|
Post by GTCGreg on Mar 30, 2016 22:40:19 GMT
in a closer to home example, a modern driver most likely could not adjust ignition timing, but a model T driver not only did it - he did it WHILE DRIVING. And now it takes 3 million transistors and thousands of lines of code to do what Henry did with a single lever on the steering column. Oh, how we have progressed. In 500 years, we will look back and say Henry must of had help from space aliens. How else could he have gotten an engine to run without the help of a supercomputer.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Mar 30, 2016 22:49:35 GMT
in a closer to home example, a modern driver most likely could not adjust ignition timing, but a model T driver not only did it - he did it WHILE DRIVING. And now it takes 3 million transistors and thousands of lines of code to do what Henry did with a single lever on the steering column. Oh, how we have progressed. In 500 years, we will look back and say Henry must of had help from space aliens. How else could he have gotten an engine to run without the help of a supercomputer. the other side, of course, is that Henry got less horsepower per gallon out of his motor and it required a lot more fiddling to keep it running. but odds are future humans will look at some of the stuff we've done and have no idea how we did it. how did we move these massive energy converters? their strongest hoverplatforms won't be able to handle that kind of weight.
|
|
|
Post by Lokifan on Mar 31, 2016 0:22:58 GMT
not that there's anything inherently wrong with that. unless you count how it frustrates the curious. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If the human species had to actively catalogue each and every item we invent and how it works, however specialized and "one use only" it is, we'd never advance. We'd spend all our time writing up documentation on things that will be obsolete as soon as one particular job is done. Ever wonder what that "ISO 9000/9001" sticker means? Pretty much that someone, somewhere, has written ridiculously detailed instructions on how to do everything. Including charts. And diagrams. And every other bit of documentation you could possibly imagine...to get you ready for the audit. The audit that always finds something under the "Got to protect our phoney-baloney jobs!" mentality. Once the audit is complete, you start over refining the documents, charts, procedures, etc., until the next audit... I'm not saying it's necessarily useless or a bad practice, but it can be time consuming. Sorry; sort of a diversion. But it is easier to archive knowledge now than it's ever been before. The Internet proves that. Heck, Wikipedia, warts and all, is still an amazing accomplishment. And I've been inside the Internet Archive; they're nuts, but it's impressive. About forty years ago, I read an article that said the area of science that most needed a revolutionary advancement was library science, as just finding data was becoming increasingly difficult (and this was in the days of card catalogs and microfiche). Now, whenever I use Google, I realize the article was right, and the revolution has come...
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Mar 31, 2016 0:43:41 GMT
And now it takes 3 million transistors and thousands of lines of code to do what Henry did with a single lever on the steering column. Oh, how we have progressed. In 500 years, we will look back and say Henry must of had help from space aliens. How else could he have gotten an engine to run without the help of a supercomputer. the other side, of course, is that Henry got less horsepower per gallon out of his motor and it required a lot more fiddling to keep it running. but odds are future humans will look at some of the stuff we've done and have no idea how we did it. how did we move these massive energy converters? their strongest hoverplatforms won't be able to handle that kind of weight. Even when you look at some things we've done now, you have to ask yourself "how did we figure that out." Take the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne or the CMS detector at CERN. How do you even begin to design a one-of-a-kind machine that big and that complex and actually get it to work?
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Mar 31, 2016 1:03:42 GMT
the other side, of course, is that Henry got less horsepower per gallon out of his motor and it required a lot more fiddling to keep it running. but odds are future humans will look at some of the stuff we've done and have no idea how we did it. how did we move these massive energy converters? their strongest hoverplatforms won't be able to handle that kind of weight. Even when you look at some things we've done now, you have to ask yourself "how did we figure that out." Take the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne or the CMS detector at CERN. How do you even begin to design a one-of-a-kind machine that big and that complex and actually get it to work? the guy who taught me the trade worked at San Enofree when they were building it. he said half the work he did was taking out stuff that had just been installed so they could install it differently.
