Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[grizewald]

"out of date Asda chicken korma"

isn't that dave lister's favorite?

Vindaloo and lager. Been there. Wasn't pretty 

Particularly when it won't stay down and decides to come back up again!

 

[grizewald]

Ah well, probably best not to push my luck on the first day of feeling slightly better.

Off to bed for me.

[tggzzz]

It's a good point. The reason we invaded everyone is our food is shit and we were trying to get away from it. If it was any good we'd have stayed at home.

Our commercial restaurant food was crap. The good stuff at home wasn't The commercial restaurant food since the 80s was much better.

Of course you have to keep your wits about you. Too many chains are like bog standard American food: large, eye candy, flavourless without addition of salt fat and sugar.

If you think I hold American cooking in high esteem I don't. Our cooking consists of a jar of corn syrup and fat.

Good American cooking using local ingredients can be very good. I salivate at the thought of the food in Legal's Seafood near Boston.

Too much American food is based on uniformity, size and appearance. Avoid restaurants (in both countries) that have a large number of items on the menu, or that list the weight on the menu.

[URI]

Day 5: I'm delighted to say that the ice-pick headache is now over! The mil-spec painkillers can be packed away again in readiness for the next problem that consumer grade stuff won't help with. Remaining is still a fever and a general feeling of malaise and weakness. My appetite is returning at least, but I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Still no respiratory symptoms, so I guess I should count that as a plus.

Good to read your doing better meanwhile.
Please stay safe and call help if it's getting worse again! (That's a reported complication..)

Best wishes and I wish you a fast and constantly improving recovery!


-----------------------------------

No discord for me today. I got far too little sleep the last couple of nights, I have to catch up some extra hours of sleep.
Happy Easter to every one of you co-TEA-sufferers!     

[mnementh]

If you Brits are so proud of your cooking and cuisine then how come I see.....

French restaurants, Italian restaurants, Indian Restaurants, Chinese restaurants.....but have I ever seen a "British restaurant" ? Ah, no. 

There are a few, but we go out to have something that differs from home cooking. Not many people know how to make jugged hare, syllabub, or muggety pie nowadays.

One thing to realise is that English food is at its best when good local ingredients are cooked simply. My mouth waters at the thought of fried fresh pigs liver, or a truckle cheddar, or spoots, or a well hung pheasant, or a Egremont Russet, and I must get some more salt marsh lamb. Pity the poor Americans that haven't had some proper dried smoked back bacon nor bloater nor Arbroath smokie. And the best kippers are sent from Scotland.

Oh, I figured Brit cuisine was "whatever they knocked up together in the back of the pub" while you were drinking the main course... 

mnem

[Neomys Sapiens]

On the origin of bangers and mash, technically we got potatoes from Virginia in the late 1500's. Sausages, well they were around in 500 BC or so but I'm not sure we had them or not. The gravy we stole from the French in the middle ages.

Really about the only bloody things that are native to us is bread, dogs, oats and rabbits. I suppose we invented hot dogs although being British it would be "dog on toast" 

That's called a Houndwich, isn't it?

[mnementh]

Ah well, probably best not to push my luck on the first day of feeling slightly better.

Off to bed for me.

Oh, come on into the Discord and cough all over us; we deserve it. 

mnem
"I floop the pig!"

[tggzzz]

If you Brits are so proud of your cooking and cuisine then how come I see.....

French restaurants, Italian restaurants, Indian Restaurants, Chinese restaurants.....but have I ever seen a "British restaurant" ? Ah, no. 

There are a few, but we go out to have something that differs from home cooking. Not many people know how to make jugged hare, syllabub, or muggety pie nowadays.

One thing to realise is that English food is at its best when good local ingredients are cooked simply. My mouth waters at the thought of fried fresh pigs liver, or a truckle cheddar, or spoots, or a well hung pheasant, or a Egremont Russet, and I must get some more salt marsh lamb. Pity the poor Americans that haven't had some proper dried smoked back bacon nor bloater nor Arbroath smokie. And the best kippers are sent from Scotland.

Oh, I figured Brit cuisine was "whatever they knocked up together in the back of the pub" while you were drinking the main course... 

As late as 1957 municipalities employed people to knock up their citizens.

Until the mid 60s pubs were for drinking, line US bars.

In the 60s and 70s adventurous pubs introduced bar food, usually limited to a ploughman's lunch. That invented concept contained bread, cheddar cheese, and a pickled onion. Some were very nice, others less so.

In the 80s they introduced home made cook chill meals (sic), and this century some have become gastropubs, I.e. quite reasonable medium grade restaurants. Supermarkets have responded by creating gastropub ready meals:)

It is all several orders of magnitude better than when I was a kid. Let's hope they survive.

