Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA): Discussion and Group Therapy thread Part 2

[EC8010]

OK, so there's a limit to what the forum can handle, and it's time for a new thread...

I've been struggling with quasi-anechoic loudspeaker measurements today. I can persuade the audio test set to produce the chirp on its S/PDIF digital output, the audio DAC is happy, and the DUT (loudspeaker) produces the sound. But the analyser isn't triggering to produce the FFT of what the microphone is hearing. The software is not intuitive and I'm struggling. Whinge, gripe, whine. I'll get there, but it's annoying.

[nixiefreqq]

so who broke the first thread?

was it cubdriver or avgresponding?

people trust those guys with valuable and delicate test instruments.......and yet they broke the internet!

[synx508]

If you look at the view counter on the forums summary page you will see a familiar number to anyone who can count in binary or who happened to remember how many colours late 1990s display adapters for PCs could show with their triple 8-bit video DACs. The phpBB views counter is, for some daft reason, 24 bit and it ran out of bits. It's a MEDIUMINT, in the flavour of SQL that it's using.This might have been a fine choice before the world's more basic people got into tech and decided that AI was about requesting the same unchanged web page dozens of times per second, week after week. I guess a simple UPDATE could wang it back to zero or the schema could be altered to allow it to be a BIGINT.

Or the best solution, which was to continue in a new thread, best because you don't have to muck about with computers!

[synx508]

It turns out that this is an existing bug in phpBB, too, because they're using mediumint(8) to define a bunch of columns that need to be bigger than a 24 bit integer, thinking the 8 would somehow affect what mediumint() does. It shouldn't, mediumint is another way of saying int(3), I guess the RDBMS discards the contents of the parentheses so the 8 does nothing and you get 16.7 million views (or login attempts or whatever). They wanted int(8) or bigint(). Ah well.

Edit: But looks like topic_views is defined using their abstracted ULINT in the schema of the latest version of phpBB, which maps to int(10) with a MySQL or MariaDB database. The project is still using the possibly broken mediumint(8) for user id, though, but that is less likely to be a problem for most admins.

Apologies for boring computer stuff.

[tggzzz]

See viewtopic.php?t=485 and the link in it for confirmation of those concepts.

Still need to poke the database to enable us to read our previous conversations.

[mnementh]

so who broke the first thread?

was it cubdriver or avgresponding?

people trust those guys with valuable and delicate test instruments.......and yet they broke the internet!

i tooted. sorry.

mnem

[tggzzz]

so who broke the first thread?

We all did - by reading the posts!

[MED6753]

so who broke the first thread?

We all did - by reading the posts!

Is it broke for good or can it be fixed? Would hate to lose all those posts.

[tggzzz]

so who broke the first thread?

We all did - by reading the posts!

Is it broke for good or can it be fixed? Would hate to lose all those posts.

Hopeful information in the links in viewtopic.php?t=485

[EC8010]

Can anyone use a roll of what I suspect is heat-sensitive printer paper? 210mm wide but about 6" diameter and in a thick black plastic bag.

The lab now has a 600 x 1200 five shelf rack; a lot of floor has magically reappeared. (There are other racks, but they are all full.) The new rack is only nearly full.

[Cubdriver]

Can anyone use a roll of what I suspect is heat-sensitive printer paper? 210mm wide but about 6" diameter and in a thick black plastic bag.

The lab now has a 600 x 1200 five shelf rack; a lot of floor has magically reappeared. (There are other racks, but they are all full.) The new rack is only nearly full.

Sweet!! Open floor space!! And a rack that's only nearly full... A landing zone for more STUFF!!!

www.ebay.com

-Pat

[EC8010]

Not really room for the size of stuff you favour, but I wondered about a rather nice Post Office bridge intended for testing local ends (the pair between exchange and customer), but it's a bit of a ride to collect it. For the moment, I'm going to enjoy the novelty of being able to move around without stubbing my toes.

[tggzzz]

For the moment, I'm going to enjoy the novelty of being able to move around without stubbing my toes.

When you walk in the country, you see barely marked paths on the grass or leaf litter, caused by wild animals repeatedly following the same path on their perambulations. My house is like that; consequently I rarely stub my toes on the accumulations elsewhere.

Hoarding? Wozzat?

[EC8010]

Definitely not hoarding. All the test gear is plugged up and ready to be used at the press of the ON button. Either manually or under computer control. Components are organised, in known locations, and can be retrieved in under 10s. Hoarding is when you're not sure where something is, retrieving it risks a precarious pile of dirty junk falling on you, and the retrieved thing isn't certain to work. On that basis, Stewarts of Reading now qualifies.

