Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

machinehum.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 110 posts

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#101

Post by Dylan16807 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #100
Dylan16807 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many times are you ok with putting your life at risk? That's not the right question to ask. If it was that black and white then you'd never get in a car.

Ok, if you really want a cost-benefit analysis, please state what is the benefit, because out of not bothering to turn the electricity off or not buying some cheap protection gear, I'm out of ideas.

Saving a chunk of time and effort. The same benefit you get from unimportant car trips.

Most people go on unimportant car trips just to save a few minutes or for a minor convenience, despite the risk.

It's not a huge benefit each time, but it's also not a huge risk each time. So don't round just one side to zero.

Also who said they aren't using protective gear like insulated tools? That sentence was talking about electricians after all.

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#102

Post by marcosdumay »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #101
marcosdumay wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, if you really want a cost-benefit analysis, please state what is the benefit, because out of not bothering to turn the electricity off or not buying some cheap protection gear, I'm out of ideas.

Saving a chunk of time and effort. The same benefit you get from unimportant car trips. Most people go on unimportant car trips just to save a few minutes or for a minor convenience, despite the risk. It's not a huge benefit each time, but it's also not a huge risk each time. So don't round just one side to zero. Also who said they aren't using protective gear like insulated tools? That sentence was talking about ele…

Getting a shock is much more dangerous than doing a random car trip. Orders of magnitude more. Switching the power off takes a minute or two (how large is the building?).

Looks to me the OP's friend is just rounding the risk on his life to zero due to normalization of deviance alone and you are keen on defending it because "well, if a professional does it, there may be some good reason". Rest assured that plenty of professionals die because of the that kind of thing. (Normalization of deviance is the large cause of death on every dangerous profession, and mostly done by professionals.)

By the way, the safety gear for working on life wires is more than insulated tools. Insulating yourself from the wire and the ground are just as important.

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#103

Post by Dylan16807 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #102
Dylan16807 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saving a chunk of time and effort. The same benefit you get from unimportant car trips. Most people go on unimportant car trips just to save a few minutes or for a minor convenience, despite the risk. It's not a huge benefit each time, but it's also not a huge risk each time. So don't round just one side to zero. Also who said they aren't using protective gear like insulated tools? That sentence was talking about ele…

Getting a shock is much more dangerous than doing a random car trip. Orders of magnitude more. Switching the power off takes a minute or two (how large is the building?). Looks to me the OP's friend is just rounding the risk on his life to zero due to normalization of deviance alone and you are keen on defending it because "well, if a professional does it, there may be some good reason". Rest assured that plenty of p…

> Getting a shock is much more dangerous than doing a random car trip.

...similarly, a car crash is much more dangerous than doing a random electrical adjustment.

You don't get to assume one of them fails but not the other.

> Looks to me the OP's friend is just rounding the risk on his life to zero due to normalization of deviance alone

He's rounding it to zero because it's a very low risk, just like people do with car trips.

> that kind of thing

Do I get to lump drunk driving into normal driving? It's still "that kind of thing". I think we need to look at the risk of the specific type of dangerous activity, instead of lumping it into a generic "danger" bin and ignoring car danger because you personally don't feel it qualifies as "normalization of deviance".

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#104

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #99
Wulf_ wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for letting me know, I really appreciate it :)

Keep in mind that you're not allowed to use any sort of colorful language when disagreeing with whatever the mainstream take on an issue is. Those people get down-voted and a bunch of "y u so mad" (but in better more relevant words, this is HN, not youtube comments) replies. Hooray for double standards.

[deleted]

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#105

Post by dang »

Wulf_ wrote: post #97
peterangular wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cursing is pretty common on here. Just re-read the guidelines and there's no rules against inappropriate language like the "f-word"... Especially when considering such a benign usage as the parent comment, ie: just replacing the verb in "mess with" which is not targeting the language at anyone/anything. It may not be as common as other platforms, but casual conversation does happen here which includes the occasional…

Thanks for letting me know, I really appreciate it :)

folkhack is correct - I'll just add that this has been the case for a long time on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... - indeed it's always functioned this way. We care about people not being mean to each other, but profanity isn't that.

