EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
EEVblog => EEVblog Specific => Topic started by: EEVblog on April 29, 2015, 11:50:09 pm
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Dave opens some of the 332 coffee tins full of hardware parts he scored at an ebay auction. What's inside?
EEVblog #739 - Ebay Hardware Tin Collection (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY4RIWjXfQg#ws)
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WOW... Just WOW... On this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8nbHYOc8ns (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8nbHYOc8ns)) you said they're selling everything on ebay.. Where can i find them?
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Screws, bolts, nuts, washers, spacers, rods, standoffs and maybe a few un-crusty rubber feet are useful but the rest is just wasting space.
I'd love to see his collection of knobs. I like good quality audio gear and test equipment knobs.
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He probably did drink all the contents of those tins, how else would he have found the time for salvaging and organizing !. Sleep clearly was optional :)
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EEVblog needs (is) you Dave - be careful. This man never asked for any such exposure and defamation proceedings, even if unsuccessful, will waste a lot of your time mate. BTW, those collar rings were scavenged from old TV yoke assemblies.
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The "EEVBLOG bunker"? New employees? It's an expanding empire.
Sounds like Sparks was an very rare combination of a hoarder and a compulsive organizer.
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Was anyone else just waiting for him to come across a can labeled "self sealing stem bolts"?
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Was anyone else just waiting for him to come across a can labeled "self sealing stem bolts"?
I bet he allready sold them for a case of yamok sauce to someone who makes reverse ratcheting routing planers .
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Big pile of electo-mechanical bits
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymCILACVofM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymCILACVofM)
= Dave's find.
What's worse (or not) is I have small examples of most of those tins you opened in my workshop!
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Did anyone else feel motion sick towards the end of the video when that flashback of the electronics collection was playing?
I was watching 1080p, 50fps and I couldn't bare to look at my screen during this part.
Anyways, glad I don't have to sort through all of those parts ^-^
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What I'd do:
Ditch the coffee tins and sort out the stuff into much less bundles in much bigger containers.
If it were me I would probably chuck none of it out as I always seem to find a use for something/anything along the way......provided there is storage space.
Ian.
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Was anyone else just waiting for him to come across a can labeled "self sealing stem bolts"?
I bet he allready sold them for a case of yamok sauce to someone who makes reverse ratcheting routing planers .
LOL.
If he did have a joke label in there somewhere it would be something so old i doubt we would get the reference.
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If it were me I would probably chuck none of it out as I always seem to find a use for something/anything along the way......provided there is storage space.
That sort of thinking is how these "collections" start...
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The guy clearly must have had some sort of obsessive disorder like compulsive hoarding or OCD.
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He probably did drink all the contents of those tins
I'm 99.99% sure he didn't throw it away...
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He probably did drink all the contents of those tins
I'm 99.99% sure he didn't throw it away...
Somewhere he has a large yellow 10 gallon drum.
Neatly labeled...
FOOD
Coffee
The real question is "What did he do with the original contents of the drum???"
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The spindle pressure plates would be used on the end of a motor spindle like on older, larger hard drives (very useful spare parts if you are into vintage computers). The collar clamps would be used to hold a focus coil or focus rings and a yoke assembly on a crt.
I mentioned in the other thread, but for the smaller parts, I'd highly recommend using 2x3" and 3x4" zip-lock bags in combination with 17-compartment bead boxes (along the lines of these: http://www.amazon.com/Darice-10762-Plastic-Organizer-Compartments/dp/B00BYL3NSK (http://www.amazon.com/Darice-10762-Plastic-Organizer-Compartments/dp/B00BYL3NSK)). For larger hardware bits, Plano manufactures some inexpensive racks which take a number of interchangeable storage trays as part of their StowAway product line. At one time I had a number of large boxes of unsorted fasteners (some of my own and some which came from estate sales) which in total was probably about half to two thirds the volume of the stuff in this batch of hardware, and used just this system to sort it all out.
One trick with the bead boxes, find some with pin-type hinges where you can remove the lids. Not only do the bead boxes hold up better long term, but the lids make excellent sorting trays. That can of washers for example, could be sorted out in an afternoon. If you decide to put David on this task, I'd be happy to share with him additional tips and tricks to dealing with this sort of stuff.
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@Dave
Whatever is good that you don't need but maybe is useful to a fablab / hackspace, you should donate it to them. I'm sure there must be some in Sidney.
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My procedure would be
-open tin
-if its garbage like those couch feet go directly to bin
-maybe spill some on the hand like you did if there is a lot inside, make a picture
-close tin
-put a number on the label
later rename pictures to numbers, render all in a html page in big clickable grid, this way you (or assistant) can asses in 5 seconds without getting up.
