Re: [Fsfe-uk] Explanation of Tivosiation and problems - comments sought

[Chris Croughton]

On Sat, Dec 16, 2006 at 10:14:22AM +0000, Jason Clifford wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Dec 2006, Chris Croughton wrote:
> 
> > Well, 'we' gave the government the ability to block our fiddling with
> > them many years ago, when 'we' allowed them to say whether a customised
> > car was roadworthy or not.  The same as 'we' allowed then to say that we
> > can't repair the wiring in our own houses any more.  And part of the
> > reason is because of the few who messed with them and caused trouble
> > (burning down the house because they rewired it incorrectly, causing
> > accidents with improperly maintained cars, etc.).  The vast majority of
> > people are not qualified to do those things safely (most people can't
> > even wire a mains plug safely).
> 
> That people make such rediculous statements as your last one is how govt's 
> are able to pass such stupid laws.
> 
> Wiring a plug is easy and new plugs even come with a colour guide to match 
> the avaialble wiring (red/black and /brown/blue/green&yellow).

Yes, and even with those helps most people cannot do it /safely/.  Just
matching the colours is only part of the problem, and (for most people)
the easy bit.  Getting the correct length of wire stripped, and making
sure that all of the bare metal is in the appropriate holes (or under
the screws), and not floating around, and that the screws are tightened
correctly, and that the wire is correctly held by the strain clamps (so
that the aforementioned bits of wire don't come loose under tension in
use) are parts which people get wrong, especially people who think "this
is simple, I just match the colours".

I've seen plugs wired by that sort of person, and have marvelled at the
luck which meant that they merely failed instead of shorting out or
starting a fire which they could easily have done.  Stranded wire with a
strand loose and millimetres from the live terminal, wire stripped for
an inch of bare metal with only a quarter of its length in the hole,
plugs with the strain clamps on the bare wire, etc.  And it's not only
amateur ones, I now test any mains distribution blocks carefully before
use, and if possible open the plug and check it, after finding several
bought "off the shelf" at DIY stores having the screws not fully tight
and in one case the live and neutral wires reversed!

As for choosing the correct fuse for the appliance, almost everyone
these days just slams a 13 amp one in there.  Very few actually bother
to work out the correct current and buy a fuse which matches.  Even
finding any fuses other than 13A these days can be non-trivial.

And yes, the majority of those who don't know how to do it safely will
get help in doing so (indeed, many of us who are competant will buy
pre-made and pre-certified cables anyway, on the grounds that the cost
of us doing it is less than the cost of buying it, the only times I've
done it myself in recent years have been when the cable I needed didn't
exist commercially or one needed repairing).

That was my point, the laws are designed for the minority who are
'troublemakers'.

> Those who are unable to rewire a house don't try to do so. Those who are 
> more confident of their abilities will tend to use a qualified electrician 
> anyway. Those who are so stupid as to do it when they cannot will simply 
> ignore legislation.

You left out the important group:

Those who are competant to do it but who don't have the appropriate
piece of paper saying so, and are law-abiding (or who think that they
might want to sell the house) are banned from doing so, and forced to
employ someone else who may be less competant (I've seen some awful
things done by 'qualified' electricians who were more interested in
cutting cost and time) who does have that piece of paper.  But at least
then they do have someone to sue...

> > > I agree with this. "tivo"isation is a bad word. Why not "neutering"?
> > 
> > 'Locking'?
> 
> Neither fully describes the problem. I agree that branding the issue 
> doesn't help however.

I suspect that there isn't a single word which will fully describe it.

Chris C