BS: DIY errors

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 01:56 AM

Hacker Sick Codes says cybersecurity in agtech is no game after viral John Deere tractor hack

It's a long article but....

"An Australian hacker has fired a warning shot at the security of computerised farm equipment after breaking into the controls of a John Deere tractor to install the video game DOOM."

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 05:09 AM

Methinks it was inevitable that John Deere would cite "national security" for their tractors' firmware: some agricultural kit was stolen from Ukraine by the Russians, but it was traced and remotely disabled. If that makes the remote-bricking parts of said firmware a weapon of war, would playing Doom on it be treason?

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 10:04 AM

Yes, Helen, that particular hack is why I heard the story about John Deere and it occurred to me for here. I hadn't seen the story about the Russian theft, but it's good they could trace and brick the equipment. (An aside - my ex's ID was stolen after a breach of an account at the corporate level a while back. Someone got that info and walked into a Verizon store and bought 4 fully-loaded iPhones with service plans and all they had to do to walk out was pay the tax. The bill for hundreds of dollars on a plan for several thousand dollars arrived at my startled ex's home three weeks later. We figured out how to reach a person in their IT department—long story—and after a 45-minute phone call she bricked those four phones. It was a satisfying conclusion to that episode.)

I buy things at estate sales and thrift stores that I test and repair and sell on eBay. In one instance I found a 1980's "jeans machine" heavy duty sewing machine that was better than the one I was using so after finding the parts it needed I sold my machine on eBay and kept the newer one. (I still have my favorite 1948 White cast iron rotary also.) The trick is that people don't want to fool with these things at estate sales and I know how to fix sewing machines. And a few other things. But I only buy the things I know what I'm doing with because otherwise it could be a DIY error.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 04:29 PM

Maggie, I watch too many murder dramas. The alligator clip would just throw another curveball into the mystery. LOL

Regarding unauthorised credit card transactions, I was randomly reading through one of my bank statements without taking much notice and suddenly saw three transactions for items I definitely hadn't purchased. On checking further, the transactions occurred in a southern state of the US. I think it was obvious to the bank staff member when she looked through my other transactions around that time that I was shopping in my local supermarket and not in the US. I think the perp had cloned my credit card number and created a dummy card. I then had to live without my credit card for a couple of weeks while waiting for it to be replaced. Very annoying, but my bank - as always - was amazingly good and refunded the money.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 02:54 AM

I had to smile watching an elderly couple across the road yesterday as I sat on my bench. The husband tinkers around with his drill, hammer, electric saw etc. all the time. (He's at a loose end). He decided to paint a large red sign saying NINE (their house number) on a rough bit of wood and screwing it to a post on his front fence.
However, he managed to dislodge his wife's much-treasured hanging baskets, and she came out all guns blazing. After they'd calmed down, he came out again with a rather pretty number nine (not the word) on a flowery-shaped piece of wood in red and white. He then drilled a hole, screwed that thing to another post and dislodged yet another hanging basket in full bloom. My goodness, she went for him! I await developments!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 03:14 AM

About 20 years ago I lived next to a couple and their two children. I used to refer to the man as Mr Noisy and I firmly believe that he would go to the tool stores and ask for the noisiest possible tools they had. It was a constant stream of one noisy tool after another. Sometimes I think he pulled structures down just so that he could put them back up again.

I remember one day there was a big thunderstorm with lots of lightning and I heard noises coming from their roof. He was standing up on the metal roof trying to fix something, maybe a leak and appeared to be totally oblivious of the lightning flashes around him - not close enough to get him, but close enough that any sane person would choose not to be standing on a metal roof in the rain.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 09:28 AM

Most of my stories are about fixing the mistakes of others. I spent almost 5 years working in a cabinet shop, where we made a wide variety of stuff...including Corian countertops. Somehow, I ended up doing most of the Corian work. (It's messy and dusty... you often have to use a saw or router.)

