Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

The government really wasn't briefing middle and junior store management (in a relatively small chain of shops that most of us have barely heard of) about plans for days, possibly weeks, away. C'mon, if you had information that could possibly lead to shortages or a break down in public order if it leaks, would you disseminate it to undermanagers in a bunch of retail stores?

I think that you have made your own version of the story, or you have read more into what I said and made 2+2 = 22. Firstly I would not call them relatively small https://storelocator.homebargains.co.uk/all-stores and I certainly never implied that the government had discussing plans with middle and junior store management, I implied director level. From that list of stores, you can see that list, there is a store in most major towns and towns of the UK, so I think that most people will have heard about them.

To understand just how the branch managers were informed and as to why they informed the staff, you would need to understand just how they operate their business at a staffing level. Even their branch managers are not in full time employment in fashion that you and I would know it. most of the shops operate with staff working generally a 4-hour shift and not a regular Mon-Friday but a random pattern of days and times. Staff have to check on-line daily to see when they are next in and what their duties for their shifts are going to be as they also change day to day. They are IMHO just one rung up from zero hour contracts which many of the well known sport chain shops operate, and they are more common than many people think they are. Its just another way that government has managed to massage the figures and claim that they have massively reduced the unemployment. Most of us could not survive on the money that these workers earn in these shops and hence why, my son is still living at home, he cannot afford to move out.

So hopefully you can now see just why the managers passed the information onto their staff, because a staff member's next shift might be in 5 days time or it could tomorrow, thats why they have to check their special shift allocation system on line.

It was not an educated guess, but a well-informed piece of information, only the precise commence date was unknown at the time I posted.

[Specmaster]

But.....sounds like it's getting real serious in the UK.  Hunker down guys. 

It's you lot we need to be worried for. Way more cases than the UK and heading up hill faster. Don't make the mistake that the differences in population matter at this point , it's too early for the unavailability of fresh uninfected bodies to alter the disease spread in any way. There's - checks stats - 41,451 cases in the states as of now and 6,650 here.  Keep yourself safe y' hear.

And, not though you're likey to, don't let any children touch you unless they've been thoroughly boiled first. 

Just you watch how our stats are going to rocket upwards now, we and the USA have just buried our heads in the sand and refused to acknowledge the severity of this virus. Our government know now this to be true and are trying to slam the door shut and prevent it spreading to most of the population, which was their original plane if you recall, the famous "Herd Immunity" plan was openly broadcast to the nation only a few days or so ago.

[bd139]

Interesting thread direction.

On UK virus stats. We probably have as many cases here as the US. I could count as one. We're just testing people who turn up at hospital. This is probably the correct approach at the moment when there are limited resources. The key statistics that are important and mostly not reported are "cases that required hospitalisation per million population" and "percentage of them that dropped dead" and "percentage of them that have life changing health issues afterwards".  The latter point is the scary and damaging thing to society. Proportionately we're going to end up with similar dead percentage as the US as the healthcare system will be overrun extremely quickly regardless of the model.

As for rumours, there are very very few rumours in the retail business. They're not idiots. Home Bargains have over 500 odd locations and a business of that size will be paying for analytics feeds and will have their own little network of people they know who work in other businesses feeding them information. News spreads like fire around them and between them.

On the OSA it's mostly an idle threat to chuck you in jail for being a blabber mouth. There were plenty of blabber mouths feeding info to the press when the defence company I worked for managed to fuck up a massive project... As usual zero prosecutions other than a couple of leaked gov documents over the years which were embarrassing.

[xrunner]

This log graph plotting cases of COVID-19 in U.S. is interesting. From Mar 2 to Mar 10 (8 days) an increase of 10x from 100 to 1000 cases. Then from Mar 10 to Mar 18 (8 days) another increase of 10 times from 1k to 10k. And it looks like extrapolating in another 8 days another 10 times from 10k to 100k cases.

