mikesc

OK..( I'll be quick because I'm still caught up in the French Bureaucracy thing ) Update.. About 15.00 today..one of my fixed lines rings..the male caller asks to speak to "Mike". Asks if I have time to "visit" ( very polite..) Introduces himself.. He is Jeff W ( he did give me his full name..but that is his to give out if he wishes, not mine ) Jeff is from Tandy HQ..calling me back..it is his voice -mail that I left my message on.. He apologises for the problems I encountered getting any kind of information when I phoned on Monday evening .. He explained that "yes" the Ukraine is one of a group of countries that Tandy began GEO IP blocking recently.. Jeff is not from the IT section, but he knows "why" the GEO IP blocks were put into place.. They had an "intrusion"..the Ukraine was one of the countries that they were able to trace the intrusion back to.. So..for now..it ( and some other countries ) are being GEO IP blocked ..this may change.. Jeff apologises to any innocent parties in those countries being blocked.. The "intrusion" is also the reason that people have been asked to create new passwords.. Jeff assures me that no credit card data was compromised.. ( he did give me some more details about what happened, but, again if he wishes to give them in a public forum, that is Jeff's decision.. Personally IME, it is never wise to discuss one's own site security in detail, or even in outline, in any public venue, admins, and sysadmins are paranoid for good reasons..Yossarian would ( in some ways ) have made a good sysad :) Apparently you can reach Tandy via email..maybe Tandy have a system in place for dealing with orders via email.. I forgot to ask if they do.. But, I did thank Jeff sincerely for taking the trouble to phone me back ( not many companies anywhere bother ) .. and for explaining.. He told me that he had found what he thought was the forum that I mentioned in my message on his voice-mail.. He asked if it was leatherworker.net..he has read this thread, including my last message.. I confirmed that it was indeed this forum..and also made it very clear that in no way do I / nor did I claim to be speaking for Johanna or leatherworker.net.. I'm just a member, trying to help another member, because if we can, that is what we do.. I suggested that he "join" and explain more fully if he wished.. I also suggested that it probably would not hurt Tandy to have a Tandy presence here.. Jeff said that, actually while looking to see what forum we were members of, and who was having trouble accessing Tandy, he discovered that he was already logged in here, he already has an account.. :) He said he'd join the thread and post in it.. I said that I'd post first to let members know that he had taken the time and trouble to call me.. I'll add that Jeff seems like a nice guy, ( we talked for close to an hour ) good sense of humour..