   Well, one time we had a bathroom counter to do that went into a corner. One guy was making the base, while I did the Corian top. I had it almost done when the boss came by and glanced at it.... then stopped and took out his tape and measured it. He looked unhappy, and said, "Ummm.. that's wrong; the dimensions were changed, and I guess I gave Bob the change and didn't tell you."
He went and got the right diagram and said "See if you can fix it."

    This meant looking in the scrap bin for a piece of the right color and big enough, cutting a chunk out of the main piece with a curved profile, cutting the scrap to the same general curve to fit into the 'hole'..... then, realizing that matching the curves to fit would require making a plywood template and using it to mark & rout both curves and carefully clamping it in place and doing the routing. THEN mixing the color matched Corian cement and applying it to the curves and bracing and clamping it in place....being sure it was level.
   Then when it was dry, carefully sanding the curved line where the cement had ooozed out...praying that it would not show. Then trimming the patch to match the outside dimension.

   Finally, the boss came by and bent over...looking for the line of my patch.
"Well", he said, "I can't see it. Give it to Bob and we'll deliver it."

Praise? Nawww... his highest praise was simply to nod and go on to the next project.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 11:05 AM

Bill, I spent a few years working for the Forest Service as a seasonal during my college years, and with the hobby of mountain climbing (the course offered by my climbing club was rigorous) that dovetailed nicely with a job in the mountains. It meant I could read a map well, use a compass, do various things that had to do with ropes and climbing hardware - and in general, follow directions. I had the "ten essentials" in my climbing backpack but I had a version of them in my work backpack as well. After a while, even in that male-oriented work environment during the 1970s, the bosses caught on and I ended up getting some interesting assignments when they needed someone who would follow the directions and understand the outcome. This included being the backup lookout when the regular guy needed time off, and a variety of one-off tasks around the district or compound. That continued to the next federal agency where I worked as a seasonal, when they started having me do the campground water treatment system work when the regular guy was off and before long it was my job every day and he came up on my days off.

Following directions and doing the job right doesn't always mean praise, but the opportunity to do more interesting things because they know you'll do it right.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 03:49 PM

Based on your story, Bill D, I'm guessing the boss wasn't good at apologising either.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 02:37 PM

Late getting back to this....

No, he would never 'apologize'. I'd guess his view of his own mistakes was simply to realize them, and correct them..or have me correct them. He was paying me by the hour, so it didn't cost ME any more to fix things, even when it cost him! (and he made a couple of others that he really wanted to blame me for, even when it was his failure to clarify the details).

We had a project to put an entire Corian counter around 3 sides of a kitchen, with the sink in the center piece and one 'arm' longer than the other. Instead of trying to give me a simple diagram, he made what he called a 'story board' of heavy cardboard. He laid it out on the old counter and cut it at about 45º in each corner, leaving 3 pieces to hand me to lay out on the Corian and trim and glue up.
Well, I got the blanks laid out and put his pieces on them, but getting the angles exactly right was delicate, since for the long side, an error of a degree..or even a half.. could affect its position by an inch..or more. Yup.. all glued up and when we put the assembled counter in the kitchen with the sink cut-out in the right place, the long side missed touching the wall but about 2"!
(note quarter round edging would hide small gaps up to about 3/4") He pointed with disgust and took a saw and cut the part at the sink (narrowest spots)...shoved the long side in place, and had me fill the narrow gap at front of the sink with matching patch, like the other one I described.
   I wanted to tell him about the awkwardness of the layout, but he was so sure his careful story board was all he needed. I glowered internally... then a day later, musing on it, it dawned on me that a simple measurement from the wall on the short side across the kitchen to the wall on the long side would have served as a double-check of my layout angle! No..I didn't bother going back to him. I suspect he would have just defended his cardboard toy.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 04:04 PM

Hey, Bill D, you just reminded me of my old boss back in the '80's. I was in charge of a small branch library - my first role in charge of anything - and he was well known for running his own race and not trusting us, especially the women in the organisation.

