Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

glad to see that the poor little 5 digit bugger arrived intact.

it's not good for much......but it is cute.

I actually said as much, I cut the tape and excavated it exclaiming "cute" upon seeing it. It's a great way to minimize air in my stacks of test equipment.

Nixie air-gap eliminators. TEA — gotta love it!

[Brumby]

@ Neo ...

Loved this retro part of your collection...


Truly, technology at its finest.


(Still living it up in the 70's? )

[0culus]

Today I received a 778D dual directional coupler to use as a test fixture with the vector voltmeter. After careful study of HP Application Note 77-3, and more than one scratched out Smith chart later, I successfully measured some complex impedances using a crappy rat shack ham antenna as the unknown.

The 8405A is a neat little instrument. Sure, a VNA is a lot better, but there's some good learning to be done doing it manually. 

[Carl_Smith]

Big Blue has ALWAYS been a hardware company and still is. But it's a smaller percentage over their overall business. The PowerPC or more correctly the Power tech as he said has been in constant evolution. And truth be known it will run circles around anything Intel has. What is surprising is the open source but then again IBM learned a big lesson when it refused to license the micro-channel technology used on the PS/2's.

So modern processors will reorder instructions to best utilize processor execution units.  But sometimes this could be a problem, especially if you are doing inputs and outputs that need to happen in a certain order.   Should you find yourself in this situation, the PowerPC has a machine code instruction called Enforce In-order Execution of I/O. 

The assembly language nnemonic for this instruction is EIEIO.   

[bitseeker]

And the one who came up with it was named MacDonald?

[Specmaster]

And the one who came up with it was named MacDonald?

That made me chortle [emoji23][emoji23]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Specmaster]

@ Neo ...

Loved this retro part of your collection...


Truly, technology at its finest.


(Still living it up in the 70's? )

Its the latest in cyber counter surveillance measure, guurgle can't decipher it

[bd139]

I wouldn’t bet on that. They were deciding the things by sound alone in the 70s.

[Specmaster]

Well that plans buggered then, can't use pen and paper cos its possible to to see what you write by the sheet of paper below on a pad, smoke signals are useless lets face it then we're done for already.

[bd139]

Best not to say anything. Keep those thoughts in your head 

Also watch out for pigeons https://pigeonsarentreal.co.uk/ 

[Cerebus]

Well that plans buggered then, can't use pen and paper cos its possible to to see what you write by the sheet of paper below on a pad, smoke signals are useless lets face it then we're done for already.

I've been in meeting rooms where every seat around the table had a desk pad in front of it. Not unusual to see of itself, a bit of leather or whatever inlaid into the table to give someone somewhere to write that isn't going to damage the fine veneer; these however were glass, and there would be a shredder by the door. If I remember correctly, at least one of the meeting rooms at Chatham House is outfitted like this.

[beanflying]

Point to Point Encrypted Laser Communication time. So glad earth is flat so it will work at distance

[neo]

@ Neo ...

Loved this retro part of your collection...
-snip-
Truly, technology at its finest.


(Still living it up in the 70's? )

That is actually a ~1955 Smith Corona Silent Super. I guess you caught me, i like to pretend its the 70s or right close and I am an aspiring wordslinger. I'm sure none of you would be interested, apocalyptic fiction, sci fi, paranormal, etc. 

[neo]

Not to much though, you need some air flow to take away any heat.

That would be why it isn't one continuous stack, and what feet are for.

[mnementh]

Big Blue has ALWAYS been a hardware company and still is. But it's a smaller percentage over their overall business. The PowerPC or more correctly the Power tech as he said has been in constant evolution. And truth be known it will run circles around anything Intel has. What is surprising is the open source but then again IBM learned a big lesson when it refused to license the micro-channel technology used on the PS/2's.

So modern processors will reorder instructions to best utilize processor execution units.  But sometimes this could be a problem, especially if you are doing inputs and outputs that need to happen in a certain order.   Should you find yourself in this situation, the PowerPC has a machine code instruction called Enforce In-order Execution of I/O. 

The assembly language mnemonic for this instruction is EIEIO.   

   
RAWWWR!!!   Yes, but that programming concept dates back to the earliest days of parallel processing... the days of COBOL & FORTRAN, when CRAY X-series still roamed the earth, consuming lesser machines whole with their mighty vector processing. 

   Point to Point Encrypted Laser Communication time. So glad earth is flat so it will work at distance

Narrowcast is hardly a new concept either... What,  is EVERYBODY hanging out in the dawn of time today?

mnem
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL6668634W/The_adolescence_of_P-1

[mnementh]

   @ Neo ...   Loved this retro part of your collection...   -snip-   Truly, technology at its finest. (Still living it up in the 70's? )

That is actually a ~1955 Smith Corona Silent Super. I guess you caught me, i like to pretend its the 70s or right close and I am an aspiring wordslinger. I'm sure none of you would be interested, apocalyptic fiction, sci fi, paranormal, etc. 

   Naked Lunch-time... 

mnem
not without my weeoux.

[worsthorse]

Well that plans buggered then, can't use pen and paper cos its possible to to see what you write by the sheet of paper below on a pad, smoke signals are useless lets face it then we're done for already.

