Quirky things that us engineering types do...

Ron H said:

The surprising thing to me is that a lot of people don't wonder about stuff. You guys ever watch Leno's "Jaywalking" segments? I am always amazed that he can find people who are so ignorant of the world around them. Last night he found a gal who thought that the U.S. is in South America. Another one thought Mt. Rushmore is a volcano.
I realize this was a geography question, but I think a large percentage of the population is just wrapped up in their little worlds, and couldn't care less about how things work, or where things are, or what's going on in the world, or...
That's what makes us weird. We are a minority.

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That bugs me too...the thing that ticks me off even more is the diehard sports fans that can rattle of the stats of pretty much every NFL player in the league...sure you may know how many yards Joe Blow ran for last season...but do you know how to change the oil in your own car?
I see knowing all those stats as pointless knowledge...I'd rather know the basic astable 555 circuit so that I wont have to look it up every time...maybe its just me...

Ron H said:

The surprising thing to me is that a lot of people don't wonder about stuff. You guys ever watch Leno's "Jaywalking" segments? I am always amazed that he can find people who are so ignorant of the world around them. Last night he found a gal who thought that the U.S. is in South America. Another one thought Mt. Rushmore is a volcano.
I realize this was a geography question, but I think a large percentage of the population is just wrapped up in their little worlds, and couldn't care less about how things work, or where things are, or what's going on in the world, or...
That's what makes us weird. We are a minority.

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I see it in even my own friends. This one friend of mine who is a girl thought this:
1. Chinese people speak Asian.
2. Where we live: San Diego, is on the East coast.
3. She wasn't sure if we lived in South or North America.
4. I had her believing that Columbus discovered America in 1892.
5. The list goes on . . .

Yeah, it always amazes me how people take so many things for granted, and just use them, but not care how or why they work, not only in the world of electronics, but, everything!

I often have contempt for the people who "time" traffic lights. I usually think about how I would go about timing traffic lights so if I it one (or any one in the sequence), I should only have to stop once. Not every 3rd block.

Other times I find myself doing optimization problems in my head, or working out the math for something that weird. I once thought about designing a circuit so I could turn the traffic lights green on command when I was approaching. But then I figured that would be dangerous, so I decided that if I were going to do it I would just have to start the traffic light in it's sequence approximately 15 seconds before I get to the light.

As you can see I really have issues with traffic lights...

funny about the quirky ideas. I find myself thinking up of wacky ideas too. like when i went over to my cousin's house, he had his old wooden fort set up. it had a flat roof which could be accessed by a ladder. I found myself thinking "I wonder if I could bundle up a couple PVC conduit pipes and nail them to a 2-by-4, string the bundle like a bow, put the assembly on a tripod, and put it on the roof, thereby creating a mounted crossbow? it would be perfect for the snow"

yeah i get it too.

_3iMaJ said:

"time" traffic lights

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When my city converted all traffic lights to LEDs they installed count-down timers for pedestrians. They have big numbers that I can see quite far away so when driving I know exactly when a green light will expire.

The city installed a solar-powered big-numbered speedometer at the side of the major street near my home. It states the legal limit and shows your actual speed. I floor my car's accelerator whenever I see it! :lol:

The surprising thing to me is that a lot of people don't wonder about stuff. You guys ever watch Leno's "Jaywalking" segments? I am always amazed that he can find people who are so ignorant of the world around them. Last night he found a gal who thought that the U.S. is in South America. Another one thought Mt. Rushmore is a volcano.
I realize this was a geography question, but I think a large percentage of the population is just wrapped up in their little worlds, and couldn't care less about how things work, or where things are, or what's going on in the world, or...
That's what makes us weird. We are a minority.

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it is a very nice thouht that, as an actually intelligent minority, we have had the brains and the will to actually combine and merge our knowledge in a big forum. it is sad to think that we are a minority, but at least we aren't stupid. i see too many advertisements and infomercials that rely on the fact that the majority of the worlds population is stupid, ignorant, and completely stubbornly against reality.

this is the kind of stuff that can really get you into a depression. it also gives me a headache when i thnik about why and how the world got stupid. religions, politics, advertsements, television sitcoms and cartoons, etc.

sigh... :cry:

Re: Quirky-ness

Optikon said:

When driving through traffic, I find myself analyzing traffic flow in the "fluid dynamic" sense. Propagation of traffic waves as drivers stop & go.

