Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Also was that Lakeside Apple Store? They aren't a primary service centre. The one at Bluewater is.

Edit: to point out the best option is option (3) which is don't have a smartphone, but I can't get away with that (yet). 

Yes it was at Lakeside, which was the centre that Apple support line told him to go to. SWMBO also has an Ipad that the home button failed within 3 months and when she rang the support line, they again sent us to the lakeside store for support.

I agree that the best solution is to have no smartphone, I used to have 2 Nokia 6310i phones (just sold them) and they would just work perfectly, a single charge would last them for a full week even as a corporate phone (which they were and I got to keep them at the end of the 2 year contract). Those things just worked, straight out the box and continued to work and the only thing you had to do every now and then was to replace the battery which was as simple as pressing a single button, unclipping the battery and snapping a new on again.

That was my father's local Apple Store. The guys at Lakeside told him to go to Bluewater instead apparently.

Before I had a Smartphone (I was a later starter on that) I had a Nokia 6330i. Best phone ever.

----

Ok ebay "failed to collect idiot" has opened a case.

From the terms and conditions [1]: "Your item will be held in-store for collection for a maximum of 7 days from when you receive your Collection Notification. If you fail to collect your item within 7 days, we’ll treat this as cancellation of your order. The item may be returned to the seller or may be disposed of or donated to a charity with no liability to eBay and/or service providers."

So this now hangs on the ability for the person who handles this escalation at ebay to bother to read it properly. Otherwise it's going to result in a Moneyclaim summons to the buyer.

[1] https://pages.ebay.co.uk/clickandcollect/terms.html

[Specmaster]

Time to prepare for my online conference with RS calibration services, I wonder what will be the outcome of this now.

[Mr. Scram]

The biggest problem with mobile phones, be they Android or Apple is in fact software. In the case of Android, the OS stops being supported after a couple of years, which is fine if you use the phone for phone calls, but over time most of the apps will cease to work as they update them but the basic phone will still function as a phone and can still access the internet etc.

Apple again is more software related but this time it both the apps which require the latest OS version, but also apples own built in obsolescence as there comes a point when the software upgrade has a massive negative impact on the way that phone behaves and that in its self forces people into upgrading as the performance is so severely crippled by the latest upgrade not running correctly on the older hardware.

Android do not take this approach to their phones, they just stop updating the software on older phones which still leaves them functioning correctly but some the third party apps stop working as they update them.

I know that I'd rather have an Android phone in my pocket that was a few years old then an Apple one because I know that the phone part will continue to function perfectly as a phone and it will as good as the day it left the factory whereas the Apple will be sluggish and sometimes even bricked.

It's not exactly fine if you only use your phone for voice calls. Unpatched older versions of Android tend to have published vulnerabilities. This makes you and all your contacts sitting ducks. It's unsafe to the point I expect courts to hold you accountable if something bad happens. If you know you have an unsafe car and use it anyway you're also accountable.

Of course, if you just use your phone as a phone you're way better off using a feature phone.

[Specmaster]

Also was that Lakeside Apple Store? They aren't a primary service centre. The one at Bluewater is.

Edit: to point out the best option is option (3) which is don't have a smartphone, but I can't get away with that (yet). 

Yes it was at Lakeside, which was the centre that Apple support line told him to go to. SWMBO also has an Ipad that the home button failed within 3 months and when she rang the support line, they again sent us to the lakeside store for support.

I agree that the best solution is to have no smartphone, I used to have 2 Nokia 6310i phones (just sold them) and they would just work perfectly, a single charge would last them for a full week even as a corporate phone (which they were and I got to keep them at the end of the 2 year contract). Those things just worked, straight out the box and continued to work and the only thing you had to do every now and then was to replace the battery which was as simple as pressing a single button, unclipping the battery and snapping a new on again.

That was my father's local Apple Store. The guys at Lakeside told him to go to Bluewater instead apparently.

Before I had a Smartphone (I was a later starter on that) I had a Nokia 6330i. Best phone ever.

----

Ok ebay "failed to collect idiot" has opened a case.

From the terms and conditions [1]: "Your item will be held in-store for collection for a maximum of 7 days from when you receive your Collection Notification. If you fail to collect your item within 7 days, we’ll treat this as cancellation of your order. The item may be returned to the seller or may be disposed of or donated to a charity with no liability to eBay and/or service providers."

So this now hangs on the ability for the person who handles this escalation at ebay to bother to read it properly. Otherwise it's going to result in a Moneyclaim summons to the buyer.

