Off-Topic / Dumping Thread

[DavidC]

I could go off, but  I wont.  I like this place and I dont wanna get banned.  

[digdugnate]

You guys will get a kick out of this- I stumbled across this below.  This is from the June 1989 73 magazine:

 

 

I haven't thought about that in a long long time! My Extra call sign ended up being AA5KP.  My dad is still pretty active but I haven't done ham stuff since I was a teen.

[Omega-TI]

10 hours ago, DavidC said:

I could go off, but  I wont.  I like this place and I dont wanna get banned.  

 

Eh no biggie.  We are all only human after all, misunderstandings happen and we move on.  In these COVID-19 times, we don't worry about being banned, only bandannas.

 

 

[senior_falcon]

My son and his wife are expecting their first child in September. They requested that I build them a baby changing table/dresser. So I have been busy with that instead of retrocomputing. Below are pictures of the result. Now I can get back to working on XB 2.8 G.E.M.

[+9640News]

AT&T just left after spending about 2 hours working on my internet line.  I've had way too many loss of connectivity issues which seemed to be more of a problem in the morning than in the evening.

 

The tech discovered the line had 24Volts on it when it should not have that was being fed from an exposed battery system and an uninsulated line.  

 

Hopefully, connection will be better now.

Beery

 

[+FarmerPotato]

1 hour ago, senior_falcon said:

My son and his wife are expecting their first child in September. They requested that I build them a baby changing table/dresser. So I have been busy with that instead of retrocomputing. Below are pictures of the result. Now I can get back to working on XB 2.8 G.E.M.

Wow, that is a fine-looking piece of furniture you made. I really admire it.

The changing area on top, is that a separate piece?

[+OLD CS1]

@senior_falcon Quite professional looking. Very nice, indeed!

 

@BeeryMiller You are lucky to have that good of a tech visit you.  Some of these numpties could not find their ass in a windstorm.

[Tursi]

5 hours ago, senior_falcon said:

My son and his wife are expecting their first child in September. They requested that I build them a baby changing table/dresser. So I have been busy with that instead of retrocomputing. Below are pictures of the result. Now I can get back to working on XB 2.8 G.E.M.

That is some fantastic carpentry, nice work!!

[senior_falcon]

1 hour ago, Tursi said:

That is some fantastic carpentry, nice work!!

Thanks! You'll be happy to know that my table saw is a General 350, made in Canada in Drummondville, Quebec. Sadly, all the great companies like General, Powermatic, Delta, etc. now make their products offshore.

[DavidC]

@senior_falcon, Man you have skills!  Very nice, they will be over the moon with that cabinet. It is absolutely beautiful!  Now, get back to work on that GEM you have been teasing us with...hahaha...please...Sir. 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Today I made my first-ever instant messaging + screen sharing mistake.

 

I finished working around 2am this morning just as the massive thunderstorms rolled in, keeping me awake with nonstop lightning and thunder.  Finally got to sleep around 4:30 and woke up a few hours later. Made it to the afternoon feeling ok but then joined a conference call session with 10+ other people.  Halfway through I was asked to share my screen and walk through a document.  Well, the conversation droned on for a few minutes after I was done with my part.  however, i never stopped sharing my screen. Probably because I had my head in my hands wondering if the meeting would ever end.

 

Anyway, I brought up instant messaging to send a quick note to a colleague about how if the decision was mine, I would take certain action.  Nothing bad but to those watching might have been seen as a slight against one or two people when  taken out of context.  The recipient realized what I was doing and took ownership of the screen sharing... alas... only to display my same instant message in a 3x larger window.   I took myself off of mute and called attention to the window, figuring I had better face this head-on instead of hoping it goes away.  I felt pretty out of sorts after that meeting ended, and consumed a while pint of Blue Bell brand ice cream as consolation.

 

I've made it nearly 25 years across multiple roles without doing that - and have even chuckled when others have made that bone-headed mistake.  Tonight I hope to get to sleep early.... 

 

[+9640News]

At work over a year ago, we had two HP Color LaserJet 550N printers with dual trays die within about a month of one another.  Each printer with the extra tray weighs about 140 lbs apiece.  Our local IT person, and our corporate IT person, took multiple turns at trying to fix without luck.  Each printer has a black, red, yellow, and blue toner cartridge.  After corporate replaced the printers, I got permission to take possession of the two printers to see if I could get one working from the two.

 

I had to buy a pretty large dolly and get assistance  to unload the printers and get them down to my basement office.  Well, about 3 months later, I finally had time today to see what I could do after getting the service manual for the printers.  The printers had a D-shaped USB plug and a network interface for the printers. 

The first printer I plugged in, it booted up without errors, so I plugged it into my laptop.  It printed a test page without issue, perfect, right off the bat.  I couldn't be more happy and the toner cartridges on average were about 65% capacity.

 

Now, the other printer had some errors, and I know the drum on it was smearing things.  I'll probably only be able to use it for parts.  I can only guess all the extra bouncing going down the interstate in the back of my pickup must have done something special to it the day I brought it in.

Beery

 

[+OLD CS1]

I lost a customer due to an "open mic" situation.  I had a customer who I was trying to get migrated off Small Business Server 2003 to 2011 (tells you how long ago this was.)  However, the accountant was petrified by the notion she could lose data during the migration, irrespective of how many times I went through the process with her, highlighting the multiple points at which backups were made, and how the entire system could be restored back to its original state if things went horribly bad.

