Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

or Samsung or the car manufacturers or ...

[Mr. Scram]

Yeah mine have done lots of stupid stuff and it was always preventable by me. I was negligent on numerous occasions. Fortunately no serious injuries.

The point is that a lot of parents do not learn from others or themselves if these issues occur nor do they evaluate risks to start with. If you have a responsibility to other humans you need to take it seriously. Hence my cousin who was killed at the age of 4 by a car after my aunt left the front door open and he wandered onto the A38 in the dark. This was the third time she had left it open after going out to smoke and he had escaped. Sympathy all around for her loss of course 

That was the first funeral I went to.

I somehow managed to clamber out of what at the time was considered a properly sized crib. To this day no one knows how I managed to do that. You put your child to bed and suddenly it's out and about causing havoc. It's humanly impossible to be eternally vigilant and even the most cautious helicopter parent leaves plenty of room for kids to get themselves in trouble. Pretending a parent can prevent any and all harm is laughable. We're only human.

I'm obviously not saying there aren't idiots or irresponsible people. We all know there are plenty of those around.

[Mr. Scram]

Nobody on this side of the discussion is as you say acting high and mighty, hence why I said in my last post before you posted this one and I quote "Accidents will always happen, you cannot prevent them, only take steps to minimise them. But why minimise one form of an accident to replace it with another possible accident that could have far more damaging results"

That doesn't appear to be happening. A functioning adult can be expected to correctly place a toaster, as was required with a longer lead. In your case you got some deformation and discolouration of temperature sensitive plastics. No harm done, even if the placement of the toaster may not have been ideal.

[bd139]

I somehow managed to clamber out of what at the time was considered a properly sized crib. To this day no one knows how I managed to do that. You put your child to bed and suddenly it's out and about causing havoc. It's humanly impossible to be eternally vigilant and even the most cautious helicopter parent leaves plenty of room for kids to get themselves in trouble. Pretending a parent can prevent any and all harm is laughable. We're only human.

We're only human is an idiom for negligence being ok. I hear that a thousand times a day and most of the time it's not.

Edit: this evening's project is attempting to use a 1950s ceramic disc capacitor as a microphone. It appears to be possible! 

[Mr. Scram]

We're only human is an idiom for negligence being ok. I hear that a thousand times a day and most of the time it's not.

Edit: this evening's project is attempting to use a 1950s ceramic disc capacitor as a microphone. It appears to be possible! 

It most definitely is not. We design aircraft around human fallibilty. We used to say "you're paid to pay attention" but reality shows us that isn't how it works. Pretending any of us can come anywhere near perfect performance is setting yourself up for an expensive lesson at best and a tragic one at worst. Most of us get away with that, some pay a gruesome price.

[bd139]

My point is all human progress happens only when someone dies or gets maimed. We need to do some thinking a bit earlier than that. We're lazy, cheap and ignorant when it comes to considering possible outcomes for what we are doing.

[nixiefreqq]

my turn to rant.

I DESPISE WHITE GOODS!

just spent over an hour inside a clothes dryer that went squeeky this morning.

drum roller bearing just starting to seize.  pulled it apart and cleaned the rubbery gunk and hit it with just a touch of 3 in 1 oil.  (which will no doubt evaporate as soon as the dryer heats it up).  but it spins almost silently now.

must google replacement rollers.  might as well get a belt too.  and maybe an idler pulley.

damned thing is not even 5 years old. feck all appliance manufacturers!
 

[Specmaster]

Nobody on this side of the discussion is as you say acting high and mighty, hence why I said in my last post before you posted this one and I quote "Accidents will always happen, you cannot prevent them, only take steps to minimise them. But why minimise one form of an accident to replace it with another possible accident that could have far more damaging results"

That doesn't appear to be happening. A functioning adult can be expected to correctly place a toaster, as was required with a longer lead. In your case you got some deformation and discolouration of temperature sensitive plastics. No harm done, even if the placement of the toaster may not have been ideal.

It clearly was not that far away from becoming a fire, it only required the thermostat to be turned up or for a slice of bread or whatever was being toasted to catch fire which is not unheard of and the "responsible person" to be distracted and the resultant fire could be devastating. Remember the huge speed of the Grenfell Tower fire and the huge death toll?

Like I said, accidents do happen in the best regulated situations. The socket is in the ideal location and there is nowhere in the kitchen with such a short wire, could be safely used without using an extension lead, which then plays right back into the scenario you mentioned where young children could reach the cord and pull it.

