Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[factory]

I'm considering putting a £15 offer on it 

I bid £14.00, hoping they'll miss the decimal point (They probably won't since P&P is free ) There's another offer outstanding.

For an extra £2k you can have the voltmeter plug-in. Bargain!! 
And their probably wondering why they haven't sold in the 5 months they've been on the bay.

David

[kj7e]

So much win here;

https://youtu.be/hLORM1TcE1A

[Cubdriver]

I'm considering putting a £15 offer on it 

I bid £14.00, hoping they'll miss the decimal point (They probably won't since P&P is free ) There's another offer outstanding.

For an extra £2k you can have the voltmeter plug-in. Bargain!! 
And their probably wondering why they haven't sold in the 5 months they've been on the bay.

David

 

Is that new old stock?!?  Holy crap, that's insane!

-Pat

[mnementh]

Jittery indeed. I have nightmares about RFC 5545 recurrence section 

What's particularly bad about recurrence, compared with all the other messes associated with dates and times?

I've had occasion to drum into people just how awkward date and time are. Start with the easy questions like "how many hours are there in a day?", and proceed to more obscure questions.

Recurrence is a nasty one. Here's a real world anecdote.

It forces the question of "how do you store it" which turns out to be very difficult if you are a typical CRUD programmer (99% of them). The naive SQL-obsessed person takes the RFC and implements a piece of code which writes each occurrence of the event to a table. That is until a client comes along and accidentally adds one event every hour until the year 2150. This all happens in a nice little for loop, IOPS go through the roof and the operations team go purple. The next naive manager comes along and adds a restriction which shoots the clients down who legitimately have an appointment every week for the next two years by saying that they can't schedule more than a year ahead. Clients go purple. Then someone decides it's a fantastic idea to add attachments to this and subcontracts this out to the lowest bidding outsourcer who decides a chunk of it needs futzing around. About 3 months later, the operations team suddenly go purple again as all the CPUs on all the nodes are rammed at 100%. Well it turns out that a DST change and a poor understanding of time zones meant that all events an hour long had collapsed to 0 minutes and kicked off infinite loops on every node causing thread pool starvation and total platform outage and some steaming crashdumps and purple customers.

This is when I usually get dragged in to work out what the fuck has gone on. Stage one, discover that the start event is stored in UTC and the end of the event is stored in local time. Wowsers. Unravelled that one in a couple of hours. Stage two, add some circuit breakers and unit tests to cover the infinitely loop condition. Stage three, design a sparse storage model which (a) abstracts the entire RFC 5545 model (b) scales to 20,000 concurrent users (c) has no arbitrary event recurrence limitations (d) works across different timezones (e) can be slid into the existing fucked up mess of spaghetti written by the outsourcers. Then obtain a suitably sized LART and educate everyone involved while navigating politicians, bringing down a whole chain of CYA and generally Hulk smashing everything into oblivion in the way of it.

Horribly complex due to humans of course.

The solution was to use sparse spans. All events are a "series" which are stored with appropriate start and end dates. When you peek into a time span by specifying a date range, the only useful constraint in the system, you pull all the events in the series down which are present in that time span then construct the real events on the fly outside of the database black box. Events don't have to exist as a concrete corporeal row in a table, only the notion of when they may exist. This is difficult for most people to process apparently  ... I was nearly burned at the stake!

*In best clinical soothing voice* There, there, bd... It's going to be allright; nobody is going to make you code anything today.

Here, have a taco...  

Good grief HP Nixie counters are still fetching big money. HP 5221B closed at $101.50 plus shipping.

You can't complain too much, you do have a much better chance of finding those counters than we have over here. 

This is the only HP Nixie one on ePay UK at the moment, but unfortunately the price has the decimal point in the wrong place. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183533749997

David

What? "For parts or not working?"
This has got to be a joke.

Nope; deadly serious.

