Happy Holiday, POA!

Half Fast

Half Fast

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Once again the most wonderful time of the year is upon us. I thought I'd kick off National Engineer's Week by sharing one of my favorite engineering carols. I hope you'll all enjoy singing it with your loved ones as we celebrate this hallowed time.

 
Charlie Golf said:
If I wear a pocket protector in recognition of this solemn event, would it be considered cultural appropriation?

Assuming I had a pocket protector, of course.
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Well, that all depends. Do you have an assortment of pens and pencils, a 6" steel ruler, and a pocket-size slide rule to put in it?
 
Half Fast said:
…my favorite engineering carols...
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I assume that’s the only engineering carol, which is why it’s your favorite.

Overall, it’s not too bad; seems more folk than carol, though.
 
I will celebrate with a reading from [chorus of angels] The Pratt and Whitney Handbook [/chorus of angels] and the traditional flight test feast of coffee and Doritos.

nauga,
who was once asked why he had a prayer book with his flight cards
 
Years ago I worked for the company that owned Pickett. Maker of fine slide rules. I worked there about the time that HP and TI came out with engineering calculators that pretty much obsoleted the slide rule. The rest of the company made stuff that the combination of Desktop Publishing and CAD also made obsolete. I then moved to a couple companies that also made products that were made obsolete by technology advancements in graphic arts and printed circuit manufacturing. I really knew how to pick companies well back then.
 
I'm just sad that my father passed (in 2005, not recently) before I could have shared that with him - I'm sure he would have enjoyed it quite a bit.
 
Hang 4 said:
Years ago I worked for the company that owned Pickett. Maker of fine slide rules. I worked there about the time that HP and TI came out with engineering calculators that pretty much obsoleted the slide rule. The rest of the company made stuff that the combination of Desktop Publishing and CAD also made obsolete. I then moved to a couple companies that also made products that were made obsolete by technology advancements in graphic arts and printed circuit manufacturing. I really knew how to pick companies well back then.
Click to expand...

Once upon a time (late 80s?), I was involved with procuring some theodolites from K&E and I fell into conversation with the salesman, who'd been with the company for a long time. He told me that in the early days of calculators, TI wanted K&E to market TI's calculator as the K&E electronic slide rule. K&E decided that it was too expensive, fragile, and needed frequent battery replacement, "...and besides, we're not in the electronics business, we're in the slide rule business."

Great example of a disruptive technology.

C'est la vie.
 
I’m curious how y’all feel about combat engineers. Those are the guys who engineer ways to blow up things engineered not to be blown up.

I’ve found the combat engineers are pretty good at their job.
 
I googled it to see if you engineered this fake holiday (see what I did there??) and found out today is actually Tug of War day.
 
Charlie Golf said:
If I wear a pocket protector in recognition of this solemn event, would it be considered cultural appropriation?

Assuming I had a pocket protector, of course.
Click to expand...
I will smack you with my slide rule :p
No pocket protector here, though. I try to blend in with the common folk.
 
JOhnH said:
The most observant of them,
An engineer of course,
Was the only who noticed that,
Godiva rode a horse.
Click to expand...
Two engineers met one afternoon.

"Hey, that's a nice bike," said Engineer #1. "Where'd you get it?"

Engineer #2 replies, "I was just walking down the street when a woman rode up on the bike. She got off, took off all her clothes, and said, 'Take whatever you want'!"

Engineer #1 nods sagely. "Good choice. Her clothes probably wouldn't have fit you."

Ron Wanttaja
 
Three lawyers and three engineers are travelling by train to a conference.

The three lawyers buy a ticket each while the engineers buy only one. The lawyers laugh at the engineers wondering how can three people travel by train using only one ticket. The engineers respond with “you’ll see”.

They all board the train and the lawyers take their seats while the engineers cram into the bathroom. The train departs and soon after the conductor comes around collecting everyone’s tickets.