Just re-visited this thread, for the first time since my previous post.. Been busy with dealing with the French bureaucracy ( they invented the word ) they can be the worst ( most obstructive ) when they put their minds to it.. However, I did phone Tandy yesterday ( Monday ) at around 13.15 CST ( 19.15 my time )..as promised to Andrey.. Journey into the .. Twilight zone.. I phone Tandy HQ.. It rings..Someone picks up the phone and says it is Tandy HQ.. I explain that I'm phoning from France..and that I am a member of what is probably the largest leatherworker forum on the web ( I did not name it, not my place to ) and that a member from Ukraine has been having problems accessing the Tandy websites..He keeps getting a403 ( and I explain in simple terms what is a 403 ) I ask if the Ukraine is being blocked deliberately.. The lady says ( I quote her exact words.."hold on I'll ask" ) ..and instantly I get another ring tone ( because instead of "asking" while I hold, she has transferred my call to an internal line..Problem is..the person is not in..and I get their voice mail..and no way to get back to the operator..other than hanging up and re-dialing.. ( No point in me leaving a message , because I don't know if they'll ring me back trans-Altlantic, they might ring me back in the middle of my night, or while I'm eating dinner, having a shower etc ) So..I hang up and re-dial.. I get the same lady.. I explain that she had to me to hold on while she "asked" , but that in fact she had transferred me to an internal line and the person was not in..and that there was no "option" given on the voice-mail system to "return to operator".. She apologised..said she understood..that I should hold on ..while she asked.. and then..you guessed it..she did it again.. This time to someone else's internal line..they were not in either..but their voice-mail was..and no way to get back to "her" ( operator ) except by hanging up and re-dialing.. So..I hung up.. and re-dialed.. This time when "she" ( the same women ) picked up, I asked her ( politely ) "please stop asking me to hold while you ask and then transferring me to people who are not in and whose voice-mail is..they won't ring me back trans-Atlantic" )..She said " But I'm at the front desk and I can't leave it to go ask anyone".. I said "I'm not asking you to leave your desk..You keep saying that I should hold on while you ask".. "Just put me on hold while you phone internally and ask, you don't have to leave your desk and I never asked you to".. She said ..OK..hold on and I'll ask.. You guessed it.. She ( without telling me ) tried to put me through to some one else, they were not in, their voice-mail was.. I hung up.. Re-dialed.. By now she must be watching for my number showing as "incoming from France".. (I can make it so it does not, but I left it as "showing" from when I spoke to J the previous weekend..) So..this time she didn't even answer the call, I just got "bounced" directly to an internal line, where..the person was not in, but their voice-mail was.. I tried 3 more times.. each time the same.. She was definitely avoiding me..as was everyone else apparently ( or they take very long lunch breaks, all at the same time ) ..But everyone's voice-mail was in.. I thought I'll wait an hour and try again..( maybe I'd get someone else as "operator"..after all Tandy is a big outfit, they must- have more than one lady answering the phone ) They do have more than one.. The second ( different ) lady..listened while I explained what had happened previously, ( all of the being asked to hold while "she asked" but actually being transferred to an internal line without a human on the other end, many times, and eventually just being "bounced" directly to various people's voice-mails = she said she understood perfectly..and... That I should "hold on while she asked".. Go on ..you knew this was coming ... She did exactly the same as the first lady..it was not the first lady ( neither had a Texan accent, but the second one did have a very slight Hispanic accent, and a lower voice ) Instantly I get another ring tone ( because instead of "asking" while I hold, she has transferred my call to an internal line..Problem ( again )is..the person is not in..and I get their voice mail..and no way to get back to the operator..other than hanging up and re-dialing.. ( No point in me leaving a message , because I don't know if they'll ring me back trans-Altlantic, they might ring me back in the middle of my night, or while I'm eating dinner, having a shower etc ) So..I hang up and re-dial.. I get the same lady..( slight Hispanic accent ) I explain that she had to me to hold on while she "asked" , but that in fact she had transferred me to an internal line and the person was not in..and that there was no "option" given on the voice-mail system to return to operator.. She apologised..said she understood..that I should hold on ..while she asked.. and then..you guessed it..she did it again.. This time to someone else's internal line..they were not in either..but their voice-mail was..and no way to get back to "her" ( operator ) except by hanging up and re-dialing.. So..I hung up.. and re-dialed.. By now she must be watching for my number showing as "incoming from France".. (remember..I can make it so it does not show, but I left it as "showing" from when I spoke to J the previous weekend..) So..this time she didn't even answer the call, I just got "bounced" to another internal line, where..the person was not in, but their voice-mail was.. I tried 3 more times.. each time the same.. She was avoiding me..as was everyone else apparently ( or they take very long lunch breaks, all at the same time ) ..But everyone's voice-mail was in.. So..this time ( again ) she didn't even answer the call, I just got "bounced" to yet another internal line, where..the person was not in, but their voice-mail was.. I tried 3 more times.. each time the same.. She was avoiding me..as was everyone else apparently ( or they take very long lunch breaks, all at the same time ) ..But everyone's voice-mail was in.. So On that last transfer to the voice-mail of someone who was not in .. I left a message.. I explained what had happened since the beginning over an hour before, when I had began trying to get to speak to a human ( other than either of the two "operators" ), why I was calling, who I was.. I added that I had never encountered such stupidity, downright dumbness ( I did stay polite, because in reality I had just finished dealing with two ****wits ), and that I gave up..That I'd be posting back onto "the forum" within 24 hours ( it has been around 36 hours, but, I was busy dealing with their French relatives ) ( again I did not say the leatherworker.net name, not my place to..and would detail the total incompetence that I'd encountered, I added that I had never been a customer of theirs, and ( in the light of what had happened, I never would be, and that I'd warn everyone ( businesses like myself and also hobbyists ) else to avoid them ).. Apparently the person who got their voice-mail thinks that using "instagram" ( where one has to accept Facebook tracking cookies and various other scripts to be able see or read anything ) is "customer relations"..It isn't.. You don't do "customer relations" via 3rd party platforms that track any visitors..not via Facebook, nor via twitter, nor instagram, nor pinterest.. Unless your organisation is staffed by millennial ****wits.. ( any business that uses ( anti) social media to communicate with their customers about "problems", instead of doing so via their own websites..does not, nor will they ever get, any of my business, nor will anyone whose business uses a gmail contact address..I was one of the first 100 ( worldwide ) people to be invited into gmail..I made over 200 gmail addresses fast, in order to prevent anyone else using any of my website names ( protect your "brand(s)" ), did the same for facebook and twitter , pinterest..and left it at that.. I run business pages on all of them, no personal pages at all, and never would I expect customers to have to go to any of them to communicate with our businesses..it would also be illegal for me to do so..due to GDPR.. because all of those ( anti) social media track everyone ) So Andrey..it was no problem for me to try and find out by phoning them if Tandy were blocking the Ukraine deliberately.. :)..I volunteered..:) But..they obviously have ****wits answering the phones at their head office.. And "life is too short".. My advice.. Don't buy from them ( most people here don't have much good to say about the quality of Tandy leather or tools these days )..I won't ..ever.. Edited.. BTW..Any "website" that tells anyone that "they may have trouble accessing the site, unless they "upgrade" their passwords", or something similar..that is usually a round about way of the saying they were hacked, or they think that they might have been..I've been programming and coding since 74..and building/running websites for over 20 years.. Any website that allowed anyone ( since at least 1995 ) to set up a password with only letters did not / does not take security seriously..They may as well just say the keys are under the mat..I hope that they do not have your credit card or any personal details on file anywhere..and..we won't mention PCI "compliance" audits...oops..I did.. I should add..I'm not French..I'm Irish.., with No Irish accent ( moved around a lot ) ..no accent at all..Not even so much as a "Wogan"..No "modern English" Southern vaguely Cockney accent either..clear English..so the "operators" could understand me perfectly.. I've spoken to some people on this board, ( USA and elsewhere )..No problems being understood..

