Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[factory]

Anyone in need of a small portable mains step-down (or step-up) transformer for imported TEA? 
HP 9100-4062, 120V 41A output, eBay auction: #264923722593, no more.   


David

[bd139]

That's about the same size as the variac I had inclusive of the isolation transformer next to it. I don't own it now and have my shoe cupboard back 

[factory]

I think there is one of those barely movable 20A variacs at work, the three phase oil filled one is long gone though.

David

[med6753]

Is that actual matte grey, or are you doing it street-rodder style and stopping with the primer...?    If the latter... I've learnt the hard way that it really IS worth the time to give 'er a couple coats of satin clear acrylic.

The first dirty fingerprint you can't get off drives that point home, every. fucking. time.   

mnem
One of those gifts that just keeps on giving...

It's the former...actual matte gray. It's a finish coat and washable so a clear coat isn't necessary. 

[med6753]

The 310 fan base chassis has been cleaned up and repainted. Decided to go with a matte gray finish. Going to let it sit for 24 hours before reassembly.

Looks great. How do you clean out rust? Any tips?

A drill mounted wire wheel. No chemicals. Followed by a plain water rinse and then dry with a blow dryer in addition to time in natural sunlight.

[mnementh]

I think there is one of those barely movable 20A variacs at work, the three phase oil filled one is long gone though.

David

Yeah, there was a 3PH one at ESI when I went the other day with 25CPS. It was about the size of a medium ice chest. I tried to take a few pics, but the residual Somebody Else's Problem Field still emanating from it made my Pwn refuse to focus on it. Like ever. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Perhaps there aren't that many Americans who can count left? 

Edit: in no way am I suggesting we're any better here. We're not far off rural Alabama in some places.

The ones that can't count are also the ones who breed and have 10 kids. We are fucked. 

This has already been documented in a film:
https://archive.org/details/idiocracy_202005       

Brilliant film  "If you have a bucket that holds 2 gallons and another bucket that holds 5 gallons, how many barrels do you have?" 

Depends on whether they are US or imperial gallons.

@med6753: Even your grey looks blue!

McBryce.

See my later post, I screwed the quote up and altered the question and thus lost the impact and the punchline of the line in the film, it is not how many barrels do you have, it should be how many buckets 

But in all honesty... the way you said it makes about as much sense as politics today, so...    

mnem
"If you leave on a northbound train traveling at 40MPH... and Senator ArseMonkey leaves on a southbound train traveling at 60MPH... how many Oreo cookies before the second coming of Lord 'elpus...?"

You need to watch the film to get the joke...

Oh, I have, a couple times. I assumed you were just taking the gag to its illogical extreme... as you are oft wont to do. 

mnem
I was pretty baked both times tho...

[mnementh]

The 310 fan base chassis has been cleaned up and repainted. Decided to go with a matte gray finish. Going to let it sit for 24 hours before reassembly.

Looks great. How do you clean out rust? Any tips?

A drill mounted wire wheel. No chemicals. Followed by a plain water rinse and then dry with a blow dryer in addition to time in natural sunlight.

Good on ye fer doin' it the hard way. And using actual paint. 

mnem
"Let 'im dewitt tha 'ard way... builds character." ~grand-dad

[mnementh]

Urrrk. I just plopped down ~CAD$600 and have begun on a 3-6 day project doing something I swore I'd never do again: building a steel storage shed kit.     Who wants to take bets on whether having the help of my 12-yr-old now teenage son makes it an adventure or something akin to a week of root canal? 

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

Yikes, have fun. The steel sheds are a freakin' nightmare. Been there. But I did assemble a plastic one for a friend and that wasn't too bad. Was more like getting a cavity filled rather than a root canal. 

So... after 2 months delay recovering from doing the Humpty-Bump Shuffle down the stairs... I've finally gotten back to work on this project. And first day, the damned thing did extract its pound of flesh, so I guess for good or ill I now own it. 

I did get to the point where the instructions tell you to "Stop here unless you have all day to finish it..." (anybody who's built one of these knows where that is) today; I have all the beams and braces built & the base frame built and assembled on the ground. Tomorrow will be fun; then will begin the real father-son building it together experience.

But it was fun watching him bag up all the leaves between rounds of helping me assemble parts; he was a bit unwieldy with the leaf blower, but did eventually start doing it the way I showed him after like 6 demonstrations.  He got the entire back yard (like 6 of the ginormous paper bags packed tight, done my way) in one afternoon with his sister helping; they actually did pretty well at the whole "working together" thing. Very proud of 'em both. 

mnem
*toddles off to find somethin' ta munch on*

[BU508A]

[sacrifices some blood and flesh of his own to the TEA god]
*toddles off to find somethin' ta munch on*

 

[bd139]

Now the germans know how to do sweets.

My daughter brought me this back from Austria a couple of years back, completely missing the "fur madchen" bit  . Thinkpad for size:

[Cerebus]

Now the germans know how to do sweets.

My daughter brought me this back from Austria a couple of years back, completely missing the "fur madchen" bit  . Thinkpad for size:

Or she was thinking of you in your My Little Pony outfit. 

[mnementh]

  even comes in one that big... a radio control Ferrari or summat...?

mnem

[bd139]

Can't remember to be honest. some plastic shit.

The egg inside was huge though. I still have it somewhere. Will be used as an enclosure for something. Or as when I was a teenager, something that explodes

Or she was thinking of you in your My Little Pony outfit. 

