totm nov 2023 Thread to discuss negative things in a very general way, just see where it goes y'know?

[Shpaget]

18 minutes ago, richfiles said:

Or a bad anything else..

That made me laugh.

The problems I face at work are numerous and all equally frustrating.

One is the software that runs the layout (I work at a model train museum thing). It runs mostly fine, but if there's a problem with trains that needs manual override in software, there is a roulette table somewhere that if the ball lands on a 00, you get a total system failure where the software forgets where each train is. Hunting down the location of all the trains (150+) manually takes about an hour, which is a bit of an issue if you have customers asking you is it done yet every few minutes. Luckily I usually don't have to deal with this since I moved to R&D, but yesterday was an exception. We were a bit short staffed so I had to jump in and help it have fixed before the announced group of kids arrived. Of course they arrived half an hour early.

The other problem, which is more closely related to my responsibilities is the laser trip wire alarm system for the layout. Kids like to touch and we don't like them touching. The configuration of this particular segment that needs protection requires some 40 laser lines. They are not actually lasers, since lasers and kid's eyes don't play well. They are IR LEDs modulated at 38 KHz and the approach worked fine on a 7 meter stretch on another part of the layout. On this particular stretch I can't get 1.5 m to operate properly, using same techniques same LEDs and very similar receivers.

Of course, I'm no electronics engineer, so it's entirely possible that I'm doing something stupid.

Edited May 17, 2019 by Shpaget

[Lisias]

2 hours ago, Shpaget said:

They are IR LEDs modulated at 38 KHz and the approach worked fine on a 7 meter stretch on another part of the layout. On this particular stretch I can't get 1.5 m to operate properly, using same techniques same LEDs and very similar receivers.

Of course, I'm no electronics engineer, so it's entirely possible that I'm doing something stupid.

Check for rogue IR sources. Mobile cameras are great for this task. Also protect the circuit from sunlight - there's a lot of IR on sunlight, and glass doesn't block most of them.

[Shpaget]

Both testing and deployment site is not exposed to sunlight. LED roomlights shouldn't produce much IR, but the kicker is that the previous system works fine just a few meters away in the same room. The functionality I get is marginal, but on the good side of margin, so I might just deploy and fix later if needed.

[Fraston]

I swear, if somehow my final exam in one of my classes with a lower grade than the others gets a low grade, then I may just scorch earth and turn sandstone into glass in a huge conflagration of hatred. My school district decided on a whim (that I will loathe and detest for the rest of my school years and beyond) to make [not telling you what grade it is because I will not ever trust anyone here with my personal information, since catfishing (telling someone you are a 14 year old girl when you really are a stalker of a 40 year old man) exists]th grade brutally, ridiculously, disproportionally, and absolutely necessarily difficult. (I can go on with all the powerfully foul and negative adjectives in the dictionary, in every language, if you so choose, yet it still will not come even close to showing how hideously tyrannical this grade is.) If I must have my very long (compared to last year) and well deserved summer have even one day missing from it I will be in a foul mood. If 20 days, for summer school (the kraken almighty horror)which will last until mid-June, is missing then I will consider it a needless and cruel waste of my time, parents and friends time, and $190+ of accumulated birthday money that the grubby, greedy (and unworthy of basic needs) hands of the school district do not even deserve to be within 500 miles of, let alone be ever holding it and their equally undeserving hosts sneering and snickering that they get to destroy precious time of one’s life.

[StrandedonEarth]

5 hours ago, Fraston said:

I swear, (snip)

In summation, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their armpits!

[Spacescifi]

On 4/10/2019 at 5:19 PM, DAL59 said:

As a site note, I'd like to thank the mods and admins for making this forum much better than most of the internet

 

Me too. There are site forums were cursing, bullying and insults are allowed, and instead of banning such members, they only receive at best a warning. Meanwhile other posters are either banned or their posts erased if the mods disagree with whatever they said even if if it was misunderstood to begin with and the poster already explained him/herself.

