Improving Research, Design, & Manufacturing » Humor

Civil engineers slow traffic with huge holes in the road

T. Brian Jones — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:47:49 +0000

These holes full of rubble would sure slow me down on the expressway, even if they are a little bit aggressive as a speed deterent. If you hit one of these at more than a a few miles per hour, you would risk breaking an axle, or at least blowing out a few tires.

Fortunately, these pot-holes are simply 2D images, printed by engineers in Eastern Canada, and placed in areas where speeding is a problem. Not a long term solution, but probably a good way to convince people that the highway authority is at least quick to repair damage on the roads.

This is a great implementation of simple design.

Has anyone actually seen a flying car in real life?

T. Brian Jones — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:18:15 +0000

Here is yet another company of the future with their version of the flying car. Always fun to see the real world designs for these.

“Terrafugia has completed flight testing of the Transition POC (Proof of Concept). Introducing the Transition. Simply land at the airport, fold your wings up and drive home.”

In plane mode, this thing will fly a distance of up to 450mi (725 km) but obviously requires a special license to flive (fly + drive?). The price tag is expected to be around $200,000, and is currently scheduled for production in 2011.

My favorite has always been the Skycar. I guess it’s not really fit for street travel, but it sure is cool looking. When you really combine the necessities of a road vehicle with an airplane, the thing starts to look pretty funky.

Any other flying cars out there? How about boat cars? Train cars???

No related posts.

Our Top Tweets from Last Week

T. Brian Jones — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:18:45 +0000

Amazing periodic table. Each element has a video explaining it’s history, uses, characteristics, etc. – http://bit.ly/3fY40S
The humorous result of years of Intense Study and Engineering Experience http://bit.ly/1BJ8Yv
Twitter Lists for Nerds – engineering, science, technology, and even NASA! http://bit.ly/4jFNhI
Follow all the nasa twitter feeds in one list – http://bit.ly/4mIJ0z
My favorite engineering blog discussing innovations in rural Africa. – http://www.afrigadget.com/

Twitter Lists for Nerds – engineering, science, technology, and even NASA!

T. Brian Jones — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:54:08 +0000

I’ve created a host of useful Twitter lists for followers of @Help4Engineers (and everyone else too).

My Favorites

Engineering / Science / Technology Favorites: This is my personal list of the most interesting tweeters I follow. I go here for almost all my Twitter news. This list is the best of the best.
All NASA Twitter Feeds: Over 50 unique NASA twitter streams. These are absolutely awesome, and many of them have tens of thousands of followers on their own. NASA is doing an amazing job sharing the incredible information they collect.
Industrial Suppliers on Twitter: I’m constantly adding new suppliers as I find them. Let me know of any I’m missing in the comments. These tweets are way more interesting than I expected when I first made this list.

My Other Useful Lists

Manufacturing / Engineering Trade Magazines and Journals: This is a list of journalists, and twitter streams for magazines and journals in the sci-tech arena.
Engineering / Manufacturing Groups and Organizations: These tweeters represent groups or organizations that various engineers might want to be part of.
Engineering Departments at Universities
Manufacturing Shows and Promotion Groups
General Sci-Tech: All the tweeters that I find interesting that don’t fall into any of my other lists.

What other lists should I start or do you know about?

Innovative Engineering–Years of Intense Study and Engineering Experience

T. Brian Jones — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:49:51 +0000

There I Fixed It is a tremendous site where users submit images of innovative engineering feats. These range from drawing a warm bath over a camp fire to roasting a dozen hotdogs on the fingers of a metal rake to duct taping flashlights to front bumper of a car.

I’ve embedded a few of the images below to give you a good idea of the genius that is presented here. This site is both hysterical and inspirational. Although there are tremendous displays of stupidity that we can all laugh at, there is something noble about using a little duct tape and a few Pringles cans to repair your engine. Enjoy!

I once fixed my friend’s car stereo with a paperclip and a piece of gum. True story. (It was just a loose wire, but the gum and paperclip insured the connection held up and really perplexed my friends.)

I LOVE LEGOS! Raise your hand if you have some in your house as an adult and they don’t belong to your children.

A little conservation is always good too.

Images courtesy of There, I Fixed It.

What stupid, funny, creative engineering feats have you accomplished?

Our Top Tweets from Last Week!

