The Nerd Pride Thread....

[NTP2]

Wait a sec, are you saying that trig is a sin?
Cos this is giving me a headache.
I may have to lay down on the beach and get a tan.

This needs to stop or I’ll die from laughing

 

[K'Tesh]

This needs to stop or I’ll die from laughing

+1

 

[K'Tesh]

These math problems are infinity cos fusing.

 

[John Kemker]

Actually it's a trigonometry pun.

Hmmm...in heraldry, a device that's a pun is known as "canted" or a "cant."

 

[kuririn]

Hmmm...in heraldry, a device that's a pun is known as "canted" or a "cant."

I was thinking of secant as in the trig function.

 

[John Kemker]

I was thinking of secant as in the trig function.

Ah!

So, take it as a double-pun. You covered trig and heraldry in one word!

 

[kuririn]

Ah!

So, take it as a double-pun. You covered trig and heraldry in one word!

There is secant evidence of deliberate intention on that point.

 

[kuririn]

 

[NTP2]

View attachment 628513

You forgot “rapid unplanned disassembly”.

Ps you dropped it.

 

[John Kemker]

View attachment 628513

Supposedly a true story, as told to me by my Digital Field Circus Engineer when I was at the VAMC in Decatur, managing the VAXcluster:

Marvin (Field Circus Engineer) told me about the time he had a call on a PDP-11 that was having intermittent failures. Marvin suspected a loose solder joint or wire wrap on one of the cards. So, he pulled out a hammer and began to tap each of the cards until the error occurred. Percussive Maintenance at its finest!

 

[kuririn]

You forgot “rapid unplanned disassembly”.

Ps you dropped it.

"Anomaly"
Something blew up.

 

[bjphoenix]

Marvin (Field Circus Engineer) told me about the time he had a call on a PDP-11 that was having intermittent failures. Marvin suspected a loose solder joint or wire wrap on one of the cards. So, he pulled out a hammer and began to tap each of the cards until the error occurred.

It's been a long time since I read Kidder's book but I recall a story about one of the Data General prototypes that was having problems so one of the engineers pulled out one of the main circuit boards and shook it real hard.

 

[goose_in_co]

It's been a long time since I read Kidder's book but I recall a story about one of the Data General prototypes that was having problems so one of the engineers pulled out one of the main circuit boards and shook it real hard.

That used to work long ago on those Wire-Wrap boards. Whack them on the table and see if you could get the loose wire to fall out.

We also had some wire wrap boards fail. When you removed them, the IC was missing but the pins were still in the sockets. The same parts soldered to PC boards did not have the same problem and were just fine. It turns out that the IC manufacturer plated the leads, then bent the leads, causing microfractures in the plating. The soldered parts were fine since the soldering re-flowed the plating. The leads on the wire wrap boards slowly corroded over time, causing the parts to fall off.

 

[OverTheTop]

Back in the 80's we had a rack of test equipment that was wire-wrapped. It developed an intermittent fault that took six months to track down. Fractured wire-wrap wire at one joint. Very unusual.

 

[Bob Yanecek]

When working on Standard Missile back in the 80's the test equiment utilized a big bank of relays.
Ineveitably one would get dirty contacts and cause havoc.
The 'fix' was to cycle all relays half a bazzillion times at the beginning of a test run.

 

[NTP2]

The hat man is my brother when my dad and me get going…

 

[K'Tesh]

Abby Normal Spock's Brain

 

[bjphoenix]

I dug out my various calculating devices for group photos.

First slide rules: The Pickett "Texas Speed Rule" (yellow) I used in high school and UIL contests. The other 2 Pickett slide rules (yellow) I used in college until I was able to buy a calculator. There are 4 K&E bamboo slide rules in there that I bought for my collection after I got out of college. Calculations from the slide rule are good to 3 significant digits, and the third digit can vary +/- 1 or 2. This is pretty good accuracy for engineering considering that loads and properties will vary more than that. There is a fairly easy method for keeping track of the decimal point in your head as you do the calculations, a form of scientific notation.

I got this old TI from a friend about mid 1970s. This was one of the first consumer calculators.


Now for the actual HP machines- I dug out what I could find and spread them out. I bought the original HP35 used when I was in college from a test pilot who had just bought a new HP45. I used it through college and when I started my career. I also used the HP25 in graduate school. I could program it to do repetitive calculations and I even programmed it to do numerical integration and things like that. Both of those would probably work if I put in new battery packs. I have an HP41CV that I used in my work but couldn't find it in short notice. I did find the card reader and cards. Also on the bottom row is a 31E that I'm pretty sure doesn't work anymore. When my 41CV got old I was looking for replacements and found that it was hard to find new models with RPN. I bought up the nearest I could find- 32S and 48. I liked the 32S because it fit easily in a shirt pocket. I ended up with 2 of the 32S and 2 of the 32SII, then I discovered that the 48 could be bought cheaply and for use on my desk it worked well so I have 2 of them. Finally HP came out with the 35S and I bought one, then when it stopped working I bought another one. I'm working from home these days and I have a 32SII and a 35S on my desk to be used.

