Date   : Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:13:54 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Tales of woe and stupidity (was: Issue 1)

Pete Turnbull wrote:

> -- Farnell sold Beebs like that, and later Master 128 boards too.

I remember that!


> I've seen more than one where the new owner cut off the "funny" 3-pin 
> plug, and replaced it with a normal 3-pin mains plug.

Didn't anybody ever think if it was SUPPOSED to connect to the mains, it 
would already have a suitable plug? England got rid of those old 
round-pin jobbies before the Beeb's time...


> that idea) after her son had attempted to hardwire the RGB to a 
> live-chassis TV set (and later admitted that's what he'd done).

Ouch!



I had a similar (unintentional) gaffe. Back in 1992. Some friends were 
around. I had a length of video wire and I was trying to attach it to 
the insides of a TV just after the UHF tuner, so I could feed the video 
into the A3000. A girl, I think she was called Jessica, starts 
screaming. Obviously I drop the wire and the soldering iron and leap up 
ready to defend her (she was extremely cute, though sadly the male 
gender wasn't really "her thing", dead cute though).

There was a weird noise and the A3000 went 'dead', as did all the lights.


I learned five things that day:

   1. Girls are able to scream at spiders that are so small as to be
      barely visible to the naked eye. [especially in the dark]

   2. Soldering irons can put a hole in a cheap carpet.

   3. Live chassis TV means live even when the front switch is off.
      (yikes)

   4. It is wise to disconnect the lead from the computer when farting
      around like that. Leaving it plugged in is simply stupid.

   5. The HCCS Vision digitiser, original mono version, survived a
      direct exposure to mains.
      That A3000 is on top of a pile of junk near by desk (it's the one
      I use when talking to the FileStore). The digitiser is in the
      RiscPC. Both worked fine after a switch-on, and both are working
      today, though the A3000 is showing age/dampness related issues.
      [don't even get me started on the 40Mb harddisc in the A5000...]



Who else has an amusing tale of woe and stupidity to share?
I have several more, but none are computer related, sorry.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...