I also like that KSP is not a haven for cyber-bullies nor people that worship superheroes and scifi and literally rage about who can defeat what fictional faction. Much ado about nothing really.

Also I like that on KSP every single post does not have curse words for no necessary reason, as some forums tolerate. Hope the zero tolerance stays, and the moment it changes I will leave.

 

Thank you kerbal staff. What sets you apart makes you bstter than the rest.

Edited May 19, 2019 by Spacescifi

[richfiles]

So, I recently replaced my old iPod Mini's battery with a new one, as well as upgraded it's storage to 128 GB (Originally, it was a 6 GB hard drive, then I upgraded it to 16 GB flash the last time I replaced the battery). Anyway, getting inside an iPod Mini isn't too hard. Pull the two plastic endocaps off, take out a couple screws and a retainer clip, unplug the click wheel, and it slides right out. The battery plugs into a socket on the board, and the hard drive used a standard IDE over CF-Type II connector... That's why Compact Flash and SD-to-CF converters work in the iPod Mini. It's honestly one of the nicest iPods ever, in terms of service and upgradability. I also had an 8 GB second generation iPod Nano, years back, but the cat broke it in half. it too was rather easy to disassemble. Like the Mini, but just smaller.

So, I mention to my boss at the machine shop about how I'd upgraded and replaced the battery on my iPod, and he mentions his old Nano, and asks if I'd be willing to replace the battery on his. I say sure, it'll be easy! Oho boy... 

What I did not know, is by the time the fifth generation iPod Nano had been released, Apple was will into their attitude of don't fix it, replace it, and we're gonna help make you not WANT to bother fixing it! I am going to break down the... unique... methods that Apple used to make any service on this iPod a huge pain in the aft end... 

Like the iPod Mini, you start by prying off the two plastic endcaps, which are both glued down by adhesive tape. This is identical to the Mini. So far so good...
There is no retainer clip, but in it's place, there are now 5 screws, more than the Mini. Let me detail these screws though...

• All 5 screws are a size 00 Philips *(I previously thought these were Tri-Wing... They actually are not, but are tiny, and gummed with adhesive)
• 4 of the screws go in at a 30° angle
• There are three DIFFERENT sizes of screws
• The screws strip so incredibly easily... Which means the tools to remove them tend to be unhardened... You can ruin a screwdriver on each repair!
• Why...

So, once you get these screws out, you try and slide the board out, and it doesn't budge... You can loosen two more screws to remove the top retainer by separating the hold switch from the retainer. That's another two screws, but that part wasn't difficult. But no... something was holding the board in place, so I went online and looked... Wow...

• Rather than bond the glass screen window onto the case, they bond it to the LCD itself. It's necessary to pull the glass off and clean up the adhesive, in order for the LCD to slide out.
• You must pop out the click wheel and unplug the flex cable under it, pushing the click wheel up from inside the unit... Which is full of parts... in order to remove said parts... 
• You must remove the camera bezel... *drumroll* because they hid a locking pin behind it that interlocks the board and case, preventing the board from being able to slide out of the case!

Really Apple... 

So yeah, that was very fun... Also, since the adhesive was on the LCD, sliding the unit out of the case has smeared adhesive residue all over the LCD itself. Fun times... Ah, but the fun times don't end here... The battery in the unit is a piddly 0.91Whr, or about 245mAh (for comparison, my iPod Mini now has a 1300mAh battery, and I think the original was around 900mAh). I know battery technology tends to advance gradually over the years, so I spent extra time searching for the highest capacity replacement battery I could find. Most were rated at either the stock 245mAh, and a few I saw from China were rated even lower! Yikes! I did find one supplier listing a battery that was rated at 300mAh, at double the cost ($16 vs $8), and thought this is the route I wanna go...

That battery arrived today, and the label is identical to the stock label, showing it's capacity at 0.91Whr (245mAh)! I was cheated! 