T. Brian Jones — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:50:13 +0000

We send out all kinds of interesting/useful/cool tweets from our twitter account, Help4Engineers, and our readers have requested that we capture the best stuff in a blog post. So, starting this week, we’re going to do a blog post every Monday that is a recap of the most popular tweets from the previous week.

Astrophysicists rapping about the Universe (Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson, & Bill Nye). – http://bit.ly/8QWH2
New Scientist has an excellent article on how the brain makes sense of time. http://bit.ly/1160BX
Sixth sense let’s you interact with a pocket computer on any surface as though it’s a touchscreen. http://bit.ly/K8FEE
How DIY design gave a teenager from Malawi electricity, and can help transform Africa. http://bit.ly/1t8hI5 via @leleutd
NASA’s climate change website. Awesome info! http://bit.ly/mKkkE @andeanhealth

And my personal favorite from the week:

All engineers love nerf don’t they? Retro nerf bow and arrow tv commercial. http://bit.ly/2agJmy – via @andeanhealth

Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson, & Bill Nye Rapping about the Universe

T. Brian Jones — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:48:46 +0000

This is a great music video composed of clips of famous scientists talking about the universe. T-Pain’s auto-tune effect has been laid over the clips to really give it a “hip” feel. Pretty funny. I dig the song too!

Interactive Online Solar System Model

Top Ten Ways Being An Engineer Improves Your Daily Routine

Ryan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:06:52 +0000

10. Time Management and Planning
This is only #10 because I think lots of professions train us to be effective time managers.

9. Being Logical
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard two people arguing about something and thought, “That doesn’t make any sense. Actually, neither one of them make any sense.” Lawyers run into this thought constantly as well.

8. Puzzles and Strategic Games
Everything we do at work all day is a puzzle of some sort. Critical thinking to solve complex technical problems is what makes us engineers.

7. Fixing Things
This one applies to most engineers, just not me personally. I am many things, but ‘handyman’ is not one of them.

6. Basic Arithmetic
All engineering disciplines require strong mathematical backgrounds, so it stands to reason that using math every day makes us good at everything from doing taxes to calculating sales tax and tips.

5. Fantasy Sports/Statistics
Take one look at the rules of my 10-team fantasy baseball keeper league. Trust me, the engineering skills come in handy when trying to create the best statistical team possible.

4. Maps and Driving

Engineers don’t get lost. Ever.

3. Personal Finances

The math and organizational skills definitely come in handy here.

2. Setting Up All-Things-Electronic
This goes hand-in-hand with #7, but this one resonates with me personally. Whether it’s computers, tvs, stereos, mp3 players, or clock radios, the engineer knows where the cords go.

1. Making EVERYTHING More Efficient
It’s in the job description to optimize. Whether it’s making lines go faster, appliances save energy, or taking less trips to carry groceries upstairs, engineers naturally look for ways to make everything more efficient.

How has being an engineer helped you with routine tasks?

Why I Love To Engineer: Curiosity, Learning, Understanding, Expression and, finally, Application

T. Brian Jones — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:55:13 +0000

Engineering is the application of understanding.

An engineer encounters a problem, researches the causes, investigates ways to remedy the problem, and then designs and implements a solution.

I have tried to answer the question “Why do I enjoy engineering so much?” for a really long time and have finally realized that it’s not one particular aspect. Instead, it’s the process as a whole. For an engineer, a project is a complete scientific discovery from start to finish.

Curiosity, Learning, Understanding, Expression and, finally, Application.

As an engineer, I think it’s important to engage with your projects on as many levels as you can. Seek out your own problems to solve. Do detailed research to find solutions. Design creative and fantastic solutions to problems. Get your hands dirty putting your inventions together. Be there when the problem you encountered is finally solved. And, most importantly, enjoy the satisfaction and happiness of being a curious child, an academic, an artist, and an inventor.

I’ve found that the most compelling activities I engage in all follow this progression. I am an engineer, an entrepreneur, a photographer, and a musician. In almost every way, I think these are simply different names for the same thing.

What hobbies or activities engage all your abilities and satisfy your sense of wonder?

@Help4Engineers: Useful Resources and Interesting Information for Engineers on Twitter

T. Brian Jones — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:00:35 +0000

I maintain a twitter feed (@Help4Engineers) where I share useful resources and interesting information for engineers. I generally tweet a few times a day and have found a large and very engaged engineering following. I’m always available as a resource, and will help you with any application you have.

