Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

Well well I love FreeCAD now:



more details here

PS: that 3D printer is a money pit

[Mr. Scram]

Oh, we Germans are cured and not racist at all, are we?
No, we aren't. 

Last year I was at a local DIY-store ("Baumarkt") to collect some things I needed for a repair in our apartment.
It was a busy day and when I came nearer to the check-out I saw long queues winding up to the individual check-outs.
Except for one. It was open.
But: The cashier -a young woman- wore a headscarf -obviously a Muslim woman.
Frankly, I was shocked, I hadn't experienced such a clear act of racism before in Germany.
I drove my shopping cart straight to her check-out, paid, had a little, friendly small talk (she had no accent whatsoever..) ignored the other people at the nearby check-outs and went through and out of the store.
While I was checking out I was hoping that others would follow me -'cause no one likes queueing up if there's a shorter queue -or in this case: no queue.
No one followed me as long as could notice it and I felt very bitter afterwards. 

I'm not sure that's racism. I've seen people ignore empty queues more than once and no race was involved. People are herd animals and follow others for fear of standing or missing out.

[AVGresponding]

Sucks it's still like that anywhere. Very few care what colour or polarity you are here in London

And that's very noticeable in the British TV shows where the races seem to intermix with no conflicts. I think that's one reason why she likes to watch them.

Maybe on the surface, but if you scratch beneath it, you might find it's not quite as harmonious as it's often made out to be.
I witness racism and misogyny every day; in my experience it's more or less endemic within manual trades.

I think the London bit is important in BD's comment. You can go to some other bits of the country and not see a 'non-white' face all day. In those places there probably is still a lot more entrenched racism. Here in London if you were to actively notice a 'non-white' face as you walked down the street then you'd probably use up most of your cognitive capacity on doing that alone. Most racism is just a symptom of having to deal with the unfamiliar (and therefore threatening to our monkey hind brains); when your neighbours and colleagues are every race under the sun you start to see people first rather than race first.

Thats a big yes, in areas with high mixed race populations, the racism does not generally come to surface because people actually see that apart from colour, there is very little differences in the way people live and the values are pretty much the same. But go outside of London and the other big cities where it is predominantly white people is where racists thrive and are in your face about and that I really believe is the fear of the unknown, and that fear is what certain political people exploit, by stirring the pot till it boils over and erupts and one of the chief people doing that has the initials of NF, strangely. I never thought of it like that, but NF also has a ugly double meaning

I'm sorry, but you're just plain wrong.

Bradford has the highest percentage of people of Pakistani origin in England, higher than London, and I am telling you racism is rampant there.

I see it and hear it every day.

On the other hand, where I live the population is over 96% white, and yet racism here is less common.

The causes are complex, and while familiarisation may play a part, from what I've seen while working in Bradford, it's a small one at best.

[URI]

Oh, we Germans are cured and not racist at all, are we?
No, we aren't. 

Last year I was at a local DIY-store ("Baumarkt") to collect some things I needed for a repair in our apartment.
It was a busy day and when I came nearer to the check-out I saw long queues winding up to the individual check-outs.
Except for one. It was open.
But: The cashier -a young woman- wore a headscarf -obviously a Muslim woman.
Frankly, I was shocked, I hadn't experienced such a clear act of racism before in Germany.
I drove my shopping cart straight to her check-out, paid, had a little, friendly small talk (she had no accent whatsoever..) ignored the other people at the nearby check-outs and went through and out of the store.
While I was checking out I was hoping that others would follow me -'cause no one likes queueing up if there's a shorter queue -or in this case: no queue.
No one followed me as long as could notice it and I felt very bitter afterwards. 

I'm not sure that's racist. I've seen people ignore empty queues more than once and no race was involved. People are herd animals and follow others for fear of standing or missing out.

I see your point and I've been in such situation you describe as well.
But please believe me, we Germans don't really like queueing up if we don't have to. If there's an empty queue it normally doesn't take long and with the first one getting aware of it, the queue is no longer empty.

The fact that no one followed me (and there were enough people all around me, queued up, that could see that the checkout is open when I went there) was a clear sign for me that this empty queue was not accidentally ignored.

