it was a Govt photo, and the one I used had no marks. What could go wrong?

Fast forward and I recently got a copyright infringement notice with a claim for $710 from a Canadian company called PicRights. While first thinking this is a scam, then Googling after their 3rd notice and threat of legal action by their California partner Higbee & Associates, it turns out this is a very legal shake-down. PicRights has a web-crawler that searches for use of photos published by Agence France Press (AFP) and AFP had published the same Govt photo I used. It doesn't matter to them if mine has no marking or not, they have claimed copyright and I just joined a long list of other victims in this. It turns out that people have taken PicRights to court and LOST!!!
https://copyright-demand-letter.com/picrights-ltd-copyright-letters-making-noise-in-the-us/#comment-839

These ass-wipes are so prolific and this is so crazy that there is a competing legal group just to fight them!
https://copyright-demand-letter.com/higbee-associates-copyright/

As a result, I ended up re-populating my website with almost entirely new photos that I can show source on, mainly from Government dockets (I took and placed almost every one there) or my own personal photos. I've also asked the foreign Government for a release on the photo to hopefully negate this whole claim, but if they can't get back by the due date, my other half who is a lawyer says that the best outcome will be to just ought to negotiate a settlement (guessing around $350-400?), pay up, and move on.

Bottom line is to be extremely aware of the photos you are using on your web-sites and blogs, because knowingly being raped SUCKS.

:mad:
I feel for you i can't imagine what it is like to have multi national legal issues! I sure hope it works out for you.
 

Checkswrecks

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The box is behind a wall to keep deliveries from being seen from the street and out of the rain. Very visible when walking up the driveway yet . . .20200901_204750.jpg
 

Sierra1

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Not all Amazon delivery persons are created equal. Amazon allows you to provide delivery instructions. Mine requests that they use the back porch, (which is actually easier/closer than the front) but about 25% of the time they put it on the front porch. Amazon also allows you to rate then deliver, so. . . .
 

holligl

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So I have a pretty new 2020 Ford Explorer, bought it "used" with 129 miles on it. It is a really low SN so I expected a few issues, but still have significant warranty left. I've got most of the bugs out of it (Driver's seat memory positions took 4-5 visits.) The one remaining flaw deals with the Kendon trailer I tow. With the trailer connected, with the vehicle locked, if you auto unlock and open the rear drivers side door, the tailgate pops up. Some times it goes all the way up, other time it goes to the half open position. I've lived with it for 8 months or so, mainly by moving the dog's position to the right side and just leaving the door closed.

I finally took it to the dealer to register the problem with them. They got a bewildered look and promptly blamed the trailer. I pointed out I towed the same trailer with my old 2011 Explorer with no issue, and all the lights function correctly all the time. They did say they would call Ford, and asked me to try a different trailer.

I do have a cargo carrier, wired with incandencent lights that does not cause the same anomoly. The previous owner did change the Kendon to LEDs.

I find no detectable shorts or opens in the wiring, and again all lights function correctly. SO, I bought a new set of LED taillights to swap out. Temporarily wired up all is good. But as soon as I crimp connectors, or solder connections, the malfunction fires up. Start suspecting more resistance is needed. A check of the web looks like adding a resistor may fix certain LED issues. Shot the whole day, but picked up a couple resistors to give it a shot tomorrow.

Of course the dealer has no clue what trigger the left rear door has, or why the liftgate responds. I doubt they will even call me back. I know I do get perturbed when luggage falls out the back after you open a side door.

I did buy the new taillights with a Menards rebate (store credit), but I'm still waiting for another one they lost, but that maybe a later rant.

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Sierra1

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W. . . . T. . . . F ? How is the electrical system SO sensitive to cause that? Is maybe the trailer electrical connection shorted? Of course, that is a huge reason I don't get "bells & whistles" on my cars. I can't break what I don't have. Good luck.
 

moto.monk

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Wow hearing this makes me love my 2007 honda even more. I had an instructor tell me most modern cars have issues with the more electrics you add, followed by it makes close to impossible to fix it yourself. He said manufactures will purposely make parts harder to take off so that a 3rd party wont want to fix it. Then he ended with the dumbest things seen was the 1st gen tesla model s with electric motors from the 80s and out dated lithium batteries. People are shelling out 100k and not knowing that they are cost cutting because company didnt have the money to make it right. Oh and electronic lockers that customers get mad when they stop working when its obvious to some that you shouldn't stick electronics in a place that gets really hot under normal use.
 

holligl

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W. . . . T. . . . F ? How is the electrical system SO sensitive to cause that? Is maybe the trailer electrical connection shorted? Of course, that is a huge reason I don't get "bells & whistles" on my cars. I can't break what I don't have. Good luck.
No shorts when checking the harness (checking the pin plugs to the light connections) with a meter. But LED lights look like a open circuit.

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Checkswrecks

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No shorts when checking the harness (checking the pin plugs to the light connections) with a meter. But LED lights look like a open circuit.

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I could understand the bulb swap causing the car to think the lights are faulty and giving a warning for that. But opening the tailgate is pretty wild!
 

