Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Word of the day because sometimes you are just  even here 

Luddite



3.
EXCEPTION
a small group of nerds dedicated to the preservation of antique Test equipment of dubious use for the future torment of those they leave behind to dispose of.

I'm definitely going to be a torment to my kids when I'm gone. 

[tggzzz]

Lots of stupid shit like that out there. I remember the stupid crypto munitions export laws in the US. Guess who was responsible for filling in the paperwork so the US subsidiary could export it to the UK subsidiary.  . Haha but you couldn’t file the declaration unless it was sent over a secure channel. Which we didn’t have because you couldn’t import it. So we had to get the home office involved to declare a 2m square bit of ground as US territory for a week, pop a couple of cryptos in onto one of the dark networks. Whole thing was a joke.

Edit: oh and two weeks after we fixed all that, Clinton relaxes the restrictions

I think I still have an 8" floppy with PGP on it - extremely illegal at the time, of course. One year I'll fire up my 8" drive and see if I can read it!

[bd139]

Amazing how times have changed. I don't actually even have any CDs now or anything that I can stick one in. Still don't use PGP though 

[med6753]

It's interesting that the free flow of technology was never a 2 way street. You Brits have always been willing to share technology with the US. Two examples that I can think of are the magnetron and of course Mr Whittle's jet engine. But forget it in the other direction. Two quick examples are the turbochargers used in the Allison engine in the P-38 fighter. (We were dumb and didn't know that Mr Whittle was light years ahead in compressor technology) and of course, the bomb....even though your scientists worked on the Manhattan project.   

[bd139]

We just shrugged off the whole Manhattan project thing and started something else up called "High Explosive Research"

[nixiefreqq]

We just shrugged off the whole Manhattan project thing and started something else up called "High Explosive Research"

yes that is true.

once was installing some network crap at place where it took lots of back channel arrival messages, read-on's and badges just to get on the compound.  there was some really strange "how to blow shit up" training/testing going on.  all the experts had funny accents!  asked the security guy "who let the foreign nationals through the gate?"  he then decided to interrogate ME and made ME sign a non-disclosure.  then told me not to even try to talk to the brits, but to take shelter in the bunker if the limeys so directed.  loud noises ensued.  everyone seemed happy afterward so it looked like their experiment was successful.

hard to believe our guys did not know as much about blowing shit up as some geezer's from across the ocean. 

maybe its in their genes?  have read that bd can blow up just about anything. 

[bd139]

Can confirm. I can blow anything up 

[mnementh]

   I think that qualifies as a proper “Shaggy Dog Story”.

Well played.

mnem
*homeward bound*

[AVGresponding]

Word of the day because sometimes you are just  even here 

Luddite

Learn to pronounce
noun
noun: Luddite; plural noun: Luddites
1.
DEROGATORY
a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.
"a small-minded Luddite resisting progress"
2.
HISTORICAL
a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woollen mills,  (1811–16).
3.that they believed was threatening their jobs
EXCEPTION
a small group of nerds dedicated to the preservation of antique Test equipment of dubious use for the future torment of those they leave behind to dispose of.

The use of the term as an insult is somewhat diluted because they were, in fact, correct on this point at least.

[mansaxel]

Edit: oh and two weeks after we fixed all that, Clinton relaxes the restrictions

I think I still have an 8" floppy with PGP on it - extremely illegal at the time, of course. One year I'll fire up my 8" drive and see if I can read it!

If you printed out the source code for <some slightly useful crypto> that'd been invented and written in the USA you could export it, because blocking that export was not allowed. The written word is protected by free speech laws, which overrides munitions controls.
So, a version of  <some slightly useful crypto> exists that has ASCII headers and footers, because a book needs that. It just looks something like this:

Code: [Select]

/*
Page 4711       The story of some useful crypto
^L
*/

(the ^L is a pagebreak which makes plaintext printers do a form feed -- once you could do things like

Code: [Select]

$ ls -l | lpr which printed a listing of the files in your directory, directly to the line printer. Today, we need to load about 500MB of libraries involving Adobe intellectual property and reboot at least once to even get a printer jam.  Progress.
)

Dan Bernstein IIRC went to court and made that a precedent.

Another take was to strip all crypto from MIT Kerberos and export that. Then, in Sweden, at the Royal Institute of Technology, clever people added another crypto implementation in again, that happened to interoperate with the MIT version with bits of crypto left in it.

As bd139 wrote, the hilarious in all this rose to levels that even USGOV were affected by, and Clinton put an end to it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

@tggzzz:
Finally I can tell what was always irritating me when reading your messages' footer:

There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".

When reading 'there is no substitute for span' I was still with the ADC/DAC specs, and that aphorism does hold true in the world of signal processing too.
Except it becomes harder every day to buy span in the world of the  low-voltage obsessed.