[worsthorse]

I broke down and bought another HP3400A.  It only cost twenty-five bucks, which was less than half the cost of a NOS thermocouple from sphere, so I figured I'd use it for parts to fix.  Turns out the damn thing works, at least from 7mV to 7V and 100 Hz to 1 MHz.  Even better it actually measures pretty much the correct voltage, a feature I consider to be a bonus.



But testing it must wait.  For now, back to un-deathtrapping the S38.   

[Cubdriver]

Day 5: I'm delighted to say that the ice-pick headache is now over! The mil-spec painkillers can be packed away again in readiness for the next problem that consumer grade stuff won't help with. Remaining is still a fever and a general feeling of malaise and weakness. My appetite is returning at least, but I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Still no respiratory symptoms, so I guess I should count that as a plus.

Excellent news!  I'm very glad to hear that.  Here's wishing you a quick recovery back to normal health.

-Pat

[Specmaster]

Last food photos. I promise. This will put you off 

Basmati rice, boiled using the evaporation method (fry pan for lid during cooking and reasonably well measured 2:1 volumetric ratio of rice to water). Doesn't waste any water then!



This is dumped on a plate and then in goes half a can of 9 month out of date Asda chicken korma SWMNLBO bought three years ago and didn't eat (normal business) which was quite frankly fucking rancid and will not be eaten again:



The ant seasoning was appreciated 

I don't know for sure, but that Basmati rice sure looks awfully wet to me and if so, would spoil the curry and as for out of date anything let alone curry is a big NO NO with SWMBO, anything, even if it is just slightly out of date is straight in the dusty. If an egg is out of date, even if it passes the float or sink test, is in the dusty quick as a flash. Thats why I now do the shopping, she would buy  the odd thing here or there based on nothing more other than one of her friends had told her that they had it and liked it, or it looks nice in the picture  We have sat on the counter top in the kitchen, a butter nut squash that asked me to get for her, 18 months ago, its going in the dusty before too long, I get feed up of moving every time I wipe the counter top down. 

[Cubdriver]

I broke down and bought another HP3400A.  It only cost twenty-five bucks, which was less than half the cost of a NOS thermocouple from sphere, so I figured I'd use it for parts to fix.  Turns out the damn thing works, at least from 7mV to 7V and 100 Hz to 1 MHz.  Even better it actually measures pretty much the correct voltage, a feature I consider to be a bonus.

(Attachment Link)

But testing it must wait.  For now, back to un-deathtrapping the S38.   

 

I've had a few attempts at getting a parts mule thwarted in a similar fashion.  (That and I'm just not good at parting something out, especially older gear that has lived a long, productive life - seems like killing it even if it's not then working correctly.  ...I need to stop anthropomorphizing my test equipment...)

-Pat

[bd139]

Last food photos. I promise. This will put you off 

Basmati rice, boiled using the evaporation method (fry pan for lid during cooking and reasonably well measured 2:1 volumetric ratio of rice to water). Doesn't waste any water then!



This is dumped on a plate and then in goes half a can of 9 month out of date Asda chicken korma SWMNLBO bought three years ago and didn't eat (normal business) which was quite frankly fucking rancid and will not be eaten again:



The ant seasoning was appreciated 

I don't know for sure, but that Basmati rice sure looks awfully wet to me and if so, would spoil the curry and as for out of date anything let alone curry is a big NO NO with SWMBO, anything, even if it is just slightly out of date is straight in the dusty. If an egg is out of date, even if it passes the float or sink test, is in the dusty quick as a flash. Thats why I now do the shopping, she would buy  the odd thing here or there based on nothing more other than one of her friends had told her that they had it and liked it, or it looks nice in the picture  We have sat on the counter top in the kitchen, a butter nut squash that asked me to get for her, 18 months ago, its going in the dusty before too long, I get feed up of moving every time I wipe the counter top down. 

Rice wasn’t wet at all. Trick is to leave it somewhere after it has cooked for a bit for remaining water to evaporate.

Curry was fine. Still alive 

Got two butternuts here. One going in soup on Monday and one being roasted week after. They are fantastic. Tried growing them a few years back. Got two but they were about 5 inches long and like a brick. 

[nixiefreqq]

Last food photos. I promise. This will put you off 

Basmati rice, boiled using the evaporation method (fry pan for lid during cooking and reasonably well measured 2:1 volumetric ratio of rice to water). Doesn't waste any water then!



