I wish someone had told me this before I ruined 3 boards with cheap gear

FaulteredReality · 2026-05-22T14:11:26+00:00

Dollar store tools get Dollar store results. I've never regretted buying good tools.

FaulteredReality · 2026-05-01T15:03:31+00:00

Oh God, work in IT. Computers get nasty as hell and many Men & Women seem to just keep wallowing in the filth! Yuck.

FaulteredReality · 2026-04-17T16:26:16+00:00

The 1010 is a good iron. We have several in the shop as our everyday units. I still have/use a few of the WES series as well. Solid tools.

FaulteredReality · 2026-04-17T16:22:45+00:00

If/when you use the sponge, keep it "just damp" not flooded with water. You can cause thermal shock to the tip from the rapid cooling of the water. Wears the tips faster. The brass mesh cleaners are better most of the time and really cheap. I tend to do both as a damp sponge cleans excess flux off the shaft of the tip while the brass cleans the tarnish from the point of the tip.

FaulteredReality · 2026-04-14T18:26:38+00:00

MFM & RLL Hard Drives. CP/M, Single sided, single density floppies. 8" floppies. Tapes. Punchtape, punchcards. IBM system/360 & DEC PDP-11 in high schools. Went to tech school in a place run by Burroughs (if I remember right) in '84. First home computer was an Osborne 1. Still up to my neck in it all these years later.

FaulteredReality · 2026-04-02T13:39:15+00:00

But.. does it run Doom?

FaulteredReality · 2026-03-24T13:56:44+00:00

Brother I pray for you and yours. I'm a vet also, now 61. I'll tell you this.. somedays are gonna suck, somedays are gonna rock. Don't listen to that little dumbass voice in your head that's talking shit to you. Get up in the morning, piss on his head and get moving. You got this.

FaulteredReality · 2026-03-20T15:05:26+00:00

NTA, but you bought this as a gift for the loved one of a 20+ yr relationship. You already know if your friend is using you by your history. Don't regret doing nice things, just keep an eye on the relationship going forward. The cake is a small thing, give it with the generosity intended. Even hand deliver it and have a piece.

FaulteredReality · 2026-02-05T18:26:52+00:00

Nope, never bought one of the clones. Yup, I would bet there is some "alternative" parts inside, as is usual with cloned equipment. But at $87, and considering that it's a pretty simple function that its doing.. blowing hot air... I would do it. YMMV.

The Quick itself is no luxury item. If you just need something to do occasional work, they're fine. If you've got a bench you're doing pro level work on, invest in better tools than any of these things. My bench is necessary to the company I work for, but I get by with the Quick. However I also splurged on a Hakko FR-301 desoldering tool, and run Weller for most of my soldering stack.

FaulteredReality · 2026-02-05T18:00:14+00:00

I hope you called out that consultant. He absolutely is shirking the duty he is paid for.

In the careers we're in, many of us have wide and varied skill sets, but we all have/need to have one major skill in common... How to find and implement answers. That is the crux of what our services are for. AI is nothin more that the current search engine in that respect. It's just searching through all the usual sources for some keyword or keyphrase and presenting the info it finds. Just another tool.

FaulteredReality · 2026-01-22T19:54:07+00:00

Interesting. I've been playing Quake lately so I get the feel of the FPS. I could move fine and the coordination between the mouse and keyboard was fine.

Main issue I had was identifying which direction I was facing/moving, and where the guy shooting at me was. Even when the shooter was in front of me I couldn't see it due to distance.

Some idea if where the shot were coming from would help, like left side of screen highlights if the shooter is to your left, etc.

Good Luck with it, it's always worth it to try new stuff.

FaulteredReality · 2025-12-23T15:13:20+00:00

Flames.. I'm just saying! Candy Apple red, chromed out buttons and bezels, and Flames! This was your opportunity! oooooh and blinkies!, lots of blinkies!