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You're not the only one to have considered this (myself included)...

http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html
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http://www.dctech.com/physics/features/0700.php
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ahaha using a microphone to measure the dogs panting speed, i did exactly the same thing to my lawn mower to work out its maximum RPM last weekend.

I assume you are like me...intelligent and cocky (same minds think alike)

:lol: So I'm not the only one!!

I'm not cocky though, I'm rather humble...my uncle is a cocky mechanical engineer, and I dont want to be like that.

Still palying around

I know this is an older thread but I just have to comment on the old
computer thing. I've found you can get quite a bit of use out of older
computers by rewriting some of the routines in the bios. While the
older 286, 386, 486 & earlier pentium computers suck at running
Windoze they can actually be quite useful using good old DOS
(Freedos even has the source code available) some parallel or
serial (Parallel prefered) ports and firing up the old soldering iron
to add goodies to them. Heck you can even add your own custom
ports to the older ISA bus motherboards and have one hell of
an embedded controller. Yeah it takes time and a lot of the bioses
are soldered in but as for speed they can't be beat. Now I'm not
recommending you use it for something that a good old 8x52 of
even a PIC can do in a smaller space. But when you think of it
they do have support for things like video and dynamic memory
management for what in the embedded realm is a crazy amount
of memory. And this even applies to older laptops. Where else can
you get an embedded controller with an LCD & or RGB video output?!?!?

It takes a bit more work but let me tell you it's really worth it.
I even took an old touch screen laptop and built a video game for my
cats a while back. And they actually like trying to punch the mice and
birds on the display. If they nail 5 or so critters in a row a solonoid
releases treats into the bowl next to the screen. It has had the side
effect of them poking my regular laptop from time to time if I forget
to close it when I wander off.

So go ahead and play with those old computers. They're cheap
and there are plenty of hardware hacking sites that will tell you
how to interface them to the outside world. And don't forget that
good old DOS kicks butt speed wise on those older units and gives
you hard disk interfaces and the possibilities are only limited by
your imagination and time rather than your budget. There's a
lot of older software out there too so you can write your routines
in C, C++, Pascal, Forth or whatever trips your trigger. Personally
I like to use assembly for it's small size and super speed in small
machines. And it makes you really think out your code. Use the
ports to communicate with some microcontrollers and the possibilities
are practically endless. And there is the added advantage of having
a built in power supply. Too cool for words. Good luck.

Dr. Atomic

After reading this thread I'm sure that I actually "fit in here" LOL

Lol, you guys are amazing!

I have always thot I was the only engineer in my college who was a whako! Actually this aint crazy, its just wisdom, which now-a-days is kinda corny...like for example, at our water cooler if I dont see a cup, ill make one out of an A4 sheet of paper in about 15 seconds. I have seen students complain about it to the supervisor!!! ..and they say we are crazy. In my locker instead of books I got my ....oh ****!!!!!!!! I just came up with an idea!!! Why not put some elctronic stuff in the locker!! ( I actually had my coffee/tea cups/suger stuff in it, to relax before a class )

Wow, thanks to this forum I got a new whaky idea, I might even put a number lock on it

xheavenlyx said:

Lol, you guys are amazing!

I have always thot I was the only engineer in my college who was a whako! Actually this aint crazy, its just wisdom, which now-a-days is kinda corny...like for example, at our water cooler if I dont see a cup, ill make one out of an A4 sheet of paper in about 15 seconds. I have seen students complain about it to the supervisor!!! ..and they say we are crazy. In my locker instead of books I got my ....oh ****!!!!!!!! I just came up with an idea!!! Why not put some elctronic stuff in the locker!! ( I actually had my coffee/tea cups/suger stuff in it, to relax before a class )

Wow, thanks to this forum I got a new whaky idea, I might even put a number lock on it

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Coffee and sugar get most people wired, not relaxed. Just more proof that you're a true engineering type.