Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

It's FINALLY Here!!!     



After WEEKS of anticipation... I can now present to you: THE STICK OF WISDOM.   

I've been waiting weeks for this thing; Canada Post is slower than moleasses in January right now, I swear. Y'all talked about it; I DID it. Spent $54 Canadian pesos (~US$39) to get this thing; one of these has been on my "want" list ever since I saw the April Fool's Day eBay listing for one we talked about years ago. Never, EVER imagined one would actually come across my RADAR such that I could actually get it.

Special thanks to bean, our resident corner pusher, for bringing it to my attention: eBay auction: #184193415940    

For me it's a keepsake of my time as a HP ASP; I had dreams of one day becoming a proper payrolled HP Tech, but alas it was not meant to be. My HP rep told me many stories of working with HP's "Old  Guard"; even chatted with a few of them on the company BBS a few times. *sigh*

Guess I'll just have to console myself with dreams of stalking the halls of HP Corporate; hunting that batshit crazy Fiorino bitch with my trusty P/N 19511-80014 in hand...

mnem

[Specmaster]

I just knew that was a plinth to place your HP stick on 

[mnementh]

Who else guessed it was me who bought the SoW after bean laid it on the group? I deliberately kept my mouth shut; y'all have NO IDEA how hard that was...

mnem
*toddles off in search of some methyl hydrate*

[bd139]

Congratulations 

[tggzzz]

For me it's a keepsake of my time as a HP ASP; I had dreams of one day becoming a proper payrolled HP Tech, but alas it was not meant to be. My HP rep told me many stories of working with HP's "Old  Guard"; even chatted with a few of them on the company BBS a few times. *sigh*

I don't know of an HP corporate BBS.

The internal usenet groups were a superb way of propagating information horizontally. Management knew about them and was sensible enough to leave them alone, even when it allowed awkward questions to be asked.

That was partly because HP was a very flat organisation (if I'd been promoted 6 times I'd have been CEO), and partly because the HP way indicated that management should get the right people talking, and then stay out of the way.

Usenet still staggers along. The comp.risks group is superb, the comp.arch has some experts. Sci.electronics.design has some superb contributors (inc Win Hill who posted a link to a pdf of TAoE3), but also has discussions that demonstrate the limits of any randian philosophy and the benefits of light-touch moderation.

[AVGresponding]

4503 Update time.
Plugged in the replacement MAX134 and...... it just displays "OR" on each and every range, either it was duff one that I purchased or it has zapped with static despite it being packed in an anti-static tube. Removed and plugged back the old one and everything is back to where it was before, so I'm no further forward with this 

I have opened a dispute with the seller via eBay 

Ahh fook   


t minus 87 minutes

[Saskia]

the seller of that HP ps found the packaging consisting of loose shoeboxes inside a way too big shipping box fully adequate and said that I should open a dispute with Hermes ...

[AVGresponding]

the seller of that HP ps found the packaging consisting of loose shoeboxes inside a way too big shipping box fully adequate and said that I should open a dispute with Hermes ...

Sad to say, fuckwits is as fuckwits does.

I expect ebay will side with you, they seem to do even when it's clearly not the vendor's fault.

[bd139]

Yeah attach a photo to the case and it usually goes in your favour instantly.

I have yet to send one thing (out of about 400) that got broken so it's not difficult for people to package shit properly 

Edit: are we doing discord tonight? I may have to install it again.

[Ice-Tea]

the seller of that HP ps found the packaging consisting of loose shoeboxes inside a way too big shipping box fully adequate and said that I should open a dispute with Hermes ...

Good luck with that. I believe DPD states specifically in their terms that a box must survive a 60cm drop. I doubt Hermes is much different.

[Saskia]

I told him that Hermes was not going to accept this as his packaging was not up to the task.
I just don't want to lug this thing down the stairs and send it back because it is fucking heavy.

[bd139]

Push it out of the window and then take a photo 

[Saskia]

there is no problem that cannot be resolved by deliberate application of 50g of Ceefour.

[Ice-Tea]

there is no problem that cannot be resolved by deliberate application of 50g of Ceefour.

Of course there is. Like a shortage of Ceefour.

[Wolfgang]

there is no problem that cannot be resolved by deliberate application of 50g of Ceefour.

... not always the best solution. My steaks were best softened with normal gelatine types.