Rule 34

The best guide to how to pack , crate a sewing machine for shipping comes from Uwe.. I suggest you read all the comments.... Especially the first line of Gregg's.. :) Welcome to "the club"..

Nope, file type .HEIC does n't show as a picture.. Ok apple OS 11 proprietary file type..nice idea..smaller files..but proprietary, so not everyone can see/ convert them.. "walled garden" mentality.. This is it converted to .jpeg..0.12megs (says 65.23 kB ) But..this is just the "suspenders" ..no "rig" fog gun or mags..like plinkercases says, the guy is going to have to draw you the kind of thing that he is thinking about, or you are going to spend much time drawing things until he says "yeah"..and then much material and time making them to add on to "suspenders"..and at the end of it, I don't think that they idea will be at all practical ( unless it is just for "posing in"..which many people want things for, nothing wrong with that as long as you get paid )..and I think the additional weight on the front will pull the back elastic tight into his ass..( maybe that is the idea..whatever ) when he takes the rig, gun, mags off, the back is going to sag down again, as will the seat of his pants.. Sort of steampunk or even diesel punk idea ..( I don't think Amish punk is a thing )

Probably seen something in a video game / movie..( Mad Max ( 1,2 or 3 ) ? ) Thinks "that'd be cool".. Props or costumes are not "real life".. Does n't mean it can't be done.. Does n't mean it can be done.. Does n't sound very "practical".. The "weight" is going to be hanging off / supported by what ..suspenders have "stretch" in them, but they are already taking the weight of the trousers ( pants for those on the left side of the pond ) add the gun and the mags( and the weight of the "rig" ) suspenders are going to have to be pretty powerful, take the weight of the rig and the gun and the mags off, the suspenders are likely to pull the pants up so tight , they'll geld him, or he'll be able to sing soprano while he's wearing them.. The lack of a chest strap is the least of your worries, work out the total weight divide by two..then hang that from each side of a pair of suspenders..you'll see what I mean.. Get paid "up front" for wasting your time trying to design some person's fantasy..then get paid "up front" for making it..when it proves to be impractical , which it will..don't give any refunds..