Amazing how that works isn't it?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

[mnementh]

Oh dear... no curry asplosion=irregular Spec=Cranky Old Fart Spec. 

This IS a emergency NOW. 

mnem
*off to forage for food in the wilds of North o' Toronto*

Your dammed right its an emergency  , we have curry twice a week. Seriously, I have been telling SWMBO that we do need to be more self-reliant for meals and also reduce the amount we eat, so we can get used to eating less in case we have extended lockdown where we can't get out to buy food. My youngest just will not eat peas, and yet every time she puts peas on his plate in the hope that he will eat them, and every time they get thrown away He's in his 30's, so he's not going to change anytime soon so why do it??

I'll eat 'em. In butter, in a roast, on toast, plain with salt or even on the sly with their veggie brethren in a pie. 

I eat toast with peas & honey;
I've done it all my life.
I know it may sound funny,
but it keeps them on my knife.

Fingers crossed. Cummings is a world class cunt who needs to be blasted into the sun.
Edit: all police leave was just cancelled and 20,000 armed forces drafted this afternoon. I reckon they’re going to sort the scum out in Bolton 

You do that there'll be a nationwide shortage of every brew on the market... all the survivors drowning their tears in beer.

In Other News...

I have returned from my latest Guerilla attack on the grocery supply network; $400 Canadian pesos lighter in the bank account but now belly full of deli ribs (not as good as mine, but a lot less assache) and seasoned tater wedges. Of course, the only thing the kids cared about was the ice cream.

mnem
*off to the medicine cupboard for a celebratory dose of zinc-magnesium wafers*

[Cerebus]

As for rumours, there are very very few rumours in the retail business. They're not idiots. Home Bargains have over 500 odd locations and a business of that size will be paying for analytics feeds and will have their own little network of people they know who work in other businesses feeding them information. News spreads like fire around them and between them.

Granted. But that's very different from specmaster patting himself on the back that he was right in his prediction. That included, let us remember:

... and also that the army is due to be called in to enforce a lockdown.

Which (1) has not come to pass, (2) is precisely the kind of thing that, if it gets traction, causes people to panic, from the relatively mild "lets empty the shops" to "lets riot in the streets" and ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is a bit high handed of me, but I don't want specmaster getting smug about a bit of rumour mongering that happened by chance to turn out mostly correct and feel that next time he gets what he feels is the inside track he's justified in doing the same. Spreading rumours about anything at this potential level of seriousness is, bluntly, irresponsible and if I have to be a bit of an arse about it to dissuade people from doing it then I'm good with that.

On a slightly different note - Even this government, idiots that they are, hopefully understands that putting a bunch of squadies on the streets in a law enforcement role would be  a disaster waiting to happen. They don't have the training, skill set or maturity to handle the "policing by consent"/"enforcing the law" tradeoff that every copper handles every day. Squadies understand orders, rules of engagement and use of force, not policing. Insert obligatory quote "history...learn...repeat" and point at the history of squaddie assisted policing in NI.

On the OSA it's mostly an idle threat to chuck you in jail for being a blabber mouth. There were plenty of blabber mouths feeding info to the press when the defence company I worked for managed to fuck up a massive project... As usual zero prosecutions other than a couple of leaked gov documents over the years which were embarrassing.

Mostly it's used for  intimidation - there's no need for anyone to sign a British law to be subject to it, the whole "signed a copy of the OSA" is proof of that nature. However, it's one of those "overly-broad in a way that's dangerous" bits of legislation that you don't want to get on the wrong side of if someone with the power to do so decides to point it in your direction. Notably, it was originally emergency law "for the duration" in the first world war that just hung around afterwards waiting to cause trouble. Now, why does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah, anybody read the 300+ pages of the Coronavirus Act?

[AVGresponding]

Well, what an absolute, fucked-into-a-cocked-hat day.

That AC calibrator looks nice, but being in the UK and also skint, I can easily resist its charms.