At first I guessed a burner account for a floating opium house, drug drop point or similar coded message, but the account seems to be in use and actually selling similar strange, if much less expensive, kinds of technical bits. 

Perhaps just completely ignorant of what the device is, but saw some old similar-looking HP 6-7-8 digit voltmeters selling in the $1500 range on some website, so didn't want to lose out if it was really worth that kind of money? 

mnem
 

[0culus]

There's only one valid measurement of code quality:

[mnementh]

Real World: WTF IS CODE REVIEW?!? 

mnem
Is that some mythical beast, like an honest politician or a CEO who isn't a raving sociopath? *Pokes Oculus with the GOTO: stick just for grins* 

[0culus]

Real World: WTF IS CODE REVIEW?!? 

mnem
Is that some mythical beast, like an honest politician or a CEO who isn't a raving sociopath? *Pokes Oculus with the GOTO: stick just for grins* 

GOTOs are useful. You just have to understand it's just the right amount of rope to hang yourself with. 

In other news, WTF is up with Amazon booksellers selling "HP-15C Advanced Functions Handbook" and sending you the regular owner's handbook. Second time this has happened. I kept the first one because it was 1) spiral bound and 2) a later revision than the one I got with the calculator. This one isn't even spiral bound and I'm going to try to get a refund. I just want a print copy of the advanced functions handbook. 

[bitseeker]

Ouchy no heavy Tea for you for a bit 

This is actually the largest concern for me at the current time believe it or not

Hope it won't be a concern for too long. Get better soon, bd!

[bd139]

Thanks  Naproxin working pretty well. Just totally bored now and getting RSI on my other hand from sitting there scrolling through ebay 

[bitseeker]

Good grief HP Nixie counters are still fetching big money. HP 5221B closed at $101.50 plus shipping.

You can't complain too much, you do have a much better chance of finding those counters than we have over here. 

This is the only HP Nixie one on ePay UK at the moment, but unfortunately the price has the decimal point in the wrong place. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183533749997

David

**faint** *thud*

[tggzzz]

That's clearly wrong. There's no boxes for

Code: [Select]

"run out of time/money"----v
"pay review coming up"-->"ship it anyway"
"who gives a damn"---------^
Where "shitp it anyway" would be more diplomatically phrased as "let's get some customer feedback to see what needs to be done next"

[mnementh]

Real World: WTF IS CODE REVIEW?!? 

mnem
Is that some mythical beast, like an honest politician or a CEO who isn't a raving sociopath? *Pokes Oculus with the GOTO: stick just for grins* 

GOTOs are useful. You just have to understand it's just the right amount of rope to hang yourself with. 

In other news, WTF is up with Amazon booksellers selling "HP-15C Advanced Functions Handbook" and sending you the regular owner's handbook. Second time this has happened. I kept the first one because it was 1) spiral bound and 2) a later revision than the one I got with the calculator. This one isn't even spiral bound and I'm going to try to get a refund. I just want a print copy of the advanced functions handbook. 

Don't they at least have a preview on the listing so you can take a peek inside? If not, pretty lame. You may have to research the ISBN of the correct publication to get what you want. 

mnem
*Off to get the kiddles*

[factory]

This is the only HP Nixie one on ePay UK at the moment, but unfortunately the price has the decimal point in the wrong place. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183533749997

David

What? "For parts or not working?"
This has got to be a joke.

Nope; deadly serious.

At first I guessed a burner account for a floating opium house, drug drop point or similar coded message, but the account seems to be in use and actually selling similar strange, if much less expensive, kinds of technical bits. 

Perhaps just completely ignorant of what the device is, but saw some old similar-looking HP 6-7-8 digit voltmeters selling in the $1500 range on some website, so didn't want to lose out if it was really worth that kind of money? 

mnem
 

Seems to be a real company "Air & Ground" based near Hixon airfield. But they don't seem to have much feedback for a seller that's been on ePay for 9 years with that quantity of stuff.
They do have about 9 HP power meters at £150 each (no sensors with them), some of the HP test gear has old RAF labels (the "convertor frequency" for example).

