Television Mag

On 07/04/2011 01:05, wrote:

I am very confused after finding a forum "badged" as the "television
magazine".


http://www.television-magazine-forum.co.uk

Clever, and good for them. This is the way forward to that printed
magazine, use the model of web 2.0 and gather the users thoughts to
bolster the distribution of information. Of course, it's goodbye to some
quarters of paid print journalism.

Youtube - The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Of course we still have usenet here, and repair information is
disseminated on sci.electronics.repair & occasionally uk.d-i.y without
too much problems, if ye have a good kill filter and/or patience. And of
course, the other open forums out on the webs.

I note that on this television magazine forum there is a hobbyist
category for validation purposes to join their "closed shop". What they
probably don't want is facebook like posts - "I think it's the on/off
switch, my friend Mabel had that problem and it cost £70 to fix. Can I
do it for free?"

If anyone is already a member of this forum, could they perhaps point
the owner to make a comment here?

Maybe they should entertain the idea of a geek lurker visitor access, or
add a separate subforum in the way that usenet sci.electronics is split
into .design and .basics categories (for instance).

However, while usenet (and google) are still here, I'm not over there
just yet.

--
Adrian C

In message on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:39:30 +0100
Adrian C wrote:


If anyone is already a member of this forum, could they perhaps point
the owner to make a comment here?


Done!

--

Terry

Interesting comments about my forum Carl, shame you didn't contact me
through the forum with any issues you might have.

The forum was set up in memory of the original Television Magazine and
has nothing to do with the publishers of that magazine and certainly
has no links whatsoever to Technology at Home or the last ditch effort
to start Television Magazine again.

It is a Trade Only forum hence the questions you need to answer when
filling out the registration form. I believe it is important not to
give consumers access to trade information.

I have a number of Television Magazine former contributors on-board
the forum including Don Bullock, Peter Dolman & Fawzi Ibrahim. Bill
Wright has also recently joined the forum.

There are a number of sections to the forum including a paid for
section where service manuals and technical data is stored.

I have arranged many forum discounts for members on things from
liability insurance to electronics test gear. I also write tech
bulletins and review equipment for members. There is a repair tips
database and a whole lot more.

I am unsure why you think you can't join as it clearly states that we
accept registrations from professionals to skilled hobbyists and ex
engineers etc.

Brown Goods Bodgers, narrow minded attitude, stuff you..... Nice
comments, try making them to me next time and perhaps I can explain
what you have misunderstood.

regards
Trevor

On Apr 7, 9:51*pm, Terry Casey wrote:
In message on Thu, 07 Apr 2011
01:05:41 +0100
wrote:



I am very confused after finding a forum "badged" as the "television
magazine".

After subscribing to the poper mag for many years (and working in the
industry for DER, then self), and when it was tech at home then back
to whatever etc, the forum deems I am not worthy to be a member?

I say, stuff you! I moved on to servicing other fields of electronic
equipment, making a very good living from it too now. The old "keep it
to yourself" brown goods bodgers get all they deserve with this narrow
minded attitude.

I only wanted to join to see Don B's service rants again.

Funny, I thought that, if they let me join (which they did) anybody could!

It is more aimed at the those currently 'in the trade' than those of us that
used to be. Perhaps they've raised the bar?

I know the site has been revamped recently, perhaps free registration is no
longer available?

--

Terry

Registration is still free but I am trying to keep it trade only.
regards
Trevor

wrote in message
...
Interesting comments about my forum Carl, shame you didn't contact me
through the forum with any issues you might have.

The forum was set up in memory of the original Television Magazine and
has nothing to do with the publishers of that magazine and certainly
has no links whatsoever to Technology at Home or the last ditch effort
to start Television Magazine again.

It is a Trade Only forum hence the questions you need to answer when
filling out the registration form. I believe it is important not to
give consumers access to trade information.

I have a number of Television Magazine former contributors on-board
the forum including Don Bullock, Peter Dolman & Fawzi Ibrahim. Bill
Wright has also recently joined the forum.


As a former regular reader and contributor to Television, do I qualify?

Problem is in this increasingly throw away age and repair jobs few & far
between, I can only afford the free registration option.

On Apr 10, 3:27*pm, "Ian Field"
wrote:
wrote in message

...

Interesting comments about my forum Carl, shame you didn't contact me
through the forum with any issues you might have.

