Engineering

From Are We Lumberjacks? comes this little missive on engineering. After so many documented engineering failures such as the Therac-25, this is all the more troubling. All I know is that my stuff has to work or a lot of people could have a really bad day!

Oh, and to the person that wanted to know what classes to take to kill people now? Civil engineers make targets for the mechanical and electrical engineers! 

What is Smith and Wesson Thinking Indeed!

The always enjoyable blog of Tam lamented the marketing department efforts of S&W lately. Although based on my blog posts one could assume I am a Colt kind of person (true there), there are the occasional S&W revolvers to be found here and there at stately manor. Oh and the Historian letters are cheaper and quicker if you can handle the lack of spell check and proofreading from Roy Jenkins.

But the last e-mail from S&W has me in total agreement with Tam on this one. And I venture that even the lunkheads at Colt marketing have not thought of this:
 Give the link a moment as S&W seems to not spend a lot of money on Web tech. If you do not want to wait, here is one offering for Fathers Day from the e-mail

Description: "This special collectors edition set comes with the igniting Smith & Wesson Men's Cologne in a 3.4 oz perfect fitting refill bottle, one large front and one large back metal frame with screws and a tooling kit. All this is beautifully set in a distinctive Smith & Wesson custom engraved Cherry Wood presentation case." All of this can be had for $124.95!

I'm sorry S&W, I think I will stay with my pedestrian cologne!  Perhaps yours smells like burnt gunpowder with a hint of Hoppes #9? I think that "igniting" is not an adjective I would want to use for a firearm enthusiast for a cologne!

Sheesh!

Drunk Driver Goes All General Lee Out of DFW

BP Cares!

I am admittedly not a Twitter fan, but this is funny! The Twitterer "BPCares" has such Tweets as:

We really wish the water would not contaminate our oil. It's getting out of hand. #bpcares 

Need community service hours? #bpcares 

Gas 1/2 off at #BP today; if it looks watered down...well, don't worry about it. #bpcares

Go check it out! 
  

Thanks NFO!

A succinct retort to the Mexican President's speech to Congress!  

Telecommuting

Lots of people telecommute now that Broadband and other technologies have made it possible. I use it too; just not in the conventional sense. Just commissioned a piece of equipment today. It was running well, so the owner decided to "leave 'r running" overnight. I'm OK with that, but not everything was fully tested. So I'm keeping an eye on it from the house:

This sure beats sitting on a overturned five gallon bucket looking at a laptop in a 90 degree room with a wet floor!

Consumer Warning!

Here we have De-evolving exhibit #3. Sometimes this stuff just jumps up and screams at you!

So let me get this straight. Somebody buys something that says "Clorox Automatic Shower Cleaner", installs it and thinks, "Hey, I can shave 5 minutes off of the morning shower if I just stand there and press the button! I don't even have to cut the water on!". We are doomed I say! 

This rates right up there with "Do not iron while wearing" and "Do not look at laser with remaining good eye"!