B D Presents

[yogi]

Normally it's not my nature to brag about these kind of things, but I received two unique gifts to celebrate my birthday this year. One of them is pictured below:

iFixit.jpg (125.97 KiB) Viewed 1394 times

This is a toolkit from an outfit called iFixit. It has 64 bits to fit any screw you will ever find in a computer or other electronic gadget. There is an assortment of tweezers, pokers, and prying devices along with a suction cup and grounding strap. The cover on the right is used over all those bits and held in place by magnets in the corner. The box of bits can be removed to reveal a magnetic surface presumably to sort tiny little things that roll around easily. The whole package folds up in to a roll not much bigger than that box of bits, which makes it convenient to store and tote around. The iFixit webvsite has manuals and instructions on how to fix just about anything. They explain how to pry open those sealed smartphones, for example. Now that Apple has decided to make their phones repairable by their owners, this box of goodies becomes more valuable. Even if I never use any of the tools, it's a cool thing to own.

You may recall me telling you that from time to time I buy Missouri lottery tickets. I don't know how much I've given them over the five years I have been buying tickets, but it has to run into the hundreds of dollars. I've won some of that back but probably less than 10% of what I gave them. So naturally I bought a ticket for tonight's drawing on my day of birth. We'll see how that goes. It so happens that I downloaded to my clever phone the official app for the Missouri Lottery. They were rather intrusive about what kind of information I had to give them, but the app would scan the tickets I buy and tell me instantly if I won or not. There are bar codes and QR Codes all over those tickets and somehow the app knows how to match the ticket with the correct drawing. It saves me a lot of hassle looking up numbers. So, today, on my birthday,given information they required for me to do all this, they sent me an e-mail with a coupon I can cash in for $1 credit on the next lotto ticket I buy. It's trivial, I know, but who would have figured that the Missouri Lotto Commission would be sending me any kind of birthday gift? Amazing.

[ocelotl]

Happy 77th turn around the sun... Hope you don't feel dizzy.

I have to accept pointing you in the general direction of that tool set. Hope you have fun with it. Also it was understandable that if you participate in something like a lottery would not be for the prize but for the public service that money is used. Having said that, When state sponsored lotteries are altruistic and not a money grabbing scheme, they can be a factor to improve the communities they serve, so it is not condemnable to participate.

Again, happy birthday and have fun with your new toys.

* Edit *

Following Gary's response. I've used a Weller WTCPT for chip level repair. 18 years and running, and the only things I've had to replace is the thermal element and the sponge...

[Kellemora]

Wow, that looks like a complete kit of everything you would ever need.
Now you just need those needle point soldering irons like we had when I did chip level repairs.

A number of years ago, when a lottery grew to a huge multi-million dollar figure.
Some guy spent over 5-1/2 million dollars buying every possible combination of numbers.
Naturally he won, and fortunately didn't have to share his winnings.
But after he did that, new laws were written in that state and a few others that limits how many times someone can ever the same lottery.
Since then, many states limit the total number of tickets that can be sold in a single lottery.
Also many lotteries now have so many numbers it would cost 3 to 400 million dollars to buy all the numbers for a 2 million dollar prize, hi hi.

[yogi]

My chances of winning the jackpot in the Missouri Lottery are about 25,000,000:1 against me. It would be insane to buy tickets solely with the intent of winning. The odds are the same for each ticket no matter how many you buy, which is why some of the lotteries have increased the number of combinations to astronomical levels. I don't know about any laws limiting the purchase of tickets, but I suppose that is very possible. In Illinois the lotto was supposed to support the public schools, and I think when I left that state some of the income actually did go to the schools. But, Illinois was notorious for its poor management of it's budget and started stealing money from the lottery for general purposes. Be that all as it may, I can afford to give the state a few bucks more than I have to. Realistically I don't expect to win any lottery, but I do have high hopes.

And, yes indeed, Juan, you were the inspiration for that tool kit. I sent the link to the website to my wife the very day you published it here. I figured I would be making her search for an appropriate gift a little easier. There have been times when wife and the daughters pooled their resources to get me something as outstanding as that tool kit. It will be a useful thing to have, but I don't expect to use it very often. I did a lot of component level failure analysis in my professional life, but I would not want to do any of that now and days. The components are not what they used to be and even if I could see them I'm not sure I'd have a steady enough hand to solder them in place. LOL

Truth be told, Juan, I do suffer from dizziness from time to time. It could very well be from those laps around our local star.

