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13:18
wave
this chat engine needs emotes
/me waves
13:31
Can anyone figure out what the heck is going on here?
0
Q: How can I replace a light switch with strange wiring?

PeteHere's what we have in the box: (2) Black wires (1) Yellow wire (1) Capped cluster of white wires. Here's how it was wired: As stated above, the three white wires were capped. One black wire was attached to one screw of the light switch. The other black wire was taped to an opening in the midd...

@ChrisCudmore Needs a picture.
My Guess Black1 is hot, black2 and yellow are switched hot (controlling multiple fixtures), and whites are neutrals.
Hoping "yellow" is not bare ground.
@Tester101 if this is the case the advice to him should probably be "call your electrician immediately, you are in way over your head....
@waxeagle Isn't that always the best answer when it comes to electrical work?
@Tester101 probably, and most of us are too dumb to follow it...
13:48
And that makes me think the yellow comment may be referring to the ground wire and not another country's wire colors
It sounds like the yellow is tapping a hot.
Sorry, the black is tapping a hot yellow
@ChrisCudmore That could be too. When he hooked it up again, he switched the blacks, so now the other circuits are switched.
I think you've go it!
Yellow is HOT. Black 1 is tapping yellow to feed other devices. Black 2 is switching the light.
14:21
answered, with appropriate caveats.
This could be single strand apartment wiring.
 
2 hours later…
16:08
@tester101 Do you have to remove the box? Or just the wiring in it?
Hmm. Neither.
You can cap it at both end, then hide it. The inspector does not have x-ray eyes.
But then you'll have a soft spot under your wallpaper.
Just disconnect it at the panel. Sounds fair enough.
Maybe at the panel, but not likely.
Well, where ever it branches from.
I think technically, as long as all the wires are dead, and cannot be re-energized. There is no problem hiding it.
16:16
That's common sense, but the code doesn't always follow common sense. You seem to be the local electrical code monkey.
Just twist the wires together, so if somebody hooks it up in the future it trips the breaker or burns down the house. So they know they shouldn't have hooked it up.
3
@ChrisCudmore If I recall correctly, you only have to remove exposed cables. But I could look it up in a bit.
16:39
372.13 Discontinued Outlets. When an outlet is abandoned, discontinued, or removed, the sections of circuit conductors supplying the outlet shall be removed from the raceway. No splices or reinsulated conductors, such as would be the case of abandoned outlets on loop wiring, shall be allowed in raceways.
So you only have to remove the cable, if it's in a raceway like conduit.
For audio/video/phone/data/fire alarm cables, you have to remove them, or label them for future use.
640.6 Mechanical Execution of Work. (C) Abandoned Audio Distribution Cables. The accessible portion of abandoned audio distribution cables shall be removed.
My SE cookie got a little munged
@Aaron Does the 5-second rule apply to browser cookies as well?
C IS FOR COOKIE
(but kids, don't forget to eat more than just cookies)
0
Q: Is glow in the dark paint suitable for creative usage?

JoséNunoFerreiraI came across the notion of a Light/UV -sensitive background, to perform temporary creative photographic effects. This seems to be a paper/cloth impregnated with a Light/UV sensitive coating, that glows in the dark/changes colour according to exposure to light. I was thinking that i could accomp...

17:12
Apple has just announced that pre-orders for the brand new iPhone 5 broke 2 million in the first 24hrs, smashing their previous record for the iPhone 4S last yea
How many of these are iphone upgrades vs new to iphone people, I wonder
@Aaron odds are, if they're preordering they're probably upgrading
so, 2 million iphone 4/4s/3Gs about to hit the street
@Aaron yup
probably mostly 4s and 3Gs (maybe some odd 3s or even 2s about)
I think I'll have to retire my 3GS but I can wait for the immediate furor to die down
and also to watch out for ANTENNAGATE
@Aaron yup
let the rush die down, and let any immediate hardware issues get corrected
17:38
I found the Klein to be WAY overpriced durability-wise; if you look at the picture, you can see that a strip of the yellow plastic near the tip is almost see-through thin. That is a recessed channel holding the tip in place; all it took was one good drop from light switch height onto a tile floor and that channel cracked, releasing the smoked plastic tip which now won't stay in place even when taped there (because the battery spring is pushing all the guts of the tester out the front). The cheaper green-bodied testers are much more durable. — KeithS 9 mins ago
+1, fastest gun in the west beat me by a few seconds. However, I don't think she needs to pony up for a Klein tester :D — Matthew PK 2 hours ago
Really!
From know on, I'm blurring out all the images I post.
IT'S JUST A FRIGGIN' EXAMPLE IMAGE!
See what I did here:
2
A: How can I remove water-based emulsion paint from paving slabs?