The forum was set up in memory of the original Television Magazine and
has nothing to do with the publishers of that magazine and certainly
has no links whatsoever to Technology at Home or the last ditch effort
to start Television Magazine again.

It is a Trade Only forum hence the questions you need to answer when
filling *out the registration form. I believe it is important not to
give consumers access to trade information.

I have a number of Television Magazine former contributors on-board
the forum including Don Bullock, Peter Dolman & Fawzi Ibrahim. Bill
Wright has also recently joined the forum.

As a former regular reader and contributor to Television, do I qualify?

Problem is in this increasingly throw away age and repair jobs few & far
between, I can only afford the free registration option.

Hi
If you are or were in the trade then of course you can register for
free. Only working engineers need access to the paid for section. We
also have a firmware jig loan scheme that is a paid for section,
again, useful for working engineers only....

All other section are entirely free.... I just need some sort of trade
or ex trade information. IF you must be anonymous on the forum I can
make special arrangements for you!!! I have already done this for some
members who work for certain companies.

At the end of the day the forum is there for chat and help for anyone
associated with the consumer electronics trade.
Just take a peek at www.television-magazine-forum.co.uk

And yes, the site went through a major revamp last December and is now
run on the most professional software available. vBulletin allows some
great features, to many to note here.
I can be contacted at any time on this email address if you have any
queries.


I am always looking for past contributors and would like to re-publish
as many old articles as possible.

regards
Trevor

On Sunday, April 10th, 2011 at 06:48:41h -0700, Trevor wrote:

I believe it is important *not* to give consumers access to trade information.

Keep them in the dark and treat them like mushrooms.

"J G Miller" wrote in message
...
On Sunday, April 10th, 2011 at 06:48:41h -0700, Trevor wrote:

I believe it is important *not* to give consumers access to trade
information.

Keep them in the dark and treat them like mushrooms.


The caption is: "I am a mushroom - they keep me in the dark and feed me
bull****".

wrote:

I am always looking for past contributors and would like to re-publish
as many old articles as possible.

You can have any of mine that you want, or since they're on my website
you can link to them if you like.

Bill

Trevor wrote:
Thanks very much Bill.
That's quite all right. No problem.

So to summarise, you think we should give out trade information like
how to enter the service mode or how to change the caps in your
Samsung lcd do you??
This will be someone else you're talking to now, I expect?

To be honest, I think 'trade secrets' are a thing of the past. We live
in the information age. Many years ago it might have been possible to
protect a trade by keeping information secret, but nowadays it isn't
possible and more important it isn't necessary. Joe Bloggs doesn't ask
you to fix his telly because he doesn't know which capacitor to replace,
it's because even if he did know he wouldn't have a soldering station,
the physical skills, or most importantly the time to do it. "Can't be
arsed" is the expression in vogue.

The fact is, people these days are happy to buy in skills as and when
needed. The reason is that skills of the brown goods type are now cheap.
Nasty news guys, but Joe Bloggs thinks "OK, this guy will charge me £60
to fix the telly. Hypothetically I could look on the net and find out
how to do it myself, buy in the bits and bobs, the soldering iron, the
test gear, and it would take me a total of three hours plus £5 on bits.
But I earn £25 per hour. So I'll let the guy do it. I'm more short of
time than I am of money.

From being a respected figure in the community with a large estate car
and the magical ability to restore light (or at least width or height)
the TV engineer is now relegated to being a member of a scavenging
trade, picking up the detritus left by the poorest members of society.
Reason being that everyone else buys new if the three year old set goes
tits up. Only the very desperate consider a repair.

Nowadays we throw out electronic items not because they are broken but
because something slightly better has appeared on the market.

The brown good repair trade is utterly ****ed, and will stay that way as
long as China keeps throwing cheap goods at us.

If the purchase price of an item is high enough repair becomes viable,
but diagnosis and test equipment is far more important than trade
secrets. Take your car to the garage and they connect it to a computer,
load some very expensive software, and find out things the DIY man could
never come close to.

In the aerial trade there's one simple factor that keeps the trade in
existence, and it ain't the trade secret of knowing which way to point
the bloody thing: it's the fear of climbing on the roof. There are no
aerial riggers in the tropical jungle, or on the west side of Ireland,
where the aerials just go on poles in the garden.

Bill