[1] https://pages.ebay.co.uk/clickandcollect/terms.html

Waiting with baited breath on the outcome of that.

[Specmaster]

The biggest problem with mobile phones, be they Android or Apple is in fact software. In the case of Android, the OS stops being supported after a couple of years, which is fine if you use the phone for phone calls, but over time most of the apps will cease to work as they update them but the basic phone will still function as a phone and can still access the internet etc.

Apple again is more software related but this time it both the apps which require the latest OS version, but also apples own built in obsolescence as there comes a point when the software upgrade has a massive negative impact on the way that phone behaves and that in its self forces people into upgrading as the performance is so severely crippled by the latest upgrade not running correctly on the older hardware.

Android do not take this approach to their phones, they just stop updating the software on older phones which still leaves them functioning correctly but some the third party apps stop working as they update them.

I know that I'd rather have an Android phone in my pocket that was a few years old then an Apple one because I know that the phone part will continue to function perfectly as a phone and it will as good as the day it left the factory whereas the Apple will be sluggish and sometimes even bricked.

It's not exactly fine if you only use your phone for voice calls. Unpatched older versions of Android tend to have published vulnerabilities. This makes you and all your contacts sitting ducks. It's unsafe to the point I expect courts to hold you accountable if something bad happens. If you know you have an unsafe car and use it anyway you're also accountable.

Of course, if you just use your phone as a phone you're way better off using a feature phone.

I doubt that its any worse than using a landline, they can also be hacked

[bd139]

Land lines are easy. I got into trouble with the fuzz in the late 1980s with a bit of phone phreaking. They caught a friend and me with a stolen BT linesman set and a couple of FM line powered phone bugs. Fortunately it only resulted in a caution and confiscation

To note it was usually just a case of pulling the cables out of the ground, stripping them and finding an active pair and tapping it.

[Mr. Scram]

I doubt that its any worse than using a landline, they can also be hacked

It doesn't get much worse than a popular OS with published vulnerabilities. It's not a matter of "possible to hack", there's basically a documented and advertised way to actually do it. Evildoers only need to connect the dots and with a bit of luck there's someone who did that and makes a buck by providing the hack as a service. That way the criminals at large don't even need to know much about IT.

That's one of the problems nowadays. Malware has become a huge industry. These are sophisticated and well funded networks creating professional tools, who are then sold to less knowledgeable crooks. The days of nerds having a bit of malicious fun are mostly gone, but that's what people still imagine.

[bd139]

Yes it's mainly highly organised criminals and state level entities you have to deal with. This is why we have multiple layers of different vendored network black boxes, IDS systems and deeply layered architectures these days. We're looking at providing airgapped systems for some companies as well now.

[Specmaster]

Right, I'm back from RS calibration meeting, it was all about improving their online forms requesting a calibration service and did I expect there to be some error trapping on the fields to ensure that required fields are not left empty, or the wrong address details entered etc.

[bd139]

Did you use the word "fucktard" at all? 

[Specmaster]

No, but did make it clear that I was not impressed with them failing to get the job done and yet I was able to do it personally without all of their fancy equipment and had it confirmed courtesy of a new 5.5 digit meter and another old bench meter that my calibration is good. The odds just don't compute for it being wong given the facts.

He said that he would relay that infor back to the dept and see what they have to say about it.

[bd139]

Probably ooh ooh and some screeching and warbling.

One step closer to time nuttery today. Got me a 10MHz TAITIEN VCTCXO delivered. Going to attach this to my in development GPSDO which will be locked to a QRP labs QLG1. Plan is to get it working with reproducible measurements then knock up a proper PCB for it that will attach to the back of the QRP Labs clock or operate standalone and give a 10MHz reference output.

Currently just the output buffer and divider chain so will need to add LDO, PLL discriminator and loop filter yet. That will require a lot of experimentation I reckon!

[Specmaster]

I'm not sure which is worse, time nuttery or volt nuttery, possibly time I would say, not that I'm a position to shout from, what with my radio controlled watches 

[mnementh]

They sit around here for weeks in the UK. No one seems to want them.

Also Heathkit did a DMM with Panaplex displays, the IM-2202: http://www.mjlorton.com/forum/index.php?topic=388.0

Hmmm... okay, I'm going to show some ignorance here, or maybe just my CRS acting up again... a question for those who are aficionados of the tech and know:

I know I've had gear with red Panaplex (segmented plasma) display; are these all amber with red filters like the kit you linked to? I could SWEAR I remember seeing actual red ones, stripped down to the bare module on some of my old gear from back in the day... I know that all the plasma screens they used on the luggable PCs and early laptops were amber, so now I'm doubting my recollection...