Chris CudmoreA pressure washer might do the trick. Look upon this not as a chore of tedious magnitude, but as an opportunity to acquire more tools! Generic image -- not an endorsement of any particular brand.

I've seen this on SO all the time. They'll jump on a small flaw in an irrelevant section of code before they answer the question.
What was funny was that picture had absolutely no branding information at all.
Buying no-name products can sometimes lead to inferior performance. — Tester101 33 secs ago
smartass
But they're cheap, you can get a six-pack of pressure washers for $19.99
Six-Pack? At costco you can get them by the gross!
17:46
@ChrisCudmore Did you ask that stair question already, it seems awfully familiar
I mentioned I was going to do it in chat one day.
That's it!
Looks like something Mario would use.
Non-contact voltage tester, in witness protection.
17:48
@Tester101 8-bit tester
More generally, is MDF ever the prefered material?
For speaker enclosures.
It's harder and denser than plywood, but I doubt it's anywhere near as good in tension or bending. Does that matter in a stairwell application?
@ChrisCudmore It could if you were stepping on the edge of the steps.
There's not much of an overhang.
17:54
Which would be better if you banged the edge of the step, when carrying something up the stairs for example.
In either case the finish layer would be damaged.
What about moisture? which deals better with that?
I think plywood deals with extensive moisture (soaking) better. MDF doesn't swell as much under moderate humidity.
But I would assume the finish layer would be destroyed under a soaking.
Are these actual questions are are you getting all Socratic on my ass?
I'm just trying to help you make a decision.
Isn't MDF preferred in making things like book cases?
less flex, better shelves
18:01
@TheEvilGreebo Either way you have to turn the shelves over every couple months, so they bend back the other way.
Some people might like bent shelves
I don't. but some might
Some people like Nickleback. That doesn't mean we should legitimize that choice.
@ChrisCudmore Needs a better title.
done
Time for a coffee run.
Talk amongst yourselves.
@ChrisCudmore Do you have to trim the bullnose off the front of the tread?
18:04
Yes.
18:20
@ChrisCudmore I don't see why Nickelback is so hated
or however its spelled
Neither do I actually. But it's a useful meme
There are apparently 98 invisible people in here
@TheEvilGreebo Because it's never cool to go to a concert and be surrounded by 13 year old girls, unless you're a 12 year old boy.
thats a reason not to go to concerts not to hate the band
@TheEvilGreebo I think the count is across all SE sites
18:34
well i figured - but its still confusing
@TheEvilGreebo if 13 year old girls like them, that means they get play on the "popular" radio stations. Which most people seem to think means the band "sold out".
@Tester101 "Most people" being the same as the mysterious, omnipresent "they"?
@TheEvilGreebo "Most people" meaning the typical uneducated listening audience. 99.8% of radio listeners.
@Tester101 Strong assertion! [Citation needed]
Or. 100% of the people who voted for Bush Jr. the second time.
18:38
Do you mean "uneducated" as in low education level in general or "uneducated" as in "generally unaware of whatever the current popular fad is at the moment"?
because in my experience the first group tends to LIKE Nickelback ;)
uneducated as in, not learneded in the topic being discussed.
@TheEvilGreebo I'm saying "most people" consider bands to be sell outs, if their music is played on "pop" stations.
I'm not learned or learneded in the topic being discussed but I like Nickleback's music (at least some of it)
otoh I dont listen to radio in general
You should make good, entertaining music, but you shouldn't make too much money, or have a large general following.
@Tester101 OHHHHHH - I see - you mean the socialists!
@TheEvilGreebo Maybe. I'm not learneded in political sciences.
18:45
well if they think you shouldn't make too much money that means they think they have a right to determine how much money one should make - ergo they think everyone owns everything - ergo - socialist :)
so - by conclusion - Nickelback haters are socialists
I'll agree with that.
well now that we've solved that problem
lets move onto world peace
Easy. We need to get rid of prejudices.
If everybody would just admit the stereotypes are true, and move on. We'd have world peace.
@Tester101 That's awful judgypants of you
muttermutter
refactoring a test class with almost 4800 lines of code
eliminated 700 already
@TheEvilGreebo I have a handle on my soapbox, so I can carry it wherever I go.
18:53
1 class contains 125 tests - the class it's testing is far far too big - should have been 3 or 4 diff classes... just breaking out one piece of functionality into its own class has broken 25 tests
i've been refactoring the test class now for 3 days
@TheEvilGreebo Why is it that programmers seem to complain all the time about "crappy" programmers who did things wrong, but you almost never meet these "crappy" programmers?
the guy isn't a crappy programmer
he's just junior
Yeah, the problem with TDD is that you can spend more time developing the tests than you can on developing the product.
But the end result is usually worth it.
well the point of TDD isn't actually the tests
its supposed to help create a properly scoped object model with clearly defined SOC
Although the principle states that you shouldn't have to re write the tests on refactoring.
18:57
if you have good tests and good design thats true
Well, that's the crux. a perfectly implemented bad design will catch you every time.
but if you have 1 task with private methods that do something that should have been in another class, and your tests have 15 asserts in them...
@ChrisCudmore just so - he injected a bad design inside a good model I'm afraid
So what we need is TDTDD. Test cases for our tests. Another level of abstraction solves all problems.
That's what BDD is for! ;)
That's a new one.
19:00
BDD?
behavior driven development
while we're off topic
@TheEvilGreebo Where would we be as a civilization without Facebook?
If your code doesn't behave you give it a Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite);
I'm not sure egg layers have sex recreationally.
@ChrisCudmore Oh like you'd know. You weren't there man! You weren't there!
Do we handle small engine repair?
0
Q: What could be wrong with this leaf blower?

