Ask for an extra room key. #winning!
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In new hospital construction, ground up is the practice so that a conductor dropped in the gap between the outlet and the plug is less likely to short it.
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What the hell are those things, anyway? If they want to keep bedding costs low, putting a necktie on my bed isnāt the way to do it.
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What bothers me in the photo here is that thereās no labeling on the hot/cold. Iāve seen the pull-on-the-tub-spout shower switches before, so that doesnāt bother me so much. But what does really bother me are the shower controls that put amount of water pressure on the same slider as cold-to-hot. I also donāt understand why itās so hard to have labels that match at least approximately where the hot and cold are so I have some reference point to start out. I hate having to waste time and water figuring out where those points are.
My other pet peeves:
I always unplug the refrigerator unless Iām using it, as the compressor kicking on at random intervals will usually keep me from falling asleep (of course if they donāt maintain it, then at 4am you get dripā¦ dripā¦ dripā¦, which is probably worse)
I wish there were more options for heaters/ac units, as to whether you want the fan to continue blowing when the thermostat turns it off. Most units, however it is, thatās what you get.
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I donāt get how an overhead light can affect the location the bed? All the lights in my apartment are practically in the middle of the ceiling and I cannot think any reason they would have affected where I put my furniture.
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Iām curious where you saw this. I only saw this for the first time in China.
I really donāt get how the systems you have labelled as (1) and (3-10) are considered any kind of progress over (2). Two separate tap heads and a plug on a chain is totally unambiguous, works fine, is usually way less finicky than any other option, and is easy to maintain.
Do those uni-orb systems generally actually have a bimetallic strip in them, or are they just controlling two separate valves? I always assumed it was the latter.
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Also how hot do people usually like to sleep? The only time I have ever slept under all the bedding on a hotel bed was in a cheap motel in winter - so the rooms are cooler (but not āWE HAVE AIR CONDITIONING!ā frigid) and the bedding less ridiculously heavy.
Nothing bespeaks luxury like fifteen pounds of duvet in a heap at the foot of the bedā¦
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I run into them quite frequently outside the US - mostly in Europe and Asia. Lately Iāve been doing a lot of traveling to Central and South America and finding them in just about every modern hotel now.
Last time I was in Japan they gave me an actual key (a bit like the one below) that had an embedded RFID chip that required me to place it on a little shelf near the door so there was no fooling it by using a business card. And they would only give me one key at check-in.
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Never quite got the exploit to work to form a connection via OpenVPN, but Marriottās internet used to not block UDP on port 50. Dunno about today, but used to be that if you started a Netflix movie right at the end of your paid session, you could watch the whole thing, and it only choked when you tried to start the next movie.
Pretty sure Iāve heard dudes bring back prostitutes, 3-4 times. Oy. Business travelers be naughty.
Lately, Marriott has smart alarm clocks with an iPod dock and a variety of phone chargers sticking out. Even has an audio jack so you can just chunk in your phone and use its (accurate, no-fuss) alarm.
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Oh, god, the alarm clocks. First thing I do in a hotel is unplug the alarm clock. I spend way less time in hotels than the writer, but I agree completely! I wonder if hoteliers read this blogā¦
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Iāve read that, but it is not a standard, just a practice. Plenty of electricians in various threads disagree with it. It IS strange, in a field with so many specific safety related codes.
Iāve seen those while shopping for DOG KENNELS. I believe they are intended to protect the linen from your shoes.
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This is why I still have write-protect tabs from the 5-1/4" floppy days.
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I guess itās āgoing greenā and all that, but when it comes to the a/c or heat Iām not sure. It might seem wasteful to have it running when not there, but my dad always insisted that it takes less energy to heat/cool a room at a consistent temperature, rather than leaving it off when not there and having wider temperature swings to fight against.
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High Security? You could probably bump that keyway in seconds.
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This reminds me of one of my favorite anecdotes:
I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about [decades] ago. When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, āWhere are they all going to go? Itās not like you need a computer in every doorknob!ā
Years later, I went back to the same hotel. I noticed the room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors. There was a computer in every doorknob.
- Danny Hillis
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No bimetallic strips as far as I know.
As for advantagesā¦ I wonāt vouch for 3-10. I dislike them all, though in some cases that might be just cultural bias.
But as for advantages: ONE HAND USAGE!
So, when Iām having a shower, I use one hand to point the shower head at my foot so I can test the temperature without receiving a whole-body icy shock or third-degree burns. I use the other hand to turn on the water at medium temperature and keep adjusting the temperature while turning up the flow. I keep my hand on the handle until all the stale cold water has drained from the pipes and the temperature has stabilized.
With the old (2) system, I also use one hand to point the shower head somewhere the wrong temperature wonāt cause lasting damage. I use my second hand to turn up the cold water and my third hand to turn up the hot water at the same time.
Or maybe not. I could put the shower head in its standard overhead position and stand awkwardly to the side to try to keep most of my body out of the water until the temperature is right.
Or I could first turn up the cold water a little, then add a little hot water, then add more cold water, then add more hot water, until both amount and temperature are right.
Also, consider that most hot water systems arenāt perfect - meaning the temperature of the water isnāt perfectly constant over time, and the pressure of the hot water is usually less than that of the cold water and depends on who else is using it. Once the overall flow is limited by a slightly calcified shower head, turning up one tap will inevitably reduce the flow from the other a bit. In that case, it makes much more sense to have a combined two-dimensional control that you can intuitively control rather than having two separate controls that pretend to control two independent variables, but donāt.
As for maintenance: Those things are quite sturdy.
As for the plug: Thatās the part Iām least convinced of. But still, the things are sturdy, and the time until the plug system fails is about the same time that it takes for the chain to get broken and the plug to get lost. Also, that plug-on-a-chain keeps getting in the way.
And for the love all thatās holy, have a night light in the bathroom, so I donāt have to either stumble around in an unfamiliar space, or turn on the overly-bright overhead light.
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You only have to drop something metallic on a partially unplugged outlet one time before youāll get fairly fanatic about ground-up outlet orientation.
Fun fact: You can get a sunburn from plasma arcs. Also cataracts.
Ground up is right side up!
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