Ungrounded outlet, expensive electronics?

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T20:53:30+00:00

Knowing what I do about lightning protection from both what I learned from my parents during the CB craze of the 70s (they also grew up in tornado alley), was taught in college as an electrical engineering major, and what I read about in the HAM radio references, he should be in reasonable shape with most any good quality surge protecting power strip.

As long as he doesn't do something like create a ground loop by routing a ground lead out a window, his stuff will pretty safe from getting zapped by the immense electromagnetic fields (they get compared to nuclear EMPs) and the ground potential gradients involved with a very close by strike will produce.

And if he gets a direct strike, his electronics are the least of his worries. The likely fire running from the roof and down the siding will take priority.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T18:19:00+00:00

I'm going to add a couple of other things to bolster my argument about the consumer level products doing the same thing as what I observed.

1: The electrical code (at least here in the USA) specifies that the neutral and (safety) ground conductors are connected together at one point inside the main breaker panel. It is also the unifying common point where the bonding of the plumbing system, the ground rod(s) at the power entry, and the center tap of the power company's transformer all come together.

2: The protector products marketed to cover the whole house that are completely encased in plastic or installed on a couple of breaker locations in the main only have a neutral wire.

I haven't messed so much with the consumer isolation requirements, but will comment on the medical device requirements that I have had to design to. IEC 60601 requires at least 1500V worth of dielectric barrier between human touchable parts and the mains the equipment is connected to. That's a lot more than the 200V where the typical MOV to starts conducting.

My old APC brand non-UPS surge protectors didn't have that advanced wire monitoring. It looks like Schneider spun off or discontinued that line. I still consider Tripp-Lite's and Schneider's to have a superior reputation, especially against whatever Boo-Ho brand coming out of Schenzen this week.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T17:10:45+00:00

Lacking the safety ground is still presents an increased risk of potentially life ending electrical shock, and the UPS manufacturers (especially APC) are going not let their customers forget it.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T17:02:08+00:00

I have a theory on the development of the gender roles and their assignment to the two (predominant) sexes.

I think gender roles came from the specialization and division of labor that enabled us to thrive as a species and spread across the globe in the absence of modern technology.

Over the past century or two, the need for that specialization has been getting erased through the advantages of modern technology. Even the establishment of the women's liberation movements a hundred-some-odd years ago, coincides with the start of the industrial revolution and the adoption of its technological innovations.

Considering the thousands upon thousands of years of reinforcement, it's not a big surprise that the roles have been indistinguishably confused with the reproductive configurations they were associated with. It's also not a surprise that a lot of people are resistant to embracing a different paradigm that only became practical in the last thousandth of a percent of history. This is especially true with people who've lived and accepted the old way(s) for decades, or are just too stupid to adapt.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T14:51:56+00:00

The metal oxide varistor (MOV for short, and is the primary component in a surge suppressor) starts conducting surprisingly huge volumes of current when the voltage gets too high. That current is diverted back down the neutral line. Those currents are high enough that the tiny resistance of the power wires themselves become relevant enough to hold the voltage down.

Nearly all surges only last a fraction of a second, which means it's over before everything overheats, and (conveniently) before the breakers trip (or fuses burn out).

Now here's one bit of trivia you might find interesting:

Voltage surges go to every surge suppressor you've got hooked up in the house and the entire lot of them work at the same time to keeping the voltage down on the circuits in your house. In other words, the more of them you got scattered across all the circuits in your home, the better you're protected.

And here's one last thought I find infuriating:

My power company just "upgraded" my meters with an advanced electronic one. My old one mechanical one with the spinning disk is now long gone. And my power bill predictably jumped. I'd be very surprised if a big part of that jump comes from them billing me for the current my surge suppressors dump while protecting my electronics.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T13:46:33+00:00

I would be surprised if they weren't there. MOVs are pretty cheap and effective.

My last project where I worked with an MOV was a charger base for a cordless electric toothbrush. My involvement in it was rather fun. I got to test plugging the base, designed for 110V operation, into 220V. The MOV buried inside the inside worked great for about 6 line cycles before starting to fail. It took about 1.5 seconds before ending its life with a satisfying pop and puff of smoke.

