Common Sense 101 - Engineering - December 16, 2012 Edition

Recommendations

Info

Common Sense 101: Engineering resells the item second-hand without including the manual? That half-competent lawyer we spoke of above should be able to handle these situations too. (I happen to know a bit about the law, since by late wife was a lawyer—a prominent one, too, dealing in lawsuits involving claims that ran into literally billions of dollars.) Anyway—forget about the law for now. In engineering there should be a principle, “If your product needs a manual (and we’re not talking about safety warnings here), it’s definitely not ready for prime time”! Write or draw something here that tells your prof “I’m way smarter than you!” Page 94
W 47. Pinch Me hen I was a very young schoolboy, over half a century ago, there used to be a very corny joke that went something like this: First schoolboy: “Inchme and Pinchme went for a walk. Inchme died. Who was left?” Second Schoolboy: “Pinchme.” At this point, the first schoolboy pinches the second schoolboy. Well, it looks like engineers have taken this joke to heart. There’s virtually no tool or gadget that hasn’t pinched someone sometime. My personal beef is with salad tongs, which have pinched me more times than I care to remember when I was helping myself to the lettuce. (Okay, did did find a pair of really cool salad tongs yesterday which don’t pinch, but they cost ten times as much as my regular ones, so I said “Yikes!” and passed.) Some people have even died, by having their heads pinched in heavy machinery: see http://www.isplonline.com/pinchpoints.htm. Just about everything that has hinges or swivels on a pivot or moves one way against another can, at a pinch, pinch. Pliers, scissors, doors, windows, lids (those on hinges), folding ladders, you name it. Archimedes famously said “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum for it, and I could even pinch a whale”. And he was right. It’s really not hard to pinch someone—mostly inadvertently. Nor is it hard, on the other hand, to prevent things from pinching people inadvertently: install a guard around the thing that can pinch. It can be a simple rubber or leather cover, like the kind found around gear shift knobs of cars with manual transmissions. Or it can be more complex, made of plastic or metal, which is shaped in an appropriate manner to allow the necessary movement. You find these around the hinges of some of the better designed doors, like in expensive cars. Better still—at least in expensive items—is to install sensors which can tell whether something is likely to get pinched or not, and prevent it from happening: like those installed in most elevator doors. And it should never be possible to slam a door or a drawer: why, even some kitchen cabinets are made these days in a manner that doesn’t allow their doors and drawers to be slammed shut. But one way or another, inadvertent pinching can be prevented. And yet so many things are still made in such a way that they can pinch people inadvertently. Can someone tell me why??? It’s so fucking preposterous that I am just going to stop talking about it and instead give you a good look at a drawing of two people fucking. “Few men have represented the female body as well, nor in such an openly sexual manner, as Rodin. One could think of Picasso or Schiele, of course, but Rodin was in this respect a forerunner. If Rodin is best known as a sculptor, he clearly considered his drawing work as a ‘finished’ part of his art, to the extent that he organised several exhibitions of his drawings, organised according to themes, during his lifetime: for example in Berlin in 1903.”—David Cobbold, whose interests are “Wine, literature, painting, motorcycles, rugby, cricket, building, gardens, food, people, music, " " " poetry, landscape, trees, dancing”. My kind of guy. Page 95
Page 1:
Common Sense 101: Engineering Laser
Page 5 and 6:
Common Sense 101: Engineering by La
Page 7 and 8:
T Dedication his book is dedicated
Page 9 and 10:
T The No-Small-Print Warranty he pr
Page 11 and 12:
I Introduction am not an engineer.
Page 13 and 14:
25. Everything should be easy to ge
Page 15 and 16:
E 1. Good Intentions verything shou
Page 17 and 18:
Good Intentions The boom problem co
Page 19 and 20:
T 2. Oh, the Humanity! here’s a d
Page 21 and 22:
M 3. Come Together, Right Now ost t
Page 23 and 24:
A 4. Do it Yourself nd when I say
Page 25 and 26:
T 5. Get Lost here’s also another
Page 27 and 28:
T 6. I Like to Move it, Move it ake
Page 29 and 30:
O 7. You C A N Take it With You f c
Page 31 and 32:
T 8. Cleanliness is Next to Godline
Page 33 and 34:
T 9. The Pyramids here’s an Arabi
Page 35 and 36:
I 10. Heirlooms n the old days, peo
Page 37 and 38:
11. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth
Page 39 and 40:
I 12. Maintenance t’s simply not
Page 41 and 42:
T 13. Coolth he word “warmth” i
Page 43 and 44:
D 14. Quark o you remember Quark? I
Page 45 and 46:
A 15. What’s in a Name? ctually,
Page 47 and 48:
I 16. Something Old, Something New
Page 49 and 50:
I 17. The Eliminator kea has a phil
Page 51 and 52:
A 18. The Sum of its Parts pparentl
Page 53 and 54:
I 19. Don’t be Shy t’s no use h
Page 55 and 56:
B 20. K.I.S.S. y K.I.S.S. I mean—
Page 57 and 58: I 21. Deliver Us t bears repeating,
Page 59 and 60: I 22. Easy, Pal! t all started in t
Page 61 and 62: A 23. Play it Again, Sam few years
Page 63 and 64: O 24. Upgradability ne problem Stra
Page 65 and 66: W 25. The Numbers Game hen you firs
Page 67 and 68: M 26. Recycling aybe some day whate
Page 69 and 70: E 27. Cool it, Man! verything shoul
Page 71 and 72: O 28. The Dark Side ne of the worst
Page 73 and 74: W 29. Finders Keepers, Losers Weepe
Page 75 and 76: J 30. It’s a Steal ust about ever
Page 77 and 78: O 31. Check this out! nce upon a ti
Page 79 and 80: Y 32. Autopilot ou know that airlin
Page 81 and 82: W 33. It’s Standard hen you go to
Page 83 and 84: W 34. Waterproof hat could be so ha
Page 85 and 86: W 35. The Rotary Club e often derid
Page 87 and 88: C 36. Friction ontrary to what most
Page 89 and 90: O 37. Wireless f course we all get
Page 91 and 92: O 38. Swiss Army Knife nce upon a t
Page 93 and 94: W 39. Ouch! hat’s up with manufac
Page 95 and 96: T 40. Square Peg in Round Hole here
Page 97 and 98: D 41. Paint Job id you know that a
Page 99 and 100: W 42. Break Down hy do so many thin
Page 101 and 102: O 43. Deterioration ne of the worst
Page 103 and 104: T 44. Corrosion here are corrosive
Page 105 and 106: O 45. Rock and Roll ne of the worst
Page 107: T 46. R.T.F.M. hat stands, as you s
Page 111 and 112: I 48. Shocking am a fairly good han
Page 113 and 114: R 49. Leaks emember the Exxon Valde
Page 115 and 116: B 50. The Future is Where You’ll
Page 117 and 118: The Future is Where You’ll be Spe
Page 119 and 120: Write or draw something. Be an arti
Page 121: T About the Author he author is a n
show all

Common Sense 101 - Engineering - December 16, 2012 Edition

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?