So the near fire was a result of a series of mistakes made along the way, 1/ the lead could have been perhaps made a 100 - 150mm longer would have allowed it to clear the cabinets and still be away from the reach of small children 2/ The use of flammable plastics on said cabinets, both of these are not within the sphere of knowledge of the average person however, but should have been in the knowledge set possessed by the appliance designer and the kitchen manufacturers. In most accidents there are a series of failings that lead up to the event itself. I expect that if we had access to the data, it might reveal that a lot of kitchen fires might well have been attributable to similar events but not made public?

[mnementh]

"Patient: Toaster Apocalypse. TOD November 14, 2020 seventeen hundred oh-nine hours. Cause of death: Human nature."

mnem
 

[tautech]

my turn to rant.

I DESPISE WHITE GOODS!

just spent over an hour inside a clothes dryer that went squeeky this morning.

drum roller bearing just starting to seize.  pulled it apart and cleaned the rubbery gunk and hit it with just a touch of 3 in 1 oil.  (which will no doubt evaporate as soon as the dryer heats it up).  but it spins almost silently now.

must google replacement rollers.  might as well get a belt too.  and maybe an idler pulley.

damned thing is not even 5 years old. feck all appliance manufacturers!

Carefully flick one of the rubber edge seals off the bearing and push a small amount of silicone grease into it. Clip the seal back on and worry about it in 10 years !

[mnementh]

LOL.... you must not work a lot of laundry; even the expensive ones use a oilized-bronze bushing for the drum rollers. It's deliberate, to ensure turnover. Only the very expensive ones with decades' warranty use ball bearings that can be so Mac-Gyverfied, and the rubber tire of the roller usually wears out on either long before the bearing fails.

The dirty little secret of laundry is that 90% of production costs of a set goes into the washer, yet they cost within a few hundred dollars the same. The dryer costs like $50 to make, and it is where they make their profit.

mnem
nice pants.

[Cerebus]

I somehow managed to clamber out of what at the time was considered a properly sized crib.

Well. obviously you should have been chained down, although I don't necessarily advocate this for all children; whether you still should be is a matter of ongoing debate. 

[Cerebus]

crumpets you say?

they sort of look like "english muffins".

could someone please embiggen my knowledge on this subject?


(embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word)

Crumpet versus muffin.

Both are cooked on a hotplate, crumpets must be cooked in rings, muffins often are too. The crumpet is made from a yeasted batter, as the first side is cooked the CO₂ bubbles coalesce and form vertical channels on one side of the crumpet, the open side is only lightly cooked, the crumb is close textured more akin to pancake than bread. The muffin is made from a yeasted dough, both sides are closed and the crumb is an open textured and typical bread-like.

Crumpet being initially cooked:



A cooked crumpet, ready to be toasted and buttered:



Muffins being cooked:

[nixiefreqq]

crumpets you say?

they sort of look like "english muffins".

could someone please embiggen my knowledge on this subject?


(embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word)

Crumpet versus muffin.

Both are cooked on a hotplate, crumpets must be cooked in rings, muffins often are too. The crumpet is made from a yeasted batter, as the first side is cooked the CO₂ bubbles coalesce and form vertical channels on one side of the crumpet, the open side is only lightly cooked, the crumb is close textured more akin to pancake than bread. The muffin is made from a yeasted dough, both sides are closed and the crumb is an open textured and typical bread-like.

Crumpet being initially cooked:



A cooked crumpet, ready to be toasted and buttered:



Muffins being cooked:

thanks!  that clears it up.

here in south central PA we only have "english muffins" that look exactly like yours.  they only come pre-sliced.  and seem a little on the raw side until toasted.   have never seen a crumpet.

[mnementh]

Thanks for the infodump, C. I too always wondered " is a crumpet?!?"

mnem
Oklay... so now...  is a tuffet?!?

[tonyalbus]

TEA for Electronic freaks... no, not really.. not only for...
Med showed already painting is involved .. and we all know the cleaning...
here is some metal work... well alluminium..



it needs a propper housing
think its done..  if you can make it to the end(sorry i was a bit slow).... i was beaten-up about this last week... but here it is..

Some nice Delta Elektronika comming... just so you guys know.... its my home town... well my country 

[mnementh]

Oi... it has been a day. Popping 800mg of ibuprofen like M&Ms... now on sortie number 11 (I think); getting ready to go out again &  put the ply in place.

