I knew HE wasn't going away...

“We have to consider the source, dayhiker, LOL.”

“Well, he is a Big 11 fan.”

“Yep. ;-)”

“I said sometimes. SOMETIMES! You're more of the Nutty Professor engineer type. heehee!”

“A major part of my work is reminding engineers that human beings actually have to use what they build.

Engineer: This design fits all of the requirements! It's big, has four legs and long face, eats plants and can carry a load, It clearly describes an elephant.

Me: The requirements document is titled "horse".”

“Yes, that is very important, HPM.
Try designing something to make it Sailor Proof, LOL.
Those guys can tear up an anvil.”

“he has stated on this board that he works in statistics - crash bang

Possible, but "statistics" wouldn't come up in the Mission Statement there.”

“When I was in Boy Scout we were chartered to a Navy base and the sailors liked to help us out.

So the tool shop was looking for a project and asked if we needed anything.

Hmm...sure. It would be cool to have a really big compass to use as an orienteering teaching tool. Something big enough to teach a class of say 20-40 kids so that everyone doesn't have to crowd around one dude holding a a silva ranger compass. We were thinking a nice wooden mockup would be nice.

Two weeks later they bring us a three foot long replica, non functional(no magnet) but fully moveable, of a silva compass. This sucker was damn cool.

One problem. It weighed a ton. The dial was milled from a single hunk of aluminum and the laxan backplate was an inch thick. It took at least three of us to move it around. But boy was it a great way to teach a room full of kids orienteering.

Come to find out this was version 2. Version one was made completely out of steel and required a forklift to move.

Good guys those sailors.
last edited: 1/09/07 10:36:22 AM”

“Heck, it would have been easy enough to make the steel work.
Just wrap the 'needle' with wire and plug the wire coils into a wall outlet.
After the smoke clears and the circuit breaker reset, the 'needle' will be magnetized.

Kids, do not try this at home. I am a trained professional. ;-)”

“Yeah but the damn thing was so big it would probably pull out fillings from 20 paces.”

“SS just blew transformers for a 5 block radius.”

“I made a telegraph when I was ten or so out of sheet metal and nails wound with copper wire and used a lantern battery for power.
I figured if a lantern battery would work so well I could make it work even better if I plugged it into the wall outlet in my Dad's shop.

My Dad did explain about 'shorts' to me after the smoke cleared and after he calmed down, LOL.

An Electrical Engineer was born that day. ;-)

Those nails made GREAT magnets after.
last edited: 1/09/07 11:12:47 AM”

“Huh? AC demagnetizes iron, DC magnetizes. Maybe the circuit blew at the peak of a waveform? It would have to blow very quickly for that to work.”

“tech, tech, tech.....
Don't you know Smoke in the wires is what makes Electricity work?
If the Smoke gets out of the wires, it doesn't work!

They just aren't teaching you young fellows the right stuff nowadays.

Try my little project. You will have great little nail magnets, LOL.
last edited: 1/09/07 11:26:10 AM”

“Be sure and hold that nail with your bare hands when you plug in the coil. The creates the loop which is where the magnetism comes from.”

“Seriously folks, don't do that. I was ten and didn't know any better.

Tech, theory and what happens in Real Life are often at odds. That's the problem with most Liberal thinkers. They can't get pass the theory.”

“Wow. Can y'all move this to a new thread? Perhaps "SuperGeeks Unite!"

Thanks.”

“I have a great engineer story I love to tell.

One of the guys I used to hike with is a engineer. On one of our BP trips in the Sierra, we were hiking along a lake, across the lake was a series of mtn peaks which all were about the same elevation with very little differentiating features. We were looking at our TOPO maps (teaching some yougsters map & compass skills on this hike) and he started to comment about how it was dificult to triangulate because of our obstructed views & how dificult it was to determine which specific peak he was taking his compass reading from, and then asked how could we determine exactly where we are? I pointed to an area on the map & said "we're right here". When he asked how I knew that for sure, i pointed to his boots and commented that they were still wet from having just crossed the stream that was clearly displayed on the map as crossing our trail!! :) Point is, he was so anal-retentive & hung up on map & compass, he lost all sense of just looking around & using common sense to show that there are other ways besides just map & compass to know where you are!

I never let him live that one down!”

“Speaking of supergeeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50WPCN8Af_o

That's one of my favorite youtube.com videos.”

“wanderer, that's behavor more common to a Scientist than an Engineer. ;-)
Theory vs common sense.”

“Probably depends on the type of engineer, SS. I've known a bunch that get so focused on what they're doing that they forget to look around & consider alternatives that aren't on their schematic!”

“LMAO @ dayhiker's video.

You really shouldn't poke fun at HPM and Nigal, like that. They are our roleplaying TTers. ;-)”

“Actually I make fun of folks like that too.”

“I think you are full of smoke there, SS. Its the right that uses smoke and mirrors, after all.