[Kellemora]

I don't play the guess the numbers lottery at all. But on occasion I might buy a scratch-n-sniff card. More often than not, my brother will send me a stack of scratch-n-sniff cards in a greeting card he sent to me. Ironically, I've won more on the cards he sends me than any I've ever bought myself, but never over 100 bucks though.

I don't remember the brand names of most of the electronics tools I used when I was doing chip level work.
I do remember a lot of them were bought through a company named WICO, which were pinball parts suppliers, but had video game parts as well. You knew the end of the pinball era had arrived when they closed down permanently.

I now shake so bad, I can't even write a note to myself and have it readable 5 minutes later. Some days are fair, other days I can forget trying to do anything tedious. When I have to send out checks, I do them on my computer, but still sign them.

[yogi]

I know exactly how you feel about the Mega Million or Power Ball lotto. As noted above I really don't expect to win the top prize, ever. I have won a couple small prizes however. Those scratch cards are instant gratification and not much of a challenge. Thinking back on it all I probably won just as much with the big lotto games as I have with the scratch cards. My guess is the payout is calculated to be about the same number per tickets purchased, but I never kept track of my success ratio. I buy the high stakes cards simply because they are high stakes. There is no chance whatsoever of winning a million bucks by scratching a card. If I'm going to do something that almost is certain for me to lose, why do it for small stakes? I have this premonition about winning. I feel that I will in fact cash in big one day ... that would be the day before I meet my maker. That's the kind of luck I have.

[Kellemora]

The guy who own's Round-Up Restaurant, also owned another restaurant simply named Sam's, which he sold a few years ago.
At the Sam's Restaurant, they sold lottery tickets, and someone there won like 135,000 dollars, and naturally the store got their cut too.
Stores have no idea which stacks of scratch-n-sniffs have the big winners in them, but they know exactly how many small winners that they have to pay out are in the batch. The price of a stack of scratch-offs is minus the local payout amounts.
This does cause a small problem when people buy them while traveling, hi hi.

I'm like you, if I ever won the Lottery, that would be the day that I die, hi hi.

[yogi]

You mentioned in a previous post how the local stores buy those scratch tickets at a discount equal to the payout. I can see how that was likely before they had vending machines to dispense the tickets. What happens now is any winner $600 or less must be taken to the store's customer service desk where they scan it to verify the payout. Then some ticket that closely resembles the lotto ticket itself gets printed out and is attached to the winning ticket. They keep that part. I'm guessing that the store in some way cashes in that stack of verified paid out tickets so that it doesn't matter where you buy the ticket. It even states in the rules printed on the ticket that any seller will pay. You don't have to go back where you bought it. That is a good thing because the last time I cashed in winning tickets they were from various sources. I got $50 for what probably was $150 investment. Somebody in Missouri recently won $1,000,000 and the store where the ticket was sold did get their cut. That ticket was not returned to the store given the large payout amount.

[Kellemora]

Payouts are recorded by the store and the scanned card goes to the Lottery Commission who then reimburses the store who paid out the winnings. I believe this is almost instant into their bank account too.
You can also call the Commission if you have a winning ticket, except for the ones that only give you another ticket.
And they will send the money to you. But I hear that in order to do that, you now have to have a Schmartz-Fone and their app.

[yogi]

I have both a clever phone and the Missouri State Lotto app installed on it. I did not like the questions they asked just to get an account with them, but the convenience of being able to scan the ticket and getting a payout without leaving my house was worth it. LOL There are a lot of esoteric bar codes on the lottery tickets, even the scratch types. I guess using the phone makes it fool proof, which is probably the reason why they want you to do it that way.

[Kellemora]

I'll try to remember that if and when someone ever sends me any scratch-n-sniffs, hi hi.

If you wonder why I call them scratch-n-sniff. It is because you part with your money for a scratch-off.
Scratch it off, the get the sniffles because you didn't win anything, hi hi.

[yogi]

You're right about the sniffing part. But then it depends on the attitude you have when buying the tickets. Certainly everyone buys a lotto ticket with the hopes of winning something more than they spent, but that rarely happens. The purchase of a lotto ticket would best be done with the idea of voluntarily contributing to the operation of the state. It's an extra payment into the tax funds with no strings attached. If you are rewarded with a cash payout, that would be a random act of kindness on the part of the state. And, we all know how kind the states are.