[Specmaster]

Sucks it's still like that anywhere. Very few care what colour or polarity you are here in London

And that's very noticeable in the British TV shows where the races seem to intermix with no conflicts. I think that's one reason why she likes to watch them.

Maybe on the surface, but if you scratch beneath it, you might find it's not quite as harmonious as it's often made out to be.
I witness racism and misogyny every day; in my experience it's more or less endemic within manual trades.

I think the London bit is important in BD's comment. You can go to some other bits of the country and not see a 'non-white' face all day. In those places there probably is still a lot more entrenched racism. Here in London if you were to actively notice a 'non-white' face as you walked down the street then you'd probably use up most of your cognitive capacity on doing that alone. Most racism is just a symptom of having to deal with the unfamiliar (and therefore threatening to our monkey hind brains); when your neighbours and colleagues are every race under the sun you start to see people first rather than race first.

Thats a big yes, in areas with high mixed race populations, the racism does not generally come to surface because people actually see that apart from colour, there is very little differences in the way people live and the values are pretty much the same. But go outside of London and the other big cities where it is predominantly white people is where racists thrive and are in your face about and that I really believe is the fear of the unknown, and that fear is what certain political people exploit, by stirring the pot till it boils over and erupts and one of the chief people doing that has the initials of NF, strangely. I never thought of it like that, but NF also has a ugly double meaning

I'm sorry, but you're just plain wrong.

Bradford has the highest percentage of people of Pakistani origin in England, higher than London, and I am telling you racism is rampant there.

I see it and hear it every day.

On the other hand, where I live the population is over 96% white, and yet racism here is less common.

The causes are complex, and while familiarisation may play a part, from what I've seen while working in Bradford, it's a small one at best.

Well of YMMV on that topic but one thing is bloody certain, since NF stirred things up I have noticed that a lot of people have become far more emboldened and a lot of people voted for Brexit because they thought that we could then control our own borders and stop so immigration happening. The reason for this is that they were led to believe that we were controlled by the EU and therefore could not have sovereignty while we in the EU, which was complete and utter BS

[AVGresponding]

I have noticed that the social media self-view-bubble is getting more pronounced.

Several people I otherwise consider to be at least of average intelligence, and general good will, seem to believe any crackpot conspiracy theory that the likes of Qanon pushes.
Traditional mass media is almost universally distrusted by the people I work with, only outlets that agree with their own world view are considered in any way reliable.

The only reason the social media algorithms can't isolate me with own-view reinforcing propaganda (strong term I know, but I feel it is justified) is because I deliberately show interest in opposing political views. I hope it breaks the f*ck out of their profiling software, arseholes.

[bd139]

Nailed it. As mentioned previously I worked in that sector for a bit. It has to go. If I had nothing to lose I’d break it from the inside.

[Specmaster]

@bd139 I just used your eBay link and it worked for me as well...., then I checked my emails and discovered that I'd already had received the offer, have you checked your emails? 

[Mr. Scram]

I see your point and I've been in such situation you describe as well.
But please believe me, we Germans don't really like queueing up if we don't have to. If there's an empty queue it normally doesn't take long and with the first one getting aware of it, the queue is no longer empty.

The fact that no one followed me (and there were enough people all around me, queued up, that could see that the checkout is open when I went there) was a clear sign for me that this empty queue was not accidentally ignored.

You need to be quite explicitly racist to actively and intentionally wait longer in another line. While those people absolutely do exist, it's quite something to find so many in one place. Well, unless you're near an idiot rally or something.

[AVGresponding]

Ugh... back OT...

I ordered a magnifier lamp wassname from Komerci, since I couldn't find a Luxo one at sensible prices. It arrived today while I was at work, and as per my usual instructions, was left on my doorstep.
I am trying to find the correct words to describe the packing.
Ah, I have it.

"Non-Existant".

This is not to say a naked anglepoise magnifier lamp was left on my doorstep, but almost. It was in its retail box, with just a strip of "ebay" marked tape over each end, so anyone could see exactly what they might want to steal...   
Once again I am thankful for living in a relatively nice area.

