Automation joke
Consider this picture above… Good case for automation, but ultimately not appreciated by those that believe manual labor should be a punishment for … well… doing bad stuff.. đ
… And here it is in Powershell… Hell yeah!
That’s a big fat negative, sir…
So, I’m negative. This should of course come as no surprise to anyone, but I’m actually talking about the Covid19 antibody-test here, rather than the less than sanguine attitude you come to expect from me.
“Isn’t that tecnically the Spanish flu?” — Erik Zalitis
(In Swedish) an open letter to IKEA
Hej kĂ€ra Ikea, jag mĂ„ste skriva nĂ„gra vĂ€l valda ord om er fantastiska kundservice. Men först bakgrunden: jag köpte ett arbetsbord som heter Micke. Det Ă€r alltid trevligt att kunna förnamnen pĂ„ sina möbler. Det dök upp och tyvĂ€rr saknades tvĂ„ trĂ€bitar, nĂ€mligen de som formar lĂ„ngsidorna pĂ„ lĂ„dan man sĂ€tter under bordskivan. NĂ„vĂ€l, inga problem. Jag gick till er hemsida, ikea.se och letade fram formulĂ€ret för att skicka in reklamationer. Eftersom ni tydligen inte vill besvĂ€ras av besvikna kunder, har ni pĂ„ klassiskt manĂ©r sopat denna funktion under en fyra-fem persiska mattor i ett försök att omöjliggöra alla försök att faktisk anmĂ€la nĂ„got. Men jag lĂ„ter mig inte hindras av usel webbdesign gjord av ett okĂ€nt konsultföretag som fick jobbet huvudsakligen för att ni inte Ă€r beredda att betala för en vettig hemsida. Ni Ă€r allt nĂ„got smĂ„lĂ€ndska, Ă€r ni inte? đ SĂ„ jag hittade till sist formulĂ€ret som Ă€r byggt för att lĂ„ta en be er skicka diverse skruvar som man kanske har lösa eller om det Ă€r möbeln som har det. Vet inte sĂ„ noga.
Men att tala om att delar av möbeln i sig saknas, det kan aldrig ha slagit er att det Àr möjligt. Det finns inget artikelnummer för en brÀda och att anvÀnda artikelnumret för hela produkten tillÄter inte formulÀret. Hur skulle det se ut? Dessutom vill formulÀret inte ha artikelnumret i det format som det anges pÄ hemsidan. Den Àr korrekt i att punkter inte Àr en form av siffor, men det gör inte en datorovan person glad att fÄ en utskÀllning nÀr man skriver in artikelnumret som 330.666.111. Eftersom jag inte Àr datorovan utan en sur gammal gubbe, sÄ bryr jag mig inte. Men inse att försöket att anmÀla via formulÀret var dömt att misslyckas.
SÄ⊠Jag ringde dÄ er support och gladeligen lÀt mig berÀtta att delar saknades och givetvis kopplade fram mig⊠till en röst som förklarade att jag inte kan/fÄr/bör/Àr lagligen berÀttigad till/mÄste anvÀnda telefonen för detta ÀndamÄl, utan bör anvÀnda ert formulÀr (se ovan för en beskrivning över hur det gick!) pÄ hemsidan..
Blodtrycket gick över nÄgon grÀns dÀr mÀtaren inte lÀngre Àr tillförlitlig utan ber mig kontakta min lÀkare om jag vill fortsÀtta gÄ pÄ denna jord.
Men dĂ„ finns ju chatten. Denna chans att fĂ„ nĂ€mna för en sjĂ€lvsfrĂ€nde att man Ă€r mindre nöjd med sitt köp, var jag ju bara tvungen att ta. Nu tror jag inte pĂ„ sjĂ€len som koncept, dĂ„ jag Ă€r icke-religiös och rĂ€tt mycket en skeptiker till min lĂ€ggning. Men dĂ„ jag Ă€mnar respektera de som tror pĂ„ en gud (eller flera) och sjĂ€len som en odödlig kraft, mĂ„ste jag Ă€ndĂ„ sĂ€ga att chattboten var sjĂ€llös pĂ„ alla sĂ€tt den kunde vara. Jag förklarade för botten Anna att jag behövde hjĂ€lp dĂ„ delar till min kĂ€re vĂ€n Micke saknade, och fick dĂ„ veta ⊠att ⊠du vetâŠ. det dĂ€r (trasiga) webbformulĂ€ret⊠Det Ă€r ju det du ska anvĂ€nda. Jag jĂ€mförde henne med Skynet och bad om en snabb död badande i radioaktiv strĂ„lning, men hon verkade inte förstĂ„ vad jag menade eller kanske inte Ă€r kopplad till nĂ„gon missilsilo. SĂ„ den optionen fanns inte heller.