[Saskia]

today is not my day somehow. Feeling fatigued, tired as hell, have slept for most of the day.
Can someone pls get me some caffeine infusion ?

[Cubdriver]

the seller of that HP ps found the packaging consisting of loose shoeboxes inside a way too big shipping box fully adequate and said that I should open a dispute with Hermes ...

So there's absolute proof that the seller is a mouth breathing moron.   

-Pat

[mnementh]

For me it's a keepsake of my time as a HP ASP; I had dreams of one day becoming a proper payrolled HP Tech, but alas it was not meant to be. My HP rep told me many stories of working with HP's "Old  Guard"; even chatted with a few of them on the company BBS a few times. *sigh*

I don't know of an HP corporate BBS.

The internal usenet groups were a superb way of propagating information horizontally. Management knew about them and was sensible enough to leave them alone, even when it allowed awkward questions to be asked.

That was partly because HP was a very flat organisation (if I'd been promoted 6 times I'd have been CEO), and partly because the HP way indicated that management should get the right people talking, and then stay out of the way.

Usenet still staggers along. The comp.risks group is superb, the comp.arch has some experts. Sci.electronics.design has some superb contributors (inc Win Hill who posted a link to a pdf of TAoE3), but also has discussions that demonstrate the limits of any randian philosophy and the benefits of light-touch moderation.

No idea what else to call it; it was a BBS-like message board available through my ASP Portal (a bit of Java so horrific it aspired to be merely "buggy as hell") that we used to close out our tickets on the HP side. It was used to provide back-channel communications outside the ticket itself with our handlers and to ask assistance from other senior techs in the company. It's possible that connected to the internal usenet you speak of; but there was no channel addressing convention as with usenet, and I never saw any of our conversations (some of which were quite casual) appear on any of the global usenet portals I frequented.

Like I said... I never actually got my foot in the door. A toe maybe... I only lasted a couple years; just long enough to see like a dozen of the regulars bow out (often cursing the sheer lunacy of a dozen new policies enacted by CF) before the door slammed and I was left limping home. Several 15 & 20 year badges in those ranks.

mnem
 

[BU508A]

Anybody interested in two Prema 5000 DMM?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133406270386



No affiliations with the seller.

Edit:
Cannot make it today to the discord session for personal reasons.

[AVGresponding]

Anybody interested in two Prema 5000 DMM?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133406270386



No affiliations with the seller.

Edit:
Cannot make it today to the discord session for personal reasons.

Goddammit don't link shiz like that when I've been on the Mules!   

Bid submitted...   

[tggzzz]

For me it's a keepsake of my time as a HP ASP; I had dreams of one day becoming a proper payrolled HP Tech, but alas it was not meant to be. My HP rep told me many stories of working with HP's "Old  Guard"; even chatted with a few of them on the company BBS a few times. *sigh*

I don't know of an HP corporate BBS.

The internal usenet groups were a superb way of propagating information horizontally. Management knew about them and was sensible enough to leave them alone, even when it allowed awkward questions to be asked.

That was partly because HP was a very flat organisation (if I'd been promoted 6 times I'd have been CEO), and partly because the HP way indicated that management should get the right people talking, and then stay out of the way.

Usenet still staggers along. The comp.risks group is superb, the comp.arch has some experts. Sci.electronics.design has some superb contributors (inc Win Hill who posted a link to a pdf of TAoE3), but also has discussions that demonstrate the limits of any randian philosophy and the benefits of light-touch moderation.

No idea what else to call it; it was a BBS-like message board available through my ASP Portal (a bit of Java so horrific it aspired to be merely "buggy as hell") that we used to close out our tickets on the HP side. It was used to provide back-channel communications outside the ticket itself with our handlers and to ask assistance from other senior techs in the company. It's possible that connected to the internal usenet you speak of; but there was no channel addressing convention as with usenet, and I never saw any of our conversations (some of which were quite casual) appear on any of the global usenet portals I frequented.

Like I said... I never actually got my foot in the door. A toe maybe... I only lasted a couple years; just long enough to see like a dozen of the regulars bow out (often cursing the sheer lunacy of a dozen new policies enacted by CF) before the door slammed and I was left limping home. Several 15 & 20 year badges in those ranks.

mnem
 

I didn't see anything like that mechanism you describe, but then I was "fully inside".