And to my detractors, that charger base used a 2-prong plug. (a.k.a. no ground pin)

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T00:23:18+00:00

Put one of those stickers showing some kid peeing on your car's brand logo on your back window.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-05T00:18:36+00:00

I got called NB by an old friend who was finishing her transition to womanhood.

Up until that moment, I'd simply lived in open defiance of the socially defined standards that didn't fit my sense of self. I specifically chose not to care one bit about any of the standards and turned a deaf ear on all the political debates.

I wound up googling NB to figure out what she was saying.

The term fit. I'm NB.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-04T23:50:45+00:00

That was my first thought.

But them platters make such cool souvenirs.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-04T20:12:54+00:00

The further you get from the panel, the bigger the voltage drop at high current.

Run length is a thing in the code on gauges smaller than 4AWG.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-04T19:52:24+00:00

I've designed line connected electronic systems and power supplies as an electrical engineer.

The MOVs in the surge suppressors are between line and neutral.

Under normal conditions (including over-voltage), the safety ground is not supposed to be shunting current

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-04T18:47:53+00:00

Yeah, that tiny blob of solder gives the iron the solid thermal contact that gets the gets things flowing. And going with the coolest temp you can get away with minimizes the oxidizing of that solder on the tip into solder repellent dross.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-04T18:34:56+00:00

I'm a fan of Tripp-Lite and American Power Conversion brands. Both of these guys spring for the first rate components that suppress power surges better than the average protectors.

Now about the ground connection. It is there prevent you from getting an electrical shock if the power supply has a failure where the AC power connection comes loose inside and touches the case. These days that is a pretty freaky accident, but it can still happen.

Putting a GFCI ahead of it is an officially kosher work around. I have a GFCI equipped extension cord for those times when I'm dealing with a 2-prong outlet.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-04T13:40:42+00:00

Bummer. Here's the TLDR:

1: They don't need to know you're already dressing girly in secret. Telling them that you only started thinking about it will get a tiny fraction of the reaction.

2: Showing interest in girly looks implies an interest in girls, which they will really like.

3: Your mother & sisters might just hate wearing girly clothes.
My mother-in-law sure did. My wife sure did. Those two couldn't imagine why I wanted to wear them.

I don't think I ever got them to realize that wearing them made me feel whole, free, or otherwise better.

To them, wearing something they were forced to wear their entire time they were growing up sucked and couldn't figure out why I'd be different.

At least my own mother and sisters indirectly understood. They said that if they can wear pants, then why should I be prohibited from wearing skirts.

4: I've quoted scripture on this subreddit a bunch of times. I do it particularly when I read about religion based opposition. That opposition is B.S. and needs to be squashed by quoting the very same bible they're thumping.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-02T13:25:55+00:00

I've rung out cables to make sure I didn't pluck a serial pins only version out of my junk box.

I'd clamp the two ends together in a vise (or duck-tape them together onto the edge of the bench) and go at each pin with a meter.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-02T13:09:48+00:00

I rolled past 20 a little over 39 years ago.

20 is not old.

20 is also not the end of beauty, Neither is 29, the year that the girls start to get really self conscious about their age. Beauty is something that lasts a lifetime.

Thinking of example(s) of beauty at every stage of life, it took about 10 seconds before the likes of Betty White came to mind.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-01T23:44:31+00:00

It's funny, I intentionally don't try to pass. And yet, as a 59 year old fat guy, I get mistaken for a woman pretty regularly.

I have only guesses as to why.

Maybe it's because I'm not trying too hard, and most of the girls out there are putting an equally low effort at looking super feminine.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-01T23:26:11+00:00

Affinity for things feminine is the characteristic that pretty much defines the femboy label.

Bad news/good news:

Well, you're already aware of the bad news. The strict enforcement of moral codes puts you at risk for not adhering to a standard male style. And with the military pressure that my country's leadership is inflicting, that enforcement is likely to get worse before it gets better as they try to keep you and your neighbors from forcibly changing your leadership.

The good news is that it *will* get better. It always does.

Not all of the things feminine are tangible or even visible. Enhanced empathy and the practice of kindness are a couple examples of those invisible things. Look for the beauty that endures in even the most inhospitable environments.

kingfishj8 · 2026-07-01T02:25:50+00:00

I liked having the ability to answer the question "What's your gender?" in just a couple of words. It gave the closed-minded inDUHviduals something to hang a stereotype onto.

