new classiccmp.org service

I've taken a look at it, and I am not yet convinced this is a Good Thing... In a couple of cases, I disagree with the advice given. I'll give my comments below, and to be honest, they probably are personal comments _but_ it shows there's always room for an alternative viewpoint. That's what's great about this list, we have discussions here, nobody really tries to be 'God' when it comes to technical matters. Alternative ideas help a lot. The points I've noticed so far that I disagree with are : 1) Buy a cheap Dial Test Indicator. My view : I am not rich enough to buy cheap tools! The point of buying an expensive DTI is not that it will last longer (you will not wear out any DTI with normal use!), it's that it'll be more accurate. Don't your classic disk drives deserve to be set up properly. OK, I use a DTI for other things as well (if you have a lathe it's pretty much essential to have one), so perhaps I need a good one. But... 2) Get a digital storage scope. My view : I've never used a DSO 'in anger', and I've done plenty of debugging. In fact I don't own a DSO. Yo ucan do an awful lot with a good analogue 'scope and the DSO always worries me in that you don't know what it's done to your signal before displaying it. Good DSOs are going to be alright _if correctly used_, cheaper ones may do all sorts of horrors... It's probably like the analogue .vs. digital multimeter debate. I use my Fluke DMM a lot more than my analogue VOM but if I could only have one I'd certainly pick the analogue one. The reason is that for 99% of repairs accuracy is not that important (and on that score , just because a DMM shows 3.5 digits does not imply they're all meaningful!), but often showing the trend of a signal (is it rising or falling, can I adjust for a peak, etc), is the important thing. And that's much easier to see on an analouge instrument. I am a bit worried that the knowledgebase will be taken as the 'gospel truth'. I'd much rather have these sorts of things discussed here (or at least complete discussions preserved). Many of use have our own way of doing things. This doesn't make one of us right and the rest wrong. But I feel it's best to present as many views as possible and let the questioner decide what to do. -tony