I love stories where people make changes in someone else's project without thinking of or knowing of the damage they could do. I unplugged an extension cord that ran to a copier so I could move a desk to another area and then I was going to replug it. Harmless right.
Well someone else had already disconnected the copier and had a computer plugged in. I pulled the plug and heard one of the book keepers say, "Oh no. I just lost March." I was tempted to quickly reconnect before I was found out, but confessed and had to indure icy stares for a good week or so.
Growing up on a small farm in Eastern Oregon, I learned how to fix a lot of things with tools/supplies at hand (I have a pickup and baling wire story). It's served me VERY well in this career and in my hobbies.
Streetrodder, I'll bet you have some of your own Sherlock Ohms stories. If you do, please send one along. Shoot for 350 words or more, and include a short two- or three-sentence bio.
As best I can recall, the students ran tests in a section of pipe for their project, so they could pull out the robot in case of problems. Maybe they used a low-tech retrieval system--string.
Hey, Jon, were they able to retrieve the robot once they lost communications with it? I would think they would lose control of it when communication stopped.
On the southwest corner of the campus at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA) stands a stone building used some time ago as a magnetics and electricity lab. It contains no magnetic materials. Read a short history and see a photo here: http://www.wpi.edu/about/tour/skull.html. The street-car line no longer exists. I cannot vouch for the veracity of stories about the Skull society and any "secret" ceremonies.
I heard a story about engineering students who created a wireless robot that would crawl through metal pipes. The robot would into the pipe, but at exactly the same point it would stop communicating. Turned out the pipe formed a nice waveguide and acted like a dead short for the RF, so communications ended abruptly. My memory is a bit hazy, so maybe some other waveguide effect caused loss of comms--I'm not a microwave guy.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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