Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

that is just WRONG!  WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Looks like something the hp engineers might have tried back in the day to keep Carly Fiorina from dropping the hp name from test equipment. 

Sorry.

Once "ordinary corporate" got hold of things (and that process was well underway as soon as h & p did not own the absolute majority of stock/votes) the degeneration to one-dimensional business was just a matter of time.

What do I mean by "one-dimensional"?

The modern corporation is largely ruled by psychopathic MBA's (and they are the whipping boys of their even more deranged class mates who work in investment banking) who religiously apply the teachings of the Chicago School of economics, not necessarily while understanding what they do. In that strain of belief there is but one rule:  The single performance indicator is bottom line, and all other values are wholly subservient to it. Everything that you might would want to do, that is not directly linked to a short-term increase in profit, is regarded as a burden.

This is why what once was a top engineering company now sells printer ink. Because there is a bigger profit margin in that.

</rant>

Now, the old, real hp certainly understood and worked in an environment where bottom line is the enabler for all other prosperity. Such is capitalism. But they looked beyond the next financial report and realised that they could grow and make money while furthering research and the state of the industry as a whole, all while acting responsibly and decently, far beyond the lip-service today paid out as "CSR".

[BU508A]

Was not aware  for the metrology meeting, that something I definitively  need to attend next time it will found place.


BTW I replaced the battery from my 731A with new LiOn one and he now back in business

2021 will be perhaps the next one. You should lookout to something like this in the Metrology section:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/volt-nut-meeting-2019-in-stuttgartgermany/

Edit: added quoting

[BU508A]

that is just WRONG!  WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Looks like something the hp engineers might have tried back in the day to keep Carly Fiorina from dropping the hp name from test equipment. 

Sorry.

Once "ordinary corporate" got hold of things (and that process was well underway as soon as h & p did not own the absolute majority of stock/votes) the degeneration to one-dimensional business was just a matter of time.

What do I mean by "one-dimensional"?

The modern corporation is largely ruled by psychopathic MBA's (and they are the whipping boys of their even more deranged class mates who work in investment banking) who religiously apply the teachings of the Chicago School of economics, not necessarily while understanding what they do. In that strain of belief there is but one rule:  The single performance indicator is bottom line, and all other values are wholly subservient to it. Everything that you might would want to do, that is not directly linked to a short-term increase in profit, is regarded as a burden.

This is why what once was a top engineering company now sells printer ink. Because there is a bigger profit margin in that.

</rant>

Now, the old, real hp certainly understood and worked in an environment where bottom line is the enabler for all other prosperity. Such is capitalism. But they looked beyond the next financial report and realised that they could grow and make money while furthering research and the state of the industry as a whole, all while acting responsibly and decently, far beyond the lip-service today paid out as "CSR".

With some greetings from Ayn Rand.    

[BreakingOhmsLaw]

I’ve probably said this before, but I always admired Philips’ ability to produce every part for their products in house.

I used to work in the factory where Philips made those CRTs.
EVERYTHING, literally EVERYTHING could be sourced in house back then. It was glorious.
We had a great T&M department that supplied all of our testgear. Scopes, DMM, pulse gens, hell, even isolation trannies. Everything started with "PM...".
Caps, resistors, ICs, trannies - you name it - we made it.
And all the machinery to make, calibrate, measure and test the CRTs was made in Eindhoven or our in-house tooling shop by our own people.  I guess less than 10% was bought parts.
And you could get any drawing, service manual, mechanical drawing you wanted. There was an office with an old russian one-eyed guy. You'd pass him a slip of paper with the drawing number and he'd be like:
"Chom' back in half hour, da?"
He pull up a microfiche from the archive and then somehow transferred that onto A1 paper. There was a huge printing machine with a big drum where the sheet would wrap around. It rotated for some time and the drawing was printed. Don't know what type of printer that was, if anyone knows, please let me know.
He'd then put the sheet on a large table, reinforce the edged with thick transparent tape and gave it the DIN824 fold. See: https://www.compuphase.com/electronics/folding.htm
Then, rather then mundanely punching the holes for filing, he would punch reinforced brass rivets through it. It was a small piece of art.
"Here, is finish! Dasvidaniya!"

God, i miss those days!

[worsthorse]

that is just WRONG!  WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Looks like something the hp engineers might have tried back in the day to keep Carly Fiorina from dropping the hp name from test equipment. 

Sorry.