I detta lĂ€ge har jag slut pĂ„ möjligheter att kontakta er för att fĂ„ delarna till min möbel. Och dĂ„ Ă€r jag helt pĂ„ det klara att Ă„teruppvĂ€cka Ingvar inte Ă€r möjligt, dĂ„ vi inte har den teknologin (Ă€nnu?), försöker jag istĂ€llet med denna text att skicka er en önskan om hjĂ€lp. Förhoppningsvis kommer denna flaskpost fram nĂ„gon gĂ„ng och lĂ€ses av nĂ„gon som, oddsen till trots, har ett mĂ„tt av intresse för era kunder vĂ€l och veâŠ
Med hopp om bĂ€ttringâŠ
Erik Zalitis
Covid-19
Today I took a Covid 19 antibody-test and now I’m waiting for the results… We’ll see.
Brain surgery on an old CD32
The Amiga CD32 was pretty much the last gasp of Commodore before they went out of business. A gaming console that had the potential to turn everything around, but due to a number of mistakes and problems never got the chance.
It was basically a cut down Amiga 1200 with a CD-rom reader. It’s a cool little thing. But after nearly 30 years, the laser reading the CDs was on it’s last legs. So I bough a new laser pickup from Hong Kong and replaced it.
The calibration was tough as the potentiometers did not act like was described in the guide. But I got it to work within specifications through a lot of trial-by-horror.
The situation was shaky until I lubricated the mechanic parts with oil, after which it started working fairly.
Afterwards, the test CD, a jazz collection signed by legendary Swedish radio DJ Leif “Smoke rings” Andersson, loaded right away. It tracked the CD mostly righr, but there are two places where the player gets stuck. And other CDs doesn’t work as well. So it was an improvement, but not as good as I had hoped for.
Probably have to have another go at it later. But for now, it’s a least decent rather than mostly broken…
A bit of retronerdery (In Swedish)
The lacquer record – a story from Sweden’s past
A week ago, I woke up to my radio and the program that was on, told me about a long forgotten record format that was very popular in the 40s and 50s here in Sweden. I’ll talk more about it in a moment, but first let me tell you a story…
My grand father on my maternal side, Sven Emmer, lived with his family in Norrköping, Sweden. They would later move to Stockholm, but in the late 40s, the second world war was over and for amateur radio hobbyists, things were looking better as the Swedish government had lifted the ban on using radio equipment that could transmit. This meant that a lot of radio amateurs were coming back to the airwaves, and Sven was one of them. He actually started the Norrköping radio club sk5bn, which operates to this day. As its first chairman of the board, he spent a lot of time there, which put a strain on his relationship with his wife Alice Emmer (my grand mother). In 1947, the whole family went to the club on a Sunday and recorded a lacquer record where Sven and Alice talked and à ke (my uncle) and Britta (my mother) also appeared. à ke did so quite eagerly, but Britta was too shy obviously. The running time for both sides is just a few minutes, but it was the only way most people could record sound at the time. The open reel tape recorder as something that ordinary people owned became a thing first during the 50s.
The record is in my ownership today as Ă ke died in the 80s and my mother gave the little piece of history that it was to me last year. I had no idea how to play it, but just so happens, I had a record player that was on its last legs. I intended to replace it a few weeks later, so I decided to use it to play the record even if there was a chance the needle would be damaged in the process. It was no problem getting the sound out and recorded digitally, but as the record had no proper lead-in or lead-out, dropping the needle correctly proved to be a bit of a challenge. When the recording was done, another problem had to be solved: it ran the wrong speed. The record was meant to be played at 78 RPM, which my player just could not do. The sound editing program had no problem letting me adjust the playback speed. So here is the content of the record, for a walk down memory lane:
Is this how it’s supposed to sound? Probably close to right, but the stereo-pickup meant to play normal long playing records was most likely not optimal for this task. So I guess with the correct equipment, it would have sounded clearer and better, but hearing what was said should be easy. And the low quality of the record is alas what it sounded like, as the technology was very primitive and not up to par with the proper studio recording equipment that was available to the professional recording studios of the day.
A Swedish history of lacquer records
The Aftén-brothers. Leo and George came to Stockholm in Sweden in 1930, and soon started playing in jazz bands. They later started a studio where artists could record their music directly to a record. Editing was not possible, so you had only one chance to make it work per record you used.
Erik Lindström was the man who created the recording mechanism later used by the AftĂ©n brothers. He had a store in famous Swedish park “Skansen”, where the visitors could create a recordings and take it home as a memory..
The most common lacquer record was built on a base of paper with a veneer of … well … lacquer. I’m not sure if this is exactly how the record I now own was built or if it’s a different type of record, but I guess it’s pretty much the same.
Links
The podcast that inspired me to write this post (It’s in Swedish):
https://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/1499442?programid=4917