Here's an interesting "blast from the past" I stumbled across while trying to answer the question for myself: InfoWorld July 11, 1988

I'm not sure which is worse, time nuttery or volt nuttery, possibly time I would say, not that I'm a position to shout from, what with my radio controlled watches 

This is my idea of time nuttery:

My new MisFit Shine 2 has gone flaky; I wake up and the clock function is off... way off, like somewhere between 2-4 hours... and I have to resync it for the time to be right again. As this device's primary function is to record activity over time, it clearly isn't serving either of its design functions properly. I've done the usual; checked for moisture intrusion, replaced the battery twice... but it's still flaky. I expect either a flaw in a FW update or actual HW failure; I'm going to call MisFit in a bit to see if they can help me out.

Now here's an interesting twist re: the bunk scratch-magnet screen for my phone.

I started a return on it; I was ready to send it back to him and buy another screen from a local vendor I've done business with before, even though it means waiting for him to get it and paying more. He just got back in touch with me; turns out, NOBODY has OEM glass for this phone. He couldn't get any supplier who could deliver a confirmed Gorilla Glass (or Mineral Glass of any sort) screen for my phone from any of his contacts.

Looking back on my purchase, the screen came in a box from Centaurus Electronics, a vendor on eBay who evidently specializes in the cheap Chinesium phones. He suspects this vendor may very well have custom ordered them, and everybody who's selling this screen is getting them from Centaurus. Looking at the listings, it does appear they all lifted their text direct from his listing.

So now what do I do? Bash this vendor for selling me a poor quality screen, when that's all that he or anybody else could get?

Or be glad I have my phone back, and just live with the fact it needs a screen protector, even though that makes the touch sensitivity all out of whack?

 


mnem
*Back into the pit*

Okay... so revisiting this transaction, and this time I'm asking for some opinions, as I'm kindof on the fence. I've messaged all the other US vendors offering this replacement screen; not one of them was able to confirm their screen was mineral glass like OEM.

I'm thinking that its not appropriate to post negative feedback; this guy probably didn't even know the OEM was mineral glass and that this screen wasn't. And, probably, there isn't an OEM-quality replacement available from any supplier right now, so it's not like he could have offered a better one. But bottom line is it's still an inferior quality product.

I'm thinking maybe neutral review stating that the screen isn't OEM quality, certainly not "High-quality", but there doesn't appear to be any better available. I'm not willing to give positive feedback, as the seller only offered an $8 refund unless I send the screen back (and he's allowed to, by eBay regulations), which I'm not going to ruin my phone to do... but I can see from his side; I'm sure he has fuckwit chiseler buyers trying to screw him after the fact all the time. I've had the same experience myself more than once; and this is just the sort of product that invites such abuse.

So... opinions?


mnem
*Currently scrapping out a stack of old Hard Drives*

[bd139]

I’d leave neutral feedback and leave a product review saying that the product is shit. Then live with it begrudgingly.

Just got outbid on a tek 465 ... profit margin on the things is being crushed slowly.

[Specmaster]

Its your fault, you popularised them 

[bd139]

Possibly. Need to find another scope that is pretty good, easy to fix and easy to hype

Hitachi perhaps

[Specmaster]

Hitachi do seem to be bullet proof 

[mnementh]

Possibly. Need to find another scope that is pretty good, easy to fix and easy to hype

Hitachi perhaps

Problem with them is finding a ready supply of dead ones to fix. 


mnem
http://www.freakangels.com/?p=23

[Specmaster]

mnem, you could well be right, so maybe its looking as it if could end being Philips or HP then.

[tautech]

Land lines are easy. I got into trouble with the fuzz in the late 1980s with a bit of phone phreaking. They caught a friend and me with a stolen BT linesman set and a couple of FM line powered phone bugs. Fortunately it only resulted in a caution and confiscation

To note it was usually just a case of pulling the cables out of the ground, stripping them and finding an active pair and tapping it.

The tamper proof screws they use these days prevent this of course ! 

[bd139]

Actually they do put tamper proof screws on the external junction boxes here now but you can still undo the damn things with a flat blade 

[Specmaster]

@bd139 is your fibre installed yet?

[bd139]

I put the new socket on. New router arrived and has been installed. Activation on 24th 

Old socket was installed in 1980 looking at the date codes on the capacitor in it.

[Specmaster]

Actually they do put tamper proof screws on the external junction boxes here now but you can still undo the damn things with a flat blade 

Or of course you could invest in a set of tamper proof drivers