Checkswrecks

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. . . the 1st gen tesla model s with electric motors from the 80s and out dated lithium batteries. People are shelling out 100k and not knowing that they are cost cutting because company didnt have the money to make it right.
Ummm - From somebody who has worked with the factory and knows the Tesla products fairly well, unless he was talking about the few very early 2008 Tesla sport cars based on a Lotus chassis (which were 2008 state of the art) . . .

. . . false and false

Over just the last few years there are NOW more efficient motors and batteries available in the Model 3 and many other EVs while Tesla keeps selling minor updates to the S and X with their 18650 cells. But the 2012-based S and X are still incredibly efficient cars with great performance and range and that's the goal.
 

holligl

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So I have a pretty new 2020 Ford Explorer, bought it "used" with 129 miles on it. It is a really low SN so I expected a few issues, but still have significant warranty left. I've got most of the bugs out of it (Driver's seat memory positions took 4-5 visits.) The one remaining flaw deals with the Kendon trailer I tow. With the trailer connected, with the vehicle locked, if you auto unlock and open the rear drivers side door, the tailgate pops up. Some times it goes all the way up, other time it goes to the half open position. I've lived with it for 8 months or so, mainly by moving the dog's position to the right side and just leaving the door closed.

I finally took it to the dealer to register the problem with them. They got a bewildered look and promptly blamed the trailer. I pointed out I towed the same trailer with my old 2011 Explorer with no issue, and all the lights function correctly all the time. They did say they would call Ford, and asked me to try a different trailer.

I do have a cargo carrier, wired with incandencent lights that does not cause the same anomoly. The previous owner did change the Kendon to LEDs.

I find no detectable shorts or opens in the wiring, and again all lights function correctly. SO, I bought a new set of LED taillights to swap out. Temporarily wired up all is good. But as soon as I crimp connectors, or solder connections, the malfunction fires up. Start suspecting more resistance is needed. A check of the web looks like adding a resistor may fix certain LED issues. Shot the whole day, but picked up a couple resistors to give it a shot tomorrow.

Of course the dealer has no clue what trigger the left rear door has, or why the liftgate responds. I doubt they will even call me back. I know I do get perturbed when luggage falls out the back after you open a side door.

I did buy the new taillights with a Menards rebate (store credit), but I'm still waiting for another one they lost, but that maybe a later rant.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Two days wasted but sucess. I had to wire a couple resistors in parallel with each side's brake/turn circuit on the trailer. ~23 watts each. They do get hot, so they have to be metal mounted, making brackets adding to the trial and error time. Would have been quicker to go back and exchange for incandesent lamps, but I had already cut some leads, and didn't want to return altered items. I hate when I get someone else's returns.

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holligl

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W. . . . T. . . . F ? How is the electrical system SO sensitive to cause that? Is maybe the trailer electrical connection shorted? Of course, that is a huge reason I don't get "bells & whistles" on my cars. I can't break what I don't have. Good luck.
It does have about everthing, but so did the 2011. The best thing is massaging seats. A guy could make a killing selling those for the ST! It also has the collision detection and auto braking. I back into my garage and if I try to go in too fast it kicks in. Feels like you hit something but it's only the brakes.

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Don in Lodi

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What, 15-20 modules all communicating with each other and expecting to see an expected voltage at an expected time, I sure wasn't expecting to see something triggered totally unrelated to what was being activated. Their engineers will probably never figure out what the crossover was.
 

holligl

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What, 15-20 modules all communicating with each other and expecting to see an expected voltage at an expected time, I sure wasn't expecting to see something triggered totally unrelated to what was being activated. Their engineers will probably never figure out what the crossover was.
The service manager suggested enough variablity from vehicle to vehicle that another one with the same options might not do the same thing. I highly doubt I'm alone in running LED trailer lights. Of course I proved them right that it was the trailers fault! The vehicle response is simply an undocumented feature...

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Mak10

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A neighbor that lived across the street from m had a daughter who loved cats. They collected over 30 of them, not neutering any of them. They moved suddenly, and guess what. They didn’t take their cats.
So now the place is overrun with feral cats. I like cats, feral cats are something else.
If you have cats get em fixed. Now I have to deal with these damn things. City won’t do anything.
 

Boris

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A neighbor that lived across the street from m had a daughter who loved cats. They collected over 30 of them, not neutering any of them. They moved suddenly, and guess what. They didn’t take their cats.
So now the place is overrun with feral cats. I like cats, feral cats are something else.
If you have cats get em fixed. Now I have to deal with these damn things. City won’t do anything.
Relocate them, one or two at a time. Take them for a drive, drop them off somewhere nice. Tell them it’s a holiday.
 

HeliMark

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A neighbor that lived across the street from m had a daughter who loved cats. They collected over 30 of them, not neutering any of them. They moved suddenly, and guess what. They didn’t take their cats.
So now the place is overrun with feral cats. I like cats, feral cats are something else.
If you have cats get em fixed. Now I have to deal with these damn things. City won’t do anything.
Last house I had, we had up to 10 barn cats at a time to keep the varmint population under control. We never had more than that, the coyote's and owls would help with that, sometimes getting the numbers down to 2.
 
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