As for Princess Carly, I saw her once, disliked her, and decided it was time to consider moving on after13 years or so. And I did just that, although she wasn't the only reason for my decision.

[mnementh]

You weren't alone. I read an article some years back describing how she was introduced to Bill Hewlett (I think - yeah, he's the one who was still alive) at his home in Palo Alto in a wheelchair with his personal aides. After some idiotic speechifying she was introduced to the old man; he refused to even shake her hand, rather just turned away saying "Get me the fuck hell out of here."

mnem
 

[Wolfgang]

For me it's a keepsake of my time as a HP ASP; I had dreams of one day becoming a proper payrolled HP Tech, but alas it was not meant to be. My HP rep told me many stories of working with HP's "Old  Guard"; even chatted with a few of them on the company BBS a few times. *sigh*

I don't know of an HP corporate BBS.

The internal usenet groups were a superb way of propagating information horizontally. Management knew about them and was sensible enough to leave them alone, even when it allowed awkward questions to be asked.

That was partly because HP was a very flat organisation (if I'd been promoted 6 times I'd have been CEO), and partly because the HP way indicated that management should get the right people talking, and then stay out of the way.

Usenet still staggers along. The comp.risks group is superb, the comp.arch has some experts. Sci.electronics.design has some superb contributors (inc Win Hill who posted a link to a pdf of TAoE3), but also has discussions that demonstrate the limits of any randian philosophy and the benefits of light-touch moderation.

No idea what else to call it; it was a BBS-like message board available through my ASP Portal (a bit of Java so horrific it aspired to be merely "buggy as hell") that we used to close out our tickets on the HP side. It was used to provide back-channel communications outside the ticket itself with our handlers and to ask assistance from other senior techs in the company. It's possible that connected to the internal usenet you speak of; but there was no channel addressing convention as with usenet, and I never saw any of our conversations (some of which were quite casual) appear on any of the global usenet portals I frequented.

Like I said... I never actually got my foot in the door. A toe maybe... I only lasted a couple years; just long enough to see like a dozen of the regulars bow out (often cursing the sheer lunacy of a dozen new policies enacted by CF) before the door slammed and I was left limping home. Several 15 & 20 year badges in those ranks.

mnem
 

I didn't see anything like that mechanism you describe, but then I was "fully inside".

As for Princess Carly, I saw her once, disliked her, and decided it was time to consider moving on after13 years or so. And I did just that, although she wasn't the only reason for my decision.

I never worked for HP, but all the engineers I know said that she was incredible.
She managed to transform an engineering jewel into a supplier of overpriced printer ink in less than 3 years.
The problem was not her; it was the shareholders that let that happen. Well - they paid there price on the long run.

[mansaxel]

I didn't see anything like that mechanism you describe, but then I was "fully inside".

As for Princess Carly, I saw her once, disliked her, and decided it was time to consider moving on after13 years or so. And I did just that, although she wasn't the only reason for my decision.

I never worked for HP, but all the engineers I know said that she was incredible.
She managed to transform an engineering jewel into a supplier of overpriced printer ink in less than 3 years.
The problem was not her; it was the shareholders that let that happen. Well - they paid there price on the long run.

I was way outside, but did some work with the computer side stuff during the Fiorina regime. Did bounce into PA-RISC machines a couple times, learnt enough HP-SUX to avoid it (a BSD trying to become a SysV but less successfully than others, a pathetic compiler that perhaps could relink the kernel from object code and a management interface desperately trying to be a bleak copy of AIX smit. Not to mention things that the workstations and servers being way over priced, like a dual RS232 ISA bus card costing upwards of $2500 20 years ago.   Anyway, that was more or less par for the course in commercial UNIX^(TM) those days. )

The thing that made me really mad was that through Compaq buying d|i|g|i|t|a|l and then "hp" buying Compaq, they had the best OS and hardware platform in the commercial UNIX market then, in Tru64 and the Alpha.

And they went for H-PUKES on Titanic, ditching both the Alpha and Tru64.

              

[tggzzz]

You weren't alone. I read an article some years back describing how she was introduced to Bill Hewlett (I think - yeah, he's the one who was still alive) at his home in Palo Alto in a wheelchair with his personal aides. After some idiotic speechifying she was introduced to the old man; he refused to even shake her hand, rather just turned away saying "Get me the fuck out of here."

I mis-remembered that too.

From "Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company" by Michael Shawn Malone