The Lemon Fool

swill453 wrote:

didds wrote:We have all sorts of "controls" in place over who is permitted to drive unaccompnaied. So driver A tottles around town centres at 30 mph for several months dealing with merging/turning traffic, and pedestriams crossing before them etc etc etc before passing their test. At which juncture they can jump straight onto a motorway and do 70 mph where all the dangers come from behind yourself, not in front.

Hence why the law was changed a couple of years ago to allow learners on motorways.

Scott.

Good God. soebody saw sense at least!

Thanks for the heads up Scott - its been since my kids learned to dsrive

didds

didds wrote:Thanks for the heads up Scott - its been since my kids learned to dsrive

They do need to be in a dual control car with a driving instructor, which seems fair enough.

TUK020 wrote:We recruit Electronics MEng graduates from a leading university, one or two per year, and we usually have a couple of penultimate year students as summer interns.

From scary experience, we do not assume they are safe in the Lab. We run a mandatory Electrical Safety training course every year, before they can get anywhere near a bare conductor.
And this is after we have used the interview process to weed out the ones who do not know which end of a soldering iron to pick up.

Wire a circuit up? probably not
Simulate one in a computer model? that's more their comfort zone

Was much the same when I was at uni in the late 60s and early 70s. Most students learnt how to analyse a simple circuit (little computer modelling in those days) but few knew how to actually design and build a simple amplifier.

--kiloran

It could be worse. We had one tenant who decided that she wanted more heat in one of her radiators, and her dad was a "plumber" (self-described), so he came and fixed it. Except that the stupid cretin opened up all the lockshield valves and wrecked the balancing of the system. And then she complained that several of the radiators were stone cold, and what were we going to do about it?

It got worse. Her dad then sent us a bill for his unwanted attentions. Including VAT (which he wasn't registered for) and the cost of parking his car while he was screwing up the central heating system. Dream on, you goon. Just be grateful we haven't charged you for the costs of fixing the trouble you've caused us.

Then it got worse. The next tenants installed a double powerpoint in the bathroom, so that they could put their washing machine in there. Three feet from the bathtub, and as dangerous/illegal as you're ever likely to get. And the other power socket? It carried the plug for a halogen reading lamp that they'd picked up in some junk market, and which had been nailed to the wall just above the washbasin.

Give me the "can't wire a plug/electricity terrifies me" brigade any day. They don't kill so many people.

BJ

We bought our house from a landlord, the loft has a normal loft ladder to the middle of the loft, flooring chipboard, plasterboard and insulated walls/ceiling, traces of where many many fluorescent tubes were fitted, and has 16 double power points and a tap in it. Oh, and when we moved in it had a hole in the chimney breast for a ventilation tube.

They weren't students, but apparently they had lots of students visiting.

Many years ago I moved into a residential college building that had just been opened.
A few weeks later I noticed a plasticcy burning smell that was easily traced to the lampholder of the rather expensive Anglepoise-type lamps with which every room of this large building had been equipped. Bits of the lampholder were already flaking off.
Yip: 60-watt bulbs installed alongside the "40 watt max" warning sticker.
My tutor was also an engineer; when I told him he thought for a minute and simply said "Oh $%^£".

jfgw wrote:Out of interest, I looked up a few websites for fitting UK plugs. Even in these times of fitted plugs on all domestic things that plug in, I still often wire a plug, for example, if the flex is fed through a small hole in a cabinet.

The line should have the least slack and the earth should have the most slack.

Crikey! My respect to you for using the correct(?) terminology "line" rather than the nowadays almost universal "live".

wheypat wrote:My students asked me to go round and change a light bulb. Fair enough, the flat has high ceilings and they don't have ladders. So I pick up a 100 watt equivalent bulb, the ladders and I go round at the appointed time, my student lets me in and takes me to her bedroom. She asks why the ladders? So I can reach the bulb I reply. OK, she says in a strange voice. It's the bulb in her desk lamp that's broken.

I weep for the future.

My daughter was given a debit card and a small "allowance each month at the age of 11. She was also told to make sure she gets a receipt every time before she leaves the shop [noting she hasn't been shopping on her own yet]. She also knows not to give anyone in a shop her email address, "to send receipts to". She can deal with robust shop reps. She can make a cup of tea, bake cakes and generally understands how to turn the water off in our house.

She knows how to change a bulb. She also knows how to reset the fuse if it "trips".

We've tried to stick to the "fundamentals". Hopefully by the time she reaches 18 and [potentially] goes to University she will have the necessary skills to be able to say she's independent.