Wife is 5'2" 42kg ..Vietnamese/Breton/Polynesienne..Gorgeous..Female..stickless..always has been.. :) I* cook Thai food..amongst many other sorts.. We'd maybe go for a holiday, ( Thailand ) one day..( we have friends who live there ), but,other places to visit/revisit first..avoiding the "shore leave" parts.. *I'm 6'2" ..100 - 105 kgs ( summer weight / winter weight ).. There will be no pictures, of either of us..we don't "do" (anti)social media..no FB/twitter/linkedin/ G+ etc..

A perfectly cromulent word.. :)

This the thread https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/85168-its-official/?tab=comments#comment-577265 that I thought Big Sioux Saddlery was talking about re as for the "stick" I cannot see..nor do I want to..still less get hold of any end of it, nor touch it in any way..

And doing so can damage various parts of the machine, in either the short or long term..will cause increased wear and premature failure of parts that are "further along the line" than the pin..and can damage the hook ( by placing it under strain due to way over tolerance top tension being applied via going around that pin ), the timing wil not like it, the stitches ( length and formation )will not be as controllable.. You'll also hear that "snap" that wiz mentions a lot when the take up spring is giving a problem because it is not adjusted correctly, but it won't be because of the take up spring..it will be because of the pin.. Going around that pin is like pulling the "D Ring" on a parachute with the hand on the same side that the "D Ring" is on.. If you do that, you cannot pull smoothly across your body..sometimes it will work OK..sometimes it won't..it only needs one "won't" .. Some things there is indeed a right way and a wrong way..the right way to thread a machine is "do not go around that pin"..that is not what it is for..

HTTP or HTTPS..any webmaster who knows how to grep and reverse logs can tell where you are from your IP.. Adding a location to your profile isn't exposing you to any risks , on any site..even under HTTP..the webmaster / forum owner already knows your IP and can easily do a reverse trace / search on it.. ( The mods here see your IP and can ( and do ) sometimes out give approximations as to where the OP ( original poster is located ) when anyone asks in open fora because they are trying to help locate the nearest supplier to any OP ) It is helpful to members ( who are not mods ) when they reply to questions such as yours though..if they can see your location..such as in my case "Brittany France"..the "back end" already has my IP logged and visible to any mod, and it will tell them ( if they know how to extract that information ) the town that I am in..and locate me down to my precise address ( if my ISP gave out such fine grained details..my ISP does not ) ..But the town..yes..that is already visible in my IP address..each DSLAM identifies itself with it's own unique identifier to very website that anyone using it accesses..same applies to all DSLAMs ..worldwide.. Unless you are using TOR..which is not half as anonymous as many like to think it is.. HTTPS encrypts your "information" ( what you post, what you read, or what you look at etc ) when you visit a site..it does not "hide" your IP address..that is visible to anyone who has various levels of "access" to the "back end" of any website..whether the site is running under HTTPS or HTTP.. It is in the site "logs" from the moment that your browser makes the connection, via HTTP or HTTPS..It has to be..if not the site would not know what IP address to return the requested data to.. Entering a site via a "proxy" etc ..is slightly different, depending upon how you do it, but that is severely drifting "off topic" even for me :)

Lady ?.. Apparently we are not talking about the same thread..

And now I have sprayed single malt all over my moustaches, beard and keyboard.. Near naked ? Looked entirely naked to me..anonymous..but "butt" naked.. We may not be thinking ( mind bleach ) about the same thread though.. Which "Jeff" are we referring to..?

If you put your location on your profile it will help with replies..sometimes "shipping charges" can be waaay more than the cost of the item(s), depending on where "you" are in relation to a supplier..

" Blushes".. You are more than welcome Johanna :)

