"Just tell me what the problem is"

So I am going to get a paid vacation to think about my actions? I can live with that! :cool:
OMG that is some stunning incompetance...on my part.

So, the "donuts" comment...that is from yesterday! After I wrote it, I thought better - don't get involved, leave it alone, blah blah blah. I backed out of the send screen..... Now, today, I responded to Ron's completely unrelated comment (as I saw it)....and of course...what I had written was still in the site buffer, and dutifully came out.

To further self-immolate, I didn't bother to read the whole post because I was occupied with going to Costco before the masses gathered (eating their chili as I type).

WoW, sometimes I surprise myself - now considering a signature that says "Hoisted by my own petard since XXXX" or "putting the fun in dysfunction"
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
OMG that is some stunning incompetance...on my part.

So, the "donuts" comment...that is from yesterday! After I wrote it, I thought better - don't get involved, leave it alone, blah blah blah. I backed out of the send screen..... Now, today, I responded to Ron's completely unrelated comment (as I saw it)....and of course...what I had written was still in the site buffer, and dutifully came out.

To further self-immolate, I didn't bother to read the whole post because I was occupied with going to Costco before the masses gathered (eating their chili as I type).

WoW, sometimes I surprise myself - now considering a signature that says "Hoisted by my own petard since XXXX" or "putting the fun in dysfunction"

I totally get it. I've had to go back and clear out a unwanted part of a reply due to buffer bombing myself with a past, and now unrelated post, that never went through more than once.

As for getting involved, I will never have a problem with it if it's a valid point on either something I did say or do wrong or if its just to help slap someone else around for having provoked something petty and or stupid as as another failing attempt at self vindication over nothing gainful to them. (Others might and usually will though given your sentence structure is a known Grammar Nazi variant trigger for some. ) ;) :D

BTW, Thanks to your comment here, Now I want chilli but don't have any so I will have to settle for burritos. :p
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,887
What word??????????

kv
The word was agita. While I have heard it infrequently in the English language it is commonly used in Italian, more as a reference to an upset stomach or generally upset. Growing UP NYC my mother's family was Italian so both languages were used around us kids. Later while working DoD (Department of Defense) I lived in the Naples, Italy area for several years and heard the word used quite a bit as well as used it. As a kid my aunts would say I gave them agita. :)

Ron
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
I come home from work the other day and there's a laptop on my kitchen counter. Wife says my sister dropped it off. She wanted to get the battery out but didn't have a screwdriver small enough to get the screws out. So I look at the screws and they are absolutely the tiniest screws imaginable. Same size as the ones on an iPhone5 but torx. I dug around for half an hour before I found anything small enough.

Took me another 30min to get all the screws out and remove the battery. I text her:
"where's the new battery?"
Her: "I don't have one."
Me: "then why did you have me remove it?"
Her: "to see if that fixes it"
Me: "what (specifically) is doing or not doing?"
Her: "it's not working."
Me: "a little more (specific)"
Her: "it won't turn on."

So I plug in the power supply, check the barrel connector with DMM. Initially 18V, but dropping. Stabilized around 2V. I chopped the cable in half, connected it to my bench PSU, and what do you know? It works! My bad; I should have known better. I should have asked about the battery before wasting an hour of my life.

I texted her simply "it wasn't the battery," when what I really meant was "NEXT TIME JUST TELL ME WHAT THE DAMN PROBLEM IS AND LET ME TROUBLESHOOT IT. IT'S WHAT I DO." I'll give her a proper jab face-to-face when she comes to pick it up (I ordered her a new power supply).

It just reminded me of every time I've ever gone up to a machine operator for a trouble call and instead of describing the problem, they rattle off their hairbrained theory about what's causing the problem that they aren't immediately willing to disclose. Sometimes you really have to interrogate them pretty hard just to get out the simplest details.

"Just tell me what the problem is." Im sure you can all relate.
</rant>
My friend who has a musical instrument repair shop has this big sign at the front desk:

Labor rates: $65/hour
If someone else has worked on it first, $95/hour.

Problem solved. :)
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
My friend who has a musical instrument repair shop has this big sign at the front desk:

Labor rates: $65/hour
If someone else has worked on it first, $95/hour.

Problem solved. :)
When I was in grad school, there was an electronics instrument repair shop near campus that handled a lot of research tools. They had a similar sign,
Standard Labor Rates : $50/hr
- If you want to watch: $75/hr
- If you ask questions: $100/hr
- If you already tried to fix it and failed: $200/hr
 
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