Re: My week with Linux: I'm dumping Windows for Ubuntu to see how it goes

On Mon, 19 May 2025 07:47:02 -0000 (UTC), Marion wrote:

An example is they think premium gas is better... when it's actually
worse.
Just because they charge more for it. People think it "must" be better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxaRTpRTtnQ

https://www.tommcmahon.net/2010/08/sunoco-blendomatic-gas-pump.html

The video is a short explanation of the Sunoco Blend-O-Matic. The pump he
shows doesn't have all the blend selector positions filled but it does
have the two wheels that show how much 'octane concentrate' is being
mixed.

I've got the suspicion the concentrate was tetraethyl lead. iirc 190 was a
late addition to allow competition with other stations that were
undercutting Sunoco's prices. The big spenders with their Pontiac
Bonnevilles wouldn't be caught dead using anything less than 260.

Looking at the old pump brought back another memory but I can't find a
reference. I was very young so I might have the mechanics wrong but when
my family went from NY to Seattle in '52 my father had something like a
check book that iirc was from Sunoco. You bought gas with the checks and
were billed later. I think some gas companies had rudimentary credit cards
but I don't know when they were introduced.