I've been in meeting rooms where every seat around the table had a desk pad in front of it. Not unusual to see of itself, a bit of leather or whatever inlaid into the table to give someone somewhere to write that isn't going to damage the fine veneer; these however were glass, and there would be a shredder by the door. If I remember correctly, at least one of the meeting rooms at Chatham House is outfitted like this.

I did some work in places with rooms like that. Lockers for your cell phones, computers, etc, escort only, with a body search and metal detector walk through going in and out.

And even with that, various three letter agencies still manage to, um, lose hacking tools, apparently on a regular basis.

[nixiefreqq]

Today I received a 778D dual directional coupler to use as a test fixture with the vector voltmeter. After careful study of HP Application Note 77-3, and more than one scratched out Smith chart later, I successfully measured some complex impedances using a crappy rat shack ham antenna as the unknown.

The 8405A is a neat little instrument. Sure, a VNA is a lot better, but there's some good learning to be done doing it manually. 

paper smith charts?  vector voltmeters?  when youngsters start fooling with these ancient tools it almost brings a tear to my old wore out eyeballs.

let me know when you feel the need to purchase large slotted lines.  you will be my new hero.

[nixiefreqq]

Well that plans buggered then, can't use pen and paper cos its possible to to see what you write by the sheet of paper below on a pad, smoke signals are useless lets face it then we're done for already.

I've been in meeting rooms where every seat around the table had a desk pad in front of it. Not unusual to see of itself, a bit of leather or whatever inlaid into the table to give someone somewhere to write that isn't going to damage the fine veneer; these however were glass, and there would be a shredder by the door. If I remember correctly, at least one of the meeting rooms at Chatham House is outfitted like this.

I did some work in places with rooms like that. Lockers for your cell phones, computers, etc, escort only, with a body search and metal detector walk through going in and out.

And even with that, various three letter agencies still manage to, um, lose hacking tools, apparently on a regular basis.

yep.  twice a week used to escort the cleaning ladies into our windowless hell hole of a workspace.  every now and then signing them in made me aware that MY phone was still in MY pocket.  this would cause me to sneak out to the parking lot and put it in the glovebox while pretending to be dumping the shred bags.  never got over the paranoia.  to this day I still have nightmares about forgetting to remove various hard drives and put them in the various proper safe drawers at the end of a shift.

my early days in telephony were a walk in the sunshine compared to the later time spent locked in with the "special" people.   

[mnementh]

Been dere, dunnat with USAF Security as a civilian contractor. Always escorted and no phones, no media of any sort, nothing with a lens. Lots of other precautions as well, and I didn't even have access to any locations with anything on any secure network.



Just for you.

mnem
* hoeing out my world *

[mnementh]

Best not to say anything. Keep those thoughts in your head     Also watch out for pigeons https://pigeonsarentreal.co.uk/ 

There isn't enough tin foil in the whole world...    It's not safe to say ANYTHING... SHHHHHH!!!

mnem
It's in the water.

[med6753]

Best not to say anything. Keep those thoughts in your head     Also watch out for pigeons https://pigeonsarentreal.co.uk/ 

There isn't enough tin foil in the whole world...    It's not safe to say ANYTHING... SHHHHHH!!!

mnem
It's in the water.

Too late. The black helicopters have arrived. 

[nixiefreqq]

Best not to say anything. Keep those thoughts in your head     Also watch out for pigeons https://pigeonsarentreal.co.uk/ 

There isn't enough tin foil in the whole world...    It's not safe to say ANYTHING... SHHHHHH!!!

mnem
It's in the water.

ya' know its funny.  the real secret squirrels often spoke in riddles. 

seriously.   you could have a 10 minute conversation with them and walk away having no idea wtf they were talking about.

typically it would be something like....."you need to call one of those people in the desert who don't wear hats.  the guys near the mountain need some of that gear that we installed last year for the man with the beard."   what?  it was often amusing.  we were in a damn secure space...they could have spoken english. 

maybe they were afraid of the pigeons overhearing?

   

[worsthorse]

Today I received a 778D dual directional coupler to use as a test fixture with the vector voltmeter. After careful study of HP Application Note 77-3, and more than one scratched out Smith chart later, I successfully measured some complex impedances using a crappy rat shack ham antenna as the unknown.

The 8405A is a neat little instrument. Sure, a VNA is a lot better, but there's some good learning to be done doing it manually. 

paper smith charts?  vector voltmeters?  when youngsters start fooling with these ancient tools it almost brings a tear to my old wore out eyeballs.

let me know when you feel the need to purchase large slotted lines.  you will be my new hero.

smith charts are the bomb. and the smith chart circular rule?

[nixiefreqq]

Best not to say anything. Keep those thoughts in your head     Also watch out for pigeons https://pigeonsarentreal.co.uk/ 

There isn't enough tin foil in the whole world...    It's not safe to say ANYTHING... SHHHHHH!!!

mnem
It's in the water.

Too late. The black helicopters have arrived. 

ha!  one of the young ladies in the office once threatened to send the black helicopters to my house if she didn't a cost estimate from me by the end of the week.  what bullshit.

then I got read onto her program. 

made damn sure she got the estimate a day early.

edit  don't remember if her nickname was scully or mulder.   maybe she was the one we called inspector gadget.