matchewA little over a year ago, after complaining about the amount of cord I had to use with our electric leaf blower I was gifted an inexpensive gas blower. A Ryobi 150 mph 400 CFM Gas Blower Vac from home depot to be precise. It probably wouldn't have been the one I would've chose, but hey. Complaini...

I think not. See if L&G will take it.
19:09
I can't remember if we decided if it was on-topic, since mechanics don't want it
ot lawn and garden ot small appliance
Not sure it's a good fit for L&G, but maybe they'll take it.
i dont have migrate ability yet I guess
NSFW, if your work has something against parrots
19:12
@Tester101 we've taken other repair questions like that, you can send it over.
That parrot obviously caught teh ghey from Stephen Fry.
You know how they're always recruiting with that fabulous agenda of theirs.
@waxeagle I'm tempted to send it to mechanics, but I know they'll close it. Lazy mechanics, never want to fix anything.
2
@Tester101 lol
@waxeagle All yours
@waxeagle On Christianity?
19:14
@ChrisCudmore I do gardening too :)
Now this one...
0
Q: How can I protect bathroom wood from mould?

HightowerI have bought bamboo fittings in the bathroom (towel holders, dishes etc). I see that as a result of hanging damp towels on the towel holders, a black mould is accumulating on the bottom of the holder bar. What would be the best treatment for the bamboo in order to seal from the elements?

Do we have a site for cleaning?
That's on topic I think.
CleanYourFriggin'Bathroom.SE
But I think it's a dupe of infinitely many questions.
We can put the toilet cleaning question in there too.
What ever happened to the kid with the dirty room?
19:16
@Tester101 He went back to school
0
Q: What are some easy non-expensive ways to clean a toilet?

InquilineKeaIn particular, the exterior of a toilet. My parents tell me to wipe the outside and surrounding floor of the toilet with a diaper several times (and then to wash the diaper with water in the sink several times). I'm really not sure if this is the most time-efficient way to clean the exterior of ...

He only posts when he gets home and his parents complain
@NiallC. Ah. I see.
takeashoweranddoyourlaundry.se.com
getahaircutanddontdodrugs.com
19:18
Did we ever here from that guy that wanted to work on live wires in his apartment?
@NiallC. Wonder if this is his parent?
8
Q: Are easy-rekey locks reliable?

CharlieI want to replace an old deadbolt and handle on my front door, and most of the replacement sets at big-box home improvement stores are the easy-rekey kind. Kwikset's SmartKey seems better executed than Schlage's SecureKey, because you can rekeyable it yourself without having to cut a special key....

0
Q: How do I clean an oxidized steel terminal before attaching a wire to it?

sharptoothI have to replace wiring in a power meter box in an apartment building. There're four really beefy wires running vertically through the whole building and each wire has a short stripped segment inside the meter box and a steel connector is attached to the stripped part. Each connector consists of...