[AVGresponding]

Edit: oh and two weeks after we fixed all that, Clinton relaxes the restrictions

I think I still have an 8" floppy with PGP on it - extremely illegal at the time, of course. One year I'll fire up my 8" drive and see if I can read it!

If you printed out the source code for <some slightly useful crypto> that'd been invented and written in the USA you could export it, because blocking that export was not allowed. The written word is protected by free speech laws, which overrides munitions controls.
So, a version of  <some slightly useful crypto> exists that has ASCII headers and footers, because a book needs that. It just looks something like this:

Code: [Select]

/*
Page 4711       The story of some useful crypto
^L
*/

(the ^L is a pagebreak which makes plaintext printers do a form feed -- once you could do things like

Code: [Select]

$ ls -l | lpr which printed a listing of the files in your directory, directly to the line printer. Today, we need to load about 500MB of libraries involving Adobe intellectual property and reboot at least once to even get a printer jam.  Progress.
)

Dan Bernstein IIRC went to court and made that a precedent.

Another take was to strip all crypto from MIT Kerberos and export that. Then, in Sweden, at the Royal Institute of Technology, clever people added another crypto implementation in again, that happened to interoperate with the MIT version with bits of crypto left in it.

As bd139 wrote, the hilarious in all this rose to levels that even USGOV were affected by, and Clinton put an end to it.

Thus demonstrating that governments exist in large part merely to justify their own existence

[mnementh]

He only did that to stop lawsuits from the wingnut contingent demanding access under 2nd Amendment. 

mnem

[tggzzz]

@tggzzz:
Finally I can tell what was always irritating me when reading your messages' footer:

There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".

When reading 'there is no substitute for span' I was still with the ADC/DAC specs, and that aphorism does hold true in the world of signal processing too.
Except it becomes harder every day to buy span in the world of the  low-voltage obsessed.

Ah, the perils of speed reading too fast

The solution to all signal processing problems is to integrate for longer.

[med6753]

All the activity over the past several months getting all the Tek scopes up and running has resulted in neglecting the volt-nut stuff. All my DMM's are in dire need of a checkup and/or calibration. But in order to successfully perform these checks I need to make sure my “bench reference” is up to snuff. That's the key DMM used to set the required references, such as 190mV, 1.9V, 19V, etc so those references can be transferred to other DMM's. On bench 1 that's the Fluke 8050A. So I came up with a tracking chart that compares the 8050A to the 2 AD584-M references and forms a permanent record so I can spot trends. The check will be done every 6 months and to insure the maximum accuracy the 8050A will be powered up no less than 12 hours.

Now obviously for a lab environment this method is totally unacceptable because there is no real traceability back to an accepted standard. But for my needs it will be fine.     

[mnementh]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

[med6753]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

Nope, you forget I have the nearly new Siglent SDM 3055 which is on bench 2.

[tggzzz]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

Latest purchase. Unable to resist (ho ho)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tinsley-Type-1659-DC-AC-Standard-Resistance-10-0-ohms-1-amp-/153675945967

[med6753]

The P6056 10X probe as recommended by Kosmic showed up today. Damn thing looks brand new and works fine. 

[beanflying]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

His resistance to my Enabling power remains strong - so far 

i did suggest privately he NEEDED this tasty tidy and possibly affordable Tek FET probe in his life eBay auction: #113925336104 and offered to assist in it's procurement. I reckon by Christmas (not sure which year) with the combined TEA power we can have him 3D printing with a 6 1/2 digit meter 

[Neomys Sapiens]

MISTITLED rackmount Tek 485 with issues (Knob, axis missing, more?) on german Ebay:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/A56-Tektronix-Oscilloscope-5110/223709580821

[URI]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

Latest purchase. Unable to resist (ho ho)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tinsley-Type-1659-DC-AC-Standard-Resistance-10-0-ohms-1-amp-/153675945967

...everyone every TE Addict should have his own standard resistance..      

[Mr. Scram]

The use of the term as an insult is somewhat diluted because they were, in fact, correct on this point at least.

I gather that's part of the point. You can complain about progress but it's invariably in vain. It's no use objecting to the disappearance of the milkman or firemen on trains. You can't rebottle a technological genie once it's out.

[med6753]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

His resistance to my Enabling power remains strong - so far 

i did suggest privately he NEEDED this tasty tidy and possibly affordable Tek FET probe in his life eBay auction: #113925336104 and offered to assist in it's procurement. I reckon by Christmas (not sure which year) with the combined TEA power we can have him 3D printing with a 6 1/2 digit meter 

Yes, Bean tried and I greatly appreciate his offer but I have other priorities at the moment. And I'd rarely use it. But I'm sure Oculus or Addictedtoanalogtek would be interested. 

[mnementh]

From the "You Can't Go Home Again..." Dept...



This is the view from what would be my front porch if I were to build on my little piece of the family farm...

mnem
*sigh*