Yep.."Geo Block" Blocking.. I 'll ask why..sometimes it can just be a sysadmin who isn't precise enough about what ranges are allocated to who.. Or who just thinks that they won't get any customers from "X" and so blocks "X" to save bandwidth ( 403 isn't many bytes, but if that is the intention there are better ways to do it "upstream") or protect against perceived risk of "intruders" .. FWIW..tracepath ( from line 10 onwards ) ( including the cogent lines ) 10: be4204.ccr31.par04.atlas.cogentco.com 16.124ms asymm 7 11: be3184.ccr42.par01.atlas.cogentco.com 16.050ms asymm 8 12: be3627.ccr41.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com 87.310ms asymm 9 13: be3496.ccr31.jfk10.atlas.cogentco.com 85.888ms asymm 10 14: 38.140.107.42 87.311ms asymm 12 15: 52.93.31.55 91.828ms 16: 52.93.4.28 88.812ms asymm 13 17: no reply 18: 54.240.229.141 93.797ms asymm 27 19: no reply 20: no reply 21: no reply 22: no reply 15: 52.93.31.57 18319.374ms 15: 52.93.31.41 18240.403ms 25: no reply 26: no reply 27: no reply 28: no reply 29: no reply 30: no reply Too many hops: pmtu 1500 Resume: pmtu 1500 The .eu is being served from the same IP as the .com. I'm getting accepted in to both sites.. If they are running a Geo IP ban.intentionally ( might be that they need to update their tables GEO IP list, or up/grade/date their feed if they are using something like maxmind's paid feed, if it is unintentional ) , then they probably would not send items to your country either..

Belatedly..Truly Outstanding Excellent Work Andrey :))

Thus..Murky Buckets..H :) Takes my mind off watching Wales leading Ireland 10-0..( now 13-10 :(( ) To return to Topic..Tandy HQ is in the USA and is shut weekends..I did phone Canada about an hour ago ( who are open today ) to see if they knew of any policy that says that Tandy as an organisation are blocking the Ukraine..Very polite guy there at the shop ..does not know..Says only HQ would know.. I can phone and ask them* ( Tandy HQ in Fort Worth TX ) when they are open next week .. *No problem..Unlimited worldwide ( with the exception of a handful of countries ) calls and data plans on my phones..fixed lines and cells.. Point them to this thread..and to Andrey's work https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/85137-mountain-lion-for-my-wife/?tab=comments#comment-577226 ( I'm sure they'd like him to be using some of their leather to work on )

Like Chris said..blame it on Brexit.. OT / Co-incidentally enough Andrey..when you posted about being "blocked" above, your post count was 403 :) Now you are 404.. :) Pay close attention to any noises coming from your computer lest you go 410 :)..when did you last clear out the dust bunnies.. How does one say "dust bunnies" in Ukrainian ?..In French they are called "moutons" ( sheep ).. :)

Some ( sleeper spammers ) work in large co-ordinated groups..you can rent such groups from various places all over the world..India and The Philippines, also Indonesia are favourite places..Black-Hat boards are full of "rent a spam network" services..A bit like "mechanical turk" from Amazon.. You can hire real people ( in teams or singly ) to defeat captchas for a cent or two per "gig".. Don't need to be hacked to have some dodgy profiles on sites with as many members as this one..membership count must be around 80K or higher by now.. Over half of Facebook is bots..

Both work from France..Just accessed them .. Try using a proxy based outside the Ukraine..That will let you know if they are blocking Ukraine IPs.. Try using a Russian proxy..might be they are just blocking the Ukraine .. Why they'd block either is a mystery..

Or Macedonia.. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38168281

I know :) But I type very slowly..so hadn't seen that you'd put up the 335 manual pics.. OT/ How many manuals in total for all the machines do you have ? Must be entire walls of shelves ( digital or real life ) of them in your place.. :)

That pin is not on there to pass the thread around, that pin is only there to stop the tension discs spinning. Threading around that pin is totally incorrect and was never "by design" on any machine which has a pressure disc and take up spring assembly mounted on on the side of the machine..such as Singer 111 , 211, Pfaff 335, Juki ( whatever ) etc..( there is a very long list of machines, waaay too long to list here, where threading around that pin is wrong and was never intended to be done ) ..There ought to be a piece of "code" that looks for comments that say to thread around that pin, and then block the incorrect information, like the way bad language filters work.. then maybe the myth would die.. Btw ..just because a certain machine dealer's video shows it that way does n't make it correct either.. Rant off :)

Remember, anything that can take off a finish is likely to be very bad for your health if you breathe it*..and is probably inflammable with a low flash point.. So..only do the "removing" outside, or in a well ventilated room, with a fan or similar set up to "suck" the vapour away from you.. Get a volatile solvents mask..3M do some good ones with cartridges, the cartridges are good for around 8 hours before you need to change them, you wont notice by any vapour smell that they need changing, so make a note of how much time you are using them , when not using them and the mask keep them in a sealed zip lock bog.. acetone is not an "alcohol spirit"..acetone and alcohol are not the same thing at all..