Im guestimating you will be left with ~20-50? tins of actually usable stuff.
I used to be a hoarder myself, nowadays its under control (thats what I like to think), most of the crap is in the basement or boxed waiting to be thrown away.
Around my bed currently: :palm:
Boxes are all full of old projects, pcbs, power supplies,cables etc.
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So are you going to find this guy for an interview?
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Somewhere he has a large yellow 10 gallon drum.
Neatly labeled...
FOOD
Coffee
The real question is "What did he do with the original contents of the drum???"
It was petrol, so he used it in his car.
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Dave - how far useful do you think those things in the tins going to be for you? Would be interesting to know.
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someone suffers from Wowbagger Syndrome ...
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"Two tins of couch feet" - not a sentence you'll often have the occasion to hear.
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LOL.
If he did have a joke label in there somewhere it would be something so old i doubt we would get the reference.
Like grid leak drip cups? ;)
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The first part of the video looks like a crusty home shopping channel video recorded against a green screen :D Not sure why, maybe because of the large brick size of the wall.
Anyway I hope there's something useful in there, but so far it doesn't look like it... I used to hoard stuff as well, until I realized space is a valuable asset and I didn't have enough of it. I also couldn't be bothered scavenging through the pile of stuff to find the right part. I now have one cabinet for junk. Everything has to fit inside. If it doesn't, something has to go.
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I took 20kg of assorted screws to the scrap yard. Only sorting I did was to put them in 2 buckets, steel and brass. Steel 20c US per kilo, brass was $4 per kilo.
Still filling a 20l steel drum with scrap steel, whatever fits through the bung hole and is ferrous goes in. When full I will take it, after I find another drum.
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Are the threaded parts a mix of metric, British Standard and US Standard?
I assume that at some point in the history of Australia, hardware shifted from British Standard to metric, but anything disassembled from USA made gear is likely predominantly US standard.
My 1969 MGB had a "charming" mix of British standard, Unified National (US) and metric in a few places.
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EEVblog needs (is) you Dave - be careful. This man never asked for any such exposure and defamation proceedings, even if unsuccessful, will waste a lot of your time mate. BTW, those collar rings were scavenged from old TV yoke assemblies.
I concur. This, and the previous episode, made for a bit uncomfortable watch to me. Kinda like rummaging through someone's stamp/model/toy soldier/whatever collection, commenting, judging. Someone's who's not there to provide their side of the story. I felt like I was invading the guy's privacy. Just doesn't feel exactly right. Yes, I know it was a publicly available eBay auction and all, but still.
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Kinda like rummaging through someone's stamp/model/toy soldier/whatever collection, commenting, judging. Someone's who's not there to provide their side of the story. I felt like I was invading the guy's privacy. Just doesn't feel exactly right.
Nailed it bro! That first video was in his house, talk about up close and personal! Maybe down-unda peeps share all and feel no pain, but I know lawyers up here might jump on something with this much viewership. For Dave's sake, I wish the name was pulled out.
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I'm giving the guy due credit for an amazing world class collection, not to do so would have been a disservice to all the effort he put into it.
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I suspect you paid about $30 too much for those cans of hardware. :-DD
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I suspect you paid about $30 too much for those cans of hardware. :-DD
I probably got more than that back in Google money for the video!
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Dave - how far useful do you think those things in the tins going to be for you? Would be interesting to know.
Quite a lot of it should be useful. Only looked through 10% of the tins. Screw's nuts bolts washers bracket etc are always useful.
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I think the guy got lots of fun building this collection.
I see no problem with privacy. All these goods were, or are gong to be, posted on public auction sites. And the original collector has taken that action to put the collection on those public sites by himself.
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I'm giving the guy due credit for an amazing world class collection, not to do so would have been a disservice to all the effort he put into it.
Some think it was a bit more than that mate. Thousands of potential people were taken by the hand, as it were, into his house and heard a reporter question "what kind of a guy.." with adjectives like, in-sane, crazy et al.. Dave, I know it was ad-hoc and stupefying to see the stuff, I'm just saying be careful - maybe get a lawyer to see the video so you can sleep at night and not worry about loosing your shirt.
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maybe get a lawyer to see the video so you can sleep at night and not worry about loosing your shirt.
You must live too close to New York. Post your address so I can send you some slightly used couch feet.
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I can just see the next mailbag, bag after bag, filled with couch feet to expand Dave's collection.
More seriously, I would guess about 1/3 of the tins can be tossed, but the other 2/3 are highly useful nuts/bolts/brackets.
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I can just see the next mailbag, bag after bag, filled with couch feet to expand Dave's collection.
More seriously, I would guess about 1/3 of the tins can be tossed, but the other 2/3 are highly useful nuts/bolts/brackets.