Fluke PM99 arrived today; left on the doorstep by the dickhead Parcel Force driver, who should have left it at the sorting office 5 minutes walk from my house.   
Luckily I live in a half decent area, and the streets are deserted anyway.

The first thing I did (after a quick switch on and off) was open the battery compartment, the second was to open the rewireable plugtop.
Both turned out to be good decisions; the battery was ok, but clearly there had been a previous unintended redistribution of electrolytes, and one of the previous owners had attacked the battery springs with presumably a large screwdriver to try and clean them. Not very well.
The plugtop was fitted with a 13A fuse. For 10VA psu.   

After rectifying this dipshittery, I powered the thing up to do some comparison measurements.
It seems to be absolutely bang on, V, mV, ohms, nice 3.5VDC on the diode test.

And then... wth is this?!? The display starts futzing and the buttons aren't responding...   
Squeezing the case at the back on the sides halfway up seems to cure it.
SON OF A CLOWN

Time to take it apart.   

Nothing was immediately obvious to the naked eye, except that it's clearly been dropped (and not by the fuckwit that left it on the doorstep, it was very well packed and there would have been other indications) as one of the mounts for the tilting bail fell apart as I took out the screw, and further inside, the screw posts at the top of the analog board were sheared.

Getting out the 20x specs to take a closer look at the boards revealed a couple of nasty surprises. A couple of very ugly bodges (not a chance in hell any Fluke employee would be so cack-handed) and a cooked solder joint, on what appears to be the current sense resistor for the power section.
The ugly bodges are a couple of bead caps tagged onto regulation components, I don't have a schematic, and the one I found for the PM97 has some slight differences, but the BUZ11 seems to be part of the main power regulation and there's another power tranny also with this crap slapped on it.



You can just about see the cooked joint by the top of the tranny case, and can also just about see from this angle the bodged on cap isn't even soldered properly, it's flapping in the damn breeze:


Well, cleaned all this shit up, and replaced the 2032 memory battery (was reading ~60mV).

The V, mV, ohms, diode pics are from before repairs, the (almost) square wave is post, letting it run for a while to see if it starts wobbling again. So far, so good, fingers crossed, throw a pinch of salt over my shoulder, and checking ebay for 4-leaf clovers...




The slightly off mV reading can be explained by the garbage leads from the psu I think.


Oh, and yes, we are now in a 3 week lockdown. I only just went back to work today after 2 weeks sick for an abscess   

[beanflying]

The little snicker was to hard to tell if it is there or not but making one is easier than hacking the guides. You can buy new ones eBay auction: #332878943519 or I will get some tool steel and DIY something.

$40 for a screw and a spur FFS !   

They not that hard that you can't sharpen them with a file so just HT steel should be fine.....and easier to work.

A moments thought comes up trumps......a bit of old lawnmower blade. 

So the wee beast rocked up this morning. Much better condition than the evilbay photos showed and the blade has a fairly good edge on it so it came from a good home. The Snicker was missing but the screw was there and with a quick bit of evilbay foo working for me I turned up three new ones for $16 (20% discount coupon) eBay auction: #324003896439 no not worth the time to DIY.

[beanflying]

Arggg there's a cheap AC calibrator on ebay this morning … Please could someone buy it before I do ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VALHALLA-SCIENTIFIC-2703-PROGRAMMABLE-AC-VOLTAGE-STANDARD-POWERS-ON-NO-O/274315594249

Damn, very tempted but I'm tapped out at the moment.

It is nearly as big as that Fluke Calibrator Bargain you turned down the mission on  Not quite as heavy but they do come with nice glowy LEDS 

[Specmaster]

As for rumours, there are very very few rumours in the retail business. They're not idiots. Home Bargains have over 500 odd locations and a business of that size will be paying for analytics feeds and will have their own little network of people they know who work in other businesses feeding them information. News spreads like fire around them and between them.

Granted. But that's very different from specmaster patting himself on the back that he was right in his prediction. That included, let us remember:

... and also that the army is due to be called in to enforce a lockdown.

