Techno Talk
Mark Nelson
How’s your
soldering?
Google Groups, operational since
2001, is also free to use. It not only
hosts groups of its own, but also acts
as gateway and unoffi cial archive of
Usenet postings dating back to 1981.
If you sign up for a Google Groups ac-
count, you can use this to read and
post to Usenet groups. However, many
groups that began at Google Groups
have now migrated elsewhere.
The new host of choice was Yahoo
Groups, established under that name in- It became extremely popular but
then lost its glitter after the platform
started to act very erratically following
concerted hacking attacks. Users’ email
addresses and passwords were stolen
and resold on a grand scale, leading
to a mass exodus of groups to pastures
new. Many were re-established on the
Groups.io platform, launched in 2014
to much acclaim.
Engage BS alert now
With all of the foregoing, commercial
sponsorship was unobtrusive to the us-
ers but some newcomer group hosting
organisations have opted for more ag-
gressive advertising, such as Tapatalk,
which entered the fray in 2017. Reading
advertisements is probably a reasonable
price to pay for free-to-use forums (or
fora, if you prefer), if you don’t mind
having your intelligence insulted from
time to time. I don’t mind too much,
but the ads are not very well curated
or selected, meaning you will be of-
fered electronic gizmos such as the
SkylinkTV antenna that lets you watch
all of your favourite TV channels ‘for
free’. It’s nothing to do with Sky TV
and, with over 1.5 million units sold
worldwide, it: ‘Offers a more reliable
and technologically advanced antenna
than almost any other on the market.
That means more channels, movies and
shows for free, without any subscrip-
tion and in a completely legal way. It’s
developed with military technology too
and its use is entirely legal since the
television operators themselves dis-
tribute the signal completely free of
charge. Obviously television operatorsdo not like it at all, but they cannot do
anything about it. They are required by
law to maintain this signal. And now,
with advanced antennas like SkyLink
Antenna, you can fi nally capture it.’Dodgy claims
The ‘amazing’ SkyLink Antenna costs
$36 plus postage and import taxes
(which cost a small fortune). You also
need to be aware that it’s an indoor an-
tenna (we all know how fabulously well
those work!) and it will not pick up US
channels in Europe, despite the mis-
leading claims. Independent reviews
(http://bit.ly/pe-may19-tt3) are univer-
sally negative and of course viewing
premium programmes without pay-
ment is legal neither Stateside nor here
in Europe. To read their extravagant
claims go to: http://bit.ly/pe-may19-
tt2 and read item 2. Or see the same
product on Amazon for £9.69 (search
for VicTsing Freeview antenna). Spoiler
alert: 96 disappointed customers gave
it negative reviews on Amazon UK.Toilet humour
Now go to item 11 on the same web
page and you’ll find something far
more useful: an electronic ‘Glow Bowl’
that will transform any toilet into a
multi-hued nightlight, changing colour
constantly. It’s awesome, it’s ‘motion-
activated’ (!) and it lights up the most
important part of late-night relief, with
a soft glow that doesn’t wake up any-
one else. It even features a built-in air
freshener that leaves your bathroom
smelling great. Mmm, nice.
Credit where it’s due: this time the
advertisement is tailored to the British
market and lets you pay just £15.62,
using PayPal. But my sleuthing discov-
ered a better deal on Amazon, where it
costs (wait for it) £2.36 delivered free
(search for Sumbay nightlight).Compliance notice
Other brands of novelty gifts are avail-
able and products mentioned here are
not endorsed by this magazine. 100%
guaranteed not to contain nuts, probably.I
n February, IPC (no, not the
originalpublisher of this magazine,
but the global trade association serv-
ing the printed board and electronics
assembly industries, their customers
and suppliers) hosted the world’s fi rst
hand-soldering and re-working champi-
onship. Staged in San Diego, California,
it was won, within the allotted time of
75 minutes, by Ryosuke Matsunami of
Japan, gaining him a $1,000 prize and
a perfect score of 634 points, achieved
without a single error. Contestants repre-
sented Britain, China, France, Germany,
India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea,
Vietnam and Thailand. All competitors
were tested with a fully functional sol-
dered assembly, from which they were
required to remove six specifi c compo-
nents, remove old solder and clean the
area of removed components.
Do try this at home?
If you fancy an even tougher challenge,
the ‘SMD Challenge’ might appeal. It’s
for seriously advanced builders only
(fi nd more at http://bit.ly/pe-may19-
tt1). Be warned that this kit involves
hand-soldering an 0201 SMD pack-
age, which is only slightly larger than
a grain of sand. There is also a ‘Misery
Edition’ that uses even smaller 0805
packages and a QFN20 chip, which is
much harder to hand solder. Neither I
nor the publisher of this magazine ac-
cept any liability for your subsequent
sanity damage.
Free advice
Nothing lasts forever and there’s no
such thing as a free lunch. There you
go: two truisms and nothing to pay for
these wise words. But what else do you
get for nothing? Well, there’s Usenet,
the fi rst free online host for discussion
forums, and I was just going to tell you
when it fi nally bit the dust. But to my
amazement, I see that it’s still going and
has done since 1980, predating public
use of the Internet by nine years. But
as Wikipedia concedes, Usenet has di-
minished in importance versus Internet
forums, blogs and mailing lists.
Not bad? That’s admirable, but have you considered taking it up as a competitive sport? Soldering (or
‘welding’ as many of those English-not-a-fi rst-language eBay ads like to call it) is not yet recognised by the
international Olympics committee, but that day will surely come and some folk already take the challenge
very seriously. Even better, you can improve your prowess at home, so what’s not to like? Read on, get
some philosophical instruction and prepare to have your intelligence insulted, all at no cost to you.