Industrial Interface is a website to help engineers use suppliers as a resource early in their projects, and I can help you find the right suppliers for your designs. Message me about your applications, or signup for an account and post your projects directly to our site.

What other engineering or scientific twitter feeds do you follow?

Top Ten Things That Annoy Engineers

Ryan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:57:43 +0000

10. The Phone (see our post “10 Reasons Engineers Hate the Phone“)

9. Multiple Office Sites – As if things weren’t complicated enough, I have to try to communicate and solve complex issues over the phone and through NetMeeting, WebEx, and VNC? Maybe if I am especially lucky, I’ll get to travel back and forth for months at a time!

8. Executive speak – Nothing quite like a load of BS from the VP about how great everything is going. Or worse… when it’s quiet, you know it’s REALLY bad.

7. Too Many Bosses – Answering to the boss’s boss, or the boss’s boss’s boss, that really isn’t so bad. There is even a chance to make a solid impression on the higher-ups. But answering to the boss’s colleagues? This can get frustrating. Especially when I know credit for extra work won’t be coming my way.

6. Useless Meetings – Hey, I have an idea. Let’s all meet and discuss the status of our very important work over, and over, and over, and over. Ugh. If what I’m hearing from everyone else doesn’t have any impact on MY contribution to the design, my time is better spent, you know, contributing.

5. Repetitive and Lazy Questions – Repetitive questions (often from other design groups) with obviously accessible answers are annoying. Beware! These questions often come with a price tag: work ownership.

4. Bad IT – I’m complaining for others here. I’ve been flat-out spoiled by fantastic IT. I’ve never had the joy of losing emails, OS crashes, disk reboots, and slow, old computers that can’t get the job done.

3. Tools That Don’t Work – Oh segmentation fault, how come you never show up when I actually HAVE time to waste?

2. The Fear of Blame – Very motivating, yet very toxic when ingrained in company engineering culture.
Teaser: Full blog post coming on this SOON!

1. Marketing – Non-technical marketing decisions/timelines are, without question, the most annoying thing to engineers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat and thought, “They (marketing) think we can do WHAT in HOW LONG? That’s funny. Boy, they are in for a ruuuude awakening.” Following this thought is an endless stream of phone calls, useless meetings with too many bosses, truckloads of blame, and a plethora of stupid questions, all in an effort to justify why schedules are DEFINITELY going to slip to folks who will never understand why. ARGHHHH!

What annoys you while on the job? What can be done to change it?

10 Reasons Engineers Hate The Phone

T. Brian Jones — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:57:26 +0000

10. Engineers would rather take their phone apart.

9. It’s OK to call an engineer when you have a cool science or math question because they will surely know the answer. WRONG! Google knows too. Next time someone is too lazy to look something up themselves, send them here.

8. Because YOU can… make sure stuff’s plugged in, unclog a drain, tighten a screw, remove string from the vacuum, reboot your computer, replace the batteries, or take your car to a mechanic all by your freakin’ self.

7. Engineers have lots of hobbies. Waiting by the phone for it to beep, ring, buzz, or sing is not one of them.

6. Engineers like to concentrate really hard on one activity without interruption (see my serious post on multitasking and meetings). Try watching a whole movie, going for a walk, driving somewhere, or just having a complete conversation without answering, or even bringing, your phone. If people in 1995 could do it, you probably can too.

5. The internet doesn’t mind when you stop in the middle of an article and change subjects. People get mad when you hang up in the middle of a conversation and call someone more interesting.

4. Because engineers are always thinking about something else while people talk at them, they rely on visual cues to know when it’s their turn be polite and respond. The phone makes this REALLY awkward.

3. Phone Call = Obligation to Talk = More Work = More Opportunity for Blame for Helping Someone Else

2. Without a doubt, whatever an engineer is currently doing is vastly more interesting than talking to you on the phone … unless it’s a girlfriend or wife calling. Tricked you. Engineers don’t have those.

1. No one calls an engineer to catch up. People only call engineers to ask for things. Therefore, answering the phone is always the wrong thing to do.

I Personally Can’t Stand The Phone!

My more serious post on Multitasking and Meetings delves into a bit of the science behind these evils. After all, phone calls are just meetings in disguise.

Thanks to Dilbert and Scott Adams for the comic.