Which (1) has not come to pass, (2) is precisely the kind of thing that, if it gets traction, causes people to panic, from the relatively mild "lets empty the shops" to "lets riot in the streets" and ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is a bit high handed of me, but I don't want specmaster getting smug about a bit of rumour mongering that happened by chance to turn out mostly correct and feel that next time he gets what he feels is the inside track he's justified in doing the same. Spreading rumours about anything at this potential level of seriousness is, bluntly, irresponsible and if I have to be a bit of an arse about it to dissuade people from doing it then I'm good with that.

On a slightly different note - Even this government, idiots that they are, hopefully understands that putting a bunch of squadies on the streets in a law enforcement role would be  a disaster waiting to happen. They don't have the training, skill set or maturity to handle the "policing by consent"/"enforcing the law" tradeoff that every copper handles every day. Squadies understand orders, rules of engagement and use of force, not policing. Insert obligatory quote "history...learn...repeat" and point at the history of squaddie assisted policing in NI.

Dear oh dear, it was never a prediction not by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how vivid yours is, and we know how brilliant and inventive it is, it was a statement that COULD be imposed as early as last Friday.

I admit that the troops being called to enforce a lockdown was a guess that their role WOULD be one of enforcement because their precise role was at that time unknown. It was however, not an invalid guess given, by your own admission, that they have done a peace keeping and enforcement role before both in NI and also many times as part of NATO in various theatres around the world. The fact still remains that the troops have been drafted in, so again, the truth was there, what was missing was their purpose, which was not outlined to my son.

Secondly I was NOT giving myself a pat on the back either. Believe me, I'd much rather have been proven wrong on both accounts then have to endure this manic hoarding that some people have done, I only added enough extra provisions to give my family of 4 an extra couple of days grace and I shop weekly on a Wednesday so come this Friday / Saturday if there is no food in the shops then it will be getting dire here. As it was, last week it took me several trips to various shops on multiple days to get enough provisions for that short space of time. Normally, I go to 3 shops in the same trip, and job done for the week.

I'm not getting in the slightest bit smug as you put it, what I did, I did it as a heads up for what I consider to be friends, as they say, "Fore warned, is fore armed". If my intention was to create blind panic among the population, there are far better platforms I could have done that on. And just like you, if I did help someone with a heads up, then I'm good with that, and for the last time, it was not a rumour, you just choose to call it one.

Now lets draw a line in the sand and return to normal programming.

[Zoli]

I just leave this link here, since I'm sure that few posters will find it interesting(no connections whatsover with the author):
Dragon-themed coloring book giveaway

[Cerebus]

it was not a rumour, you just choose to call it one.

In your own, original words:

My son has just come from his shift in a large national chain store and says that there are rumours that shops could be closed...

That it has now, partially, come to pass does not stop it being a rumour, in your own words let alone mine, when you transmitted it.

As to venue,  you have to remember that, although this is a little corner of the online world, and no matter how well intentioned you were, it is nevertheless, a public forum, and shows up in search engine results to non-users as well. One thing to have a word down the real pub, but in this virtual one where the world can eavesdrop it's another. As an aside, you might be surprised how seriously people take "open source" intelligence gathering from sources like Google - journalists, companies keeping an eye on their reputation, others.

Lets draw a line there, don't want to put too much of a dampener on it.

[mnementh]

Oh, FFS... I've said it before, I'm going to say it again...

We are NOT a news source; we are a handful of nerds talking at the pub. Well, the closest thing we're allowed, since they HAVE closed the pubs down.

There is not a DAMNED THING WRONG with sharing rumours here for the express purpose of discussion; this kind of talk is precisely the reason we have this space AWAY from the technical discussion at large. 