;)


I remember blowing capacitors up in electronics class in high school. Whenever we would get bored we'd distract the teacher while someone would stick a cap in a socket. He was cool, usually would "slap our wrists" and then laugh with us.”

“Danny Elfman isn't here ,so, I'll ask. Tech, are you still ,'only a lad'.”

“When STNG's first movie came out I was in college. My wife and I went premierre night. We were in the middle of a row. There was one seat open next to my wife. A guy came down the aisle dressed like a Klingon and saw the seat. He yelled out asking if the seat was taken. In unison we lied, "YES!!!"”

“PS. I'm also partial to the youtube of "White and Nerdy," by Big Al.”

“Dawg: hardly. I celebrate the 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday next month.







...34 and 11 months.”

“Damn!

Talk about thread degeneration....”

“tech, I had one of those in Oct. Same b'day. Why is my hair leaving my head and going to my back?”

“Heck, still have most all my head hair. The problem is the hairs that started growing in other places like my ear and nose, LOL.”

“Happily most of the hair up top is staying put. But it started turning grey years ago. My chest has gone from 'pleasantly manly' to 'missing link ape-man' in about 5 years. Now its turning grey. WTF?!

At least I'm not like my grandfather, who had the inch-wide strip left up top, with a chrome dome, by the time he was 21.”

“LOL@ Tech...we had a neighbor "the worlds _______ salesman" who was always in some scheme or another, and the biggest fraud in history. LOL he got one of these super deal hairpieces...it bore NO resemblance to the hair remaining on his head......one windy fall day he was out front raking leaves.....and the wind started blowing the front of his piece up.....OH MY it was great.”

“I resolved long ago to live with whatever I'm dealt with. If I ended up chrome dome by 21 I was going to spit-shine it every morning. Since I'm grey instead, my wife wants me to color it. Nope. I'd rather spend the money and time on bping gear. ;)”

“"I resolved long ago to live with whatever I'm dealt with. If I ended up chrome dome by 21 I was going to spit-shine it every morning."


After spending many years of my youth having my hair every color of the visible spectrum and frying it with product, my hair is not even close to what it once was. About 8 years ago, after a bald patch decided to take up residence on my noggin, I started shaving my head for the summer. About 5 years ago, I decided to just keep shaving it year 'round, because I was mainly loosing my hair in small "patches" in the front.

It can be a #&%!$ in the winter, but the old chimney vents like a charm in warmer weather, plus I now look like Samuel L. Jackson.”

“LOL...hair of all the color spectrum....

This older guy is sitting at the bar when this kid with the leathers, multiple piercings and SPIKED multi color hair comes in and sits down next to him....the businessman glances at him and harumphs. The kid looks at him and says,"DUDE I'm just living life...hey didn't you do anything stupid when you were a kid?"

The businessman thinks a minute and says,"I wasn't casting dispersions on you son. As a matter of fact I once got real drunk and had sex with a Peacock....I was just checking to see if you might be my son."”

“The Samuel Mother#&%!$in' Jackson?

Why would men want to color their hair when it already has a color?”

“"LOL...hair of all the color spectrum...."

Yep, laugh it up. My hair back then rivaled Simon LeBon's, and the notches on the bed post proved it. lol!”

“"Why would men want to color their hair when it already has a color?”
mARKo"


Because the chicks dug it.

You know what a powerful motivator "chicks diggin it" can be. ;)
last edited: 1/10/07 8:27:56 AM”

“Simon LeWho??

Were you............gasp!.............GOTH??

If so, a little Kiwi Black shoe polish ought to do it.”

“Duran Duran is hardly Goth. But now I'm picturing laqtis looking like Chandler on Friends in a "flashback" episode when he had duran duran hair.”

“Thanks for the edumacation, Eighty's Boy.”

“No need to be insulting. I believe I had a mohawk and was going to Black Flag shows when DD was around........”

“Pfffftttt!!

........and I was changing diapers.”

“"Duran Duran is hardly Goth. But now I'm picturing laqtis looking like Chandler on Friends in a "flashback" episode when he had duran duran hair."


lol. Well, the fashion in that episode was a little too "Miami Vice" for my style and is hair was way too "Flock of Seagulls".

I did wear suits, Stacy Addams shoes, wore Polo and Perry Elis. Pegged my Complements pants so that they showed featured my Reebok shoes, while wearing my Polo shirt (with the collar flipped up) under my fresh Alexander Julian button down. The whooooole thang.

Goth was after my time in high school. During my time, the precursor to Goth were the "freaks", with whom I had many friends. There was certainly crossover in music, and I had access to some of the best people (and hair stylists) in the area.
last edited: 1/10/07 9:45:33 AM”

“you can get his wallet at badmofowallets.com I got one for a co-worker for Christmas year before last. He still uses it.”

“hey kleetn i wanna get that as a poster and put it up in my first english as a second language classroom”

“"you can get his wallet at badmofowallets.com"

Oh no shayt!

I gotta ask for one for my birthday.

Thanks, dayhiker.”