Posts by jake

Re: Thermal Incident

Here, they smell of horse. Even the ones in the machineroom/museum/mausoleum/morgue that supposedly breathe properly filtered air.

Re: Thermal Incident

"To be fair, C7000 enclosures very rarely catch fire"

Only true if you're not fully versed in the proper application of thermite.

Re: Some good rugged laptops from yesterjob.

"cant beat Panasonic for sheer strength - and bulk!!"

You got THAT right ... I used to carry a Panasonic Sr. Partner. 38 pounds of luggable (including case, modem, manuals & floppies). At least it had a built-in printer. I still have it. You get attached to the daftest things after a quarter million air-miles together.

Mine has an MFM controller in the expansion slot, a 20 meg hard drive in one of the floppy bays, and an aftermarket hack that upped the stock 256K of RAM to a more usable768K. I used an external modem. Yes, it still works. Came with Panasonic-labeled MS-DOS 2.2, but it currently boots MS-DOS 3.3 ... It might be hard for some of the younger readers to believe, but a LOT of RealWorld[tm] work was done with such primitive devices.

Re: We must...

In this modern world, it'll be the opposite ... One bad kid used a Doogee as a weapon, so all phones obviously must be banned.

Re: If I have enough lego to need sorting

I see your three-pin plugs (literally, they are HUGE) and raise you an eight-pin DIP ... The venerable 555 has a habit of landing pins-up just exactly where my heel is going to come down. I've stepped on 6 of the damn things over the years ... all drew blood, two of them left bits behind in the bone, requiring removal by a surgeon. No other IC has ever assaulted me, just the 555. Is it paranoia when they really are out to get you?

Re: If I have enough lego to need sorting

Not servants. Children. Well, it worked for me anyway ... by the time I had amassed enough to have issues with the sorting, along came the next generation.

Re: So they can detect a disturbance in laser intensity

Look up TDR (time-domain reflectometry). Various versions of this have been an essential tool in my network troubleshooting kit for decades. This thingie is just a enhanced variation on the theme, and a cool, useful new tool.

Re: Microphones made from glass

Carbon mics are still in use today. I have one at my elbow as I type ... it's a 1950s Model 500 Western Electric rotary dial telephone ... It still works perfectly, and is the only phone I use in my office. (Yes, my telco still supports pulse dial ... and when it drops that support, I'll install the circuitry to convert the phone to DTMF.)

As a side note, will any of the equipment you have purchased this year still work and be in daily operation 65ish years from now? I fear we are losing something very, very important in our throw-away society ...

Re: Mass-produced

They don't look all the same. Not at all. In fact, when I first saw that photo, I thought "Phineas, Franklin & Freddy" ...

Re: SMS

"how are you turning your Christmas lights on this year?"

You still run low quality strings of mains powered lights through dead, drying fuel full of accelerant? And you allow this fire waiting to happen inside your house? How quaint. Does your insurance agent know?

Re: MK would have been prime for this in their Heyday!

I've been using X10 for around a third of a century. These so-called drawbacks (and a couple others) have never been an issue for me at the various homes I've used it in.

Re: Hardware isn't necessarily dead

Or, he could have spent an hour or so with a screwdriver, re-installing the working boring old hardware that he swapped out for the new, shiny, exciting b0rken stuff. (You lot DO have a box/drawer that you keep miscellaneous "used but known good' parts in, right?)

Re: MK would have been prime for this in their Heyday!

Have you looked into X10? It's been working for me for decades.

"Am I missing something?"

Using a RasPi or Arduino to flip a switch is like swatting mosquitoes with a 12 gauge. Its complete; over-the-top overkill.

Anybody who suggests that using an operating system controlled CPU to turn on a light bulb is a good idea for the general population needs their head examining. Anybody who further suggests that making it call home before it can flip that switch is also a good idea should be institutionalized for their own protection. And anybody who nods, slack-jawed and drooling, and rushes out to actually purchase this kind of thing should be removed from the gene pool.

That said, there are cases where it can be a good idea ... except the "has to call home in order to work properly and completely" bit, of course.

Re: Why does the UK need GPS anyway?

The Vikings didn't seem to have any problems. (The real ones, not the blather on DearOldTelly.)

Re: The European Commission and Galileo

"hardly the traditional profile of a Russian spy within the British establishment"

That's what they want you to think. (Whoever "they" is.)

Re: Why does the UK need GPS anyway?

That was the weather, not lack of ability to navigate.

Re: first lecture of the decade

"Will surely be in 2021, not 2020..."

You can say that until you are blue in the face, and even implement it personally. However, the vernacular says otherwise. Unless you are willing, able and capable of convincing the GreatUnwashed of the wisdom of your words, all people will do is look at you funny and try to find someone else to sit next to at lunch.

A wise man doesn't fight unwinnable battles, Grasshopper ... and stop calling me Shirley.

Standards? We can do that.

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." —Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Re: Wonder if I will have to send it for calibration?

ISO 9000? You mean you fully documented that your documentation was documented?

Re: Interesting

It is possible that the substrate the thing is built on is beryllium. Sadly, it is probably a more modern engineered ceramic, though.

Batteries for film photography?

HERETIC!

Re: tumbler ??

"they use what vikings call a JIG

WTF does fishing have to do with it?

Re: tumbler ??

I believe the canonical $LARGE_UNIT of currency at NASA is "metric buttload".

Re: Take that Kwikfit!

The OP didn't say anything about needing alcohol to enjoy oneself. What they said was that a cold one after completing a long, hard day at work is one of life's pleasures. Two entirely different concepts.

The Russian concept of "a little something" is to turn off the brain and body in order to forget the 'orribleness of life. "A cold one" in this context is for relaxing and basking in the personal glow of a job well done.

Re: Excellent reporting!

"it's strictly true. RFC1591 defined .org"

Absolutely untrue. RFC 1591 defines nothing.