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Mar 31, 2016 1:52:52 GMT
Even when you look at some things we've done now, you have to ask yourself "how did we figure that out." Take the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne or the CMS detector at CERN. How do you even begin to design a one-of-a-kind machine that big and that complex and actually get it to work? the guy who taught me the trade worked at San Enofree when they were building it. he said half the work he did was taking out stuff that had just been installed so they could install it differently. I believe that. When I replace a light bulb, it seams I have a 50/50 chance that it will come on when I flip the switch.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Mar 31, 2016 6:24:22 GMT
You have been looking at my browsing history?.. How?.. I deleted it yesterday?. This is something I watched online last week, I did watch the series a while back.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Mar 31, 2016 6:34:36 GMT
My old Mini had a vacuum tube attached that did that "automatically", thus we didnt need to do that any more, of course, now, its all done by the EMU.... but I had an old bike where I had a retard advance slider on the handlebars... old Brit BPL machine, (Bops-Per-Lamppost) from Birmingham Small Arms manufacturer, or as we know it, "BSA"
At the moment, there is a full build of a "Brand new" Standard 4-6-0 steam train. All new, from tre ground up. Reason they are doing this £4,000,000 build?... So this time they can document how they do it, before the guys that did that die out.....
Historical re-enactment like this is invaluable.
There is a whole branch of "Toolmakers" that had a very real and important job back in the days when engineering was big, they were the ones that invented the tools to do the job. On site, on the day, employed to do that. It wasnt a case of nip down to the local hardware shop, it was here is a supply of half-inch thick steel, cut your own. Or even build a wooden model and sand cast it and they can poor steel in that mould from the furnaces.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Mar 31, 2016 6:40:42 GMT
Ask my kid. If you have got an hour or two, he will tell you.... He being the lucky {sod} who got to go there last year as part of his college course, and is now about to start a degree in Engineering and the software for it at university, UMIST. I have sneaking suspicions he may be a small part in the next big thing someone decides to build.... He is more intrigued in engineering than a whole barrel of Mythbusters. I bounce ideas of him now and again just to see what survives.
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Mar 31, 2016 13:47:34 GMT
Ask my kid. If you have got an hour or two, he will tell you.... He being the lucky {sod} who got to go there last year as part of his college course, and is now about to start a degree in Engineering and the software for it at university, UMIST. I have sneaking suspicions he may be a small part in the next big thing someone decides to build.... He is more intrigued in engineering than a whole barrel of Mythbusters. I bounce ideas of him now and again just to see what survives. I know how you feel. Both my son and daughter are heavily involved in scientific research. The best part is they get paid to do something they really love doing. It's a little disheartening to wake up one day and realize your kids really are a whole lot smarter than you.
|
|
|
Post by OziRiS on Mar 31, 2016 20:06:09 GMT
Ask my kid. If you have got an hour or two, he will tell you.... He being the lucky {sod} who got to go there last year as part of his college course, and is now about to start a degree in Engineering and the software for it at university, UMIST. I have sneaking suspicions he may be a small part in the next big thing someone decides to build.... He is more intrigued in engineering than a whole barrel of Mythbusters. I bounce ideas of him now and again just to see what survives. I know how you feel. Both my son and daughter are heavily involved in scientific research. The best part is they get paid to do something they really love doing. It's a little disheartening to wake up one day and realize your kids really are a whole lot smarter than you. Why disheartening? If your kids have grown up to be smarter than you, then you've done something right. If the day ever comes (and I hope it does) where my boy turns out to be smarter than me, I'll be proud.
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Mar 31, 2016 20:53:04 GMT
I know how you feel. Both my son and daughter are heavily involved in scientific research. The best part is they get paid to do something they really love doing. It's a little disheartening to wake up one day and realize your kids really are a whole lot smarter than you. Why disheartening? If your kids have grown up to be smarter than you, then you've done something right. If the day ever comes (and I hope it does) where my boy turns out to be smarter than me, I'll be proud. Yes, it is something to be proud of. The only thing I have over them at this point is experience. But they are catching up to me on that too.
|
|
|
Post by OziRiS on Mar 31, 2016 21:00:46 GMT
Why disheartening? If your kids have grown up to be smarter than you, then you've done something right. If the day ever comes (and I hope it does) where my boy turns out to be smarter than me, I'll be proud. Yes, it is something to be proud of. The only thing I have over them at this point is experience. But they are catching up to me on that too. If you want to get ahead of that, get really old really fast. They hopefully don't have any experience of adult diapers yet
|
|