Once "ordinary corporate" got hold of things (and that process was well underway as soon as h & p did not own the absolute majority of stock/votes) the degeneration to one-dimensional business was just a matter of time.

What do I mean by "one-dimensional"?

The modern corporation is largely ruled by psychopathic MBA's (and they are the whipping boys of their even more deranged class mates who work in investment banking) who religiously apply the teachings of the Chicago School of economics, not necessarily while understanding what they do. In that strain of belief there is but one rule:  The single performance indicator is bottom line, and all other values are wholly subservient to it. Everything that you might would want to do, that is not directly linked to a short-term increase in profit, is regarded as a burden.

This is why what once was a top engineering company now sells printer ink. Because there is a bigger profit margin in that.

</rant>

Now, the old, real hp certainly understood and worked in an environment where bottom line is the enabler for all other prosperity. Such is capitalism. But they looked beyond the next financial report and realised that they could grow and make money while furthering research and the state of the industry as a whole, all while acting responsibly and decently, far beyond the lip-service today paid out as "CSR".

Being a guy that holds both an engineering degree and an MBA (along with a master of divinity, but that's a different story) and worked as a bench engineer, company executive and technology investor I can only say that assuming that "psychopathic MBAs" that don't understand what they do completely ignores the two central problems of modern corporate capitalism. 

First problem: the rewards that can be accrued by running public companies on a three month cycle is not paired with appropriate penalties for failure. The modern CEO and private equity investor get wealthy whether or not the company is successful  Second problem: laws that govern corporate behavior are either toothless or shield the human beings that actually break the law. Given the great rewards and small penalties, legal or financial, there is nothing psychopathic about the behavior. It is, in fact, completely predictable. 

To give but one example, Uber has made a fortune for its managers and private equity investors by ignoring and breaking local and federal laws, cheating its employees, engaged in predatory competitive practices, and promoting racist and sexist employee management policies, all without the smallest penalty.  Until managers and investors pay for their bad behavior, rather than be rewarded by it, it will continue, whatever sort of university degree they hold.

[med6753]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground.   

[0culus]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

They also sometimes don't even update the tracking. I've had USPS ground packages which still show at the origin PO and then mysteriously show up out of thin air.

[SilverSolder]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

It wasn't this bad in the past.  Covid-19 must have done something...

[med6753]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

They also sometimes don't even update the tracking. I've had USPS ground packages which still show at the origin PO and then mysteriously show up out of thin air.

I've never had that happen but I always view their tracking with a certain degree of suspicion. For all I know that 3B3 could be kicking around Alaska. 

[med6753]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

It wasn't this bad in the past.  Covid-19 must have done something...

No, I was experiencing this crap with USPS before the pandemic.   

Edit...some examples: Once had a ground package go from Springfield to a town in Maine before getting sent back to me. Another time had a ground package that originated in California suddenly out for delivery in California.  And it had the correct address.

[SilverSolder]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

It wasn't this bad in the past.  Covid-19 must have done something...

No, I was experiencing this crap with USPS before the pandemic.   

Edit...some examples: Once had a ground package go from Springfield to a town in Maine before getting sent back to me. Another time had a ground package that originated in California suddenly out for delivery in California.  And it had the correct address.

You'd think it couldn't be so hard to scan a bar code at defined points along the way, right?

[mnementh]

You guys have this all screwed up. The K9 is the sleeping Furry thing the K8 is the grinder in front and the K10 is the grinder at the rear  The Coopers Beer just happened to be there 

You seem to have a Grinder fetish.

Those two are the 'normal' market attendees the K9 is of course departed a few years ago. There is also another K8 in the Shack and two other full sized commercial grinders. I don't have a problem really 

Yeah... a few months back, I passed on one of these at the thrift for $40, for utter lack of a place to put it and use it (this was about the time we had our conversation about tracking the dross inside even if you keep it in the garage, etc) and the fact it looked as if it had served a long time in-store and was very well-used & abused for its intended purpose. I do regret that choice now; since the COVID lockdown, the grinders are one of the things they had to lock away as well. 

mnem

[Cubdriver]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

LOL - that's a pretty good time for them.  The Dana counter I ordered back in April from around your neck of the woods (it shipped from a PO in Napanoch, NY) was in the USPS' possession as of April 27th.   I got it on May 14th - 2-1/2 weeks later.  Bing maps says it's about 115 road miles/2 hrs 15 minutes away.  Gotta love snail mail!

