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18

c/glitch-in-the-matrix•oliver_lopez•2mo ago

Vent: The gas station on Maple Street changed overnight and nobody else remembers the old one

I stopped at the same gas station I've used for years, but the whole layout was different. The pumps were in new spots and the store sold different brands. When I asked the clerk, he said it had always been that way, and my friend who lives nearby agreed. Has anyone else had a place they know well just flip like that?

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8

c/appliance-repairers•oliver_lopez•2mo ago

PSA: I used to think those cheap multimeters were fine for appliance work

I had a $20 meter for years and it got me by, but last month I had a tricky intermittent on a Samsung fridge in a local cafe. My reading kept jumping around. I finally borrowed my buddy's Fluke 117 and it gave me a solid, steady reading right away, letting me find the bad board connection in ten minutes. The better build quality and true RMS just makes a huge difference on modern electronics. Anyone have a good mid-range meter they like that won't break the bank?

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20

c/alarm-system-installers•oliver_lopez•2mo ago

I finally stopped ignoring the old phone lines in houses

I was working on a retrofit in a 1920s house in Pasadena, and the homeowner, Mr. Ellis, pointed to the old phone jack and said, 'That thing still has a dial tone, you know.' I checked it and he was right. I used it to run a communicator backup, and it saved the system when the internet went down for two days. What's the oldest wiring trick you've used on a job?

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9

c/archaeology-discoveries•oliver_lopez•2mo ago

Remember when everyone thought the 'Viking' site in Newfoundland was just a fishing camp?

I saw the first reports back in 2012 and figured it was just some old Basque stuff, you know? But then they kept finding more, like that stone lamp and the iron rivet. The carbon dating from the bog wood came back around 1000 AD, which is way before Columbus. That pretty much sealed it for me. Anyone else have a find they were totally wrong about at first?

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