Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!

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Anonymous

Anonymous

I'm sorry, man. That's a rough feeling. If you want interview tips, let me know. I've been through and given a lot of them.
Yeah, I could definitely use some tips. But a lot of my issues were lack of knowledge which upsets me more. Also it was a phone interview and I hate talking on the phone for extended periods of time.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Fun size almond joys only have one almond per bar.
A fact for which I was very thankful as a child. I love coconut, but I didn't like almonds back then. In fact, I learned to like dark chocolate because I'd trade with my sisters, getting Mounds in return.

I wonder how much of my taste in sweets was shaped by trading with my sisters. I learned to like licorice almost the same way, only I'd trade them at two (or more) licorice for one of another color.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
You need better tools if long fingernails are useful...
My stubby, sausage-like fingers are not the best for the fine dexterity needed to arrange the colors in order before inserting them into the connector. Longer fingernails (relatively speaking that is) help me more easily keep the wires in order and "unbend" them so they play nice.

Orange and white orange, green and white blue, blue and white green, brown and white brown. Whee.
 
I try to keep a couple mm of useful bit for things like removing coin batteries or JSTs and such, but invariably the day I shorten/file, I will bust one on something stupid and have to live with the snag until I can get to a file (or else bite it ragged).

--Patrick
 
I wanted to watch a DVD this morning before work. My Blu-Ray Player's battery is dead. There are no other working AAA batteries in the house!

What the hell is it with making a remote control with only one bloody battery? No wonder it only held up to a week's heavy use.

Now I have to go to a store to buy a single AAA battery.
 
I wanted to watch a DVD this morning before work. My Blu-Ray Player's battery is dead. There are no other working AAA batteries in the house!

What the hell is it with making a remote control with only one bloody battery? No wonder it only held up to a week's heavy use.

Now I have to go to a store to buy a single AAA battery.
For a temporary fix, roll the battery rapidly back and forth while it is still seated in the slot. You can give it a tiny charge from your mechanical action.
 
Most remotes are thin where you press/hold it, but have a thicker portion up front where the IR emitter is located, presumably so that if it is set on a flat surface, it will be angled slightly upwards for the convenience of the user (and to have more room to put the emitter board. So why can't that front portion be where the battery is located? And why can't that battery be a C cell or something with a little longer lifespan??

--Patrick
 
Wait, are you being serious? The only thing spinning the battery inside the holder might do for you is clean the contacts. It absolutely won't charge the battery. I suppose the heat from your hands might give a brief barely measurable boost to the current output as the battery warms up.

But the "mechanical action" will not generate a current or voltage at all, never mind provide a small charge to the battery.
It at best gives it a little static charge.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Hey, say what you will, I've gained WEEKS of power in remotes just by swapping the two batteries' positions in the remote when they were supposedly "dead."
 
No, not even that is generated, and even if it were, how do you magically get the static charge that exists on the outside of the plastic coating on the outside of the battery to migrate to the cell in a way that would result in a charge?

This is assuming that rubbing the plastic covering the battery against the plastic of the holder generates a charge, which it shouldn't. Particularly since your hand is conducting any charge the plastic on the battery gains as you roll it back and forth.

I suppose that it's possible that the plastic battery holder inside the remote might gain a net charge, but again how does it know to migrate in the correct direction to provide current for the remote?

But even if you generated a static charge, you're talking about a very high voltage and very low current, very little power overall. Even if you could somehow direct the positive charge to the positive battery contact, and the negative to the negative, it wouldn't power the remote until it had enough power to damage the remote due to the high voltage.

I still don't see it working.

If it has worked for you in the past, then the are probably three things at play:

- contact cleaning due to the mechanical rubbing of the battery contacts against the holder contacts
- battery warming due to the contact with the hand while performing a vigorous activity
- battery resting. After a period of rest a battery will rebound a little bit and may release more current than it did when under constant use
The friction occurs at the contacts, not the outside of the battery.
 
Hey, say what you will, I've gained WEEKS of power in remotes just by swapping the two batteries' positions in the remote when they were supposedly "dead."
I'm going to go with increased current flow due to lowered resistance at contact points after mechanical removal of tarnish, myself.
For instance, I doubt you could increase the pulling capacity of a train by swapping the pull and push engines.

--Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'm going to go with increased current flow due to lowered resistance at contact points after mechanical removal of tarnish, myself.
For instance, I doubt you could increase the pulling capacity of a train by swapping the pull and push engines.