-Pat

[mnementh]

Typically K9 Chassis from Philips. Repaired many of them in my early days.      

Source:https://obsoletetellyemuseum.blogspot.com/2012/01/philips-26c46558-chassis-k9-internal.html

Oh gawd... *flashiebackie music with a little PTSD twinge* I can smell the decades of stale tobacco smoke just LOOKING at those pics.   

mnem

[Specmaster]

@bd139, found the ideal keyboard for you here  

Don't ya just love this guys honest review of it. I first saw an advert for this a few years ago, oh I desperately wanted one myself but clearly could not afford, it how lucky do I feel now 

[Saskia]

Seminar invitation: Disrupting Adversary Communication

(4th part of the series: How to fuck up someone's day)
3rd part was on Deceptive Jamming, 2nd part on building a single pulse tracking radar, 1st part on phased array radar ...)

Just in case healthcare does no longer work ....

[worsthorse]

@bd139, found the ideal keyboard for you here   

Don't ya just love this guys honest review of it. I first saw an advert for this a few years ago, oh I desperately wanted one myself but clearly could not afford, it how lucky do I feel now 

after revealing that the keys emit a high-pitched whine...  "you can't use this keyboard without using headphones."  wtf indeed.   

is it just me, or does $1600 for a keyboard seem, well... 

[med6753]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

LOL - that's a pretty good time for them.  The Dana counter I ordered back in April from around your neck of the woods (it shipped from a PO in Napanoch, NY) was in the USPS' possession as of April 27th.   I got it on May 14th - 2-1/2 weeks later.  Bing maps says it's about 115 road miles/2 hrs 15 minutes away.  Gotta love snail mail!

-Pat

Yep, Napanoch is just over the mountain from me. 

[mnementh]

@bd139, found the ideal keyboard for you here   

Don't ya just love this guys honest review of it. I first saw an advert for this a few years ago, oh I desperately wanted one myself but clearly could not afford, it how lucky do I feel now 

after revealing that the keys emit a high-pitched whine...  "you can't use this keyboard without using headphones."  wtf indeed.   

is it just me, or does $1600 for a keyboard seem, well... 

Well, considering how bleeding-edge those OLED screens were at the time, not really that surprising.

Compare it to a StreamDeck Macro keypad... at $15-30 per key depending on model, that price isn't really surprising.

Personally, I wanna get one and rebuild it with Cherry Blues; but I'd have to get it the same way that guy did to even consider the project. 

mnem

[mnementh]

I’ve probably said this before, but I always admired Philips’ ability to produce every part for their products in house.

That way you're in control of quality and quantity. It was exactly the same at Crabtree Electrical when I worked there, even made their own springs and screws etc in house.

Yeah... the only brand with that level of vertical integration now is Samsung; they literally make everything, including the machinery that digs the ore.  Kindof sad how they've managed that manufacturing power; definitely an eye towards the bottom line and "building to a price" first rather than quality or innovation. They learned the lessons of the GO-GO-GO!!! 80s very well; Westerners have nobody to blame but themselves that they no longer have a place in industry.

mnem
Patience was born in China.

[mnementh]

that is just WRONG!  WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Looks like something the hp engineers might have tried back in the day to keep Carly Fiorina from dropping the hp name from test equipment. 

Sorry.

Once "ordinary corporate" got hold of things (and that process was well underway as soon as h & p did not own the absolute majority of stock/votes) the degeneration to one-dimensional business was just a matter of time.

What do I mean by "one-dimensional"?

The modern corporation is largely ruled by psychopathic MBA's (and they are the whipping boys of their even more deranged class mates who work in investment banking) who religiously apply the teachings of the Chicago School of economics, not necessarily while understanding what they do. In that strain of belief there is but one rule:  The single performance indicator is bottom line, and all other values are wholly subservient to it. Everything that you might would want to do, that is not directly linked to a short-term increase in profit, is regarded as a burden.

This is why what once was a top engineering company now sells printer ink. Because there is a bigger profit margin in that.

</rant>

Now, the old, real hp certainly understood and worked in an environment where bottom line is the enabler for all other prosperity. Such is capitalism. But they looked beyond the next financial report and realised that they could grow and make money while furthering research and the state of the industry as a whole, all while acting responsibly and decently, far beyond the lip-service today paid out as "CSR".