[Kellemora]

Back when I was in the home renovation business, I always opted for 1% of my received funds at closing, to go into a special fund for use by the city, which would be the City of St. Louis, not St. Loo County. The reason many of us renovators did this was because we got a couple of minor privileges for doing so.
The main one was having the inspector come out much faster, so we were not twiddling our thumbs for days waiting to move on with the project. And in some cases, instead of complaining about something, they would tell us what they wanted us to change, and often wait to see we did it, then we got passed right away.
There were a few other things too, like we didn't need a permit to put up a scaffold if it was only up for 3 days or less.
Plus we could keep a dumpster for more than week on the front or back yard while gutting the house, without paying the fee to allow it there.

[yogi]

Interesting comments.
In the past you have gone through great lengths to tell me about the corrupt politicians you have known and dealt with. It all gave me an impression that you were against the methods used by political figures in general because of the special favors and cash rewards involved. Now you tell me that you did exactly what it is you were not in favor of others doing. LOL I realize what you did in the trades was apparently more legitimate by comparison to what some of those politicians do, but the end results were the same. "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Money indeed has the power to get things done.

[Kellemora]

Well sorta! In our case, the inspectors never saw a single dime, as that would be considered bribery.
We donated to the cities general fund. In St. Loo, nearly every fund was specific as to its usage. And hardly any money went into the general fund that was not earmarked for a specific purpose.
All donors to the open general fund, regardless of what business they were in, were given either leniency in non-critical areas, or instructions they would normally have to seek out themselves.
I know when I had my restaurant, we always got a checkmark on a couple of things every single time, and often it was the same couple of things. The inspector would never tell you why either. Just that it does not pass standards.
One of these items was our toaster. It had the slide out tray for him to pull out to see that it was clean, and it was. Mainly because we rarely used the toaster for anything.
The thing here is, all commercial grade toasters have a slide out tray just because of the inspections.
I finally got to the bottom of why he kept marking it. It was not on his certified listing, even though it had the certified stamp on both the crumb tray and on the bottom of the toaster. But he never told me why he checkmarked it.
Apparently Certification requires an annual payment to the state, and if the maker don't pay up, their name gets removed from the list. And/or, the certification was for an older model they no longer pay the fee for. One of the problems of changing model numbers is a certification is for a specific model number.
So we called the company and they sent us over a new model which was fully certified and told us to just dump the old one. We did have to pay around 40 bucks, but not the 250 for a commercial toaster.
The other thing we got a check on that we didn't figure out until right as we sold the restaurant.
There was not a GLASS inspection jar under the hood trap. Our hood drained directly to the grease collection container outside the wall. It had its fire trap, but not a glass inspection jar under the trap. Cheap two dollar fix, hi hi.
But the thing is, if they don't tell you why, it could take forever to figure out the reason for the checkmark.

[yogi]

I never operated a business in Chicago or Cook County where it was located. No doubt the system there was similar to what you describe about the STL area. I already talked about the Mayor Daley Regime and how he was able to claim Chicago to be the "City That Works." A little grease here and a little grease there was understood to be what lubricated the gears of progress in many ways. I know how our alderman was part of the lubrication but no doubt it got even more complicated when running a business.

All the food service people I ever talked to about it have the same kind of stories regarding inspections. They are not clear and straight forward affairs and you could lose you license to operate without knowing why. When I worked with i an IT group there were people in support who did pretty much what the food inspectors you talk about did. The IT guys would come out and fix a problem but never explain what they did or why. Most folks wouldn't understand the explanations, but in several cases a change of work habit would avoid a lot of maintenance calls. It was somehow below the dignity of the techs to explain how things work and how the user could avoid problems. They expected you to know what to do much the same as the food inspector expected you to know why he dinged you with a check mark. Explanations were not part of his job.

I realize the world is not a perfect place and people with power frequently don't know how to handle it. It all just seem so ... inefficient.

[Kellemora]

