Traffic Question 16:

How can you make the traffic light turn green faster?

  1. Keep creeping forward
  2. Flash your headlights
  3. Make a phone call
  4. Nothing; you can’t change its timing

Moliner's Answer:

More than likely, you are already on the phone, so....

A. Creep forward

The aliens who live in and control the traffic light will see that you are in a hurry and make the light change faster. Option B would work, too, except the aliens ignore flashing lights.

But of course, if you’re not already on the phone, option C is great for passing the time while waiting.

Note:

  • Some lights have faries or leprechauns living in them instead of aliens.
  • Even if you're several cars away from the light, you should creep up some more, every 10-20 seconds, until you're right on the bumper of the car ahead of you.

 

Conventional Answer

D. Be patient

As long as you have already triggered the sensor, there’s nothing you can do to change the light’s timing.

There are several technologies of sensors, but the only one I recall ever seeing in Moline is the inductive loop. You can see where the sensor is by looking for the cuts in the pavement. An inductive sensor is triggered by the presence of metal, not by movement.

Here's a pretty clear description of how inductive sensors work: auto.howstuffworks.com

Tags

Installing GBridge on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

 

Just because I don't want to have to look this up again. Windows 8's driver signing enforcement prevents installing GBridge's network drivers. I posted how to work around that on gbridge.net forums when I was testing the Windows 8 preview, but their forum is offline now.

Windows 8

This method works for Professional or Home versions.

Grape Harvest

 

I finally got a full harvest off of this vine (before birds, etc.) These grapes are pretty sour, if you just pick and eat. And seedy. However, I always thought they might make good jelly or something. So this year, I have lots of grapes to try something.

Basically, the process is:

Raspberry-Vanilla Pudding

We have a picnic on July 4 where we are supposed to bring a dish. An hour before the picnic... what should we bring? We have lots of fresh-picked raspberries and that vanilla pudding I got last week. After a few minutes of Google-searching for things that use those two ingredients (no results, except for baked items and stuff of the wrong kind), I am going to make my own recipe for this.

Five Crunch Mix

 
Five different textures of crunch for a delightful and versatile snack that doesn't leave your taste buds feeling like you drank an ocean of saltwater.
 
Shake together in a container (or snack bag) in the desired proportions....
  • honey nut cheerios
  • pretzels (thin style, broken in pieces)
  • unsalted peanuts
  • Spanish peanuts
  • banana chips
  • raisins
 
I usually go heavy on the cheerios.