[Cerebus]

If you look at the classic "Smalltalk: Bits of History Words of Advice", you will see a chapter devoted to Smalltalk on the iAPX432, which is not far off a capability machine.

If you look at the Burroughs computers (which have similar security guarantees), you will find a lot of their security rests on being forbidden from executing a program that wasn't created using the golden system tools.

If you're interested in capability architectures there are copies of "The Cambridge CAP Computer and Its Operating System" by Wilkes and Needham, and "Capability-Based Computer Systems" by Henry M. Levy (both out of print) floating about on the net. Both are worth reading, the CAP book goes into the architecture in detail, the Levy is a survey of several machines. I've had the first in hardback since soon after it was published (and the hooky-ish download), the latter only in pdf.

Folks at Cambridge associated with Ross (Anderson) are currently trying to revive capability architectures in collaboration with SRI and ARM with a project called CHERI. I took at look at this early in its life and wasn't wildly enthusiastic at the time but it had some merit. I've been meaning to revisit it to see how it's come on, and with plans for ARM to have a prototype available next year it's probably about the right time to do so.

[mnementh]

@bd139:  *clop-clop*

mnem
 

[bd139]

 

PSA: don't install Windows 10 20H2. They fucking broke alt-tab. Even if you turn off the edge integration it's broken. FML. Sometimes you alt-tab and it skips three windows, sometimes two.

Fix here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/jixna0/windows_10_20h2_broke_alt_tab/gapan5n/

[Cerebus]

PSA: don't install Windows 10 20H2. They fucking broke alt-tab.

How to fuck do you do that and still release it? That just beggars belief. I mean, surely a few hundred people sit down and use it for a bit before it goes out? Just, just, how did they not catch this?

Gobsmacked...

[mnementh]

We're talkin' aboot Microsoft, man... they could fuck up a wet dream.

mnem
*toddling off to ded*

[Specmaster]

Well that clearly shows that not everyone uses Alt Tab combination, I rarely use it myself 

[bd139]

How else do you hide the ponies quickly when the family come in? 

Parts arriving for scope bouncing ball today. I’m adjusting the output range so that it only requires 2x 9v batteries as a lot of people don’t have two power supplies. Fortunately that’s only changing some of the component values rather than the design.

[tautech]

Talking of ponies....mine's busted.....well it's 'ers actually and took a few days to find just where the coolant leak was coming from.....f'ing plastic tanked radiators ! 

New aftermarket one sourced today and fitted tonight with just a block flush required in the morning before hoses back on and fill with new coolant. Once I enjoyed this stuff but not so much anymore. 

Still, nearly 20 years outta the original in a Commodore VXII is not too bad for an alloy and plastic POS.

[tggzzz]

If you look at the classic "Smalltalk: Bits of History Words of Advice", you will see a chapter devoted to Smalltalk on the iAPX432, which is not far off a capability machine.

If you look at the Burroughs computers (which have similar security guarantees), you will find a lot of their security rests on being forbidden from executing a program that wasn't created using the golden system tools.

If you're interested in capability architectures there are copies of "The Cambridge CAP Computer and Its Operating System" by Wilkes and Needham, and "Capability-Based Computer Systems" by Henry M. Levy (both out of print) floating about on the net. Both are worth reading, the CAP book goes into the architecture in detail, the Levy is a survey of several machines. I've had the first in hardback since soon after it was published (and the hooky-ish download), the latter only in pdf.

Folks at Cambridge associated with Ross (Anderson) are currently trying to revive capability architectures in collaboration with SRI and ARM with a project called CHERI. I took at look at this early in its life and wasn't wildly enthusiastic at the time but it had some merit. I've been meaning to revisit it to see how it's come on, and with plans for ARM to have a prototype available next year it's probably about the right time to do so.

I'm aware of them, but their potential benefits have never been relevant to me. The academics will, rightly and valuably, push as hard as they can to see what can/cannot be achieved - without worrying about practicality.

The nearest practical alternative I've come across is Joanna Rutkowska's Qubes-OS. I'd have installed it on my new machine, but unfortunately it won't use Nvidia cards - it won't trust binary blobs.

[VK5RC]

Those Commodores VX II were made in my 'home town' - stone age motors tricked up to the 21st century, but they only changed the design if they had to - so pretty reliable and mostly serviceable with a 6 inch shifter!
The factory was shut down - put a poor area of town into a disaster really.
They made some crazy 5+L V8 'SS' variants that could spin rear tyres (tires) all day!
FYI was the home town suburb of Jimmy Barnes the rock singer of Cold Chisel ie Working Class Man https://youtu.be/erSJGrpfnOI

[tautech]

Those Commodores VX II were made in my 'home town' - stone age motors tricked up to the 21st century, but they only changed the design if they had to - so pretty reliable and mostly serviceable with a 6 inch shifter!
The factory was shut down - put a poor area of town into a disaster really.
They made some crazy 5+L V8 'SS' variants that could spin rear tyres (tires) all day!
FYI was the home town suburb of Jimmy Barnes the rock singer of Cold Chisel ie Working Class Man https://youtu.be/erSJGrpfnOI

Yeah it was a big deal when they got the Monaro contract, BTW did you see the episode when Jeremy Clarkson put one through its paces and rated it as the most affordable supercar ?
Sad they are no more. 

Edit to add
https://www.topgear.com/videos/top-gear-tv/monaro-vs-300c-vs-s-type-r-part-22-series-5-episode-1