shop-talk supported in part by Fat Chance Garage
http://fatchancegarage.com
At 11-08-2005 at 00:22, Shakespearean monkeys danced on Randall's
keyboard and said:
>lawsuit-happy California, I can't see how removing the lock so my licensed
>electrician can work on my wiring makes the power co liable if I do it myself.
The little lock is more there for a deterrent to people bridging the
power lines to bypass the meter than for anything else. Most
utilities used to be pretty anal about this, but since most of them
contract the readers or do it remotely, who's going to know. Mine
box is currently held closed by a bent nail....
>Does anyone remember when it "wasn't safe" to wire your own telephone ? Same
>concept, the power company (and their union) wants to keep you dependent on
>them. The REMC was particularly bad about it, they didn't want you
>to make any
>electrical connection without consulting them first, so their man
>could come out
>and screw things up for you. Fortunately I noticed when they
>mis-wired my house
>trailer, before closing the main breaker.
Two points:
1. A phone line does carry some good juice on it - 70-ish V DC
when ringing, iirc. Wouldn't want that in the tub with me if it was
an older, "real" phone (pre-breakup).
2. The best use of phone company service techs was in college in
Detroit. Michigan Bell (post-breakup, pre-Ameritech/SBC/whatever it
is now) sold "Linebacker" service, where they would fix your in-house
phone lines if there was a problem. Something like $2.75 per month,
$5 for two lines. Best $5 a month the fraternity ever spent. The
promised a 4 hour resposne time and I think we lost a phone sometime
during every party.. :-)
Cheers!
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