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Wandering Adventure Party

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  3. Notes for Americans:

Notes for Americans:

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  • Cadbury MooseC Cadbury Moose

    @th @cstross

    No, just no. It's a good quality socket (MK are one of the best, and used to be the automatic choice for the building trade), but you have no idea what's behind that faceplate and if it's been correctly wired. Sticking _anything_ conductive into an electrical outlet is a very bad idea. (And a metal door key is probably one of the worst things you could use.) 3:O(((>

    O’BriatT This user is from outside of this forum
    O’BriatT This user is from outside of this forum
    O’Briat
    wrote last edited by
    #226

    @Cadbury_Moose @th @cstross If you don’t trust what’s behind, don’t plug anything in any outlet that you didn’t personally test, no?

    Cadbury MooseC 1 Reply Last reply
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    • Charlie StrossC Charlie Stross

      There are WORSE AI-generated images of how to wire a UK mains plug. Here's one I saved last year.

      HansH This user is from outside of this forum
      HansH This user is from outside of this forum
      Hans
      wrote last edited by
      #227

      @cstross is this a thing people on the UK do regularly: rewire their plug? I never once had to research how a German plug looks on the inside. What causes this?

      Charlie StrossC 1 Reply Last reply
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      • HansH Hans

        @cstross is this a thing people on the UK do regularly: rewire their plug? I never once had to research how a German plug looks on the inside. What causes this?

        Charlie StrossC This user is from outside of this forum
        Charlie StrossC This user is from outside of this forum
        Charlie Stross
        wrote last edited by
        #228

        @Hans It's not been a routine thing for 30-ish years, but the UK only standardized on its current mains plug wiring in 1948 and rewiring the entire country took many decades.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • DarrenD Darren

          @winkleink @cstross Always keen to jump on a bandwagon, I just asked Gemini to draw me a diagram of how to wire a UK plug. And, well, I'm not asking Sundar Pichai for any DIY help any time soon.

          pixelbanditoP This user is from outside of this forum
          pixelbanditoP This user is from outside of this forum
          pixelbandito
          wrote last edited by
          #229

          @DJDarren @winkleink @cstross Imagining a world where we don't have a plug... And in the USA.

          Link Preview Image
          1 Reply Last reply
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          • O’BriatT O’Briat

            @Cadbury_Moose @th @cstross If you don’t trust what’s behind, don’t plug anything in any outlet that you didn’t personally test, no?

            Cadbury MooseC This user is from outside of this forum
            Cadbury MooseC This user is from outside of this forum
            Cadbury Moose
            wrote last edited by
            #230

            @Teenage @th @cstross

            Indeed. All electric cables and outlets are "live" until personally proven otherwise.

            (Someday I'll lift the floorboards at Chez Moose and test/remove the old RLIC[1] power cables and all the VIR[2] lighting circuits. (Previous owner(s) installed laminate on top of the floorboards, which is a bit of a bugger.))

            3:O(>

            [1] Rubber Insulated Lead Covered. You do not want to know.
            [2] Vulcanized India Rubber (same 1930s era), you do not want to know about this either.

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            • Charlie StrossC Charlie Stross

              RE: https://nomenloony.com/@nomenloony/116019280517956996

              Notes for Americans:

              1. Until 1992 you had to wire your own plugs onto new electrical appliances in the UK (they were sold without pre-molded plugs).

              2. Mains voltage is 230VAC, not 110VAC. It'll kill ya.

              3. If you follow ChatGPT's advice *YOU WILL DIE*.

              ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊D This user is from outside of this forum
              ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊D This user is from outside of this forum
              ˈdälfən™🐬 💥 🌊
              wrote last edited by
              #231

              @cstross This thread is great 😂

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • DarrenD Darren

                @winkleink @cstross Always keen to jump on a bandwagon, I just asked Gemini to draw me a diagram of how to wire a UK plug. And, well, I'm not asking Sundar Pichai for any DIY help any time soon.

                Morning SongM This user is from outside of this forum
                Morning SongM This user is from outside of this forum
                Morning Song
                wrote last edited by
                #232

                @DJDarren @cstross Big Clive is rolling in his grave.

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                • DarrenD Darren

                  @winkleink @cstross Always keen to jump on a bandwagon, I just asked Gemini to draw me a diagram of how to wire a UK plug. And, well, I'm not asking Sundar Pichai for any DIY help any time soon.

                  Aaron WilliamsonC This user is from outside of this forum
                  Aaron WilliamsonC This user is from outside of this forum
                  Aaron Williamson
                  wrote last edited by
                  #233

                  @DJDarren @winkleink @cstross here’s a diagram showing how a closed choke causes gasoline to dilute engine oil.

                  Link Preview Image
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                  • Amelia Bellamy-RoydsA Amelia Bellamy-Royds

                    @elaine1helen @cstross Yes, one key point of failure for asking "simple" questions of genAI is that they are designed to generate something original, combining and randomizing their training inputs instead of just copying one.

                    And for something like this, there's the issue that they don't really have a 3D model of the world, so every different angle of an image is like a different variation on the diagram, and these then get combined in ways that don't make sense from a real-world perspective.

                    David NashD This user is from outside of this forum
                    David NashD This user is from outside of this forum
                    David Nash
                    wrote last edited by
                    #234

                    @AmeliaBR @elaine1helen @cstross

                    The general category of “technical illustration” is something that generative “AI” is (for very clear theoretical reasons) consistently incapable of doing even minimally competently.

                    In addition to household electrical circuits, some other fun technical illustrations where gen-“AI” flaws are obvious even to relatively inexperienced people:

                    - electronics diagrams (equally likely to release the magic smoke, if attempted)
                    - chemical structures
                    - architectural diagrams
                    - star charts
                    - really, maps in general, especially if it’s of someplace not super familiar to American techbros

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                    • Christian SieversS Christian Sievers

                      @nygl @cstross great fun. Here's a technical illustration for European plugs

                      Link Preview Image
                      Jan EdenJ This user is from outside of this forum
                      Jan EdenJ This user is from outside of this forum
                      Jan Eden
                      wrote last edited by
                      #235

                      @Sie @nygl @cstross That's how things work in Europee.

                      1 Reply Last reply
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