@ChrisCudmore Last seen 12 hours ago. Must still be OK.
@Tester101 I took some more pictures of the ladder:
19:26
That was an interesting typo
Wrong control V!!!
Kids, watch ouf for the power lines if you try this at home!
aww i missed the funny
A url shortener? Could have been dangerous.
Mario vs. the ponies.
That was the "original" one
@ChrisCudmore no just imgur with the filenames
19:29
Hey! is that @Aarthi in that image?
Oh no, you said the name of she who must not be named!
hey wait
she's not showing up as a @ user now
@aarthi
@aarthi
@Tester101
huh
@TheEvilGreebo
19:33
Something must be wrong. She didn't respond to the super ping, and she's not in the teachers lounge.
Her cookie might have timed out
She posted a question on SFF yesterday
Giant panda Mei Xiang gives birth to surprise cub at National Zoo
@Aaron I love your segues.
very smooth.
that wasn't a segue. It was an about turn.
19:38
@Tester101 I like to keep people on their toes
Anyways now that I have the pictures its BLOG time for the warner ladder
@Aaron Sweet!
@ChrisCudmore Sorry I forgot the <sarcasm> tag.
Edit it into a screen shot of Donkey Kong, showing how much easier the game would have been.
Wait... @Aaron Are you saying @Aarthi is not around, because a panda gave birth?
2
19:53
I flagged it already.
@TheEvilGreebo killed, thank you
I WAS SUMMONED
cthulu noises
Gotta love the answer below it. Sound's like those stupid money saving articles in the sunday paper. "Instead of paper towel, just use crumpled up newspaper. I managed to save several dollars a year with this tip!"
19:58
heh
Sometimes they get silly: Vodka makes a great underarm deodorant. Well so does Mennen, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper.
@Aarthi not by me, but now that you're here, where have you been?
Lately? Uh. NYC!
We were wondering about the panda.
But also: I missed a couple of days last week, so the last five days have been spent at the gym or attempting to catch up on everything.
19:59
didn't see you in TL earlier, thought about organizing a search party
I knooow. I have no idea how I got signed out of TL.
sure you dont
admit it, you're avoiding us
I bet one of those people booted me out!
@TheEvilGreebo :o what i would never.
@Aarthi (programmer parsing) ok, which was it, 5 days at the gym or 5 days catching up?
you would!
20:01
@BMitch split time! portions of the five days were at the gym, other times catching up!
@TheEvilGreebo T____T brb sobbing
@Aarthi Ha ha I made @aarthi cry
@TheEvilGreebo (looking for my mod hammer)
@BMitch Do i need to refer you to my name?
i know what I need - I need a picture of evil spock doing the Dr. Evil pinky thing
/me debates if I should test out some mod tools on @TheEvilGreebo
20:04
@BMitch Evil tools?
haha
these buttons really should come with directions
there's tooltips, probably.
hover over the thing
hmm, all it asked is if I wanted to kick him out, so I said ok (evil grin)
20:07
no one makes @Aarthi cry around me :)
The existential purpose of a button is to be pressed.
Haha, I wanted to press the kick button so bad the other day.
@BMitch d'awww <3
@Tester101 and since you're a mod, you can even kick from SF/Comms Room!
welcome back @TheEvilGreebo
@BMitch Haha! It worked!
20:09
hahaha
@BMitch Do you get to type a message to them?
"I kicked you out because..."?
try it on voretaq, @Tester101
I kicked him out because ... "ok" no message
@Tester101 I got no message
you can abuse me, i dont mind
3
Hmmm. Can normal users ignore mods?
20:11
wax is a mod, and he was being ignored
Oh yeah.
Epic win!
sweet!
or as @Aarthi would say, "awesome sauce"
20:13
is that what i think it is?
settles of catan pizzas?
I believe so
omg
awesome
Looks like the top and bottom players got hungry.
haha
20:16
i want it
@ChrisCudmore Why do I believe no game played on that board has ever been finished?
hahaha
Yeah, 16 shots of liquour is a bit much.
@ChrisCudmore Lightweight ;)
20:20
That's the most expensive chess game ever played.
I'm 220 lbs. 16 oz would put me right out in the duration of a chess game.
@Aaron what are those?
Camera lenses
stupid test fixing!
sounds terrible. you should stop
20:33
@Aarthi i want to... soooooo much
:D pawn it off on a minion
the minion made it necessary
lame
you should slap him with a fish
He's in India
:/ lame
you should
go to india and slap him with a fish, while wearing lederhosen
20:38
I'm not sure I can force him to wear lederhosen
while you wear lederhosen
I wish you'd said, "go to india and slap him with a fish wearing lederhosen"
lol
Actually, it sounds like the fish is wearing lederhosen.
@ChrisCudmore How'd the fish get the lederhosen to stay on?
20:45
it evolved into Gyarados
I'm just far too old for some of these pop culture references.
ha.

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