I've contacted the seller, and requested an explanation for receiving a battery with stock ratings. Now I wait... Frustratedly...
*and looking over the description, I see the claim IN TEXT, is that it is a 350mAh battery! Ugh!!! The text claims an even higher rating than the photo, and neither are remotely accurate! Dang, if I'd caught that, it might have been a red flag... Time to send a second message, asking now why it wasn't a 350mAh battery, and asking why the listing is so absolutely brokenly inaccurate... Ugh... 

Edited May 29, 2019 by richfiles

[richfiles]

And update... Since sending that message (at 12:45 pm), Apparently I now get this when trying to contact that seller an hour later...

"We're sorry we couldn't find an answer for you. Unfortunately this seller is not able to respond to your question. We suggest reviewing the item again to see if your answer is in the seller's listing."

I... I think they blocked me... 
WELP! Time to escalate to a claim! I tried to be nice and resolve this with polite questions... Now I'll have PayPal and Ebay go to bat for me. 

[guesswho2778]

On 4/11/2019 at 8:15 PM, Shpaget said:

The nest is high up on top of an AC unit in a hard to reach spot and I don't feel like climbing all the way there and possibly dealing with angry parents.

im probably a bit late but DO NOT get pigeon spikes, on windy days they can fall down... ive nearly been impaled by one recently i nearly s**t my pants when i saw it land less then arm length away spiky side down

Edited May 21, 2019 by guesswho2778

[Geonovast]

This is like the third night in a row we're having to sit through a long string of flood warnings and tornado watches/warnings.

I've not got much sleep, and I've found that wrangling 5 cats into one room in the basement against their will is not an easy task.  I need to build them some kind of reinforced containment unit down there.

[Nuke]

5 hours ago, Geonovast said:

This is like the third night in a row we're having to sit through a long string of flood warnings and tornado watches/warnings.

I've not got much sleep, and I've found that wrangling 5 cats into one room in the basement against their will is not an easy task.  I need to build them some kind of reinforced containment unit down there.

go to basement with a bag of cat treats. shake. when they all show up dump em out and run for the door before one of them gets bored. though i question the logic of putting cats in a basement during a flood warning. 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Nuke

[Geonovast]

4 hours ago, Nuke said:

go to basement with a bag of cat treats. shake. when they all show up dump em out and run for the door before one of them gets bored. though i question the logic of putting cats in a basement during a flood warning. 

That might work, but my cats all hate each other, and they're too freaked out during a storm to care about treats.

I live on the side of a hill, so my basement isn't truly a basement.  It's a walk-out, so only about half of the basement is actually underground.  Plus, between a flood warning and the chance of a tornado, I think I would prefer them getting their paws a little wet to learning to fly.  The laundry room is the safest place in the house during a tornado.  I need to get something like this down there, but a lot smaller.

[Shpaget]

Just how many cats do you have?

[SuperMiiBrother]

Today I got cut by glass.

On a sadder note, A few months ago back on February 20th my dad had a heart attack...He didn' make it.

My life has done multiple 360s and I don't know whats next.

[richfiles]

I'm sorry to hear that. 
What's next? Who knows?
All a person can do is move forward one step at a time.
Live life from moment to moment and keep on taking steps till you find or make your path again.

[IncongruousGoat]

Oh boy. So, I (very) recently moved from the East Coast to the West Coast. My original plan was to simply load all of my stuff into my car (2002 Subaru Legacy) and start driving west, with a friend along to help share the load of dealing with how mind-numbingly boring Minnesota is. For the first 2 days, everything seemed to be going all right, but on the third day we ran into some snow in the Black Hills, had some hard driving, and had the brake light come on on the car's dashboard. Now, I didn't think anything of it at the time, assuming that the sensor that detected whether the parking brake was engaged was broken. However, as we drove across Wyoming, we noticed the brake pedal becoming increasingly spongy. When we finally pulled into Jackson, WY for the night, you needed to push the pedal nearly all the way down to get any meaningful deceleration. We decided to take it to a mechanic in the morning, get it fixed, and keep on driving.

