YOU SUCK: the venting thread

[WizardOfOZ]

Well, I think you should definitely count your blessings.

There is nothing theoretical about dead or dying electrolytic capacitors in old electronics. We haven't even mentioned Tantalum caps yet...

[ukscone]

Maybe british electronics from the 70s and 80s were just built better as I have a friend who has a stock of camputers lynx's, grundy newbrains, dragon 32's....... from that era that have been stored really poorly, leaking lockup roofs, dust, cold, heat, humidity.... that he hasn't had to fix anything on other than the odd ram chip or unseated eprom or processor.

I will grant you that you are correct in all ways other than empirical observations and that 99.99999% of people shoudl do things your way as it's better to be safe than sorry but i've always been a seat of the pants kind of guy and just wing it. When I worked for an firm of acturys(sp?) (ppl who calculate how long you'll live) many moons ago they sent me on a training course called "The barefoot engineer" where we spent a couple of weeks fixing things with only a screwdriver, ducttape, a hammer, a multimeter and some epoxy. I did quite well on the course and passed with flying colours but probably because it was more how I work using intuition, smell, look, taste and feelings. "if it works don't knock it"

[Luny]

Well thankyou both for such detailed responses. I think I shall take both of your advice.. I'll quickly try the reseating etc, but I wont leave it on for long. Failing that, the caps are large ad obvious so I try that second. 10 years in BT, as a lad gave me a good soldering skill

[ukscone]

Quote from Luny on December 3, 2011, 19:56
Well thankyou both for such detailed responses. I think I shall take both of your advice.. I'll quickly try the reseating etc, but I wont leave it on for long. Failing that, the caps are large ad obvious so I try that second. 10 years in BT, as a lad gave me a good soldering skill


Good luck, hope it works (either idea)

did you keep the archimedes? please say you did and that one day you'd have a go at repairing it or find an expert to give it the once over

[Jongoleur]

Quote from WizardOfOZ on December 3, 2011, 19:23
Well, I think you should definitely count your blessings.

There is nothing theoretical about dead or dying electrolytic capacitors in old electronics. We haven't even mentioned Tantalum caps yet...

Oh I don't know, there's nothing quite like the sizzle and smell of decaying waxed caps in an old valve radio....

[Luny]

Quote from ukscone on December 3, 2011, 20:01

Good luck, hope it works (either idea)

did you keep the archimedes? please say you did and that one day you'd have a go at repairing it or find an expert to give it the once over

Thanks. You'll be pleased to know that I have kept the A3000, I'm a typical hoarder. I've always wanted to learn a bit of electronics. Shouldn't be too hard for me as I undrstand low level coding, however there are a couple of basics I just can't get my head around, but i will. I keep stuff to fiddle around with. I have a digital scope from a previous jobs, so I can watch the lines toggle etc. One day

[riffraff]

Quote from Jongoleur on December 3, 2011, 20:23
Quote from WizardOfOZ on December 3, 2011, 19:23
Well, I think you should definitely count your blessings.

There is nothing theoretical about dead or dying electrolytic capacitors in old electronics. We haven't even mentioned Tantalum caps yet...

Oh I don't know, there's nothing quite like the sizzle and smell of decaying waxed caps in an old valve radio....


... and nothing like the smell of oil smoke, the explosion of ribbons, and getting socked in the eye with the can.

[Jongoleur]

Quote from riffraff on December 3, 2011, 22:27
Quote from Jongoleur on December 3, 2011, 20:23
Quote from WizardOfOZ on December 3, 2011, 19:23
Well, I think you should definitely count your blessings.

There is nothing theoretical about dead or dying electrolytic capacitors in old electronics. We haven't even mentioned Tantalum caps yet...

Oh I don't know, there's nothing quite like the sizzle and smell of decaying waxed caps in an old valve radio....


... and nothing like the smell of oil smoke, the explosion of ribbons, and getting socked in the eye with the can.


Naturally, and that is why good workshop practice is to wear safety specs when cooking old kit. In fact an even better piece of kit when bench-testing old stuff is an infra-red thermometer. Much better than a fingertip (or chocolate...), and you wouldn't want to be touching a big old ally can PSU smoothing condenser in the wild anyway....

[jamesh]

What sucks? Having to spend two hours yesterday trying to get my screen resolution back after a Ubuntu kernel upgrade. Nothing I tried changed anything until I completely removed the Nvidia driver and reinstalled it.

Unfortunately, now the sound has stopped working.

[Wooloomooloo]

Maybe I can put a slightly positive spin on this thread - for once, how something DOESN'T suck... I'm in a love-hate relationship with my MythBuntu box - I can't imagine not having it by now, but past traumas caused by trying to change anything (anything at all) on it when it doesn't quite work have me still running 8.04 LTS in the day and age of the 11.10 Oneiric, for fear of having to start tweaking and fixing everything all over again.