--Patrick
Yeah, it really only works with electronics with a short duration low power draw, like pushing a button on a remote to fire a microsecond of IR data. Anything that does actual mechanical work is no-go.[DOUBLEPOST=1382559645,1382559564][/DOUBLEPOST]
This we can test. Coat both the battery terminals and the holder contacts with gold plating. Then, once they die, switch them and see if they continue to have life beyond the swap.
Buddy, Gold is $1350 an ounce right now. I'm content to leave this in the realm of apocrypha for now.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_electricity

"A static electric charge is created whenever two surfaces contact and separate, and at least one of the surfaces has a high resistance to electrical current (and is therefore an electrical insulator). "

Doesn't work if both surfaces are conductors.
Sure. Honestly I am not an electrical engineer and don't have to tools to theorize, let alone challenge you on the whys involved. What I do have is: 1.) Remote won't operate due to drained battery (tested in repetition to frustration). 2.) Spin the battery in the remote. 2.) Remote works (for a little while). If I am mistaken on the reasons for it, then so be it. My advice still stands as a practical course of action (given my non-laboratory testing).
 
My advice still stands as a practical course of action (given my non-laboratory testing).
Exactly. I have trouble with my starter right now. Have had trouble for going on 2 years now. If I rock the steering wheel back and forth vigorously, the car will eventually start. "Experts" have told me that I am probably loosening up the bendix, or reseating the contacts, or rotating the flywheel slightly, or flexing the starter housing, or some other thing.

I care about none of this. I can't afford to buy a starter right now, and all I know is that if I mildly shake the front half of my car with the steering wheel, then I avoid being late for work.

--Patrick
 
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figmentPez

Staff member
I'm going to go with increased current flow due to lowered resistance at contact points after mechanical removal of tarnish, myself.
For instance, I doubt you could increase the pulling capacity of a train by swapping the pull and push engines.

--Patrick
I've tested a pair of batteries that had been used together in a device, and one read as having more current than the other. I don't know how it works, but batteries in a remote don't drain at the same rate, and they will work inserted in one order and not in another, no matter how much they're wiggled and twisted in place.
 
No one told me there was a new Alice in Chains album. I'm now going to listen to grinding grunge for the next hour in anger over this.
 
It's still good stuff, but yeah, not the same for sure. Though Jerry Cantrell is no slouch.

If someone were to have me listen to this and tell me it was from 2013, I'd probably call them a liar.

So, I think this video proves that writing this song was just pulling a 'usual suspects' while bar hopping down mainstreet.
 
Is that a ClarisWorks document?
Ok, for those who didn't get it, apparently if you don't have the Flash plug-in installed, the embedded YouTube links show up as a block of garbage text, which is what I saw on another computer instead of the Alice in Chains video waiting to be clicked.

--Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Ok, for those who didn't get it, apparently if you don't have the Flash plug-in installed, the embedded YouTube links show up as a block of garbage text, which is what I saw on another computer instead of the Alice in Chains video waiting to be clicked.

--Patrick
Oh. I thought it was saying the neon lyrics looked like wordart or something.
 
Part of me wishes I'd learned a more realistic career path and maybe have kids, part of me doesn't want to give up on the chance of doing stuff I like for a living.

Also, every time I go listen to Tristania, I know I should listen to Widow's Weed, but instead I just listen to Crushed Dreams. Not even the CD it's on, just that one song, because it's their best one. I should lead up to it, but I don't. Because I'm a loser.
 
the girl I dated that everything went so well...yeah...no....asked about another date and got complete silence. I hate people and wish she would have just told me to screw off instead of saying she wanted to meet again. I am only mad because I wasted time and effort on something that was pointless.
 
hooray another whine. I got in a shouting match with a client yesterday over something incredibly stupid. I was on the phone with one client when the one in question came into my office for a meeting and he had to wait for me to finish my phone call. The dude flips out on me about him being there he comes first, I say I am sorry but its company policy to complete all phone calls before starting any other business, he starts shouting "I CANT GET IT THROUGH MY FAT SKULL DO I!?", I start shouting "I SAID IM SORRY I DONT HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER MY BUSINESS RUNNING LONG!", and I end up with security escorting him out. I am frackin moron who should have more self control, I lost my temper when he started calling me a fuckhead loser.

EDIT: its not been my week in hindsight, I went to my boss as soon as it happened and he seems to be supportive of shit happening and he is going to try to mend the bridge I just burned. My lack of restraint is an ever splendid beast.
 
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