I need my used couch feet. I might get a couch without any, and then where would i be........
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I'll bet when he started collecting it was state-of-art. When I browse my own shop I find stuff that can't be used e.g. old software: Mac OS7 on floppies. Just can't throw it out. Yeah, what's a floppy?
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I'm giving the guy due credit for an amazing world class collection, not to do so would have been a disservice to all the effort he put into it.
Some think it was a bit more than that mate. Thousands of potential people were taken by the hand, as it were, into his house and heard a reporter question "what kind of a guy.." with adjectives like, in-sane, crazy et al.. Dave, I know it was ad-hoc and stupefying to see the stuff, I'm just saying be careful - maybe get a lawyer to see the video so you can sleep at night and not worry about loosing your shirt.
C'mon... Dave lives in Australia, not the USA. Over there they call a spade a spade and nobody calls lawyers.
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They normally use a spade with a lawyer, and come back with the spade...............
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Man - that guy is way to anal retentive - storing all that stuff like that with labels and all ...
:-\
Just like me. :-X
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I suspect you paid about $30 too much for those cans of hardware. :-DD
I probably got more than that back in Google money for the video!
Yeah, I figured that the real value in the purchase was the video, not the hardware. :)
I'm in the process of getting rid of 25 years of collected junk. Some of it is going on eBay, some was recycled and a lot was binned.
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I'm in the process of getting rid of 25 years of collected junk. Some of it is going on eBay, some was recycled and a lot was binned.
I long ago adopted the philosophy "If in doubt, chuck it out." Of course the day after you throw something out, you need it. However you must consider the cost of real estate and the value in having an uncluttered life.
Live simply so you can simply live.
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I'm in the process of getting rid of 25 years of collected junk. Some of it is going on eBay, some was recycled and a lot was binned.
I long ago adopted the philosophy "If in doubt, chuck it out." Of course the day after you throw something out, you need it. However you must consider the cost of real estate and the value in having an uncluttered life.
Live simply so you can simply live.
Sometimes it's not even about real estate. Severe hoarding can stop you getting anything useful done.
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C'mon... Dave lives in Australia, not the USA. Over there they call a spade a spade and nobody calls lawyers.
I didn't even call anyone anything, I was amazed and impressed with the guys collection, and any phrase used was clearly in that context.
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C'mon... Dave lives in Australia, not the USA. Over there they call a spade a spade and nobody calls lawyers.
I didn't even call anyone anything, I was amazed and impressed with the guys collection, and any phrase used was clearly in that context.
I agree.
It's just weird to see all the Americans freaking out.
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C'mon... Dave lives in Australia, not the USA. Over there they call a spade a spade and nobody calls lawyers.
I didn't even call anyone anything, I was amazed and impressed with the guys collection, and any phrase used was clearly in that context.
I agree.
It's just weird to see all the Americans freaking out.
You are good, I didn't even know I was freaking out until you said I was :)
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Actually, it's the Canadian that's freaking out.
What the heck would posses someone to collect all of this crap? I throw just about everything out. Doesn't matter...prototypes, old enclosures, stuff I can't identify...oh well, so long, buh bye. If I buy a package of stick-on feet, and I need 4 but 6 comes in the package, I throw out the other 2. Life's too short to be spending 10 minutes figuring out where to store $.25 worth of plastic.
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything I've ever missed that I junked.
Dave, you need to get a hold of this guy and interview him!
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Jeff Duntemann uses milk jugs for storing his parts instead of coffee tins.
Also an option...
(http://www.duntemann.com/12vtubes/milkjugs.jpg)
http://www.duntemann.com/12vtubes/shoptips.htm (http://www.duntemann.com/12vtubes/shoptips.htm)
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You are good, I didn't even know I was freaking out until you said I was :)
No problem. It's all part of the service.
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I prefer see-through, that's why plastic mayonnaise jars were invented.. The lids match the bottoms so they stack without sliding around.
Also, big stuff doesn't fit in small parts cabinet drawers. Yes, it's messy.. and yes I recognize some hoarding when I see it.. (ya think?)
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Actually, it's the Canadian that's freaking out.
What the heck would posses someone to collect all of this crap?
Canadian or American we're fairly similar (except mostly for the guns, army and all the broken down, bankrupt cities).
Possessing a lot of parts? OK, I'm semi-retired, what's a guy to do? I will admit to not setting limits on myself and driving my wife batty with a messy shop. But I also admit the first video got me agitated enough to start taking action. :)
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Actually, it's the Canadian that's freaking out.
There was only one American "freaking out", if that. I don't understand how that became plural.
Some people see things that do not exist.
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Actually, it's the Canadian that's freaking out.