I did luck out in one way. When we first got the Cebo Pizza Franchise, it was a turn-key operation.
But because it was a franchise, everything had to be done to their very strict way of doing things.
One of the first things the inspector did on our opening day, and this was after the inspections required to open, was to nix our pizza oven, which basically shut us down for our opening day. Good thing our Grand Opening was still a week ahead.
We had franchise people there to teach us their way of doing things, so they too were miffed about this inspector and made a call to the home office.
About two hours later, some Spanish dude shows up from a service company. He spent a whole hour going through every part of the new pizza oven, and was just about to throw his hands up when he looked underneath. Went out to his truck and came back in with some pieces of cardboard and a can a green spray paint. He tucked the cardboard up around the wall behind the gas pipe, namely the brass flex pipe, and some cardboard on the floor and painted those pipes an ugly gray green color.
Then he wiped something all over the inside of the pizza oven plates and fired those two oven back up again.
About an hour later, whatever he put in there made one heck of a lot of smoke, but it came out the back vent and right up the hood to outside. He also had this long arm with a piece of tin or aluminum at the end that he managed to balance in the updraft area of the hood, and said looking good.
He then called back into the home office. Told us we had to wait until after the inspector comes tomorrow before we use the oven, but not to turn it off until we were ready to leave for the night. But he did say turn it off, not set it to low which was what we would normally do.
Around noon the next day the inspector came in, went over the pizza ovens again, then said OK it passes.
The thing is, we never saw him look under the ovens the first time, and not this time either.
After we were open and up and running well, about the only things he picked on us about was the toaster, which we replaced later, a trap in the kitchen area, and the trap on the hood, which just needed a glass jar.
About a month after we were open, I bought the other store in the building and made it a restaurant separate from the franchise operation.

[yogi]

I think those flexible brass pipes have been outlawed for use as gas lines. I have seen flexible pipes that are grayish-green with a clear plastic sleeve over it. I believe that is what was used on our old clothes dryer up north but it's been a long time since I've dealt with it so I could be mistaken. I'm guessing the inspector who rejected your oven at the first pass was an old timer and has seen quite a few ovens of the type you had in the pizza store. He probably knew without looking how it was installed and piped up. I have no clue what he saw inside the over that made him happy, but again I am guessing you were not the first time he saw such a thing.

When I was doing desktop support I could tell exactly what went wrong by the description given to me by the user. Some things you hear and see over and over gain so that the root cause is intuitively obvious.

[Kellemora]

That's another catch-22 when it comes to appliance, residential or commercial.
If an appliance has to be able to be moved out, like a stove, to hook it up and to clean behind it, you must use a flex pipe.
A pizza oven expands and contracts nearly 1/4 inch in all directions.
Even if you hard feed it in the back center, that pipe will still move a little, which could cause the joint to fail.
I should add, there is a moderate difference between flex pipe for home use, vs flex pipe for commercial use.
And for which applications. The small diameter flex pipe used on a gas waffle iron for example is a multi-layered flex pipe, because it is moved around so much. The one to a gas grill is a little larger, and almost as multi-layered. The one to the pizza oven was only like double layered. Plus there is a safety valve used on the feed end of all flex pipes in commercial use. This safety valve is made so you can crank all the knobs of the burners up to high, without the valve closing. But should that flex pipe break the safety valve will shut off the gas, because the flow rate is faster than normal for that device.
And FWIW, we could not turn both of our ovens all the way to high, if one was on high, even if only to get it to heat up faster, the other oven could only be set to 3/4 or that valve would snap shut.
The knobs on our pizza ovens were number 0 through 8. At night we turned them down to 1, and during the day we had them at 6 on the bottom oven, 5 on the top oven.
On our 16 burner grill, we kept the left four banks at 6, and the right four banks at 4. Not many grills had eight knobs, most only had four knobs. But our burners were staggered on each valve, only 2 burners per valve instead of 4. It was a nice grill.
Between primary cooking times, we kept the center four knobs turned down to only 2. And they all got turned off at night.
A grill heats up in about 5 minutes, but a pizza oven takes a couple of hours.

I hear ya, when I was working on gaming machines, and a location would call in and say a machine is doing this or that, we knew intuitively which parts to bring with us to save a return trip, unfortunately, not always, hi hi.

[yogi]

Odd as it might seem, I have recently had some problems with a silent inspector. In this case I was applying to renew my passport. My wife did the same a few days earlier. She did what was easiest for her and went over to the FedEx office where they had a passport service. All they do is take the picture and give you the form to fill out, and that cost her $210. The fee for the small book passport is $110 so that I don't know where they came up with the extra cost.

Regardless, I decided to do it online. The form was a .pdf file that I filled out on line and was able to print out a nicely printed form. The picture was what they wanted per their website. Or, so I thought. I got mine back with a letter telling me the picture was not acceptable. Period. No reason why it was not acceptable. They did point me to the same website I used originally for help and information on how to create a good picture. The size was correct and the color was good and my face was in the right spot ... but there was a faint shadow of my head on the background wall. I had to read the requirements a few times to spot that shadows are not allowed. They don't want you to mess with the original so that using PSP to remove the shadow probably would get another reject letter. So I was very careful about lighting and the angle of the camera and came up with a picture that has no shadow. I think that qualifies me to be a vampire as well. That should work in my favor for the passport renewal, don cha think?