Posts by Fixing IT

Brits don't want their homes to be 'tech-tastic'

Re: Skewed results

> On the subject of RFID-controlled entry to a house, some cat flaps have been sold for decades with a tag (a simple magnet I belive, not RFID) for your cat's collar, so that precious Snuggles can come in but nectdoors flea-bitten mangy moggy can't.

You can get cat flaps which read the cat's microchip, via RFID. My neighbour bought the same cat flap after seeing ours, each flap only lets in the moggie its been programmed for. Our cat initially took a few goes to learn to wait for the "click" (its about 2 seconds after RFID has been read, I think)

They are brilliant, if a little more expensive than the traditional collar-tag ones. Cat can lose collars especially if you use the snap-off ones (much safer for cat if it gets caught up somewhere), so something which reads the cat's microchip works well. 4x AA batteries last about a year, and if you're quick enough replacing them you don't need to shove the cat through again to reprogram it :-)

Of course it requires the feline in question to be chipped, but IMHO it should be anyway.

You can always rely on the Ancient Ones to cock things up

Re: There will be blood...

Data cabinets demand their blood sacrifice.

My wife knows when I've been working in one, my hands and arms look like I lost a fight with a cat.

Whoever cuts a cable tie and leaves a few mm of jagged tail is pure evil. Or maybe they're cut to leave a smooth edge and the gods of cable management decide to tighten them a little more "just to be sure.."

Field technicians want to grab my tool and probe my things

Re: Do not speak of what thou knowest little....

That brings back some memories. My (now retired) dad owned a small tv repair & rental business, and I took an interest from a young age and ended helping in the workshop & field repairs from about age 10. My first electric shock came via a careless hand too near a tube base. I remember the joys of convergence, using a cross-hatch generator if the test card wasn't on.

I never kneeled in any cats piss (that I remember) but at the time I absolutely hated dogs. Think I must have been chased by one, or been a cat in a former life, but either way small yappy dogs I remember being a regular annoyance. Not the dog's fault of course, but owners who just let the bloody things do whatever they liked which mostly involved constant yap yap yap yap or even growls as you were trying to mend their owner's television. Come here Fifi Yapyap the poodle, why don't you have a sniff of this tube base..

When asked 'What's a .CNT file?' there's a polite way to answer

Never mind the power, get the tv working

My dad spent a long time in the television repair & rental business before his retirement.

One day he got called-out to mend a tv which "wouldn't turn on", upon arrival he went to switch on the living room light and discovered the property had no power.

Explaining this to the little old lady he received the reponse: "I know that! just get the telly working!"

I can't remember the outcome but it probably involved a torch & the meter cupboard..