7 ms·

I was in my 20's and still had a juvenile/hacker streak. No harm was done. Back at that time, I had dreams of actually owning a 8566, but at the time they cos

I was in my 20's and still had a juvenile/hacker streak. No harm was done. Back at that time, I had dreams of actually owning a 8566, but at the time they cost $60k and it seemed impossible. I picked one up about five years ago for $2k. It STILL has the best performing AFE of anything ever made. All the modern equipment uses signal processing, but that's cheating.

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
> I was in my 20's and still had a juvenile/hacker streak. No harm was done. Lots of us did dumb/jerk things when we were younger; that makes it understandable, not okay. And would the salesperson with the now (for all practical purposes) broken demo unit agree that there was no harm?
- clintonc 5y ago
  Sounds like a power cycle would fix it, so not so bad. Mild annoyance :)
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    Ah yeah, that would make a difference; my reading was that it would stay that way until someone hit the magic key sequence. If the salesperson could fix it inside 5 minutes I agree (effectively) no harm.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  I was at a boat show once and there was a salesman selling fountain pens that would not leak. At my all-boys school we had to write everything with fountain pens and boys being boys we would regularly spray each other with ink using a very hard flick of the pen. Standing in front of the salesman's table I picked up a demo pen to see, and gave it my hardest flick. Ink sprayed out all over the table, and all down the front of the man's white shirt. I ran.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Opportunity missed. Deadpan: "Sir, this one does leak, do you have a better one?"
  - cafard 5y ago
    I'm not sure whether I would consider spraying the same thing as leaking. (Yes, I went to an all boys high school, and yes I'm familiar with the trick.) I hope that in the salesman's place I'd have had the calm to say, "What that really necessary?" and let it go at that. On the one hand, the splatter pattern does not suggest a leak, and he could explain what happened and get points for being cool about it. On the other hand, if there is one high school boy (by calendar or by mental age) who doesn't know the trick, then somebody else could get splattered.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  It is a sales persons' duty to know more about the device they are trying to sell than random passers by. If using the front part of a console you really could brick the device in a couple of seconds using nothing but allowed operations that would qualify as a defect. As far as I'm concerned this was (1) a harmless prank and (2) a significant impulse to the sales person to up their knowledge of the device.
  - eezurr 5y ago
    I have to disagree. Society works in layers and mutual trust, and its not the sales person job to know the ins and outs of the device. Their job is to communicate what the machine does and how to do it. Also, you could brick the device in a couple seconds with a hammer too. Should the sales guy have take down training too? If thats an unrealistic argument, you failed to realize you were the only one in the room who couldnt see the hammer in your hands.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      > its not the sales person job to know the ins and outs of the device We have a different idea of what sales people should be able to do. > Their job is to communicate what the machine does and how to do it. How is this possible without knowing the ins and outs of a device? > Also, you could brick the device in a couple seconds with a hammer too. You could, but that's not what this discussion is about so I have no idea why you would bring it up. The device wasn't bricked. > Should the sales guy have take down training too? That's a straman of your own making, I will leave the demolition to you. > If thats an unrealistic argument, you fail to realize youre the only one in the room who couldnt see the hammer in your hands. You've lost me.
      - 3pt14159 5y ago
        Jacques there's always been the stiff never-have-fun type floating around. They used to tell me I had to wear a suit and tie to be taken seriously in the nineties. I just roll my eyes and don't worry about it.
unwind 5y ago
Embedded dev pitching in with: AFE = analog front end, the part of a mixed-signal circuit that deals with analog signals (filtering, amplifying, etc).
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Which, for that era were works of art.
bitwize 5y ago
A lot of the things hackers did in the 70s and 80s are now recognized as very oof, as they say, today. As to whether "no harm was done", you disrupted a salesperson's pitch and caused him to think the device was broken. You introduced delays and tarnished the reputation of the product in front of customers, potentially resulting in lost sales and hence, lost revenue.
mlatu 5y ago
> No harm was done. ever considered the stress you induced in the sales guy?

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago

> I was in my 20's and still had a juvenile/hacker streak. No harm was done. Lots of us did dumb/jerk things when we were younger; that makes it understandable, not okay. And would the salesperson with the now (for all practical purposes) broken demo unit agree that there was no harm?

clintonc 5y ago
Sounds like a power cycle would fix it, so not so bad. Mild annoyance :)
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  Ah yeah, that would make a difference; my reading was that it would stay that way until someone hit the magic key sequence. If the salesperson could fix it inside 5 minutes I agree (effectively) no harm.
kingcharles 5y ago
I was at a boat show once and there was a salesman selling fountain pens that would not leak. At my all-boys school we had to write everything with fountain pens and boys being boys we would regularly spray each other with ink using a very hard flick of the pen. Standing in front of the salesman's table I picked up a demo pen to see, and gave it my hardest flick. Ink sprayed out all over the table, and all down the front of the man's white shirt. I ran.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Opportunity missed. Deadpan: "Sir, this one does leak, do you have a better one?"
- cafard 5y ago
  I'm not sure whether I would consider spraying the same thing as leaking. (Yes, I went to an all boys high school, and yes I'm familiar with the trick.) I hope that in the salesman's place I'd have had the calm to say, "What that really necessary?" and let it go at that. On the one hand, the splatter pattern does not suggest a leak, and he could explain what happened and get points for being cool about it. On the other hand, if there is one high school boy (by calendar or by mental age) who doesn't know the trick, then somebody else could get splattered.
jacquesm 5y ago
It is a sales persons' duty to know more about the device they are trying to sell than random passers by. If using the front part of a console you really could brick the device in a couple of seconds using nothing but allowed operations that would qualify as a defect. As far as I'm concerned this was (1) a harmless prank and (2) a significant impulse to the sales person to up their knowledge of the device.
- eezurr 5y ago
  I have to disagree. Society works in layers and mutual trust, and its not the sales person job to know the ins and outs of the device. Their job is to communicate what the machine does and how to do it. Also, you could brick the device in a couple seconds with a hammer too. Should the sales guy have take down training too? If thats an unrealistic argument, you failed to realize you were the only one in the room who couldnt see the hammer in your hands.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    > its not the sales person job to know the ins and outs of the device We have a different idea of what sales people should be able to do. > Their job is to communicate what the machine does and how to do it. How is this possible without knowing the ins and outs of a device? > Also, you could brick the device in a couple seconds with a hammer too. You could, but that's not what this discussion is about so I have no idea why you would bring it up. The device wasn't bricked. > Should the sales guy have take down training too? That's a straman of your own making, I will leave the demolition to you. > If thats an unrealistic argument, you fail to realize youre the only one in the room who couldnt see the hammer in your hands. You've lost me.
    - 3pt14159 5y ago
      Jacques there's always been the stiff never-have-fun type floating around. They used to tell me I had to wear a suit and tie to be taken seriously in the nineties. I just roll my eyes and don't worry about it.

unwind 5y ago

Embedded dev pitching in with: AFE = analog front end, the part of a mixed-signal circuit that deals with analog signals (filtering, amplifying, etc).

jacquesm 5y ago
Which, for that era were works of art.

bitwize 5y ago

A lot of the things hackers did in the 70s and 80s are now recognized as very oof, as they say, today. As to whether "no harm was done", you disrupted a salesperson's pitch and caused him to think the device was broken. You introduced delays and tarnished the reputation of the product in front of customers, potentially resulting in lost sales and hence, lost revenue.

mlatu 5y ago

> No harm was done. ever considered the stress you induced in the sales guy?