Anyway, occasionally I watch Japanese mkv files on it (possibly with dual audio, since I only ever watch stuff in the original language), at which point mplayer promptly starts up with the English audio and without subtitles usually. Today I got sufficiently annoyed by having to VNC into it every time to try looking for default config options and a config file - I fully expected to give it up disgusted a few days later, but rather amazingly it worked after a mere half hour or so.

Which all goes to show that even Murphy has to sleep every once in a while (now I do fear his revenge though...).

[jamesh]

Quote from jamesh on December 4, 2011, 10:17
What sucks? Having to spend two hours yesterday trying to get my screen resolution back after a Ubuntu kernel upgrade. Nothing I tried changed anything until I completely removed the Nvidia driver and reinstalled it.

Unfortunately, now the sound has stopped working.



Arghh. Found the sound issue. There seems to be a new option in latest Ubutnu kernel called auto-mute. This turns off the speakers if headphones are plugged in (if cards supports it). I had some head phones plugged in without realising - hadn't made any difference on previous kernel - speakers still worked even if plugged in. So as soon as the automute kernel was installed, sounds stopped.

alsamixer is your friend with sound issues (and the whole display scrolls rights if you are missing options)

[Wooloomooloo]

Quote from jamesh on December 4, 2011, 22:21
Quote from jamesh on December 4, 2011, 10:17
What sucks? Having to spend two hours yesterday trying to get my screen resolution back after a Ubuntu kernel upgrade. Nothing I tried changed anything until I completely removed the Nvidia driver and reinstalled it.

Unfortunately, now the sound has stopped working.



Arghh. Found the sound issue. There seems to be a new option in latest Ubutnu kernel called auto-mute. This turns off the speakers if headphones are plugged in (if cards supports it). I had some head phones plugged in without realising - hadn't made any difference on previous kernel - speakers still worked even if plugged in. So as soon as the automute kernel was installed, sounds stopped.

alsamixer is your friend with sound issues (and the whole display scrolls rights if you are missing options)


Tell me about it... I still have to manually adjust my mixer every time I reboot my Myth box unless I care the hear the live input being recorded - gave up long ago on fixing that one. Glad to hear you got it fixed though.

[ProDigit]

Try living in a neighborhood where everyone speaks another language than the official language, and no one does even the slightest effort to integrate, and help you understand them!
Alienating whole races, taking dominion over territories.

Or what about cars driving like crazy dangerous motherfo*'s with sub 25 years of age rats thinking they're da *N*-er in the hood, because they actually bought a car with chrome stickers on the wheels?
Or what about the whole neighborhood has 4 or 5 people regularly pumping their crappy radio's so loud you can't sleep during the day (because you're actually one of the few who actually works; and works at night that is)?
Then there's the vegetable man, who makes a living grabbing his vegetables out of the local supermarket's trashbin, and sells it on the street for a buck, honking his car like he just came from [[some undeveloped country]] and has the world's best to offer (also waking you up usually in 3 to 4 hours within your sleep with his most annoying rooster honk)?

To all you idiots, who drive like nuts in our cities, where some have already been killed because they bought a motorbike and thought they where superman on it, you suck!
You suck stup1d m*f* A-Z holes, who think you're the man with your plastic toy guns, thinking you're cool because you don't wanna work and therefor rob honest people's business!
To all you who make the streets unsafe, and are a problem to our society! YOU SUCK!
GET your Azz-s back to where you belong!

I have enough of living here! I want to leave to a place where I'm surrounded by trees, birds, water, landscape, and perhaps technology like computers or so to keep the bore off of it!

You suck!

AND I F*cking suck because I haven't yet won the lottery, and moved far away from here!
Please God, bring me to a place where people stop tormenting each other, and can leave each other at peace!
Thank you!

[Josh]

What sucks? My Laptop at the moment.
No, it hasn't been infected with Vista
First, the right arrow key falls off completely elimintating literally everything I do (typing, gaming - I've had to go back to WASD). Yesterday, the whole CD Drive fell out - a load of screws have just fallen out of the bottom. The case is also coming off. And, it's haad very big heating problems since day one (it manages to reach 100 celcius - I really hope it's a broken sensor and it's reading it wrong). Also, the battery died... I never used it anyway - the usage time with WiFi on was 20 minutes!
I really don't think it will make it to 2012...

[JohnoFon]

Quote from Josh on December 5, 2011, 12:53
What sucks? My Laptop at the moment.
No, it hasn't been infected with Vista
First, the right arrow key falls off completely elimintating literally everything I do (typing, gaming - I've had to go back to WASD). Yesterday, the whole CD Drive fell out - a load of screws have just fallen out of the bottom. The case is also coming off. And, it's haad very big heating problems since day one (it manages to reach 100 celcius - I really hope it's a broken sensor and it's reading it wrong). Also, the battery died... I never used it anyway - the usage time with WiFi on was 20 minutes!
I really don't think it will make it to 2012...

Sounds as if your best option is to gut it and put in a new computer.