 

This was a good customer, someone I had for almost a decade.  I was friendly and had a close relationship with everyone there.  That tends to lead to two things: a familiarity and comfort which allows you to let your guard down, and a personal catalogue of everyone's strengths and faults.  One must be careful in such a situation.

 

The migration had been scheduled and delayed numerous times because of various accounting stuff.  This audit, that audit, payroll, end-of-month, reconciliation, etc.  But at this point a non-removable Windows security update had broken the network drivers between Server 2003 and Hyper-V 2008R2.  I tried all the fixes but it still kept locking up so we were forced to schedule the migration for the upcoming weekend.

 

Except while I was out in the heat installing a wireless system for a local fraternity, sweaty, tired from having worked up until wee hours trying to fix the server, I get a phone call.  I grab my earpiece hanging on its lanyard and put it in my ear; it is the accountant calling.  She is freaking out about the lock-ups, scared we will lose date, but nonetheless wants to push the migration off for another two weeks.  I explain this is the only way I can guarantee we will not have problems, that we have been putting it off for over six months, and our borrowed time has expired.  No, it must be put off, and you have to do something about the server network locking up.  The boss has (strangely out of character) approved this message.

 

Fine, but you will have problems, I cannot make any promises, I cannot be held responsible, I am not going to monitor the server 24/7 unless they pay for it because I am leaving next week to visit family, etc.  I understand, thank you, she says.

 

In one movement I press the call button on my earpiece, remove it from my ear, and drop it to hang from the lanyard at my chest, again.  My colleague working with me asked me about what he heard and in my tired and aggravated state I let loose.  This particular colleague is someone I had known for several years, helped him when he first got started, someone I with whom I often speak candidly.  It took me a good two minutes or so to realize that I had missed the call button.

 

It was the following week I knew for certain my candid outlay of aggravation had been heard.  In just two minutes I had made several professional faux pas and broken the trust of someone who was actually important to me, beyond just a customer.  The details are unimportant, so suffice to say a few phone calls back and forth and I had lost them as a customer.

 

In hind sight, I should have gotten ahead of it.  Should have called the boss on her cell phone and explained, apologized, done something.  This was a hard lesson.  A mistake I had never made before.  Certainly one I would never, at least at the time of this post, make again.

 

Words are powerful tools.  Even more powerful Devastating when misused.

[DavidC]

Words are powerful tools.  Even more powerful when misused.   

 

A harsh lesson, one that will be with you forever.  I cant say I never "f*cked up" when dealing with customers, In my business I deal with all kinds all day. I deal with the upper brass as well, my suppliers and sometime I say the wrong thing at the wrong time.   Sometimes...who am I kidding, all the time.. but...after 40 years, they know me.  Thats just Dave..lol.    But, it still happens, it is human nature to speak your mind.    consider it as..   Lesson learned. 

Edited April 30, 2020 by DavidC
because

[DavidC]

WAYYY of topic i guess but... have any of you heard of this?   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure

 

I guess the guy buried a bunch of stuff and its like a treasure hunt to find it..  maybe its bullshit, maybe its real...I don't know.

[Omega-TI]

8 minutes ago, DavidC said:

WAYYY of topic i guess but..

This is the DUMPING THREAD... what could possibly be off-topic?  Anything goes here except you can't break Albert's rules of AA.

[DavidC]

Haha..cool.. so did ya hear of the Forrest Fenn Treasure?? Inquiring minds want to know...I think the geniuses on here could figure this out pretty quick..if so inclined.. 

[HOME AUTOMATION]

I spy something...

 

 

...TI!

 

  P.S. Stay Safe!

[xabin]

So, Indiana's governor has started a five-stage plan to gradually reopen the state, with stage 2 (limited reopening of retail and other stores and lifting of nonessential travel blocks) starting on the 4th and continuing for the next 3 weeks. He's hoping to have the state fully open by July 4th, but is having the CDC of the state carefully monitoring every instance of outbreaks to make sure things don't escalate with this gradual opening-up. I must say, he's being rather sensible about this...

[xabin]

Huh, my stimulus check came in much faster than I expected it to. I hope that's a good thing...

[Omega-TI]

12TB for only $220.00!  << at AMAZON >> .  Prices keep going down.  Can you imagine how much this would have cost in 1990?

 

[+OLD CS1]

5 minutes ago, INVISIBLE said:

12TB for only $220.00!  << at AMAZON >> .  Prices keep going down.  Can you imagine how much this would have cost in 1990?

 

I would not trust that for anything critical.  There is no way a 12TB drive is only $220 without cutting some corners.  This smells of those damned Green drives.

[Omega-TI]

2 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

 

I would not trust that for anything critical.  There is no way a 12TB drive is only $220 without cutting some corners.  This smells of those damned Green drives.

I dunno I've been running the 8TB model for about a year now on a Rpi 3B+ with KODI.  Every month or so I plug it up to my PC and load it with more videos, it gets daily use and seems to work fine. 

The feedback is mostly positive as well, enough to make it "Amazons Choice" anyway.

[Tursi]

Since you posted, it dropped to $209.

 

My main concern with the bigger and bigger drives is that all spinning drives WILL die eventually, and the bigger they are, the more they take with them.

 

That is an insane price, though, but there do seem to be a good selection of reviews about failure. Like all things, YMMV. Break it in before you use it seriously.

 

[Omega-TI]

Well since people's worries seem well intentioned and based on real reasons, I'll pick up another matching 8TB model as it'll be for backup anyway.  Thank guys.