I'm considering putting a £15 offer on it 

I bid £14.00, hoping they'll miss the decimal point (They probably won't since P&P is free ) There's another offer outstanding.

For an extra £2k you can have the voltmeter plug-in. Bargain!! 
And their probably wondering why they haven't sold in the 5 months they've been on the bay.

David

 

Is that new old stock?!?  Holy crap, that's insane!

-Pat

None of it is new, just ex-military surplus, new stuff usually has packaging with the manual and supplied accessories.

My offer of £50 was turned down quickly too.
Edit: The prices in 1967 were £1159 for the 5245L and £260 for the 5265A voltmeter plug-in.

David

[mnementh]

That's clearly wrong. There's no boxes for

Code: [Select]

"run out of time/money"----v
"pay review coming up"-->"ship it anyway"
"who gives a damn"---------^
Where "shitp it anyway" would be more diplomatically phrased as "let's get some customer feedback to see what needs to be done next"

Those items clearly belong in a Tier 2 management-level Project flowchart, not a codemonkey-level Operations and QC flowchart.

"Not een the yob descreepshun, mang!"  

mnem
"You can't pay me enough to rewire my brain that way."

[0culus]

Real World: WTF IS CODE REVIEW?!? 

mnem
Is that some mythical beast, like an honest politician or a CEO who isn't a raving sociopath? *Pokes Oculus with the GOTO: stick just for grins* 

GOTOs are useful. You just have to understand it's just the right amount of rope to hang yourself with. 

In other news, WTF is up with Amazon booksellers selling "HP-15C Advanced Functions Handbook" and sending you the regular owner's handbook. Second time this has happened. I kept the first one because it was 1) spiral bound and 2) a later revision than the one I got with the calculator. This one isn't even spiral bound and I'm going to try to get a refund. I just want a print copy of the advanced functions handbook. 

Don't they at least have a preview on the listing so you can take a peek inside? If not, pretty lame. You may have to research the ISBN of the correct publication to get what you want. 

mnem
*Off to get the kiddles*

Yes, the listing even showed a picture of an HP-15C Advanced Functions Handbook.  They replied to my marketplace message, want pics of the thing.

[Specmaster]

So much win here;

https://youtu.be/hLORM1TcE1A

Thanks for posting this, you know that is very much like the last company I worked for, the owners seemed to take an interest in their staff and that itself inspired people to work harder and want to do their best for the company. But slowly the rot set in, when the owners started in my view, living a dream they could not afford, they sold a house in London, brought a mansion outside of London in a well known posh area and started to live in a fantasy world right in the middle of the global crash. I could go on but I wont, apart from to say that I predicted the way that the way that would re-act when sales slumped, the sales force were blamed and they set in place a series of measures to try and rectify everything including listening to the wrong people internally who further plunged the downwards, bringing in new directors who by looking at their CV's on line had not managed to hold down a position for long anywhere. As I was past retirement age I knew that I would be in these new directors sights before long. I was given a new role (one I had done for other companies with good effect) but it was new to my current employers, I told them  that I would require certain assistance in getting the new role up and running, end of year one, I was now being put under pressure, despite not being given the assistance I requested, I resigned.
 Now it seems that quite a few others have also departed, I wonder what the future now holds for the company

[tggzzz]

So much win here;

https://youtu.be/hLORM1TcE1A

I didn't watch all of it, but skipped through it.

Everything I saw was accurate, from my perspective of being an HP employee from the mid-80s until Princess Fiorina had a hack at it.