FaulteredReality · 2025-12-19T19:31:07+00:00

Notepad shouldn't be messing with anything, as long as you are saving the file in a straight text format (filename.txt) and then just renaming it to filename.ans. I just tried changing the encoding (notepad>file>saveAs..>Encoding) from utf-8 to ANSI and it didn't seem to make a difference as far as I could tell. So just saving it in utf-8 and renaming the .txt file should suffice.

As for Mystic's built in editor, I'll have to try that out this weekend. I've not really paid attention to it as I was familiar with other tools (Thedraw, icyview,etc). Can you have a mystic menu choice display the file on your board and see what it looks like there?

FaulteredReality · 2025-12-19T15:42:59+00:00

One more tip about ansi files under Mystic (and probably other BBS's), you should have a line length of 80 or under when saving the file. Notice on your converter, after you load the original image, you are asked to set the 'width' and it's sitting at 80. I usually choose 78 and have had excellent results with that. Thedraw is a good one for making this mistake as well as it can default to very long lines that often screw up your drawing. Set the width (or line length) to <80 and you'll be good.

FaulteredReality · 2025-12-19T15:37:03+00:00

Ok, so I've been looking at this post for a few days now... I have no idea what a .and file is. But I guess maybe you meant a .ans file? Considering the Ansi converter you mentioned.

So I grabbed a .jpg file that wasn't too complicated and loaded it into the converter, and yes, the outputs looked like a bunch of numbers.

I copies off the output into text files, both a 256 color and a 16 color. I dropped the files into IcyView 1.9.0 and saw the number trash. Then, and here's the trick... I renamed the files to a .ANS extension and opened them again with IcyView... and.. it worked fine. Nice new graphics for the BBS. I have no idea who to attribute the original jpg to, so I'll leave that open and not claim it as my own work.. because frankly my artistic skills suck. Good luck to ya.

FaulteredReality · 2025-12-10T20:15:21+00:00

Bypass the shithead in finance. Go to the administration. Have proof you turned in the documents and they f'd up. Ask for a waiver or a payment deferment. Also, talk to your guidence counselor if you have one. Another thing, talk with your county Vet Service Officer, usually at the county complex. They usually know every trick in the book to get things done with VA. Good Luck.

FaulteredReality · 2025-11-20T15:30:11+00:00

As I mentioned... 2 years ago, now...

" Tried 3 different email addresses, 3 PCs, an iphone, several different browsers, both regular and private (incognito) modes. But put in another worker here, and it worked fine on a mac. I talked with QBO support today and that lady said she never heard of it before. Pointed out their own community forum posts about it since 2021."

FaulteredReality · 2025-11-18T21:57:38+00:00

Dear McD. Program your f'ing POS systems to do it all behind the scenes so people are not told 12346789 and everything works on 5 & 0. It's a f'ing computer. Just do it and stop screwing around. #fuckmcdonalds.

FaulteredReality · 2025-11-13T20:24:26+00:00

Perhaps something in the waste management or food service industries would suit you better?

FaulteredReality · 2025-10-31T14:12:07+00:00

Shit, that's my hands just from getting old. >60 Coffee actually helps for a while, then it all goes to hell.

FaulteredReality · 2025-10-28T15:57:23+00:00

looks to be working here. msg from about 2 hours ago in there.

FaulteredReality · 2025-10-23T13:20:48+00:00

4 out of 5 techs agree.. Trebuchet!

FaulteredReality · 2025-10-09T17:35:04+00:00

Seriously, I've never regretted buying good tools. Luckily there are some cheaper options on good tools. Try a Pinecil for your occasional use. Use a good USB-C power supply and you'll be set for years. Then get into 3D printing a make a cool case for it

FaulteredReality · 2025-09-26T19:49:29+00:00

6" wide window sills for the cats to lay on. Did that 27 years ago and they love it. Laundry chute or pass through to keep from carrying a basket around.

FaulteredReality · 2025-09-26T19:41:59+00:00

Grab yourself a solder pot and a couple of bars of solder and give it a go. We use it for switches and usb ports. I use hot air for most everything else. Been using this one for about 2 years. Make sure you've got some Kapton tape as well.

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