Are office people really that, umm shall we say...slow?

From: Ian Koller <vze2mnvr_at_verizon.net>
Date: Sat Oct 20 23:54:01 2001

Hello Dan,

> it's only the newest one that the cable broke in. Is it just me,
> or does new technology seem much less reliable than old(er) stuff?

Look at the price of "new" technology v.s "old(er)" stuff. Cost
cutting throws quality right out the window. We've done it to
ourselves when we tried to find the lowest price for things, and
now that we've made our bed, we must lie in it.




Dan Kolb wrote:
>
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> On Saturday 20 Oct 2001 19:59 pm, Tony Duell wrote:
> > Connector are cheaper than cables. And they're easier to get. Often the
> > monitor end of the cable terminates in some strange PCB connectors, of
> > which there are dozens of varients, many of them almost impossible to
> > find...
>
> Thanks :-) I didn't know that. To be quite honest, I can't recall ever having
> the need to open up monitors before - so far all the one's I've got have
> worked fine - it's only the newest one that the cable broke in. Is it just
> me, or does new technology seem much less reliable than old(er) stuff?
>
> > When I was an undergraduate (admittedly at the other university), I found
> > a toolkit to be essential. It's amazing how often you need to fix things.
> > I had most common hand tools, a soldering station, solder sucker,
> > multimeter, etc in my room. Even a small 'scope. And I needed them...
>
> To be quite honest, for the very few times I'd need one (possibly once or
> twice a year) it's not worth for me to take all the equipment up from home -
> it's far easier just to take the faulty item back home and fix it there. I'm
> sure you can forgive me not having equipment here (actually, I do have a
> soldering iron now, but that's it) :-)
>
> > The vidoe lines have 75 )hm termination resistors, so you can measure the
> > reisstance between the video cable and its screen. If it tests open
> > there's a break in the cable. You can normally detect the protection
> > diodes on digital lines too with an ohmmeter. So you can, in fact, check
> > for broken wires from the plug end of the cable only.
>
> Thank you. I'll give that a try.
>
> > > The subject was about 'office people'. Most(?) IT people wouldn't know
> > > how to solder a monitor connector, or possibly wouldn't be allowed to by
> > > either
> > As I said in another message, such IT people get no respect from me...
>
> I agree. A competent IT guy should be able to fix items like broken
> connectors with little effort. And, of course, should be able to build a
> computer out of parts (that is, graphics card, CD-ROM, rather than the
> individual chips :-) - I'm sure there are people who don't know how to do
> that.
>
> > > their company or Health and Safety (no, I don't know much about
> > > Health&Safety
> > Then you smuggle in one of those gas-powered soldering irons and fix it
> > when the powers-that-be are not watching :-)
>
> Yup :) Although most people who know me know that I have a very low regard
> (none, really) for Health and Safety laws - I watch out where I put stuff,
> other people should too (okay, probably not the best thing to admit on a
> public forum :-)
>
> Dan
> - --
> dankolb_at_ox.compsoc.net
>
> - --I reserve the right to be completely wrong about any comments or
> opinions expressed; don't trust everything you read above--
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Received on Sat Oct 20 2001 - 23:54:01 BST