As to the magnifier/lamp itself, I am mostly pleased.
It is reasonably sturdily constructed, holds position perfectly, and the lens is huge (185x150mm), and although the LEDs are powered by a (hardwired     ) CE wall-wart, it helpfully notes on the casing the DC V and A output characteristics, so a less noisy supply can easily be utilised if necessary.

Also arriving this week, a Fender Squier Champ 15B guitar amp (I intend to get back into playing, it's not a repair and flip job), a Znter PP3 Li-ion usb rechargeable (in the 87 V now), 10 AA NiZn which I now need to build a charger for, some parts for said charger from Rapid, a Star Wars Bluray box set of the proper films (none of that Disney rubbish), a bundle of 14 Anime DVDs, and some other not even remotely TE related stuff. And some other stuff that didn't arrive yet...

I don't know about cutting up my cards, I think I need to cut off my fingers!   

[bd139]

@bd139 I just used your eBay link and it worked for me as well...., then I checked my emails and discovered that I'd already had received the offer, have you checked your emails? 

Yeah bugger all in eBay messages or email for me.

[med6753]

Anyway, in a few hours I'm going to meet her at the train station and our plans are just a quiet weekend. She does need to stock up on groceries so Saturday I'll take her to local bulk food warehouse. Other than that it's chill. The covid is starting to spike again here too and two weeks ago she got tested. Results negative. She asked me to get tested and I did and same negative. So the more we stay in the better.

I should be on Discord Saturday as long as she releases me from handcuffed to the bed. 

[Specmaster]

Anyway, in a few hours I'm going to meet her at the train station and our plans are just a quiet weekend. She does need to stock up on groceries so Saturday I'll take her to local bulk food warehouse. Other than that it's chill. The covid is starting to spike again here too and two weeks ago she got tested. Results negative. She asked me to get tested and I did and same negative. So the more we stay in the better.

I should be on Discord Saturday as long as she releases me from handcuffed to the bed. 

No Problems cos she'll be binge viewing on British drama and other such rubbish anyway 

[med6753]

Anyway, in a few hours I'm going to meet her at the train station and our plans are just a quiet weekend. She does need to stock up on groceries so Saturday I'll take her to local bulk food warehouse. Other than that it's chill. The covid is starting to spike again here too and two weeks ago she got tested. Results negative. She asked me to get tested and I did and same negative. So the more we stay in the better.

I should be on Discord Saturday as long as she releases me from handcuffed to the bed. 

No Problems cos she'll be binge viewing on British drama and other such rubbish anyway 

Nailed it! 

[Mr. Scram]

Yea, true. I had forgotten that you Brits are still very much into "Class" and who has it and who doesn't. At least you can somewhat get away with being "upper class" by more or less acting and dressing the part. Over here it's skin color and you can't hide it.

We tried blackface but somehow that didn't help.

[Specmaster]

This TTi power supply just went on eBay for £27.50 with only 1 bid on it, the catch, collection only from Doncaster

[McBryce]

Oh, we Germans are cured and not racist at all, are we?
No, we aren't. 

Last year I was at a local DIY-store ("Baumarkt") to collect some things I needed for a repair in our apartment.
It was a busy day and when I came nearer to the check-out I saw long queues winding up to the individual check-outs.
Except for one. It was open.
But: The cashier -a young woman- wore a headscarf -obviously a Muslim woman.
Frankly, I was shocked, I hadn't experienced such a clear act of racism before in Germany.
I drove my shopping cart straight to her check-out, paid, had a little, friendly small talk (she had no accent whatsoever..) ignored the other people at the nearby check-outs and went through and out of the store.
While I was checking out I was hoping that others would follow me -'cause no one likes queueing up if there's a shorter queue -or in this case: no queue.
No one followed me as long as could notice it and I felt very bitter afterwards. 

I'm not sure that's racist. I've seen people ignore empty queues more than once and no race was involved. People are herd animals and follow others for fear of standing or missing out.

I see your point and I've been in such situation you describe as well.
But please believe me, we Germans don't really like queueing up if we don't have to. If there's an empty queue it normally doesn't take long and with the first one getting aware of it, the queue is no longer empty.

