Does the east coast have a ‘go fig’ culture?

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Nearly a year ago I went for a company sponsored training at MIT and got to see the Boston area. My first impression was that nobody in the east coast gives a damn about ‘ease of use’ issues (apparently it’s an artistic exaggeration, but you know what I mean). The signs were often wrong (contradictory), confusing or not at conspicuous places, ranging from traffic signs (lane markings are optional, plus there are plenty of last minute turns at acute angles) to the MIT summer program registration itself (intentionally not telling you where the classroom is located before you book the hotels, and there were no signs telling you how to get to the registration if you came from the back end of the building).

Here’s a funny example:

(In case if you didn’t notice, the buttons points down. Telling the people who uses it to ‘go straight to hell’, hehe.)

I understand the people in the east coast must be very smart given that they have to dance around the mess every day. For me, I’d rather focus my effort developing algorithms or solving engineering/business problems than sorting through the mess to get the basic information I need. 🙂

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Tablet / Cell phone holder for Nissan Maxima 2001

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While transferring to my new cell phone, I found a photo of my hack to create a 7″ tablet & 5.7″ cell phone holder for my Nissan Maxima 2001. It consisted of a tablet (or cell phone stand from eBay as pictured), two large binder clips and a pocket kleenex. Turns out you can use a packet of pocket Kleenex to extend the legs of the tablet/phone holder and have it snugly fit in the dummy space in the factory stereo bezel. The two binder clips was just to avoid the unit from sliding sideways. The trick is to use stick one hand of the binder clip to the gap at the sides of the front panel.

 

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Test instrument repair services (Specific models only)

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There are a few used test instrument models that I’m familiar with the common problems. I moved onto the higher end, big ticket items so I wouldn’t bother acquiring them anymore.

Nonetheless, it hurts to see a piece of good equipment going to landfill. I’d be happy to repair the following models at a moderate rate (materials included, no fix no pay) below if anybody is interested:

  • HP 6515A power supply: $400 for a problematic unit, $300 when you send in a good one for preventative recapping (the capacitors are from 1970s! They are dying.).
  • HP/Agilent 54600 series oscilloscope: display got squeezed ($200), unit losing memory/time ($200), blown input channels due to excessive voltage ($300 for 1 channel + $100 per extra channel), unstable/cannot trigger ($500).
  • HP/Agilent (Older, non-Megazoom) Infiniium series: replacing OS hard drive ($250), cannot calibrate certain channels ($400 for 1 channel + $100 per extra channel).
  • HP/Agilent Infinium 5483X and above: refer to 54830 series post.
  • TDS 500, 600, 700 series oscilloscope: SPC fail without other symptoms ($500), Acq/Attenuator fail ($600), Proc board fail ($400), Color screen bubbled ($500), Cal initialization failed ($300), upgrading all possible software options ($200, free with any other service).

Contact me at 650-804-5024. All units must be delivered to Irvine, CA for service (and shipped back/picked up) at requester’s cost.

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