He gets to the bathroom and knocks on the door. “Tickets please”. The door opens just a bit and a hand shoots out with the ticket. The conductor take it and moves onto the next person. The lawyers think this is ingenious and decide to try it for themselves on the way back from the conference.

However on the return trip while the lawyers were buying their single ticket, they noticed the engineers weren’t buying any. They ask “how are three of you going to travel without a ticket”. The engineers respond with “you’ll see”.

The lawyers cram into the bathroom and the engineers cram into one nearby. Shortly after the train leaves the station one of the engineers come out of their bathroom and go over to the lawyers one. He knocks on the door.
“Tickets please”
 
It also must be National Non Engineer day today.

I had to go to Grants today, about an hour east of me. Again, on the interstate there are a lot of half tons, mostly F-150s pulling a 24-30 foot Rv bumper pull. The front wheels of the pickup are barely on the road while the rear bumper is barely off the road. The wind is fairly calm, only around 20 or so and the 1/2 tons with their long trailers are waving back and forth trying to stay in one lane.

And of course they are trying to maintain 80mph... :frown2:
 
Day two of celebration!

On the second day of National Engineer’s Week
My true love gave to me,
Two pocket protectors
And a slide rule from K&E.
 
Day three!

On the third day of National Engineer’s Week
My true love gave to me,
Three french curves
Two pocket protectors
And a slide rule from K&E.
 
Day four!

On the fourth day of National Engineer’s Week
My true love gave to me,
Four drafting pens
Three french curves
Two pocket protectors
And a slide rule from K&E.
 
Half Fast said:
Had one of those for a while in high school, then upgraded to a TI-58 my senior year. That 58 got me through college, but shortly after graduation the keys started going bad. I bought an HP15C in the fall of 1984 and I'm still using it.
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I'm not sure what happened to my HP-15C. But I could simultaneously add up weights and moments for the load manifest...while taxiing.:goofy:
 
TCABM said:
I’m curious how y’all feel about combat engineers. Those are the guys who engineer ways to blow up things engineered not to be blown up.

I’ve found the combat engineers are pretty good at their job.
Click to expand...
That is one thankless job. 90% hauling heavy supplies and equipment, moving soil and recovering stuck vehicles, and 10% blowing up stuff.

Oh, I guess that describes infantry too, heh.
 
Sac Arrow said:
That is one thankless job. 90% hauling heavy supplies and equipment, moving soil and recovering stuck vehicles, and 10% blowing up stuff.

Oh, I guess that describes infantry too, heh.
Click to expand...

Except the figuring out part is limited to

1. Shoot it
2. Grenade it
3. Claymore it
4. Kill it with fire
5. Make friends with it.
 
TCABM said:
Except the figuring out part is limited to

1. Shoot it
2. Grenade it
3. Claymore it
4. Kill it with fire
5. Make friends with it.
Click to expand...
You say that like it's a bad thing...
 
AV8R_87 said:
I'll take one of these instead:
View attachment 125738
Click to expand...

MauleSkinner said:
I'm not sure what happened to my HP-15C. But I could simultaneously add up weights and moments for the load manifest...while taxiing.:goofy:
Click to expand...

Half Fast said:
Wherever it is, it probably still works. Those things are immortal.
Click to expand...
I had a TI-30 freshman year, until another student showed me how much faster I could solve complex equations using RPN.

Hello HP-15C. 40+ years later, it still functions perfectly.

BTW, there is a really nice HP-15C emulator app for iPhone called Retro 15C, it works well!
 
Bill said:
BTW, there is a really nice HP-15C emulator app for iPhone called Retro 15C, it works well!
Click to expand...


I have it on my iPad. Wish I could find an HP15C app for my android phone, but I at least have a different RPN calculator installed.
 
I'm old, but sounds like not quite as old as some others here. HP-41, and have to admit that I like the HP-42 better. There's a great HP-42 free emulator for android.
 
Day 5!

On the fifth day of National Engineer’s Week
My true love gave to me,
Fiiiive gold T-squares!
Four drafting pens
Three french curves
Two pocket protectors
And a slide rule from K&E.
 
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