Please keep the Rumor Nazi-ing to a minimum as well, FFS; between the two of you riding Spec's arse you've made a bigger dog's breakfast of this place than all the rumor-mongering combined (almost as bad as me when I get a political bug up my fat dwagon arse), and we can't even entertain the thought of discussing these rumours as the fucking social joke they really are. 

mnem
Please stop making me try to be the voice of reason. You know it doesn't suit me.

[Cerebus]

Oi! Muppet dragon! You have two messages from both primary participants that say "let's drop it there"

Now lets draw a line in the sand and return to normal programming.

Lets draw a line there, don't want to put too much of a dampener on it.

and then you immediately bring it up again in the next message.  <- there, I have face palmed someone for the first time on the forum ever (to the best of my memory).  Get a GRIP boy!

Go and play with your new colouring book and stop causing trouble!   

I just leave this link here, since I'm sure that few posters will find it interesting(no connections whatsover with the author):
Dragon-themed coloring book giveaway

[worsthorse]

But.....sounds like it's getting real serious in the UK.  Hunker down guys. 

It's you lot we need to be worried for. Way more cases than the UK and heading up hill faster. Don't make the mistake that the differences in population matter at this point , it's too early for the unavailability of fresh uninfected bodies to alter the disease spread in any way. There's - checks stats - 41,451 cases in the states as of now and 6,650 here.  Keep yourself safe y' hear.

And, not though you're likey to, don't let any children touch you unless they've been thoroughly boiled first. 

Testing is finally ramping up in the States and revealing how widely the virus has spread.  The attack rate in New York is four or five times steeper than it is anywhere else in the United States, which is quite frightening. New York State is going to be just one of many catastrophes here.

People just aren't getting it. Oregon's beaches and parks were packed this past weekend, which finally got the governor's attention; she's issued a mandatory stay-at-home order. Testing is gearing up here and I expect we will see a very steep increase in Oregon's numbers over the next four days.

I have been working with other CERTs to pull N95 masks and sterile gloves out of disaster caches all over the city. One of the local hospital groups is recruiting people to sew masks and gowns.  Lots of people are doing similar sorts of things. We need to, but it honestly feels like we are standing on the shore with a couple of buckets and watching a tsunami roll toward us.

And in the background, the dimwit at 1600 is tweeting how we'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. He's making Herbert Hoover look like Abraham Lincoln.

[worsthorse]

mnem
Please stop making me try to be the voice of reason. You know it doesn't suit me.

Ain't that the truth.   

[beanflying]

But.....sounds like it's getting real serious in the UK.  Hunker down guys. 

It's you lot we need to be worried for. Way more cases than the UK and heading up hill faster. Don't make the mistake that the differences in population matter at this point , it's too early for the unavailability of fresh uninfected bodies to alter the disease spread in any way. There's - checks stats - 41,451 cases in the states as of now and 6,650 here.  Keep yourself safe y' hear.

And, not though you're likey to, don't let any children touch you unless they've been thoroughly boiled first. 

Testing is finally ramping up in the States and revealing how widely the virus has spread.  The attack rate in New York is four or five times steeper than it is anywhere else in the United States, which is quite frightening. New York State is going to be just one of many catastrophes here.

People just aren't getting it. Oregon's beaches and parks were packed this past weekend, which finally got the governor's attention; she's issued a mandatory stay-at-home order. Testing is gearing up here and I expect we will see a very steep increase in Oregon's numbers over the next four days.

I have been working with other CERTs to pull N95 masks and sterile gloves out of disaster caches all over the city. One of the local hospital groups is recruiting people to sew masks and gowns.  Lots of people are doing similar sorts of things. We need to, but it honestly feels like we are standing on the shore with a couple of buckets and watching a tsunami roll toward us.

And in the background, the dimwit at 1600 is tweeting how we'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. He's making Herbert Hoover look like Abraham Lincoln.

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” When the answer is take a two week Golfing holiday and let the adults sort it out things are less than 'perfect'

Seemingly out usual Federal farce is getting on with it and working with near complete bi partisan support and barely a political grandstand or stunt along the way. Add to that broad based free (or near free) medical services and we are doing most of it fairly right.

