(no subject)

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

crossposted in my own LJ

a conversation between me and my dad, which makes me proud:

Me: I think I want to make a cable that has an RJ-45 ethernet plug at one end...and a 2-prong household 120VAC plug at the other.
Him: Why do you want to do that, hoping to blow up someones computer with 110 volts?
Me: I THINK IT WOULD BE A VERY HANDY TOOL!
Him: Tool for what?
Me: Determining who is smart enough to have a computer and who is not. Anyone smart enough would never plug it in.
Him: I thought that was where you were going with it... I guess you could also add a 12v cigar lighter plug and a serial port too! Might as well add a normal phone jack as well as a plug to TV hookup complete with rabbit ears. Make it a universal DS (dumb shit) TESTER.

I want a universal dumb shit tester!

Comments

[erunamiryene.livejournal.com]

Can I order fifty? I'll probably need that many where I work.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

Another commenter has suggested I market these on ThinkGeek. I, uh... am terrified of the liability and lawsuits that would ensue (no pun intended!) but if I make a prototype, I'll definitely link it up here :)

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Your dad rocks.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

:) I'll pass that on. He still thinks the internet is weird, though he likes it. He prefers his HAM radio stuff (and I have to say amateur radio does have some very distinct advantages over internet communications).

[compwizrd.livejournal.com]

http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

I've got about a decade's worth of random computer junk that I've been in the process of getting rid of. I think some of the old hard drives may have to get experimented on! :)

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

gah, actually, doing the math, I've got almost *two* decade's worth of random computer junk piled up now. Ugh. I feel old.

[ihateemo.livejournal.com]

Seen the original etherkiller, but the hub is a stroke of genius!

[greatblondino.livejournal.com]

My uncle runs a business selling extremely expensive hi-fi systems (read: they cost as much as a decent sized house). He once sold a pair of loudspeakers to an American businessman (we live in UK). The loudspeakers were in the region of £20,000 or something like that. He shipped them over to the USA, and promtly got a call from the buyer who was furious that his speakers were UK models and not US ones. 'Err', replied my uncle, 'there's no such thing, all speakers are the same'. 'Well', replied the millionaire businessman, 'I just plugged them into the mains here and they blew up! You didn't convert the power to US 110V, and now my $40k speakers are destroyed! Imma sue you!'.

Like most loudspeakers, these did not have power connectors. Just the one wire that goes into your amplifier...

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

hee hee hee

[ihateemo.livejournal.com]

I bet he inherited wealth...

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

Probably the type who is a self-made millionaire. By first inheriting billions.

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

... please update us with this situation!

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Ours is far easier.

Tech: Are you logged into a terminal, or a PC?
Luser: Um... huh?

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

I've had to start using new terminology for a few clients with mixed networks that have both real PCs and thinclients. Fat side versus thin side seems to work decently. I have patience for the ignorant, though, as long as they're polite. It's the willfully ignorant and abusive that I quickly lose patience for.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Usually "does your machine have a CD drive?" works pretty well too. Same here; if they're nice about it and seem to not be *dangerously* dumb, I'm okay with that.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

I've seen thin clients with CDROM drives, though! Ugh...

Some clients are thinner than others, most certainly.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Oo! Wonder why we don't have that in our accounting department. They have this 9,000 year old machine that everybody RDPs into because they get some data once a week on CD. Hm.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

damn, lemme see if I can remember the thinclients that had CDROM drives...saw them last in about 2001 when I was working for this little Linux shop, helping develop and sell a Linux-based solution on these stupid things...

I think it was an older model of these: http://www.netvoyager.co.uk/products/lx1031.html

Looks like the current model just has a plastic insert where the thin formfactor CD drive would go. I wonder if one could be added back in.

We worked with a few different models of thinclient. My favorite were the ANT boxes...those were supersweet, no moving parts, very low power consumption, lots of CPU horsepower. We actually got a decently-featured linux image with web browser and quake 1 installed in the little flash ROM (32 or 64 MB, I forget), though I think we had to have the data files for quake stored on a network drive. Still, it was pretty neat.

Of course, the whole thing was mismanaged, the market wasn't yet ripe for a Linux-based thinclient, especially not one developed by a bunch of bearded hackers with minimal experience, working for peanuts. It was a *FUN* job, though. Right up til the place folded...

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

The liability frankly scares the hell out of me. But that is a good thought...

[mouser.livejournal.com]

A certain UPS comes with a cable that has an RJ45 on one end, and USB connector on the other.

I cut everyone of those cables in half before I throw them out, just on general principles.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

I object to those as well. But I've always ended up installing them rather than throwing them out. I figure it's fairly safe if both ends are already plugged into the right thing.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Since I am not allowed to solder them in, and since they MOVE SHIT WITHOUT TELLING ME, I destroy design asshattery.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

Heh, most of my clients are scared to touch anything if I'm not there. I don't mind that attitude.

Soldering them in, though...hmmm...THERE'S an idea!

*cackle*

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for the day when someone says that they tried to implement PoE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet) in their home.

"Well, my mother plugged her laptop into the Ethernet jack and it shot sparks!"

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for building fires started by POE over in-wall wiring that wasn't installed properly, has been damaged by age and/or mice, or wasn't up to code to begin with.

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

All of our WAPs are PoE. Should make for an interesting day when the inevitable {leaky pipes|A/C condenser blockages|unplugged ice machines} do their mojo in our 80+-year-old buildings.

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing a lot of POE phone systems, too, in all sorts of old buildings with 10+ year old cat5 and known moisture leaks. It's only a matter of time. The center cannot hold :)

[jecook]

For PoE VoIP phones, the Cisco units use 48V, and no more then say, half an amp. I'm not sure what would happen if a short develops on the brown pair (which is what Cisco, at least, uses for their PoE implementation) Presumably, since the power can be turned on/off by the switch's IOS, one might assume (that awful, awful word!) that the switch would have the capability to detect if a short develops and turn power off to that port.

IIRC, The catalyst switches don't turn power on unless it detects that a PoE device is connected.

As for power injectors that run power out to a WAP or whatnot over an ethernet line: I have no idea. I'd test mine, except that the PoE adapter set was hard to get and probably impossible for me to replace at this point. :)

[dreadw0lf.livejournal.com]

Can I have your dad???

[pixelchik.livejournal.com]

You're dad is cool. I want a cool dad! :)

(actually my Dad was pretty damn awesome. :) )

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Heh, make sure you market them in all the rest of the world that has real power - 240V, oh yeah!