[bd139]

Ah yes that was the stupid moobag who burned "The HP Way". I remember back in 99 when she ended up top. We'd just bought about a million quid's worth of HP 9000 N-class Unix kit and got very worried. She burned the entire sales and support chain and the kit was gone in two years replaced with COTS Intel stuff running SQL Server

[mnementh]

Yes, but in hindsight it is obvious that "The HP Way" was dead when whatever happened that made her place at HP possible, long before she dared utter the words.

mnem
Any mechanism that makes people disposable is by definition inhumane, and should be an affront to all humanity.

[tggzzz]

Ah yes that was the stupid moobag who burned "The HP Way". I remember back in 99 when she ended up top. We'd just bought about a million quid's worth of HP 9000 N-class Unix kit and got very worried. She burned the entire sales and support chain and the kit was gone in two years replaced with COTS Intel stuff running SQL Server

When she arrived, like many other HP staff I was wary of her but prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.

When she came and gave her spiel to everybody on the site, she was a good performer, but, unlike previous HP CEOs, said nothing simply and clearly. At that point I decided to look around for other companies. After I left, I too steered an HPUX only company away from PA-RISC and Itanics, and to x86 kit.

Fiorina was an effective performer, in the same way that TEDx presenters are effective performers.

[bd139]

She was a circus monkey.

Yes, but in hindsight it is obvious that "The HP Way" was dead when whatever happened that made her place at HP possible, long before she dared utter the words.

mnem
Any mechanism that makes people disposable is by definition inhumane, and should be an affront to all humanity.

Shareholder growth pressure burns everything.

[tggzzz]

She was a circus monkey.

Yes, but in hindsight it is obvious that "The HP Way" was dead when whatever happened that made her place at HP possible, long before she dared utter the words.

mnem
Any mechanism that makes people disposable is by definition inhumane, and should be an affront to all humanity.

Shareholder growth pressure burns everything.

Having grow up in the depression, one of Bill and Dave's guiding principles was "no long-term borrowing". Bill and Dave were extremely effective at stomping on such "growth" inanity.

There are many stories about how they did it. One of the shortest is that there was a presentation about how HP should act in one market. Packard listened, obviously growing more irritated. At the end he said "If I ever hear of anybody proposing that gaining market share is a business objective, I will personally fire them".

[tggzzz]

Yes, but in hindsight it is obvious that "The HP Way" was dead when whatever happened that made her place at HP possible, long before she dared utter the words.

The source of the problem was that Bill and Dave could not influence the company in any way. I predicted that would be a problem a decade before it happened; not rocket science!

BTW, a few months before he died, Dave was still as intellectually curious as ever. In that case he asked people in HP Labs if there was any way they could keep deep-sea specimens alive while having visitors to "his daughter's" Monterey Bay Aquarium watching them directly (i.e. no cameras etc).

[mnementh]

Ah yes that was the stupid moobag who burned "The HP Way". I remember back in 99 when she ended up top. We'd just bought about a million quid's worth of HP 9000 N-class Unix kit and got very worried. She burned the entire sales and support chain and the kit was gone in two years replaced with COTS Intel stuff running SQL Server

When she arrived, like many other HP staff I was wary of her but prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.

When she came and gave her spiel to everybody on the site, she was a good performer, but, unlike previous HP CEOs, said nothing simply and clearly. At that point I decided to look around for other companies. After I left, I too steered an HPUX only company away from PA-RISC and Itanics, and to x86 kit.

Fiorina was an effective performer, in the same way that TEDx presenters are effective performers.

I think that is an insult to TED and pretty much everybody I've ever seen on the platform. Not one of them was in any way the "complete lack of substance" that she embodies. Wherever the f*** she is now. 

I'm sure you can find some example to support the opposite view... but any speaker who doesn't present something of substance in the first 5 minutes immediately loses my audience and so is irrelevant to me; I tend to give short shrift to "speakers" in general anyways.

mnem
No, you may not "Have just a few minutes of my time." You need to EARN that.

[Mr. Scram]

Apparently she's in politics now, albeit not too successfully. Apparently she's also worth 59 million.