Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[paulca]

If the TV licensing folks want to search you home, you ...

... can tell them to push right off. If they want search your place they have to go to court and get a search warrant. I guess, pedantically, that translates as "you are to provide them access to all devices which could be used to watch a TV programme", but it is not automatic and they can't just roll up and bash your door down. Nor can they treat your telling them to go away as a criminal offense.

Agreed.  This discussion stemed from BlackBeltBarristars video.  In it he was suggesting that you NEVER let them in just to show them you don't have a TV.  What they will do is take note of all the devices which "could" be used to view TV and then use that as eivdence to support a warrant.

I do not pay.  I fill in their "I do not need a license" form every year.

Interestingly, all of my "TVs" are just big monitors and they all require a password... which they can get out of me with a specific court order to provide it.

I thought the UK had switched to financing the BBC via general taxes, rather than a license fee?

I don't think anyone really knows anymore where their taxes go.  The last effort on that front was with labour who proposed giving tax payers a break down of how their tax was spent in their pay check statement.  That vanished.  I never actually seen one, although the company I was working for responded initially.

It's like "Road Tax" as people call it, or "Vehicle Excess Duty" its often miss understood that "it pays for road maintenance"... directly.  Like "National Insurance" "directly" fills your "unemployment" benefit.  People believe these are descete, banded pots of money.  They aren't obviously.

None of these things are technically true or false, it's just a LOT more complex than that.  People get confused a lot and it's hardly surprising.

[paulca]

Peeves:  Getting "ignored" on an audiophile forum for describing how the master clock in I2S is just used a as the "CLK>" input for the I2S peripheral.

Actually that's probably not a peeve but an achievement.

[vk6zgo]

If the TV licensing folks want to search you home, you ...

... can tell them to push right off. If they want search your place they have to go to court and get a search warrant. I guess, pedantically, that translates as "you are to provide them access to all devices which could be used to watch a TV programme", but it is not automatic and they can't just roll up and bash your door down. Nor can they treat your telling them to go away as a criminal offense.

Agreed.  This discussion stemed from BlackBeltBarristars video.  In it he was suggesting that you NEVER let them in just to show them you don't have a TV.  What they will do is take note of all the devices which "could" be used to view TV and then use that as eivdence to support a warrant.

I do not pay.  I fill in their "I do not need a license" form every year.

Interestingly, all of my "TVs" are just big monitors and they all require a password... which they can get out of me with a specific court order to provide it.

I thought the UK had switched to financing the BBC via general taxes, rather than a license fee?

Australia did that in the 1970s, after they discovered that it cost more to enforce licenses than was received in fees.

[james_s]

The TV license thing has always seemed bizarre to me. The vast majority of people have owned something that is at least technically capable of receiving TV signals for decades whether they use it for that or not. It makes no sense to have a whole system of licenses, just roll it into the general tax fund. There are a lot of other things I also don't use that I'd be much more interested in opting out of paying for.

[IDEngineer]

I don't think anyone really knows anymore where their taxes go.  The last effort on that front was with labour who proposed giving tax payers a break down of how their tax was spent in their pay check statement.  That vanished.

That's a great platform to use while campaigning, but as soon as anyone is elected he/she is probably immediately "educated" on why transparency in tax spending is a Very Bad Idea for incumbent politicians (which now includes the newly elected individual). One hears all of these transparency promises every election cycle, then they vanish like the morning dew on Election Day + 1.

It's also very telling that nobody, NOBODY, ever follows up on that topic after the election is over. No politician, no failed candidate, and especially not the press, ever hold the winning candidates accountable for that particular promise. Tax collections - yes. This-or-that individual liberty questions - sure. But where do our taxes go? Crickets, from everyone. That's conspiracy-level collusion.

[themadhippy]

Should make election manifestos legally binding documents.

[Kim Christensen]

The TV license thing has always seemed bizarre to me. The vast majority of people have owned something that is at least technically capable of receiving TV signals for decades whether they use it for that or not. It makes no sense to have a whole system of licenses, just roll it into the general tax fund. There are a lot of other things I also don't use that I'd be much more interested in opting out of paying for.

It's really old. It was originally started as a radio license in 1923 (no longer exists) and televisions were added in 1946. Not many people had a TV in 46... So a fee made sense then. But today, it's just a silly leftover bureaucracy since the majority have a TV today...

[IDEngineer]

Another argument for a compulsory sunset clause on every law.