 

[NTP2]

I dug out my various calculating devices for group photos.

First slide rules: The Pickett "Texas Speed Rule" (yellow) I used in high school and UIL contests. The other 2 Pickett slide rules (yellow) I used in college until I was able to buy a calculator. There are 4 K&E bamboo slide rules in there that I bought for my collection after I got out of college.View attachment 630176

I got this old TI from a friend about mid 1970s. This was one of the first consumer calculators.
View attachment 630177

Now for the actual HP machines- I dug out what I could find and spread them out. I bought the original HP35 used when I was in college from a test pilot who had just bought a new HP45. I used it through college and when I started my career. I also used the HP25 in graduate school. I could program it to do repetitive calculations and I even programmed it to do numerical integration and things like that. Both of those would probably work if I put in new battery packs. I have an HP41CV that I used in my work but couldn't find it in short notice. I did find the card reader and cards. Also on the bottom row is a 31E that I'm pretty sure doesn't work anymore. When my 41CV got old I was looking for replacements and found that it was hard to find new models with RPN. I bought up the nearest I could find- 32S and 48. I liked the 32S because it fit easily in a shirt pocket. I ended up with 2 of the 32S and 2 of the 32SII, then I discovered that the 48 could be bought cheaply and for use on my desk it worked well so I have 2 of them. Finally HP came out with the 35S and I bought one, then when it stopped working I bought another one. I'm working from home these days and I have a 32SII and a 35S on my desk to be used.View attachment 630180View attachment 630181View attachment 630182

How do you even USE a slide rule? From the name I assume it involves sliding??

 

[OverTheTop]

How do you even USE a slide rule? From the name I assume it involves sliding??

I learned how to use one in grade 6, primary school. No, it wasn't on the curriculum.

 

[bjphoenix]

How do you even USE a slide rule? From the name I assume it involves sliding??

It is a physical device for adding logarithms. You can multiply 2 numbers by adding their logarithms. The slide rule has numbers spaced out in logarithm fashion, i.e. the distance from the left end of the scale to the number would be relative to its logarithm. So pick the number on the scale, the distance from the left end would represent its logarithm, move the center slide to align and pick the next number on its scale, the distance from the end of that scale to that number represents its logarithm. With the scales positioned that way now the total distance is automatically added representing the logarithm of the total, and look at the number on the scale which converts the total logarithm back to a number.
There are other scales that do a similar thing for squaring a number of taking square root of a number.

 

[NTP2]

@bjphoenix and @OverTheTop thanks I’ll file that info away!

 

[4regt4]

I have a collection of probably 200 slide rules. Most (not all...) are K&E. BTW, most K&E rules are are mahogany. Well, not counting the later all plastic ones. Exceptions largely centered around the WWII time frame. Some really cheap ones used what looks like basswood. Post used bamboo mostly. They have a nice smooth action. It looks like there is a 4053 in the picture. Can't quite tell. I have a nearly complete collection of those from the early 1900s, every minor variation such as changes in the type font and variations in the formulas on the back. As well as the numerous different cursors. Probably 60-ish in total. I think the white celluloid on the varnished mahogany is striking.

There was/is a guy on eBay selling
replacement cursor blocks for those slide rules that suffer from KERCS - K&E Rotting Cursor Syndrome.

Hans.

 

[kuririn]

Analog calculator


Digital calculator

 

[bjphoenix]

I have a collection of probably 200 slide rules. Most (not all...) are K&E. BTW, most K&E rules are are mahogany. Well, not counting the later all plastic ones. Exceptions largely centered around the WWII time frame. Some really cheap ones used what looks like basswood. Post used bamboo mostly. They have a nice smooth action. It looks like there is a 4053 in the picture. Can't quite tell. I have a nearly complete collection of those from the early 1900s, every minor variation such as changes in the type font and variations in the formulas on the back. As well as the numerous different cursors. Probably 60-ish in total. I think the white celluloid on the varnished mahogany is striking.

I don't know that much about the different brands. Post must have either been less prevalent or more expensive during the time that I was on a buying spree since I don't have any of those.

I posted these same photos on an HP calculator facebook page and they booted the sliderule and TI photos.

I was camping in Utah a couple of years ago and bumped into an old HP employee who knew a little bit about the history of HP calculators.

 

[bjphoenix]

I dug around in my office and found the HP 41CV and the other HP 32S models. The 32SII worked, the other 2 didn't have batteries.

 

[K'Tesh]

 

[tsmith1315]

My personal guru to the rocket gods. I hope it’s not taboo to share his image!

 

[K'Tesh]

 

[K'Tesh]