Pretty sure I'll be right up against the wire; good thing it's Saturday so I'll have another hour or two later before noise abatement laws come into play.

Been puttin' da boi to work; he's a tad screw-gun deficient, but nothing a bit of practice won't cure. 

mnem

[tautech]

Heathen ! 

Dropping a power saw directly on the ground for it to vacuum all the crud into its motor. 
If you were my apprentice a boot up the bum is coming your way. 

[BU508A]

Muffins being cooked:

These are called in Germany "Berliner", except in Berlin. In Berlin they are called "Pfannkuchen"     (and "Krapfen" in Bavaria)

[mnementh]

Heathen !     Dropping a power saw directly on the ground for it to vacuum all the crud into its motor.     If you were my apprentice a boot up the bum is coming your way.

1) My fukkin' saw. When itz your saw, you can tell me how to handle it. If I wanna beat the thing to death with a post maul, nunya bleepin' bizness.

2) Only an imbecile puts down a saw before it stops turning.  And I never drop tools; I put them down carefully.

3) That saw is literally 40 years old, and has survived being used by Ifni knows how many morons who probably did put it down still turning before I bought it at the Thrift for $15. I'm pretty sure it will live long enough to be inherited unless I do in fact beat it to death with a post maul.




In related news: Itza fukkin' shed. It is bolted down on itz base, and it has doors. Aboot fukkin' time.

My son worked very hard today; he was great help and I'm very proud. I wanted to post some kewl dragon fist-bump or hi-5 pic as thanks; I searched til well after midnight but the intardnet just was not in a sharing mood. I found nuthin' but page after page of DBZ and Spyro flaming sheep no matter what variant search terms I tried. 


"Good job, son."

mnem
Everybody needs something to believe in. I believe I'm going to bed.

[0culus]

No pics today, but I made a fairly major change in the lab. Got a Husky 46" mobile workbench at Home Despot...I finally have real tool storage for the lab, including a sweet full width drawer that is perfect for holding unwieldy RF things like trombone lines. And a sturdy surface to stack some heavy HP gear till I can work out racks. 

[edit] this is also why I skipped discord today; I decided not to stop working on this rearrangement!

[med6753]

He said....

1) My fukkin' saw. When itz your saw, you can tell me how to handle it. If I wanna beat the thing to death with a post maul, nunya bleepin' bizness.

2) Only an imbecile puts down a saw before it stops turning.  And I never drop tools; I put them down carefully.


3) That saw is literally 40 years old.

Ditto on all points.  Black and Decker saw here. Bought new by me. Abused by me. Other than an occasional new blade always works.

[0culus]

Speaking of putting a saw down before it stops turning, I was once watching a concrete crew work and they were building forms. The saw of choice, an old Skil worm drive that they had "massaged" the safety features on a bit. Well, the guy doing the sawing put it down on the saw's own power cord in a moment of inattention (which was very fleeting, as the ensuing large arc certainly got his attention back).

[med6753]

No pics today, but I made a fairly major change in the lab. Got a Husky 46" mobile workbench at Home Despot...I finally have real tool storage for the lab, including a sweet full width drawer that is perfect for holding unwieldy RF things like trombone lines. And a sturdy surface to stack some heavy HP gear till I can work out racks. 

[edit] this is also why I skipped discord today; I decided not to stop working on this rearrangement!

The Lady asked me today what I wanted for Christmas. My current toolbox is overflowing and so heavy I can hardly lift it.

Bingo. 

[0culus]

No pics today, but I made a fairly major change in the lab. Got a Husky 46" mobile workbench at Home Despot...I finally have real tool storage for the lab, including a sweet full width drawer that is perfect for holding unwieldy RF things like trombone lines. And a sturdy surface to stack some heavy HP gear till I can work out racks. 

[edit] this is also why I skipped discord today; I decided not to stop working on this rearrangement!

The Lady asked me today what I wanted for Christmas. My current toolbox is overflowing and so heavy I can hardly lift it.

Bingo. 

This is the second Husky thing I've gotten and I'm impressed with the build quality. It's not as good as the most expensive stuff you could buy I'm sure, but it strikes a good balance for not breaking the bank. Husky is definitely a damn sight better than the shite they are putting the "Craftsman" name on nowadays. IMO.