No doubt there are downsides and I'm sorry that it's disagreeable to you.

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#106

Post by dang »

a1369209993 wrote: post #94
Wulf_ wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:( it's the second time today I've read the 'F' word on HN. I usually don't encounter it here which makes me like this community more. I'm not a leader of this community so my opinion doesn't matter but as a fellow human I'd like to request that you use another word to express yourself. I know this is subjective but I wanted to share this with you. In any case, I hope you have a good day :)

Die in a fire, politically-correct scum.

I'm going to assume that this was a low-quality joke rather than a literal attack, but since we've had to warn you before not to attack other users on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25309677), it would be better not to go there.

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#107

Post by IshKebab »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #92
IshKebab wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Despite being told I was doing something stupid over and over again, I continued to do that stupid thing."

Yes? Do you have anything more to say? The egg safety standards in the US and EU come to mind. Each standard considers the other standard to be so unsafe it must be banned . But they're both fine.

I don't know anything about egg, but presumably they don't advocate working on live household electrics.

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#108

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

OJFord wrote: post #87
Spare_account wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK (230V) here, I've observed electricians working on live circuits frequently. That's why tools like this exist, 'safe' for working up to 1000V: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/c/vde--insulated-tools/ Despite being warned not to over and over again, I have replaced multiple electrical outlets and light switches in my home without flipping the breakers

That's not ' why ' they exist, (at least, that's not my understanding, or why I have a set) it's not easy to not touch anything with anything else, but it's a nice safeguard while poking about somewhere you think is made safe. What I haven't seen (and don't know why?) is a VDE screwdriver in the neon/LED voltage detection style. Personally I even isolate lighting circuits to change a bulb. It almost certainly wouldn'…

Because [this] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spannungspr%C3%BCfer#/media/Da... is all that is needed to do it. Can you think of a way to do this safely with less commonly available electronics? Get rich quick! :-)

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#109

Post by OJFord »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #108
OJFord wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not ' why ' they exist, (at least, that's not my understanding, or why I have a set) it's not easy to not touch anything with anything else, but it's a nice safeguard while poking about somewhere you think is made safe. What I haven't seen (and don't know why?) is a VDE screwdriver in the neon/LED voltage detection style. Personally I even isolate lighting circuits to change a bulb. It almost certainly wouldn'…

Because [this] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spannungspr%C3%BCfer#/media/Da... is all that is needed to do it. Can you think of a way to do this safely with less commonly available electronics? Get rich quick! :-)

Sure, but you could also say 'all that's needed' is an appropriately rated multimeter, no need for a 'Spannungsprüfer' (I don't speak German btw!).

Those neon/LED drivers (non-(intended)-contact) are in basically every 'dad toolbox' and 'man drawer', a VDE 1000v rated one just seems appealing/like it'd sell well, even if sure, people who actually need that (or should be doing things that do) have better tools for it.

Re: I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

#110

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

OJFord wrote: post #109
LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because [this] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spannungspr%C3%BCfer#/media/Da... is all that is needed to do it. Can you think of a way to do this safely with less commonly available electronics? Get rich quick! :-)

Sure, but you could also say 'all that's needed' is an appropriately rated multimeter, no need for a 'Spannungsprüfer' (I don't speak German btw!). Those neon/LED drivers ( non -(intended)-contact) are in basically every 'dad toolbox' and 'man drawer', a VDE 1000v rated one just seems appealing/like it'd sell well, even if sure, people who actually need that (or should be doing things that do) have better tools for i…

I posted that link because I didn't find any other one which illustrated the point I tried to make so well with one large picture. To put it in different words: this exists like pictured because it is the most simple and cheap method to safely implement with currently available parts.
Post reply on HN