This happened for me with the scene in one of the new star trek movies where they play beastie boys while busting out of a cloud or something. Idk, it was a really cool scene, but I was mad that I’d already seen it in the trailer. It’s ludicrous. I still complain about it to my wife to this day.

Thanks, I thought of something even better. Slap Linux on that thing! Wipe the whole drive on “accident”. Linux is way more innocuous than pirate Windows 🤷‍♂️

Go with humility first, you screwed up. Follow it up with a joke about how you discovered a flaw in the configuration of work laptops, and now they can fix it to prevent someone else from being able to do that 🤷‍♂️ I think you’ll be ok

Oh I didn’t see that, good point. You might be right about the cut paper, but maybe it’s folded instead? Look at the bottom left corner, the paper extends below the printed line, almost like it printed crooked? But I think more likely it’s folded and that’s the backside of the other half of the ruler? Like, is so low resolution that we can’t tell it’s a loop of paper there, maybe.

Because the numbers are upside down, if you flip the ruler over so you can read it, you can measure from thatb same side.

But I agree, it’s a bit weird, I’d prefer both zeros on the same side

Thanks!

When you say you use this for your parents, are they connecting to your home jellyfin server?

I’m running Plex right now for me and my parents, and I’ve had to do practically no network shenanigans, it just works. I’m beginning to worry about the direction Plex is going though, so I’m looking into jellyfin. But I’ve read that configuring remote access can be more complicated.

Thanks!

Hmmm that sounds like it might have been deoxit. It’s worth trying again, but it can only do so much, eventually the resistive track just wears away.

If you need to solder in replacements, I wrote up a short starter suggestion comment elsewhere in this thread.

Glad I could help! It’s a skill to learn like anything else, but once you get the hang of it, it’s super easy 👍👍

I have a 600w ham radio amplifier from the 60s. It’s a Heathkit SB-200

I’m very proud of it because I bought it in rough condition, and repaired it myself. Replaced all the leaky capacitors and did some other work in there. Now it runs like a dream! It was my first time working with tube gear. The voltages in these things is 2500 volts, that’ll kill you dead before you know what happened.

I also have an SB-220 that I got broken. I fixed it up but didn’t do a full rebuild on it. It’ll do 1200 watts, but I don’t need that much power so I haven’t used it much. It’s in storage. That one is from the late 60s early 70s.

My next oldest device is also ham radio gear, a Kenwood TS-530S from the 80s. There’s a lot of solid state stuff inside, plenty of transistors doing all the work. But the final output stage is still a good ole pair of tubes. I bought this in non working condition, and fixed it myself as well. Good fun!

I have a 2600 that needs the same treatment, haven’t gotten to it

Did you try cleaning them with deoxit? That stuff works wonders on crunchy pots. Might be an easy fix!

Open it up and see if any of the capacitors are leaking! Soldering is a great skill to learn and you can fix it yourself.

The biggest problem people have is buying a bad soldering iron that gets way too hot. You can get an excellent iron for only 10 or 20 dollars more than the garbage out there. I used to recommend the TS-100, because that’s what I use and love, and they used to be way cheaper. The TS-80 was an upgrade to that, which was also nice but I never liked. If you’ve got the money, I still recommend them. However for the budget minded, the pinecil is almost the exact same thing, it’s well made, and it’s still like $30-40 bucks. In fact some people prefer it over the others. You can power it with a beefy USB-C charger if you have one, or an old laptop charger if you want to cut up the end and put a barrel jack on it. The thing pulls about 90 watts at full tilt, but only for brief periods.

Next you want to buy yourself some practice boards, you can get soldering kits from AliExpress that will let you build little flashing trees and hearts and stuff. Or even small handheld games if you’re getting better at soldering.

Then you watch YouTube tutorials, find several. You want to focus on quick work, at low ish temps like 280C, keep the tip clean, and flux is your friend. The very tippy tip of your iron should always be shiny, if it starts turning black, it’s building oxides from being too hot and not enough flux. Clean that thing with flux. If you leave it that way too long you’ll ruin it, that’s why most people struggle to solder.

Then once you’ve learned, and you’re ready to go. Watch YouTube videos on fixing the Xbox, buy the caps, crack that thing open and have fun. Caps aren’t that hard to replace, compared to other soldering projects. You’ll do fine 👍

Ham here too, what practical uses have you found? Mine is sitting in a box, I got it almost a year ago and haven’t checked the latest firmware or apps in almost that long.

We use our breville for hot water too

I did this last month in my 04 Honda CRV, such a massive upgrade. I don’t have steering wheel controls, and I didn’t want to tap a screen for volume control, so I went with the boss be7acp because it has a physical volume knob. Added a backup camera because why not.

It’s been a massive upgrade! Crutchfield is the bomb, installation wasn’t that hard, a bit fiddly getting to the wires for the backup and park, but I was done in a couple hours, backup camera included.

I don’t have any background knowledge to confirm this, but this seems like the extremely likely answer. Unfortunately.

This for me, the only success I’ve had is with network issues.

Cool!