The fact that no one followed me (and there were enough people all around me, queued up, that could see that the checkout is open when I went there) was a clear sign for me that this empty queue was not accidentally ignored.

I've no idea what part of Germany you experienced that in, but I can say as a foreigner living in Germany for 27 years, that I have experienced a very friendly and open society here. Of course I have seen isolated incidents from individuals, but that can be found in any country. The vast majority of Germans are not in the slightest bit racist.

McBryce.

[bd139]

This TTi power supply just went on eBay for £27.50 with only 1 bid on it, the catch, collection only from Doncaster

Cor that ones a steamer!

Edit: eBay just sent me the £1 listing offer. I’m too quick for their shit 

[Specmaster]

@mnemeth Whats going on in Monteral? I'm hearing reports of hostages being held on the roof of Obisoft offices by at least 1 armed man, have you heard anything at all?

[Saskia]

This TTi power supply just went on eBay for £27.50 with only 1 bid on it, the catch, collection only from Doncaster

Cor that ones a steamer!

Edit: eBay just sent me the £1 listing offer. I’m too quick for their shit 

somehow those don't exist here anymore.

[tggzzz]

Yea, true. I had forgotten that you Brits are still very much into "Class" and who has it and who doesn't. At least you can somewhat get away with being "upper class" by more or less acting and dressing the part. Over here it's skin color and you can't hide it.

We tried blackface but somehow that didn't help.

The most popular Saturday night TV programme in the 60s and early 70s was the "Black and White Minstrel Show". Search for it on yootoob, and be horrified. Be wary of the consequences of leaving your jaw flapping against your chest for too long.

[tggzzz]

This TTi power supply just went on eBay for £27.50 with only 1 bid on it, the catch, collection only from Doncaster

Currently at £16, sale ends next 19 November 2020 - 16:54:30 UK Time. PPAuctions, BBC in Swansea

[mansaxel]

400H is here. Survived the trip. Well packed. It's dusty, but in very good condition, optically.

Made in Germany, sold by the Swedish -hp- office. It has their branch plate on the back.

It's got what some people here call a "waffle iron" mains connector; slightly better than the three-prong Belden horror show that was fitted to US instruments of the period. More properly, it's a DIN 49491 connector. And I've got no such plug, yet. They're made new in Germany, for silly money, of course.

And to connect back to the discussion on family groking our little area of interest, mine do. The middle boy has a thing for toggle switches and asked to try it out. The wife said it was impressive, what with it being the "H" model that's got the larger meter. And we're pretty frank here, she'd said nothing if she thought it slightly silly. And I do know I get to hear when I'm more than slightly silly 

That is not all!

As I paid work a physical visit today, because I needed to kick some serious time nuttery installation (dual Meinberg modular 3000 series GPS clocks being a PTP factory feeding two new sync generators via Nexus switches) into shape, what did await me on my table, if not an Anritsu MT1000A mainframe, with OTDR and microscope, Ethernet multirate module up to 100Gbit/s, and, la piece de la Resistance, the high precision timing option module, with Rb oscillator and GPS discipline receiver.  List price for that configuration is 50000 € -- which we did not pay, but it still cost an impressive amount of money.  Today, we only got around to verify it as far as optics inspection results and the GPS actually locking and providing a good stable signal.  The thresholds it sets for IEC  61300-3-35 are indeed tough. My colleague who's spent time building optical WDM transmission networks and thus has occupational brain damage manifesting as inability to tolerate dirty ferrules was impressed with the results it requires.

This gonna be fun.

As TE goes, today was one of the better days.

[Specmaster]

This TTi power supply just went on eBay for £27.50 with only 1 bid on it, the catch, collection only from Doncaster

Currently at £16, sale ends next 19 November 2020 - 16:54:30 UK Time. PPAuctions, BBC in Swansea

Yeah, I was aware of that one, the problem is its located in Cardiff and it has to collected from there as well so thats a 380 mile round trip to be factored in and with the current of fuel, is not viable for me. Doncaster on the eBay one is also a 330 mile trip to collect it. 

[bd139]

Yeah not worth it for that old piece of crap. Looks like one of the earlier ones. By the time you've paid for the fuel you could have had a working one shipped to you, and not visited Cardiff at the same time