All the best USA and stay safe.

And, not though you're likey to, don't let any children touch you unless they've been thoroughly boiled first. 

Yes absolutely the children are off School as of today and should be .... 

[bitseeker]

No time to play but on the outside near as darn it showroom condition and sent with enough bubble wrap to make Mother her suit 

Wow, those look like they just came out of a cal lab.

They came out of the same home as my 34461A and the Fluke 335D. The Sellers Dad was a complete Test Gear Nutter 

Oh, a member of TEA before it was a thing.

[Cerebus]

And in the background, the dimwit at 1600 is tweeting how we'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. He's making Herbert Hoover look like Abraham Lincoln.

Boris the Bungler was making a bit of a hash of things a few weeks back, but even he has got the sense to start letting stuff get sorted when the grown-ups tell him that there's a real problem coming at us.

I watch the scenes at 1600 with utter incredulity, scientific advisers say one thing, and in the next sentence he contradicts them, and they can't say anything because (1) he's the president and (2) he'll have a temper tantrum, they'll get fired and the next person doing their job will be selected for their ability to say "yes, sir you are the smartest person in the room" and most emphatically not for any actual knowledge or ability. As I say, incredulity, I really can't believe what's happening in front of my eyes, but it is. Political views don't even begin to come into it; you're watching a man who's manifestly unfit to be left in charge of anything and people are just letting it carry on. I saw an open letter today asking Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment but given all we've seen to date I can't see that happening.

[DaJMasta]

Moved a few weeks ago, now I've got some extra space so the home lab gets to stretch its legs.



And the wall opposite is all parts, in moderately organized bins.





Now to clutter it all up again with repair projects and things!

[Brumby]

That is a dangerous amount of bench space.

I like it!!   

[DaJMasta]

Thanks!  In my last place, the computer on the right and about 1/3 of the equipment was all on the bench on the left, leaving me with precious little.... this is a playground by comparison.


The idea was that I could have a full sized machine open on the left and still have space to work on something - I always seem to have a project going on the side of what's getting my attention, and it's much easier to spend a little time on something if I don't have to unpack it and pack it up to have any space for day to day stuff.  Gone are the days when I sit next to my chair on the floor to look at the monitor sitting on my sub under the desk to boot up a machine open on the floor next to me!

[bitseeker]

Wow, that new playground looks great!  Very much unlike my bench. *sigh*

[mnementh]

Oi! Muppet dragon! You have two messages from both primary participants that say "let's drop it there"

Now lets draw a line in the sand and return to normal programming.

Lets draw a line there, don't want to put too much of a dampener on it.

and then you immediately bring it up again in the next message.  <- there, I have face palmed someone for the first time on the forum ever (to the best of my memory).  Get a GRIP boy!

Go and play with your new colouring book and stop causing trouble!   

I just leave this link here, since I'm sure that few posters will find it interesting(no connections whatsover with the author):
Dragon-themed coloring book giveaway

Yeah... Timing is EVERYTHING. 

I actually looked into said "free" coloring book. They want me to sign up for an account with my e-address AND meatspace address for a "free" digital product. Much as I respect Brian's work, not THAT interested.

   That is a dangerous amount of bench space. I like it!!   

Yup. Husky transmission shop workbenches make damn fine (if a bit pricey) desks. 

mnem
Then you cry the first time that pristine oak gets a hickey in it...

[med6753]

So where is the Fluke 8505A I purchased over a week ago? You'll have to ask USPS. Because it's taken nearly 6 days for it to travel approx. 120 miles. It shipped then disappeared into a black hole for nearly 4 days before showing up in Jersey City. Then it whizzed right by my location to spend a day in Springfield. Now it's left Springfield and should be at my local post office today (Tuesday). But hold on...the roads around here suck right now. North of me got blasted with snow. Upwards of a foot of the white stuff. And that's where Springfield is located.