However. I am aware that "we" may have a different approach to parenting.

AiYn'U

Its clearl,y gtenerational - for often good reasons (eg molded plugs etc) - admittedly the light bulb change thing is a tad ... interesting.

Nop doubt in similar vein there is scope for "Useless Boomers" that dont know how to troublesho asic broadband failures, use an oysetr rad/travelcard/zones in TFL land, do anything with a modern engine, fathom the intracacies of multi-company bhus and rail ticketing regulatios etc

didds

Nop doubt in similar vein there is scope for "Useless Boomers" that dont know how to troublesho asic broadband failures, use an oysetr rad/travelcard/zones in TFL land, do anything with a modern engine, fathom the intracacies of multi-company bhus and rail ticketing regulatios etc

Quite. Or indeed work a keyboard!

madhatter wrote:

Nop doubt in similar vein there is scope for "Useless Boomers" that dont know how to troublesho asic broadband failures, use an oysetr rad/travelcard/zones in TFL land, do anything with a modern engine, fathom the intracacies of multi-company bhus and rail ticketing regulatios etc

Quite. Or indeed work a keyboard!

or indeed overcome multiple histrorical broken fingers.

hey ho.

life's two shirt. <<<

didds

didds wrote:or indeed overcome multiple histrorical broken fingers.

You had to abandon the promising career in brain surgery, then? So what was it, rugby, motorcycling, or a little disagreement with the Kray Brothers?

BJ

Have to admit that there are an embarrassing number of more modern things I've never succeeded in doing. Like getting a computer network to talk to itself. Setting up a bluetooth connection that lasts for more than 25 seconds before it fizzles out. Figuring out where in hell Windows OneDrive has been putting all the files that I've been saving lately?

Making sense of my online phone bill. Making sense of any online bill, actually. Catching a bus in a strange town, or knowing which bus to get on in the first place. Explaining the workings of Windows Explorer to my wife. Pausing the parental controls that I've accidentally installed on my computer and can't get rid of. Getting a computer program to work. Getting used to the fact that I've got to call it an "app" nowadays. Understanding why Microsoft seems to think I need "Teams" software, or an X-Box command bar when I don't have an X-Box.

My ten year old granddaughter understands all of these things, and more. We do, however, share one inability. Neither of us can work the washing machine without ruining things.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

didds wrote:or indeed overcome multiple histrorical broken fingers.

You had to abandon the promising career in brain surgery, then? So what was it, rugby, motorcycling, or a little disagreement with the Kray Brothers?

BJ

mainly the first aided and abetted by cricket and cycling...

and a total inability to type allied to that phones' wierd retyping stuff thing!

didds

Ah, re student and light bulb...that probably explains something that puzzled me today.

We bought a pack of toilet rolls in Aldi. On the back were instructions, in four stages, of how to wipe your backside properly. (Not a joke, really).

Obviously put there for snowflake students.

Maroochydore wrote:We bought a pack of toilet rolls in Aldi. On the back were instructions, in four stages, of how to wipe your backside properly. (Not a joke, really).

Obviously put there for snowflake students.

And Americans. https://www.howtowipeyourbutt.com/. I can see no giveaway traces of sniggering or irony there, honestly. Or, for the ladies, https://www.littlethings.com/how-to-wipe-your-butt, which contains some important lessons from the university of life. Which anybody who's ever changed a nappy wouldn't need telling.

BJ

Maroochydore wrote:Ah, re student and light bulb...that probably explains something that puzzled me today.

We bought a pack of toilet rolls in Aldi. On the back were instructions, in four stages, of how to wipe your backside properly. (Not a joke, really).

Obviously put there for snowflake students.

or an over zealous legal department convinced that somebody nmight try to eat the toilet roll instead or some other bizarre usage, and end up sueing>?

didds

bungeejumper wrote:And Americans. https://www.howtowipeyourbutt.com/. I can see no giveaway traces of sniggering or irony there, honestly. Or, for the ladies, https://www.littlethings.com/how-to-wipe-your-butt, which contains some important lessons from the university of life. Which anybody who's ever changed a nappy wouldn't need telling.

The pictures are rather vague. The instructions would be greatly improved by more detailed pictures or, preferably, actual photographs.

Julian F. G. W.

jfgw wrote:The pictures are rather vague. The instructions would be greatly improved by more detailed pictures or, preferably, actual photographs.

Oh no they wouldn't. Although I'll grant you that it's probably been a long time since many Americans last got a view of anywhere south of their waistlines.

BJ