Tech Tuesday 11/21

Oscar Gordon

A Navy Turbine Tech who learned to spin wrenches on old cars, Oscar has since been trained as an Engineer & Software Developer & now writes tools for other engineers. When not in his shop or at work, he can be found spending time with his family, gardening, hiking, kayaking, gaming, or whatever strikes his fancy & fits in the budget.

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19 Responses

  1. Road Scholar says:

    I’m flabbergasted that you failed to link to Rendezvous with Rama. Seriously, the first confirmed sighting of an interstellar visitor and it looks like that??!! Not a nice, sorta round, potato-looking thing like any other respectable asteroid, but something 10 times longer than it is wide? I’m not going full-blown Art Bell on ya here but that’s just weird.Report

  2. dragonfrog says:

    EE1 has the link from BIO4

    TRANS2 looks like it doesn’t rely on the driver to deploy it. I often see the aerodynamic fairings on the back of trailers still folded down flat on the highway, I guess because the driver forgot to open them out, or maybe it was raining so they didn’t want to…Report

    • Oscar Gordon in reply to dragonfrog says:

      EE1 is fixed

      I doubt the driver has to deploy it, but I bet the driver has a manual over-ride to prevent it from deployingReport

      • Road Scholar in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

        I assume so (our company doesn’t use them) since at least half the time I see them they’re folded but there’s a sign on the back saying they deploy automatically.

        I wonder about the reefer units as well. Not so much the airflow but it looks like the top part might run into it when it deploys. The other thing is we generally have stuff mounted on the back of the cab: load bar storage, spare tire, even a broom and some guys stick a bicycle up there.Report

  3. Richard Hershberger says:

    TRANS1: Philadelphia’s regional rail system uses overhead wires and pantographs. Aesthetics aside, the trains have to slow down in hot weather because the wires sag. The real fun, though, comes in the Autumn. It turns out that dried leaves crushed under a train’s wheels make a great lubricant. The train will slide through a station and back up to the platform. Good times.Report

  4. InMD says:

    AERO3 is crazy. Had that comet not hit maybe we’d be real live lizard people.

    Also @oscar-gordon a fogo de chau Thanksgiving sounds awesome hope you enjoy it.Report

    • KenB in reply to InMD says:

      But to put it in perspective, the age of dinosaurs lasted about 180 million years — they made a lot of saving throws before the bad roll finally came up. Homo Sapiens has only been around for maybe 2 million years — what are the odds that we last as long as the dinos?Report

      • Oscar Gordon in reply to KenB says:

        On the plus side, the longer we make our saving throws, the lower they get, which is an advantage the dinos didn’t have.Report

      • Kolohe in reply to KenB says:

        Aren’t they all different dinos in each third of the dino era?

        (Also, it’s not really a victory if ‘mammals’ or even ‘primates’ survive, if one particular species doesn’t)

        (And many people are going to eat what is essentially a dinosaur this week.)Report

        • KenB in reply to Kolohe says:

          Well, you see, this is where my argument falls to the ground. I was hoping you would not make that particular point, but I can see you’re more than a match for me.Report

    • Oscar Gordon in reply to InMD says:

      We did the steakhouse last year and had a blast. Bug called it “the table of good food” (he was 4).Report

  5. Michael Cain says:

    WWW2: Less the 3D printing, when my kids were in grade school the schools collected plastic milk jugs which were recycled into playground equipment (including benches). My new deck planking is largely recycled plastic. Standard molding tech seemed/seems sufficient for most applications.Report

  6. Road Scholar says:

    Trans3: I’m cautiously impressed. But I’ve learned to be skeptical of Musk. Too much tendency to oversell. He really lost me when that guy was killed because the auto-drive system couldn’t see a semi crossing the highway in front of him. He puts a civilian in an autonomous vehicle that clearly wasn’t 100% with a big ole button label “Automatic”,Report

  7. Michael Cain says:

    This man is planning an attempt to launch himself, via steam-powered rocket, to an altitude of 1,800 feet as the first part of a research program to prove that the Earth is a flat disk. I’m not sure what 1,800 feet will show that can’t be seen from the window of a commercial jetliner at >35,000 feet.Report