Cars in the US have to follow EPA testing methods, and those are the only numbers a seller is allowed to use.

The standard has changed several times over the years, most notably in 2008. Prior to this, the tests were “best case”, and were almost impossible to get in the real world. Since then, the tests have become much more “typical use”, including factors like air conditioning, high speed (80mph) driving, cold engine, and cold weather. These significantly reduced the published numbers vs previous years.

I could easily see a car rated for 27mpg in the 2008 test also getting 41mpg+ in the 2007 test.

Since you described it as stunt driving, Rockefeller Skank by Fatboy Slim.

And yes, mostly because of an ad 25 years ago.

This thread is good food for your mind, but I want food for my mouth.

Having worked in a call center, I would be surprised if such a thing is even possible.

That said, the call recording software was so bad, less than half of calls were actually recorded anyway. But they tried on all of them.

Asking for forgiveness and repenting seems to be entirely optional, and limited to certain sects anyway.

Most that I know just do shitty things, but it’s ok because Jesus is on their side.

I won’t speak about banks, but many (most?) security guards at businesses aren’t even armed. They are there as a deterrent, but also to witness and document. They are also (usually mildly) trained to defuse a violent situation and get any robbers out the door without bloodshed.

I’m pretty sure they’d just as happily sell you a pizza with veggies on it instead.

This is the most accurate answer. If you really wanted to, you can probably get a refund from the other state for the sales tax paid, but it only makes sense for very large purchases.

This is why I’m hesitant to say Adam Baldwin. He’s always the same basic character, but I think there are enough subtle differences between them to not count.

I want to know how your sleeping conditions are connected to your state’s DMV.

Without exception, whenever someone complains about “freedom of speech”, XKCD 1357 applies.

They used to. Or rather, the industry used to. Most of those players have since folded, largely because of them becoming known for crap quality.

Good news on the EV charging part, at least in North America. Most (if not all) manufacturers have agreed to switch to NACS, and most have adapters to work with either connector. There will be a long tail as the old connectors fade away, but the future is looking standardized.

This is highly dependent on what your needs are and how you plan to solve it. SATA-3 maxes at 6gbit, which SAS-2 had in 2009. Most cards are x8, and have at least 4 full speed SAS lanes (of whatever generation). That means 24 Gbit. PCIe x8 2.0 (from 2007) had 4 GB (32 Gbit). So if that meets your needs, you can run it on an ancient board.

However, if you need something more advanced, such as SAS-3, a SAS expander, or a card with more native lanes, then you would need to plan accordingly.

I’ve been running on an LSI 9211-4i4e, which is only a PCIe 2.0 card, for many years. I did notice my speeds dropped when I expanded the 4e to a 15-bay DAS (plus the 4 internal SATA drives), but it’s still enough to meet my needs.

It’s not really about 24/7, but it is about quality of components. Enterprise gear is made using slightly better parts and tighter tolerances. Things like more expensive capacitors rated for more hours/cycles, better power filters, things like that.

The end result (and this is easily verified) is the failure rate is much, much lower than comparable consumer-grade equipment.

There is sometimes a blurry line between what counts as enterprise vs pro-sumer vs consumer gear, though.

If you can use SAS (you’ll need a SAS PCIe card, roughly $50 used), get SAS drives. They are enterprise-grade exclusively, there is a massive supply of used drives as servers get refreshed, and a very limited secondhand market because most people can’t use SAS drives.

You won’t get the latest or largest drives, but you’ll get something that works perfectly fine for home use.

I recommend against Go Hard Drives. They get drives that previously failed but currently test ok, then wipe the SMART data. I had a whopping 133% failure rate (all 3 original, plus 1 replacement) before I returned the whole thing.

If you insist on using them, do the most extensive burn-in testing you possibly can. I would use at least a full week, to make sure it’s actually (semi-) reliable.

They introduced the Sacagawea dollar coins a while back with the expectations that people would use them for daily transactions. After an initial brief interest, they quickly fell off. Turns out that people in the US don’t really care to use coins, and used the paper $1 bills at every opportunity.

Uh oh, it’s caught in a loop.

You are correct about what you’re seeing on Amazon. It’s been described as AliExpress, but with faster shipping. There is a ton of worthless crap on there.

Where you’re going wrong is that it shouldn’t be your baseline for quality. There are plenty of other, more trustworthy sources that are a better option. Some of them are even online sources that will ship directly to your door. Since you mentioned prices in euros, I can’t help you directly. But in the US, Micro Center and Newegg (yes, even knowing about GN) would be viable alternatives. Just be sure to avoid any “marketplace” sellers that might be there.