No interest in the paper?

[tggzzz]

No paper for me, thanks.

I expect I still have some HP9845 thermal printouts from the late 70s, demonstrating it needn't be transitory.

[EC8010]

I know everyone here likes this sort of thing:

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/quantum-sc ... d_source=1

Looks like a standard 13A fuse with a bit of decorative paper wrapped around it...

[tggzzz]

But they recommend trying this first https://www.futureshop.co.uk/quantum-sc ... er-uk-plug
"...If you want to try out a QSA fuse, but are uncertain, we suggest giving the power jitters a try first. It is advised to allow the power jitters to settle into your system for at least 50 hours (longer for higher ranges of jitter) to reduce any initial harshness or glare. We suggest starting with the Jitter attached to your distribution unit, but you can easily experiment by connecting it to different pieces of equipment to get the best sound for you...."

Looks like their MMAT MMMAT and SDCT works wonders.

Christmas is coming up, should you not feel the urge to rush out and buy one. Bonus: when you die it will be assessed as £0 probate value (thus avoiding IHT), and your heirs will be able to sell it thereafter at a healthy profit.

[EC8010]

That Futureshop site seems to specialise in hawking junk to credulous fools.

[Robert]

And the power jitter is illegal and unsafe. It's too small and does not have shutters. You can plug one pin into the right (live) hole leaving the other pin on the plug exposed and live via the primary circuit of the device plugged in.

[tggzzz]

And the power jitter is illegal and unsafe. It's too small and does not have shutters. You can plug one pin into the right (live) hole leaving the other pin on the plug exposed and live via the primary circuit of the device plugged in.

Given the kind of people who would buy that thing, I fail to see any serious problem. Darwin award, and all that.

[EC8010]

On a more sympathetic note, I've always felt that a weakness of the state pension is that you don't get a tax-free lump sum. But I would add the caveat that it could only be used to buy something like a > 150hp motorcycle or hang glider that had to be used regularly. Such a feature would save the Treasury significant money in pensions. I'm all in favour of personal risk, but not in taking out innocent bystanders with dodgy electrical rubbish.

[Zenith]

I know everyone here likes this sort of thing:

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/quantum-sc ... d_source=1

Looks like a standard 13A fuse with a bit of decorative paper wrapped around it...

There are some people who are happy to pay a fortune for various products for which claims are made which are very dubious on any engineering basis. Sonically competent IEC mains leads are something I find hilarious. If they think these items are a wise expenditure, that's a matter for them.

[tggzzz]

On a more sympathetic note, I've always felt that a weakness of the state pension is that you don't get a tax-free lump sum. But I would add the caveat that it could only be used to buy something like a > 150hp motorcycle or hang glider that had to be used regularly. Such a feature would save the Treasury significant money in pensions. I'm all in favour of personal risk, but not in taking out innocent bystanders with dodgy electrical rubbish.

You raise interesting points. I largely agree with them, noting the micromorts we are unavoidable expending at our age, and being very annoyed where innocent bystanders are involved.

But I don't think I would class someone who chose to buy a non-essential luxury item as being a bystander. The major difference between adults and children is that adults are expected to be responsible for the consequences of their actions and inactions.

[Zenith]

On a more sympathetic note, I've always felt that a weakness of the state pension is that you don't get a tax-free lump sum. But I would add the caveat that it could only be used to buy something like a > 150hp motorcycle or hang glider that had to be used regularly. Such a feature would save the Treasury significant money in pensions. I'm all in favour of personal risk, but not in taking out innocent bystanders with dodgy electrical rubbish.

It's never going to happen. There's too much chance of people who get their hands on a large sum spending it on absolute nonsense, such as ludicrously expensive hi-fi outfits or the Gibson Les Paul they always wanted but can't play. I'm sure we can all recall cases. If it happens with a sum from a private pension you just have a reduced pension. If it happened with a state pension, which isn't lavish to begin with, people would end up claiming benefits.

Private pensions are paid for from an investment fund, UK state pensions are paid for from current taxation.

[EC8010]

We have become risk-averse (in order to avoid the cost of accidents), yet have failed to consider that attitude's inevitable consequence. We should consider allowing people who feel they're ready to go to do so before they're screaming inside yet near-comatose on a hospital bed drugged up with morphine. It's a serious thought and I presented it in a frivolous way, but it's one that society needs to stop shirking.