If there is no dry clutch and no clutch pedal, I consider that to be an automatic. And in such a system, I'm only allowed to signal gear selection: if I make a mistake or request a gear someone else thought I shouldn't request, the software won't comply. This implies that someone is assuming they know better than me how to drive, and enforce this assumption. This notion infuriates me. It's one thing to operate within mechanical / physical limits of the system, and quite another were someone who is not me forces arbitrary limitations. I take the "we know better than you" extremely personally.
I suggest handling TCP packet retransmission yourself as well. Nothing beats having precise control over reliable data delivery.
Grin. But seriously, at some point, it simply becomes a question of low level control vs improved high level functioning. I love manuals, and drive one, but the writing is clearly on the wall for good reasons. Fortunately, buying a hybrid forces the issue anyway, as others have noted.
I suggest handling TCP packet retransmission yourself as well. Nothing beats having precise control over reliable data delivery.
I used to code intros in assembler on the Amiga, and did some assembler on UltraSPARC, so the joke is completely lost on me. I love assembler and low level control.
You get mad because your assumptions about your own superiority get placed under doubt by reality and physics?
Now you're incorrectly assuming that the engineers' and programmers' assumptions about how I drive are correct, and they know better than me. Who are they and what do they know? Who am I and what do I know? What if I'm a professional driver or an engineer just like them, or both? You don't know either of the two parties, so how could you possibly judge this correctly? The answer is - you cannot. You are berating me for challenging what you perceive to be an authority, as if I hadn't studied physics and mechanical engineering and knew nothing about those subjects, and even go so far as to imply I'm incompetent and suffer from an illusory superiority complex based on Dunning-Kruger research.
Is this what we're coming down to nowadays, if someone says "I know what I'm doing, and I don't want someone else to tell me how to do it", they'll be sticker-slapped with a superiority complex? That's the society you want to live in? And that is okay?
Bottom line is: a car with an automatic transmission does not do what I want, how I want, when I want it, and does not drive the way I want and expect it to drive. It fails my requirements, whereas a manual transmission and a dry clutch don't try to meet my requirements or expectations - what I want, how I want it, and when I want it is solely up to me. If I mess up, that's on me as well. It's my problem, my responsibility, and that's great.
As far as I'm concerned, since driving is a very important part of my life and identity, dictating, through the use of transmission or shift points, for example, is attempting to dictate how I live. I, an individual, equate that with someone telling me what I must believe, and what I must accept, "because it's better for me", and this goes against what I believe is my basic right to self-determination. That is one of the reasons I reject the automatic. If I have no direct say in it, then at least I can indirectly vote with my wallet.
Nitpick, but F1 cars do have clutches and they can be operated manually (and must be for starting). The big difference is the cars don't have a clutch pedal, but a pair of clutch buttons.
Now DCTs in road-going cars: undeniably automatics.
