jjandascog

"No Mustang has ever had "rims" either, and there is no such listing in the parts catalog--but many, many people call the wheels, which do have "rims", (and hubs and discs/spokes) just that..."


True true, it is a slow day at work

cliffyk

That's cool--modern manufacturing techniques very often allow integration of what were once individual parts of an "assembly"--wheels being a wonderful example, my father's 1928 Model A does actually have rims.

When that happens the pieces/parts/appendages still have the same functional value while losing their individual identity--but the descriptive name of the function remains--because what the heck else would you call it?

wishIcould

I'm curious what you do in real life to know all of this?

cliffyk

I'm a semi-retired mechanical engineer (MIT '71), and spent the first part of my career working in the textile industry, then moved briefly to aerospace, then to senior management (sucks), and now do data systems engineering for medical laboratories (mostly). In my spare time I buy, repair, calibrate, and resell electronic test equipment; and write software for various commercial applications.

An insomniac, I am a voracious reader and collector of technical documents...

wishIcould

Wow quite the career you've had. Looks like I need to start reading some technical documents haha.
Where did you pick up the software writting?

cliffyk

I started in school on a DEC PDP-8 using Fortran and paper tape I/O, used a PDP-11/34 in the early 70s, and got my first microcomputer (a MITS Altar) in the mid-70s, then wrote for Byte, Kilobaud, and 80-Micro in the 80s--the rest just happened...

This was my favourite ever cover--with the lead article:



The funny part is that I didn't even own a TRS-80 Model 4 (or otherwise).

They had commissioned an article from another author who delivered a pile of crap, I had written a couple articles for them in '82 and the asked me to RUSH this through--I wrote it using a Model 4-P, in a Radio Shack store in Fairhaven, MA.

wishIcould

Haha that cover is awesome.
I always have been drawn toward mech. engineering and comp stuff but just can't really find a good way to get into it. I kinda moved away from it going with accounting. Oh well someday i'll be able to afford a lil extra space with a couple tools so i can learn some of this stuff.