Random Thoughts Thread

[MrPopo]

Ahh nice, sounds like you've got a good source for drops.

[Limewater]

When we repair mills, there is tons (hundreds of tons, literally) of scrap steel dumped in the scrap steel bins every day.

What kind of mills?

Are these something shipped back to you for repair after being in the field, or production rework before initial shipment?

[marurun]

When we repair mills, there is tons (hundreds of tons, literally) of scrap steel dumped in the scrap steel bins every day.

What kind of mills?

Are these something shipped back to you for repair after being in the field, or production rework before initial shipment?

Given Anapan often goes on trips to various sites for work for weeks at a time, I'm guessing he's in-the-field with the equipment which needs repaired. And based on the context provided, I'm going to guess steel mills.

[Anapan]

I'm a Boilermaker - I fix boilers and related steam pressure vessels from the inside out. Kraft pulp & paper mills mostly as there are several in my province that need regular maintenance. I also sometimes repair and erect refineries, tho the pay out in Alberta is not quite as high anymore. I am trained and approved (extensive background check) to work in nuclear power plants, but have not yet had a chance as I was working when the call-out to join them over in Ontario happened.

[marurun]

My dad used to complain that the US Navy, in recent decades has had difficulty contracting boilermakers. They end up buying products from overseas instead which are cheaper but not nearly as good as the stuff made in North America.

[Ziggy]

Capture.PNG (42.92 KiB) Viewed 1844 times

Snipped from the manual of a SanDisk mp3 player I just bought...

"The battery CANNOT be overcharged."

Did they really not realize that this "tip" can be taken two different ways? Which one do you think it is?

A) The mp3 player has onboard circuitry that prevents the battery from being overcharged.

B) You better unplug the charging cable when the charge is at 100% or else you will damage the battery.

I'm assuming it's A, because this is a new product made by SanDisk (I think they released it last year). It better not be B!




For anyone wondering why I just bought a shitty little mp3 player... I have a little Anker BT speaker as well as a DeWalt BT jobsite radio. I like using them just fine, with the exception of one annoyance. You can't get too far from the speaker without the music breaking up or disconnecting entirely. And when this happens, it's extremely annoying for everyone else around. And if I go out to my car or something and it disconnects, then when I return I have to take out my phone and reconnect it, then start my music again. It's very annoying. Some people will say, "Just leave your phone by the speaker." No, my phone stays in my pocket for many reasons. The biggest being accidental damage at a jobsite. But also, not every location I'm at will have good data service to stream music with anyway. Yes, I have music stored locally on my phone, but the annoyances of BT still exist.

It's a whole long story on why DeWalt's line of jobsite radios are a pain in the ass, so long story short, I have their small BT speaker and an older FM radio. So annoyingly, I have to choose one or the other (if you want both, you have to get a large and expensive radio - too large for my preference). Because of the annoyances with BT, I've actually been using the FM radio most of the time. It's just easier to set up, and more reliable. Although every once in a while I'll be in a location that has bad FM reception or interference. But the FM radio has a little side compartment meant for a phone. Inside that compartment is a 3.5mm aux input jack and a USB port meant for charging (and only charging). So my resolve was to purchase this cheap little mp3 player that I can keep in the side compartment. It can be powered from the USB port, so I wont have to worry about the battery. And then I can get the benefits of digital music without the annoyance of streaming and BT. And it wont be killing my phone's battery.

Is this how you become a cranky old man? When everyone else wants to use new tech, but you swear that older tech is more reliable and easier to use.

[Limewater]

For anyone wondering why I just bought a shitty little mp3 player...

There are lots of advantages to using a dedicated MP3 player.

The Sandisk Sansa Clip and Clip+ from circa 2010 were great little players. They sounded great, they were tiny and rugged, they were cheap, and, crucially, they had the control lock implemented as a slider switch on the side of the device.
This made them perfect for listening to audiobooks while doing messy physical labor. I don't want to carry my phone around while hauling brush. I don't want to touch my phone with wet paint on my fingers.

It's a real shame that later revisions of the Clip are inferior, but in terms of the base SoC and in the terrible decision to replace the slider-switch control lock with a button-hold control lock. I don't know button-hold control lock was ever considered acceptable. I inadvertently unlock the controls on my current mp3 player all the time. Individual tracks on audiobooks are often over an hour long, and it's really annoying to accidentally hit "track skip" forty minutes in.

[Ziggy]

I didn't own the Clip, but I did own (and still own) a SanDisk Sansa. The e250 model, IIRC. It has been a solid device over the years. I use to use it all the time at work, one job I had years ago. I would listen to it nearly the entire day while working, then plug it in to my car for the ride home and continue listening to whatever I had on. The battery would last all day, and probably a lot longer if I ever put it to the the test. And, unlike the SanDisk mp3 player I just bought, the battery in the e250 is replaceable! Oh, and it had the lock slider which was definitely a nice feature.

Speaking of that battery... I bought the e250 at a Radio Shack. The guy in the store tried to sell me a replacement battery for it... For the brand new mp3 player I was just buying. One of the many reason Radio Shack would piss me off. Either I don't need a replacement because it's a new device and that battery should have many charge cycles ahead of it, or that battery will crap out not too long after buying it in which case I changed my mind about purchasing the device in the first place! Well, this was well over 10 years ago and I haven't needed a replacement battery yet.

The e250 I got was a 2 GB model. I had a friend at the time that was baffled... Why on Earth would I bother getting a 2 GB mp3 player!?!? The Sansa has a microSD port though. Although my model will only accept 2 GB cards max, the firmware wont accept SDHC cards. But the Rockbox custom firmware I loaded onto it does! I did have an 8 GB card in there for a while, but really 2 GB was all I ever needed.

Anyways, I still have that e250 and it still works great. I just decided to get a new one since they're cheap and I don't want to risk damaging my beloved e250. I actually didn't notice that the new Clip doesn't have a lock button. That really is kind of dump! But in my case, it wont matter much since it's going in a side compartment to the radio I'm using.

[marurun]

The iPhone/iPod Touch was a great music and podcast player until Apple separated Podcasts out to its own app and then largely abandoned the format short of maintaining the podcast directory. And then they introduced Apple Music and messed with the music app until you can’t use Siri to play a song, playlist, or genre on your phone unless you are either subscribed to Apple Music or explicitly specify “from my music library” after your instruction. If you just ask Siri to play a song or artist it is insisted you need a subscription. And despite all these frustrations, Apple is still the best game in town for this kind of thing. It’s a rather sad state of affairs.

[REPO Man]

Everyone born July to mothers impregnated via intercourse who were mot born late or early exist because their fathers did not practice No Nut November.