[james_s]

There are some laws that I don't think there is any point in having a sunset clause, and in fact it could be dangerous in case someone forgets to update it. I think we can safely say (at least I hope) that laws against things like murder, rape, kidnapping, child exploitation and other such basic direct crimes are never going to be obsolete. Also it would be worth looking at the total number of laws on the books, it's possible that even once you eliminate the fluff we'd probably need to greatly expand the legislative branch of the government in order to have the resources to actively maintain all of them.

[Ed.Kloonk]

There are some laws that I don't think there is any point in having a sunset clause, and in fact it could be dangerous in case someone forgets to update it.

That's rarely the case. The policy makers here never let a law go to waste.

[shapirus]

forgetting that it is usually a bad idea to measure voltage when the DMM is set to measure current*.

*especially when the fuse is expensive and not available at any of the local suppliers.

[Kim Christensen]

forgetting that it is usually a bad idea to measure voltage when the DMM is set to measure current*.
*especially when the fuse is expensive and not available at any of the local suppliers.

Even worse if it's one of those cheap meters that doesn't have fuse. Or even a CAT rating. Then the pet peeve becomes something about adequate eye/medical care.
That's what I like about the better built meters: If you plug into the current jack and set the knob to volts, etc then it'll beep at you until you correct that mistake.

[shapirus]

That's what I like about the better built meters: If you plug into the current jack and set the knob to volts, etc then it'll beep at you until you correct that mistake.

Mine does. It did not prevent me, twice in a single month, from trying to measure residual voltage on a (beefy) capacitor when the probe was in the current jack *and* the range selector was in the mA/uA position (after I did some actual current measurements), so the meter honestly did its job and would not beep.

Lesson learned: buy enough spare fuses when you have a chance. Also prefer meters with easy access to fuses, if possible, whence comes another pet peeve of mine: I want an updated version of Brymen BM869s. Easier fuse access, white LED-capable diode mode, wireless communications, faster update rate in some modes, auto-hold, low impedance mode. Come on Brymen, it's long overdue.

[james_s]

If you find yourself blowing meter fuses with any sort of regularity you really should be more attentive, this sort of carelessness can get you killed depending on what you're working on. I've blown fuses in my meters before, but it's been probably 10 years since it's happened and the number of times in total I think I can count on one hand. Doesn't bother me a bit that I have to open my meter to get to them.

[Ed.Kloonk]

It's why I use a beefy analog DC ammeter for measuring amps on 12v. 10A isn't enough current capacity often anyway. Not worth the risk of a good meter.

[pcprogrammer]

... beefy analog ...

Nowadays electrical engineers might think that it is a snack 

"beefy analog" can I eat it?

[Ed.Kloonk]

... beefy analog ...

Nowadays electrical engineers might think that it is a snack 

"beefy analog" can I eat it?

Beefeater is a famous brand of barbecue here.

https://www.beefeaterbbq.com/en-au/our-history/

[themadhippy]

Beefeater is a

infamous pub restaurant chain here

[vk6zgo]

Beefeater is a famous brand of barbecue here.

https://www.beefeaterbbq.com/en-au/our-history/

Also a popular brand of Gin!

Probably safer not to indulge in the latter before operating the former!

[coppice]

Beefeater is a famous brand of barbecue here.

https://www.beefeaterbbq.com/en-au/our-history/

Also a popular brand of Gin!

Probably safer not to indulge in the latter before operating the former!

Beefeater is also a popular brand of tourist attraction. Their original job meant they were not always they safe playing their trade.

[AlbertL]

Web sites with "Contact Us" forms that don't send a confirmation email so you know that your message has been received.  The best ones include a copy of your message so you have a record of what you sent.

I just used a form that gave me a generic error massage - and erased all the fields - after I hit Send.  So I retyped everything and hit Send again.  This time it erased some of the fields and said "Your message has been sent."  But has it?   

[paulca]

Most likely it just subscribed you to their junk email list.

[jonovid]

aluminum wire that looks like its not.

[james_s]

aluminum wire that looks like its not.

You mean CCA?

[james_s]

It's why I use a beefy analog DC ammeter for measuring amps on 12v. 10A isn't enough current capacity often anyway. Not worth the risk of a good meter.

I use a DC clamp probe, it's much easier to use in most cases anyway and it there is zero risk of damaging the meter with it, unless you drop it on the meter.