(In the scheme of things, by comparison to other bosses I subsequently endured, he was probably one of the best because he put the organisation first and not his own power-plays, so basically we worked well together, most of the time.)

But he drove all the way out to the library branch so that he could measure a space to get a whiteboard made and installed. I said I could have measured it for him but he just huffed and puffed, and the unspoken message was, he wouldn't trust a woman to do it. So he measured the space, was busy telling me other unrelated things, didn't write it down, drove back to the HQ, and relayed the measurements to the tradies at the department who would make and install the noticeboard.

A couple of weeks later, the tradies come out to install the board. It's too long by a few inches and won't fit into the space between the door and the corner of the room.

I told them the story and we had a laugh about it. If I had done it I would have measured three times, and double checked my measurements before sending it off in writing to the boss.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 04:10 PM

Let me guess, Bill D: the walls weren't at perfect right angles .... ? In our first house, there was not one right-angled corner anywhere, and few if any of the walls vere vertical.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 04:41 PM

They ran out of right-angles when they were building our house!

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 07:44 PM

The walls were pretty close to right angles... the counter only missed by about 2" at the long end. In any case, a measurement across the room would have told me all I needed.

But in another project, there were walls on a hallway in a legal office that had strange 'spaces'as if for a bookcase or something. They wanted counters installed.. about 6ft. by2 ft.... 3 of them. Someone measured the back wall length of the space and the opening length.. and they were all the same. We took the finished counters down and they wouldn't fit.. because no one had measured the diagonals! The spaces were all trapezoids! No right angles at all.
That memory was useful for me in several projects in my home shop.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Sep 22 - 04:22 AM

My neighbour is a 'handyman/gardener' by trade, so I engaged him to paint all the fencing (about twenty large panels and some trellises too) in the back garden. I had to buy the fence-paint (three large tins). He came a few days ago, but instead of a paintbrush, he brought a spraying machine. Fair enough, but he managed to spray 'Medium Oak' paint all over the concrete posts, and worse still, the windows, walls and frames of the new utility room (which had cost us £14,000!).
He'd charged me a hundred pounds to do this. Luckily my husband (who still comes over to see me every weekend) was horrified, and we went off to a DIY shop where he bought some product to remove the paint without damaging the plastic structure. He rubbed and scrubbed for hours bless him, and the window panes and utility room walls etc are now paint-free.
My husband is so practical and helpful. I wish he'd come back and live with me!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 22 - 11:03 AM

Bill, your story about measuring diagonals reminds me of the work when I was moving into this house I had the kitchen countertops and a new sink put into the existing cabinets. We also took out a hideous large furdown (drop ceiling) with florescent lights so needed new electrical connections for lights in the new higher ceiling and over the peninsula (a new light altogether). After the electrician came in and put in pots (junction boxes for heavier fixtures) before sheet rock was installed, I spoke to the carpenter and the countertop guys and asked if they could extend the far side out 12" to make an overhang that I could put tall stools under? Yes, that was easy enough to do.

When the electrician came out to install fixtures I saw him measure and measure again and scratch his head - then he turned to me and said "you changed the size of the counter!" Yes, I did, and I told him it was okay if the light was closer to the sink side of the peninsula. He'd made a point of centering it over the original counter.

I always have the electrician come out for major things like fixing shorted out plugs. Most recently, there was a loose junction box in the brick wall on my patio that was part of a GFCI circuit that was connected to both bathroom plugs, and I couldn't get any of those plugs to work any more. He changed out that j-box and used enough silicone gel to hold it into place for a long time. I love that I don't have to go flip a breaker on the junction box after a thunder storm any more.

I do the smaller stuff myself. I change out fixtures and switches, mostly. Small things possible by turning off the breaker serving that room doing the work by flashlight. If I called the electrician for those jobs I'd end up waiting a long time till I had enough to merit a service charge and would live without those switches or lights for a long time in the process.

(This isn't my kitchen but you can see the furdown with built-in florescent lights. My kitchen looked cave-like with that feature of 1976 home design, so I got rid of it.)