It wasn't fixable. Two mechanics and a lot of tense waiting later, we found out what had gone wrong. The right rear brake line had rusted through and was leaking brake fluid everywhere. Now, normally this wouldn't be so bad to fix, but on this particular car the right rear brake line ran above the gas tank. This was a problem because removing the gas tank would require taking apart most of the underside of the car, which wasn't possible due to the sheer amount of rust damage.The car was technically drivable, but it wasn't anything that either of us wanted to take on the highway. Thankfully, there's a U-Haul rental place in Jackson. We rented a truck and trailer and hauled the car (and my stuff) the rest of the way to Seattle, where I (very, very carefully) drove the car the 6 miles from the U-Haul dropoff point to the Airbnb in Redmond where I'm currently staying.

So now I'm stuck here in Redmond without a working car, 2 miles one way from the city center (where all the grocery stores are), and in a neighborhood where the bus only runs once every hour. And I won't be getting a replacement for this car for 3 weeks, because of reasons. Yaaaaay.

[cubinator]

4 hours ago, IncongruousGoat said:

to help share the load of dealing with how mind-numbingly boring Minnesota is

Hey! We're not just corn fields you know! 

[Superfluous J]

36 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Hey! We're not just corn fields you know! 

Yeah when I did the drive the other way Minnesota was a relief after the Nebrakotas.

[Guest]

On 5/20/2019 at 3:46 PM, richfiles said:

[huge post about apple]

You might want to check out Louis Rossmann on YouTube. He's pretty much THE guy when it comes to apple-related repairs, he supplies parts, has videos detailing even board level repair, and he's a realist (a.k.a. absolutely despises apple, but rationally so)

The guy even gives life advice sometimes, he's great to listen to on background whenever you're doing something. I don't even own any Apple product yet find myself watching or listening to a board repair video every once in a while.

6 hours ago, IncongruousGoat said:

[previously unknown damage suddenly shows its symptoms during road trip]

Note to self (and others), inspect the vehicle before taking roadtrips - good for your wallet, good for our safety

Edited May 27, 2019 by Guest

[IncongruousGoat]

15 hours ago, Aperture Science said:

Note to self (and others), inspect the vehicle before taking roadtrips - good for your wallet, good for our safety

That's the thing, though - I'd had the vehicle inspected a few weeks prior. I guess my mechanic didn't think the rust damage was bad enough to warrant mentioning. Either that, or he just did a bad job of it.

 

[Guest]

13 hours ago, IncongruousGoat said:

That's the thing, though - I'd had the vehicle inspected a few weeks prior. I guess my mechanic didn't think the rust damage was bad enough to warrant mentioning. Either that, or he just did a bad job of it.

 

That's kinda worrying, because I'm pretty sure you need a lot of rust in order to eat through a brake line. Who knows why it wasn't addressed. Thankfully the poor braking didn't end up badly, not driving until it was fixed was the right thing to do.

[Flibble]

My cats have destroyed the dining room carpet, through a combination of claws and using it as a toilet (despite having no less than 5 litter trays).

Oh well, we didn't really like it anyway.

[Superfluous J]

Rocket League over the HDMI cable has a ... I'm going to guess about 1/20 - 1/50th of a second delay. Almost unnoticeable when you watch the screen of my laptop and the TV at the same time.

But it has totally borked my ability to play. It's crazy how much that short amount of delay screws me up. What's worse, near the end I started to get used to it and now I'm all worried that I'm ruining my ability to play without an HDMI cable.

(Yeah not as bad as most problems but hey I'll take what I can get)

[Flibble]

It's probably not the HDMI cable so much as the TV itself. Your TV probably has more image processing lag than the laptop (which would make sense as the laptop has essentially a fixed input). Signal delay over HDMI is on the order of nanoseconds.

[Geonovast]

A lof of TVs have that kind of a lag.  If it has a gaming mode, it should help with that.