asciilifeform: in this position ( as in the telco anecdote ) asciilifeform would simply suppose that the public facade is cheap camo , and has ~0 to do with the actual internal wot
asciilifeform: i suspect that if zimbabwe were offered to 'join europe' in the sense of 'get payola like greece' , would immediately join, noshit
asciilifeform: 'grandfather rode camel, i ride merc 600, but my grandson will also ride camel' -- i fughet who , in petrostan , but well-known
asciilifeform: entirely possib that if qatar did not have the brits show up to drill , would be still fucking camels nao
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: from my admittedly distant perch , seems that argentina is even further stage of retardation than qatar -- has all kindsa mineral extractables, but manages not even to qatar
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: reich is just about at the stage where 'whaddayamean, butter, says right on the jar' 'it's fulla liquishit' 'that's what is butter'
asciilifeform: they're exactly == to the angel carvings on that telco thing
asciilifeform: ( and iirc mircea_popescu made case that not them either )
asciilifeform: who ( outside of possib. thailand ? ) has even quasi-working set of royals anymoar
asciilifeform: a la brits, swedes, jp , tourist showpieces
asciilifeform: based on my naked eye survey of the grounds, the mains transformers could not actually support 'adult sized' colo. and usg dun like small colos, they want http://btcbase.org/log/2019-03-25#1904728 , 'all the bodies in 1 hole', so to easier 'we will we will beat'☝︎
asciilifeform: what copper tel. wire still exists in the town, terminates there
asciilifeform: thing was/is 1 of the major local landmarks, not only in sheer mass but in clear 'vhs era' provenance, what with brick and marble facade with little angel frescoes etc
asciilifeform: but there it was, as opaque as anyffin in eltsin's ru
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: the ownership of telcoisms in usa also nominally matter of official record, at least since at&t divestiture
asciilifeform: fwiw thing, from what can be seen through the windows ( in those days built with , believe, windows.. ) largely (but not entirely) empty.
asciilifeform: naturally not, there wasn't a money-takin' hole that could be gotten to with naked eye.
asciilifeform: usg , naturally, but by what structure, can only ask beelzebub
asciilifeform: called up the $monopoly whose plaquard was on the side of bldg. after 4 hrs of phone tag, 'we sold it to $co-nobody-heard-of, it aint ours'
asciilifeform: asciilifeform found out that the local copper telco bldg ( a princely 1950s fortress-like thing, with 2 metre-thick walls , diesels, 8 stories of space , etc ) was -- like most similars -- nao a dc colo. so went, naively, to try to price a rack ;
asciilifeform: this sounds like an asciilifeform episode from coupla yrs ago
asciilifeform: ( won't even touch the subj of how the sovok box designers never even entertained as a joke the notion that it'd prevent operator from running certain proggies )
asciilifeform: or hundy when battery dies, which comes 1st
asciilifeform: when you bought a e.g. http://btcbase.org/log/2019-02-15#1896849 , got moar schematics than ~anyone knew what to do with , right in the box . but when buy ipnoje, what you really buy is... what? the privilege to pay crapple for next 1 in 6 mo...☝︎☟︎
asciilifeform: the 'konsoomer economy' derps are married to not understanding it, so not mega-surprise
asciilifeform: even the 'shite materials of sovok' comes with an asterisk. there was no impetus for intel-style 'market stratification', so if it was overall +ev to have ~all~ clocks use ruby and beryllium copper gears, then all would, had no reason to have 2 production lines when could 1
asciilifeform: the amers seem to have worked from the start on 'how to make the shittiest item from these fine materials', sovok opposite, 'how to make the strongest design from these shite materials'
asciilifeform actually dug up the orig schem + repair text, when was repairing
asciilifeform: the sov item is closer to an enlarged copy of swiss pocket movement
asciilifeform: 0 ruby , 19th.c escapement, rando pot metal for all parts , etc
asciilifeform: btw for added lulz, open an american mechanical alarm ( from any period ) some time
asciilifeform: even my sovok alarm clock keeps to <1s/day (yes sovok made alarm clocks with rubies, thermocompensated spring, etc. i could not say exactly why, prolly same factory made for submarine as for desktop ... )
asciilifeform: heathendom afaik is moar or less bone dry at this pt
asciilifeform: 'tis funny , really, who else has any
asciilifeform does particularly enjoy the maffs thrds
asciilifeform: just gotta find 1 that actually worx..
asciilifeform: optical , btw, will handily do the bolix job, when comes time, with oil-immersion objective.
asciilifeform: ( in asciilifeform's various lives, only ever used 'zeiss' , but apparently zeiss sinking )
asciilifeform: funnily enuff, earlier this yr when asciilifeform looked at (optical) microscopes, found out that germany apparently defeated by jp , in late '90s
asciilifeform: ( incidentally not unlike the proverbial ipnoje , which not ~only~ has to cost 2k to +ev, but to be ~unrepairable and glass cracks if you look at it sideways )
asciilifeform: ( usd printolade press birthed not only 100k auto that's 90% plastic , but even this is not enuff to make their manufacture +ev , they gotta nao also turn'em into chump milking machines by ~design~ )
asciilifeform: imho buying 5k box and then finding 5k of fixable defect -- beats shit out of buying 100k box and then finding that whole thing is 1 100k-weighing defect of the http://btcbase.org/log/2019-03-15#1902627 variety☝︎
asciilifeform: i'd expect on the spot, rather than mircea_popescu brought it in suitcase from argentina, lol
asciilifeform: tho of course it's '10k + mircea_popescu's trained nose'
