Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Hmm....Thinkpads are just a shadow of their former self when IBM used make them, their made by a Chinese company these days and their quality has taken a massive hit.

Not true. Lenovo has really stepped up and kept Thinkpads just as good as when Itty Bitty Morons made them. The IBM mainframe test that I worked in had dozens of latest generation Lenovo Thinkpads as server interfaces and fails were rare. In fact, of the ones that did fail it was mostly the hard drive which Lenovo didn't make anyway. 

[bd139]

They had a bit of a problem to content with as well. Much with most things, it is difficult to balance competition with tradition. I think they did pretty good. The new keyboards are much much better than the competition from HP and Apple. I rather like mine.

I missed this though https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-25/ThinkPad-25/p/22TP2TTTP25

[TERRA Operative]

I like the Dell Precision laptops. I'm currently rockin' a 7520 with Xeon CPU.

They seem well built (Magnesium chassis IIRC) and don't come with firmware rootkits like some of the Lenovo's did.... As far as I know anyway...

[Specmaster]

It seems that Fry's are struggling to keep alive in the USA just the same as many of our hobby stores over here.

 

[BU508A]

Looks like the ideal place for a remake of this:

[bd139]

Quick one for the time nuts....

On caesium atomic clock from NPL:

[med6753]

It seems that Fry's are struggling to keep alive in the USA just the same as many of our hobby stores over here.

Fry's is mainly in California and a few stores in Texas. And a few stores in the Mid-west. None on the East Coast except Georgia. Never been in one.

They also had a policy of stopping you at the exit and searching your bags AFTER the purchase and verifying the receipt to the contents which used to piss off a lot of people. 

 

[PA0PBZ]

Quick one for the time nuts....

On caesium atomic clock from NPL:

(Attachment Link)

That would fit nicely on my bench 

[bd139]

Disclaimer: needs new bench.

Another quick picture... 



Entry to this is free. However a fucking sandwich and coke cost me nearly £9 

[BU508A]

As a child I've imagined that one of those would land in our garden so I can play "NASA". 

[nfmax]

And a Brompton and the Flying Bedstead in shot as well!

[med6753]

Disclaimer: needs new bench.

Another quick picture... 

(Attachment Link)

Entry to this is free. However a fucking sandwich and coke cost me nearly £9 

So you guys stole a Gemini capsule? Do you realize there's a .gov bureaucrat still looking for it on his inventory list? 

Sandwich and coke for $10 USD? Reminds me of the $80 USD cheeseburger in Times Square.   

 

[bd139]

And a Brompton and the Flying Bedstead in shot as well!

Yep. I have more photos of the flying bedstead

Also everything from the first www server to PDP8s to first valves

[Mr. Scram]

So you guys stole a Gemini capsule? Do you realize there's a .gov bureaucrat still looking for it on his inventory list? 

Sandwich and coke for $10 USD? Reminds me of the $80 USD cheeseburger in Times Square. 

More like $11.

[mnementh]

Time to show it the instruments     

"I have an oscilloscope, and the probes are co-o-o-o-old..."     

I usually start with that warning to cajole my techy things back to some semblance of proper behavior; and normally it is successful.

Not this morning. Not only did it crash, it refused to boot or POST. I woke up to find it totally dark (as it should be) but my mouse glowing faintly green. It gave the usual low "waking" beep, then nothing. Watched it while I ate my entire breakfast and still no signs of life; had to power cycle, whereupon it booted normally.

Hmmmmmm...

SFC & DISM both say file integrity is 100%. So  ...   Guess I need to do some memtest abuse and progress from there.

So... what does this machine have in common with my old one that was behaving the same way...?   Video card; migrated to new system. Same AMD Adrenalin video drivers. Same model power supply. Windoze 10. Everything else is different. 

Except, of course, same (l)user. This will, I have no doubt, eventually turn out to be at least partly a PEBKAC error.

mnem

[tggzzz]

Disclaimer: needs new bench.

Another quick picture... 

(Attachment Link)

Entry to this is free. However a fucking sandwich and coke cost me nearly £9 

So you guys stole a Gemini capsule? Do you realize there's a .gov bureaucrat still looking for it on his inventory list? 

Nah. That's an Apollo capsule, IIRC Apollo 10. Gemini is thinner (only two people!) and looks more like a classic chemistry flask.

[bd139]

Yes. Apollo 10. We stole a Russian one too if that’s any consolation  . Think it had Tim Peake in it though so we’re excused

Another random image attached. The first web server: Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXTcube:



You may have to turn your heads as I’m on a bus and the forum didn’t process the orientation of the image properly.

[mnementh]

Naaahhh, it's good... when I click on it, it comes up vertically aligned. Fuck that fucked-up thumbnail.

It seems that Fry's are struggling to keep alive in the USA just the same as many of our hobby stores over here.

https://www.youtube.com/wzQRwwi6rw8

Yeah, they've been following the same course as CompUSA for at least a decade; relying on closeout sales cash flow to keep the doors open. As long as they keep following the established corporate business model, they're doomed to die by it.

mnem
As long as we allow "Corporation" to run our lives, humanity is doomed too.

[PA0PBZ]

You may have to turn your heads as I’m on a bus and the forum didn’t process the orientation of the image properly.

The funny thing is that when you click it, it's ok.

[med6753]

Disclaimer: needs new bench.

Another quick picture... 

(Attachment Link)

Entry to this is free. However a fucking sandwich and coke cost me nearly £9 

So you guys stole a Gemini capsule? Do you realize there's a .gov bureaucrat still looking for it on his inventory list? 

Nah. That's an Apollo capsule, IIRC Apollo 10. Gemini is thinner (only two people!) and looks more like a classic chemistry flask.

So you guys stole an Apollo capsule? The black helicopters will hunt down your arse. 

[bd139]

We stole them too 

[BU508A]

Those black helicopters are only dangerous, if Bruce Willis is on board.

I learned that from this nice documentation made by Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

IIRC a dead cow on the roof of a car was involved, too.

[Specmaster]

Disclaimer: needs new bench.

Another quick picture... 

(Attachment Link)

Entry to this is free. However a fucking sandwich and coke cost me nearly £9 

This is true, but on the positive side, I think I'm right in saying that they don't mind if you take your own in but you must consume it in the designated areas. In reality I don't mind the cost so much if the profits actually go towards supporting the museum and not the catering company because if they were to start charging entry, then I fear for its survival. 

[Specmaster]

So you guys stole a Gemini capsule? Do you realize there's a .gov bureaucrat still looking for it on his inventory list? 

Sandwich and coke for $10 USD? Reminds me of the $80 USD cheeseburger in Times Square. 

More like $11.

Yep and we had the perfect hiding place for it too. We are so devious that we put where nobody would think we would, right in full view of everyone so they must think it's a fake 

[Specmaster]

Those black helicopters are only dangerous, if Bruce Willis is on board.

I learned that from this nice documentation made by Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

IIRC a dead cow on the roof of a car was involved, too.

Yeah the dead cow was supposed to be road kill that they were going have for their BBQ IIRC