Being a guy that holds both an engineering degree and an MBA (along with a master of divinity, but that's a different story) and worked as a bench engineer, company executive and technology investor I can only say that assuming that "psychopathic MBAs" that don't understand what they do completely ignores the two central problems of modern corporate capitalism. 

First problem: the rewards that can be accrued by running public companies on a three month cycle is not paired with appropriate penalties for failure. The modern CEO and private equity investor get wealthy whether or not the company is successful  Second problem: laws that govern corporate behavior are either toothless or shield the human beings that actually break the law. Given the great rewards and small penalties, legal or financial, there is nothing psychopathic about the behavior. It is, in fact, completely predictable. 

To give but one example, Uber has made a fortune for its managers and private equity investors by ignoring and breaking local and federal laws, cheating its employees, engaged in predatory competitive practices, and promoting racist and sexist employee management policies, all without the smallest penalty.  Until managers and investors pay for their bad behavior, rather than be rewarded by it, it will continue, whatever sort of university degree they hold.

[BEGIN Social Commentary  ]

This is the definition of the legal construct that we call "Articles of Incorporation".  It is absolute sociopathy distilled into law by absolute sociopaths; which entire purpose is to insulate those who make horrible decisions from the consequences thereof.

As long as we allow this entire class of legal machinery to exist we will never be free of that sociopathic ruling elite, and we are doomed as a species to die in the virally destructive model which it by dint of its very DNA propagates.

You CANNOT trust any business organization to operate for the public good; they will ALWAYS evolve into some hideous machine that does little more than rape, pillage and burn (if you're lucky, in that order) until there are no resources left unless they are held in a stranglehold grip of regulation.

The REAL bitch part of this is that we've been exactly HERE before; in the "Roaring '20s" a century ago. The same exact players, the same exact sociopathic legal constructs (only then they were called a "Public Trust" or similar terminology; hence the definition of "Anti-Trust laws) and the same exact results: devastated economy, devastated agricultural infrastructure, and a nationwide Depression that turned the heartland of America into a 3rd-world shithole...

And we STILL don't learn our lesson... even as we SEE IT HAPPENING AGAIN ALL AROUND US.

[/  MODE]

mnem
Those who fail to learn the lessons of History are doomed to repeat them.
Those who DO learn those lessons are doomed to watch impotently; helpless to stop the marching morons as they repeat those failures of history.   

[mnementh]

Why do I allow myself to get annoyed? The Type 3B3 plug-in still has not arrived at my local PO. Still somewhere between Springfield, MA and my PO. Less than 100 miles away. Arrived in Springfield this past Thursday.

I had to go to PO this morning to mail a package. So I start asking questions. Get bullshit for answers which I knew I would. But I did gleam something from the conversation. USPS "Ground" packages get ZERO priority. You will get it when USPS is good and ready to deliver it. So the projected delivery date doesn't mean jack. Funny, even ground packages with UPS and FedEx DO mean jack and 95% of the time are accurate.

This explains why earlier this year the Fluke 8505A took over a week to go from Long Island to me. 120 miles away. USPS ground. 

Yeah, the DHL associate I spoke with on Thursday about my new RC transmitter called today... to tell me that she STILL has no news on my radio, but would now "escalate" my case to some supposedly higher level. 

I told her that this has now gone beyond late and was now in the realm of the ridiculous; we are pushing 3 weeks for an "Express" delivery. 

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

I'm sure someone asked me a while back if I found a service manual for my Thandar TG2001.
Since I can't I suspect they may have been trolling me  :/


My car has decided to give me notice that it intends to expire soon, good thing I was already arranging a loan to get another   

[mansaxel]

Being a guy that holds both an engineering degree and an MBA (along with a master of divinity, but that's a different story) and worked as a bench engineer, company executive and technology investor I can only say that assuming that "psychopathic MBAs" that don't understand what they do completely ignores the two central problems of modern corporate capitalism. 

Thank you. Your sobering position is well made and gives a much needed depth to the picture of my annoyance. 

I would want to elaborate, viz;

• The desire to end up in the management sphere is, I speculate, measurably correlated to a increased frequency of desire to manipulate the people around you, which is in essence the hierarchy component in management. Regardless of why.
• That something is rational to do for a small, strong subset of the population, is not in and of itself sufficient to make it the right thing to do, not for them, not for someone else.

As to the benefits of being a major asshole and getting away with it once you're rich enough, I think we agree.

In short, I'm angry, and you point out that it is not as simple as that. Thanks.

[med6753]

To recognize Page 2465.