What the heck would posses someone to collect all of this crap?
Canadian or American we're fairly similar (except mostly for the guns, army and all the broken down, bankrupt cities).
Possessing a lot of parts? OK, I'm semi-retired, what's a guy to do? I will admit to not setting limits on myself and driving my wife batty with a messy shop. But I also admit the first video got me agitated enough to start taking action. :)
I mean, the guy's got plastic feet from an old couch....labelled, sorted, entered in a spreadsheet apparently, and neatly stored in a coffee jar. What would you do with something like that? What are the odds that even if you needed a foot for some random couch, this particular foot will be a perfect fit and not wobble? It's moved beyond a few junk drawers full of screws that will never be used. I really would love to see an interview with the guy, assuming he's still alive and this isn't an estate sale. I think Dave mentioned he's moving overseas in the first video.
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Canadian or American we're fairly similar (except mostly for the guns, army and all the broken down, bankrupt cities).
A joke I heard was that during the infamous "nipplegate" at the superbowl 50000 Americans swamped the TV station switchboards with outraged complaints. Whilst 50 Canadians rang to complain that they missed it.
It's probably true! ;D up in Canada, our commercial's are swapped-in by cash-cows when all the great American ads play, so the half-time slip was likely blocked while they stalled trying to figure out how they could make money on it.. them.. (whatever) I didn't watch.
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Canadian or American we're fairly similar (except mostly for the guns, army and all the broken down, bankrupt cities).
A joke I heard was that during the infamous "nipplegate" at the superbowl 50000 Americans swamped the TV station switchboards with outraged complaints. Whilst 50 Canadians rang to complain that they missed it.
Ha ha...that sounds about right! I can't even remember what I'm supposed to be outraged about this week.
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Actually, it's the Canadian that's freaking out.
There was only one American "freaking out", if that. I don't understand how that became plural.
Some people see things that do not exist.
Look! Now they're all freaking out because they're outraged that somebody said they were freaking out and they thought they weren't.
Americans are so much fun.
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Americans are so much fun.
What country do you live in?
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Actually, it's the Canadian that's freaking out.
Last time I've checked, Canada was in America. And also Mexico, Brazil... you get the picture.
BTW, I rally cannot understand what this guy was doing. I mean what was the goal of storing all these stuff? Hoarders end up with a house full of crap because hoarding is more important than actually organizing the stuff. This is collecting, taken to the extreme.
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This is collecting, taken to the extreme.
And what's wrong with that?
He obviously enjoyed doing it.
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Americans are so much fun.
What country do you live in?
He lives in Spain.
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Americans are so much fun.
What country do you live in?
He lives in Spain.
Couldn't be, Spain LOVES Americans :P
And of course they don't ever freak out :popcorn:
I should know, was born and raised there.
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This is collecting, taken to the extreme.
And what's wrong with that?
He obviously enjoyed doing it.
Nothing wrong. I dont even think that it would have taken that much time and effort in fact. If you do this 2 hours a day but for 30 years, you end up with this.
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Couldn't be, Spain LOVES Americans :P
And of course they don't ever freak out :popcorn:
I should know, was born and raised there.
It is amazing, even after the (North) Americans nuked Spain and in return the Spanish got their road infrastructure build by the American tax payer. :popcorn:
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Americans are so much fun.
What country do you live in?
He lives in Spain.
What does that have to do with anything at all? Are Americans like little bosons? Do they change behavior depending on who's watching?
I always think it's funny how the first thing an American asks somebody is where they're from. It'll be, like, within the first ten seconds of a conversation. Garanteed.
:popcorn:
(I prefer to ask people what their favorite type of ice-cream is...tells me know far more about them than where they're from)
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...even after the (North) Americans nuked Spain..
Este me confunda, cambiaran la pista y ahora dicen que los yankees aplastaron los hispanos? Maybe freaking out is preferred. You guys must have couch feet in your collections.. (I just can't find mine) ;)
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What does that have to do with anything at all?
Well if it has no consequence then why are you hiding your country flag? Step up to the plate and be proud of your country.
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What does that have to do with anything at all?
Well if it has no consequence then why are you hiding your country flag?
'Hiding'?
Yeah, I deliberately 'hid' it. :-DD
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Yeah, I deliberately 'hid' it. :-DD
Hmmm, you seem to have forgotten to quote the last part of my statement. Interesting ...
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Yeah, I deliberately 'hid' it. :-DD
Hmmm, you seem to have forgotten to quote the last part of my statement. Interesting ...
Would you be OK if I picked USA as my flag? They're the best, after all, and I like the color.
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Might as well because they don't have a flag for Renfe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renfe_Operadora) as you managed to derail the thread.