Hark! It’s the Turd Alert!!

One of those things that I’m glad isn’t part of my job…. Apparently the pump at foreground cooked. This is a sewage lift pump. Yeah uh, I did controls for these things but the parts thereof that move the brown trout were someone else’s department.

Also there was a really really obnoxiously slippery Tentacool nearby.

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When your BrightLine isn’t

Oops! Never trust a semiconductor fart.

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Looks like the IRF840 MOSFET lost its Magic Smoke and shorted (Magic Smoke is both an insulator and conductor) and unwarranted voltage got back and explosively decapsulated the controller IC.

I bet this one went Snap Crackle Pop.

This was from an older BrightLine florescent stage light. Newer versions just use a couple of little Advance ballasts instead of a big arse custom PCB. I’m upgrading it to the new hardware.

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Oh i bet the viewers smelled this one at home!!

A daily affirmation

Ryko SludgeGloss XS
Ryko SludgeGloss XS
No matter how awkward things look, it’s worth reminding yourself:
“At least I’m not washing rotten goat flesh off my car”

Actually, yesterday, I was. The PDQ LaserWash G5 S-series machine does a good job.

Miami.

So fitting.

I went to Harbor Freight and used the restroom.

The toilet made one quick sneezing sound when activated and never really flushed right. Furthermore, it would never flush again.

This is so fitting.

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For the uninitiated, Harbor Freight is known for tools of such low quality that they only work once... if even.

Harvest Gold.

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Apparently, at some unknown point in history, Monsanto and Systron-Donner built test gear and painted it Harvest Gold.

Yeah, Monsanto did have an odd involvement in electronics. They wanted to provide raw materials such as silicon rods and wafers and somehow wound up briefly building equipment and components, including many early LEDs.

There’s an interesting article on the history here, also covering their partnership with the once great Hewlett Packard. The optoelectronic division wound up over at General Instrument and the test and measurement division wound up at Systron-Donner, with a lot of hardware apparently getting sold to Mendelson’s.

But Systron-Donner kept the Harvest Gold, and for that silliness I am glad.

Look at how well it coordinates with that goofy wood edged MDF shelf!

When Headhunters Strike

I cannot stop laughing this morning, thank you “TRG Resource Group”!

So for a couple months now I’ve been happily working as a maintenance engineer in a television station. I’m really happy with it, but boy did I put out resumes here and there for a while before I got it – I’ve had a few jobs before that I didn’t like.

Some recruiter found my resume on Dice and was… really… disturbingly eager to get me on board. I have no interest in it, but it was for a contracting job paying supposedly $30 an hour. (Contracting, I guess, meaning you have to do all the shit of providing your own insurance, paying SurpriseButtsecksPercent in income taxes, etc…)

He started hammering on my phone every hour, business hours or not, for the past couple of days. He got my Google Voice number off the resume, so I could have blocked him, I was just being lazy and letting his voicemail messages build up. Finally, today, as I was on my way up to my office where I could log into Google Voice from the desktop and click block, he started hammering it again so I just picked up and hung up. He immediately called back and the results were hilarious!

For the record, here’s the job description he sent me – it sounds like “technically skilled administrative pissboy” to me. If you’re interested, why not send him a resume? I dunno if he’s working on commission, on quota, or what, but he sure is desperate. I’d say go to the group’s website to find it there but their site is a comically outdated thing that comes up with an Earthlink favicon.ico file. Hahahahahahahaha so modern. Wow. Very web2.0. So update. Such Frontpage.

Telecommunications Technician

MINIMUM SKILLS REQUIRED:

Responsible for warehouse and Inventory maintenance activities. Receiving and dispatching of commodities purchases for the Telecommunications section of Information Systems. Additionally, for installing, maintaining and providing specifications used in the design of numerous electronic and computer systems throughout the Aviation Department., such as: Flight Information Displays (FIDS); Baggage Information Displays (BIDS); Dynamic LED Signage; computers and wired/wireless networks, Cable Television System, exterior dynamic roadway signs, VHF/UHF/ 800MHz radios and radio networks; Terminal wide public address system; Clocks; Automatic Vehicle Identification System; Audio-Visual setups and recordings; Employee Lot Emergency Call System; Security Checkpoint Flex Police Response System; Taxi Lot Airport Entrance Control; Pagers (Beepers); Passenger counting & tracking system; Meeting room setups; Intercom Systems; Music for Public Address and Telephone Hold; AM Radio Station; and other smaller telecommunications systems.

MINIMUM EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

FCC Radio License Preferred
High School Diploma or greater and must also have an Electronic background or vocational certificate in Electronics.

Industrial elegance

This unit is an old Honeywell thermostat. Wait for it….

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Waaaait for it

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TUBES.

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The fan contactor:

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Breaker panel. These Pushmatic breakers are known for being a little flaky. It’s all decommissioned.

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Why black and green? The National Electrical Code says green is ground. Nothing else. Ground. I dunno. This is outside of my pay grade. 😉

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Nooooooooooooooooooooope! That’s the worst possible error!!