This is dumped on a plate and then in goes half a can of 9 month out of date Asda chicken korma SWMNLBO bought three years ago and didn't eat (normal business) which was quite frankly fucking rancid and will not be eaten again:



The ant seasoning was appreciated 

I don't know for sure, but that Basmati rice sure looks awfully wet to me and if so, would spoil the curry and as for out of date anything let alone curry is a big NO NO with SWMBO, anything, even if it is just slightly out of date is straight in the dusty. If an egg is out of date, even if it passes the float or sink test, is in the dusty quick as a flash. Thats why I now do the shopping, she would buy  the odd thing here or there based on nothing more other than one of her friends had told her that they had it and liked it, or it looks nice in the picture  We have sat on the counter top in the kitchen, a butter nut squash that asked me to get for her, 18 months ago, its going in the dusty before too long, I get feed up of moving every time I wipe the counter top down. 

maybe your swmbo and my swmbo are related (although she has never mentioned essex)

had some rotisserie chicken that had only been in the fridge two days and caught her getting ready to toss it.  had to wrestle it out of her grip and made a very nice sandwich.  she was appalled and monitored me for the food poisoning the she said was inevitable.  (and she lives on yogurt.....keep telling her that stuff has gone off before they even package it).

[Mr. Scram]

Rice is apparently one thing to be careful with. Bacillus cereus spores and toxins survive boiling and can rapidly duplicate at room temperature.

[mnementh]

Yes, food poisoning can b. cereus.

mnem
*ducks soggy ol' boot thrown from across the border*

[worsthorse]

could have been a liquor store in my home town but it was jersey. close enough.   

[mnementh]

I don't know for sure, but that Basmati rice sure looks awfully wet to me and if so, would spoil the curry and as for out of date anything let alone curry is a big NO NO with SWMBO, anything, even if it is just slightly out of date is straight in the dusty. If an egg is out of date, even if it passes the float or sink test, is in the dusty quick as a flash. Thats why I now do the shopping, she would buy  the odd thing here or there based on nothing more other than one of her friends had told her that they had it and liked it, or it looks nice in the picture  We have sat on the counter top in the kitchen, a butter nut squash that asked me to get for her, 18 months ago, its going in the dusty before too long, I get feed up of moving every time I wipe the counter top down. 

maybe your swmbo and my swmbo are related (although she has never mentioned essex)

had some rotisserie chicken that had only been in the fridge two days and caught her getting ready to toss it.  had to wrestle it out of her grip and made a very nice sandwich.  she was appalled and monitored me for the food poisoning the she said was inevitable.  (and she lives on yogurt.....keep telling her that stuff has gone off before they even package it).

*quite happily devouring a huge plate of 4-day-old roast beast and buttered veggies*   mmmnmmmphlrrrrpmmmnnummmmphlrrrrp!!!

mnem
};=)~~~~<

[med6753]

Yep, definitely Jersey. But it should have said "You cough, you get cement shoes". 

[mnementh]

Fuck that noise. Chain the doors shut, tent the building and fumigate the place for bugs AND rodents. With the owner inside.

mnem
*zero tolerance for this kind of shit*

[Brumby]

Mnem would be a riot running the CDC..... 

[bitseeker]

Look what FedEx just delivered. A whole bunch of goodies. Gonna take me a while to sort thru it all.

I wanted this collection of near junk for the 4 probes with PL-259 connectors to use with the Type CA plug-in. Turns out there's three 10X P6000 probes and one 10X P6017 probe. I did a quick test and one of the P6000 probes is apparently dead and open. No big deal. Will try to fix and if not hopefully the coax/PL-259 section is OK and can cobble together a 1X probe. 

The other 3 probes with BNC's are two 10X P6060 probes and one 10X P6006 probe. Haven't given them a quick test yet.

All this for about $11 USD plus tax/shipping. 

That's quite the haul, med. Looking forward to learning about all the little doodads (at least I don't recognize all the attachments, adapters, and whatnot in there).

[bitseeker]

It's a good point. The reason we invaded everyone is our food is shit and we were trying to get away from it. If it was any good we'd have stayed at home.

Our commercial restaurant food was crap. The good stuff at home wasn't The commercial restaurant food since the 80s was much better.

Of course you have to keep your wits about you. Too many chains are like bog standard American food: large, eye candy, flavourless without addition of salt fat and sugar.

If you think I hold American cooking in high esteem I don't. Our cooking consists of a jar of corn syrup and fat.

Aw, med, it's not that bad. We do make good use of all four (junk) food groups: salt, sugar, fat and cholesterol. We can even get them all into a single "food" item.

[beanflying]

When MuckD's et al get called 'Restaurants' you have a problem with defining 'food'

[bitseeker]

Yes, that's why I've advanced to using double quotes.