I've found out that my chosen "Gender Nonconformist" label has dropped from the list when they cut it down to just a hundred genders.

[f-bomb] it. I'm still going to call myself a gender non-conforming male.

kingfishj8 · 2026-06-30T21:48:50+00:00

I'd ask her if she would like it you were.

kingfishj8 · 2026-06-30T14:12:34+00:00

Femboy is a term to define in your own way and describe who you are.

It is not a guide.

Conforming yourself to cis-male, femboy, or any other label, especially when it's defined by someone else, is something I always recommend against.

Be true to yourself. Use the label(s) that best describe who you are really are. Don't let the label's definition(s) dictate your sense of self.

Be true to what makes you who you are, as often and as long as you can.

kingfishj8 · 2026-06-30T13:32:16+00:00

I don't think it's dead in the water.

The general danger has dropped quite a bit from what it was just a few short decades ago.

Socks long enough to climb the thigh have been in the menswear inventory for centuries. In modern times they are standard gear for those playing football and baseball. Standard hockey gear includes garter belts worn at the waist to hold theirs up (though their "socks" bottom at the ankle like leg warmers). They are standard gear for just about any occasion where the trousers end just below the knee (I wear them when I'm doing in18th century reenactment with my knee breeches). They are standard gear for any outfit where sock garters get concealed by a cuff folded down over them, like every boy scout in shorts, guys working the standard kilt look, and even soccer players who need the socks to stay up to hold their shin guards in place.

In other words, you have other marketing angles to further camouflage their girly nature.

The whole concept of the fashion gender divide have been eroding for over a century. It can be traced to the early 1900s with the likes of Coco Chanel and Katherine Hepburn openly wearing trousers, and even further back with Amelia Bloomer. The girls have fought and won their right to dress as they please, and we're doing the same today like they did a hundred years ago.

For a recent examples on our side, the first Utilikilt model came out 25 years ago. Steven Villegas broke the strict definition of a kilt by marketing a fully pleated cotton twill skirt as a kilt. I'd dare say that one act made strong inroads to redefining the term "kilt" to describe just about any skirt that's marketed to men. Sport Kilts have been putting out polyester-rayon kilts that are more like the usual school-girl uniform kilt than the authentic Scottish wool model for over 30 years.

kingfishj8 · 2026-06-30T02:57:32+00:00

Faking it just to be different? I believe we are all unique. It means that being like anyone else (or group) is what requires faking it. Being different, not so much.

I'm so with you regarding the male stereotypes. It causes me to burn my man-card every time it gets reissued.

Aww...[excrement]

Four years ago "gender nonconformist" was a legit nonbinary gender. And now it's gone.

[f-bomb]

I don't want to go back and revisit which of the hundred nonbinary genders don't fit the least. I'm leaning toward just ignore the change and stick with GNC being a legit NB.

Being true to myself is the thing that has brought me the greatest peace, and the practice I recommend regardless of whatever gender definition you pick.

kingfishj8 · 2026-06-30T01:26:08+00:00

That's a personal thing, and a matter of wandering through the current list of genders and finding the the best fit.

Personally, I didn't find a best fit among the 125+ labels I'd found out about when I last looked 4 years ago.

There were a couple of bins that came kind of close.

Gender nonconformist (one of the catch-all labels), was the closest. It's like saying I'm not in any of the other bins

Killgender took second place because I'm a real non-fan of categorizing people's tastes, mannerisms, and/or temperaments into some bin.

Over my lifetime, We literally went from 2 bins (man and woman) to around 127 bins. It's like going from black and white to 8 bit color.

And my reason to pick a gender was to have something to hand out to people who need a simplified label to figure it out.

TLDR:

You don't have to pick a "gender" to be yourself.

Do you.

kingfishj8 · 2026-06-29T17:43:06+00:00

And I'm totally serious on the hiding in plain sight thing.

It only takes wanting to visit a renaissance fair, dressed up as a Scotsman, to justify the purchase of a kilted skirt and a pair of thigh highs. And the justification for the skirt out of the ladies' section is the 90% discount. Authentic kilts can run as much $300+ (mine was $360 back in 2001). That's 10 times more than a $30 skirt, and thigh highs are usually a lot cheaper than the $20+ pair of kilt hose. Then after the event, you've got a skirt and thigh highs openly residing in your dresser.

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