Now, where could you get a small Linux-ready computer that could be mounted inside the casing, and not cost too much — say about $25?

[ukscone]

Quote from Josh on December 5, 2011, 12:53
What sucks? My Laptop at the moment.
No, it hasn't been infected with Vista
First, the right arrow key falls off completely elimintating literally everything I do (typing, gaming - I've had to go back to WASD). Yesterday, the whole CD Drive fell out - a load of screws have just fallen out of the bottom. The case is also coming off. And, it's haad very big heating problems since day one (it manages to reach 100 celcius - I really hope it's a broken sensor and it's reading it wrong). Also, the battery died... I never used it anyway - the usage time with WiFi on was 20 minutes!
I really don't think it will make it to 2012...

I feel for you. this laptop has gone weird too. in the last 6 months the dvd burner stopped being recognised by the bios, the usb slots have all gone from being recognised as usb2 and only operate at usb1.1 speeds, the trackpad has stopped working, the fam is on constantly, if i press any of the arrow keys (or any cursor control keys) it's reboots itself, the screen hinges have about 6 inches of play in them so that the lib closes on it's own when anyone walks by and rocks the table, the keyboard goes from either doing multiple characters for one keypress to not working at all...... and worst of all it's an HP so it just sucks because it exists

[Jongoleur]

Quote from Josh on December 5, 2011, 12:53
What sucks? My Laptop at the moment.
No, it hasn't been infected with Vista
First...

Dying laptops DO tend to be particularly sucky beasts.

The keyboard on my craptop (its got Vista (aargh!)) suffers from amnesia and can't remember what a certain column of keys are supposed to do; a laptop that has to use an external keyboard isn't really a laptop any more, its certainly less than portable!

At present, however, its the weather that sucks!

[tumblebomb]

indeed its 2c at the moment here and STILL NO SNOW!! lots of the rest of the country have it. and it sucks that I have a week off work but too many mundane things to do.

[Luny]

Going back to an old post...

Quote from abishur on November 16, 2011, 21:56
A company using their own flavor of VBA sucks! Every time I think I got it fixed, it turns out that they handle that method a little differently than the official VBA code would!

Surely you can shorten that to 'A company that uses VBA, sucks!'
It is amazing to think that a large lump of the worlds IT run on VB. Gods help us!

[liz]

Caffeine addiction sucks. I'm trying to wean myself off, but by about…ooh, now…every day, the headache basically gets so bad I have to give up and make a coffee.

[jamesh]

What REALLY sucks is that I got the bike out of the car ready for my 6 mile trip down the Cambridge guided bus cycle path, it's -2degC (probably), the path's covered in frost and I've forgotten my winter gloves - just got the skimpy summer cycling gloves.

Still, by the time I got to work, I couldn't feel my fingers, so that must be OK then.

Got to cycle back later.

[ukscone]

Quote from liz on December 6, 2011, 12:42
Caffeine addiction sucks. I'm trying to wean myself off, but by about…ooh, now…every day, the headache basically gets so bad I have to give up and make a coffee.

Tell me about it!!!!! I'm back down to 12-20 cups of coffee a day again but getting it any lower is almost impossible this time.

Luckily I am one of those strange people that can drink 3 cups of coffee, put their head on a pillow and be asleep in 30 seconds

I was going to write more but the coffee has brewed so i need to go pour a cup

[ukscone]

Quote from jamesh on December 6, 2011, 13:22
What REALLY sucks is that I got the bike out of the car ready for my 6 mile trip down the Cambridge guided bus cycle path, it's -2degC (probably), the path's covered in frost and I've forgotten my winter gloves - just got the skimpy summer cycling gloves.

Still, by the time I got to work, I couldn't feel my fingers, so that must be OK then.

Got to cycle back later.



Just as a matter of interest. What's the ratio of miles cycled to number of attempts on your life by other road users in that area? I'm about to go up the road on my bike and on the road i'll be on it's between 5 and 13 attempts per mile.

[crundy]

Quote from ukscone on December 6, 2011, 13:30
Quote from liz on December 6, 2011, 12:42
Caffeine addiction sucks. I'm trying to wean myself off, but by about…ooh, now…every day, the headache basically gets so bad I have to give up and make a coffee.

Tell me about it!!!!! I'm back down to 12-20 cups of coffee a day again but getting it any lower is almost impossible this time.

Luckily I am one of those strange people that can drink 3 cups of coffee, put their head on a pillow and be asleep in 30 seconds

I was going to write more but the coffee has brewed so i need to go pour a cup

Speaking of addictions, I went to Amazon the other day to buy some nitrous oxide cannisters to use in my new whipper the lovely wife bought me for an (early) birthday present. I ended up buying these ones, but for fun, have a look under "Frequently Bought Together". Yup, nothing dodgy about that...

[liz]

Jamesh - go talk to Eben and tell him I sent you - I believe there are some winter cycling gloves in our car boot (in the bucket). Feel free to swipe them!