The Nerd Pride Thread....

[K'Tesh]

Ok Geeks... Show your pride in being a nerd...

 

[kuririn]

 

[kuririn]

Back in the day when nerds were called squares, we they would carry their books and papers around in narrow briefcases at school.

 

[kuririn]

 

[NateB]

My nerdy punk heros.


And now a classic

 

[fyrwrxz]

My wife wished me Happy Father's Day and professed her love for me from here to Neso. (it's eccentric orbit makes it the furthest out moon in our system.) She's come out of the closet and is in danger of blooming into a full nerd.

 

[jqavins]

View attachment 523553

(Sorry no pictures) That array of pens is insufficient. In high school junior and senior years, I carried every day in my shirt pocket, black, blue, red, and green pens, as well as a #2½ pencil^*. Four colors are far better than three for taking notes in Pre-calc and Calc. And those four color pens with the four sliders don't come in extra-fine point. That continued into college and, occasionally, to this day. But alas, I didn't, and don't, have the pocket protector.

How do you carry a wood pencil in your shirt pocket?


* Marks from a # 2 can't be really cleanly erased, and the points go dull too fast; marks from a # 3 is too faint. I was thrilled when I discovered that #2½ exists. But now I carry a Sharp/Pentel P205 with F leads.

 

[fyrwrxz]

Oh god...I almost said "Hooray for 'F' leads!" but I have no idea what your talking about. None. That drafting pencil on my bench was there when I moved in. I've been waiting for the original owner to claim it since 1968....
(remember the little wooden trays they used to come in? I don't)

 

[jqavins]

Lead hardness for art and drafting is labeled on one end of the scale with B numbers - B, 2B, 3B, etc. - becoming softer with higher numbers. At the other end are the H numbers - H, 2H, 3H, etc. - getting harder as the numbers go up.

In the middle is HB. HB is about the same (or is it exactly the same?) as #2. H is like #3 and B is like #1.

F is the oddball in the nomenclature, and it's like a #2½, so in between HB and H.

My pencils come with a few HB leads, and the first thing I do is remove them and put in F.

 

[Antares JS]

Lead hardness for art and drafting is labeled on one end of the scale with B numbers - B, 2B, 3B, etc. - becoming softer with higher numbers. At the other end are the H numbers - H, 2H, 3H, etc. - getting harder as the numbers go up.

In the middle is HB. HB is about the same (or is it exactly the same?) as #2. H is like #3 and B is like #1.

F is the oddball in the nomenclature, and it's like a #2½, so in between HB and H.

My pencils come with a few HB leads, and the first thing I do is remove them and put in F.

When I was learning drafting in high school (in 2002-3. They taught us how to do it the old fashioned way before teaching us CAD) I had one pencil loaded 2B lead that I used for the actual part outline and another with an H lead for initial sketches and dimension/center lines. Good times.

 

[PhilC]

I occasionally use my slide rule. It freaks out my students!

 

[mh9162013]

I give serial numbers to all my AAA and AA NiMH rechargeable batteries and keep track of their use in an Excel file.

 

[Joekeyo]

When I was learning drafting in high school (in 2002-3. They taught us how to do it the old fashioned way before teaching us CAD) I had one pencil loaded 2B lead that I used for the actual part outline and another with an H lead for initial sketches and dimension/center lines. Good times.

And they were sharpened using sandpaper on a little paddle that had multiple sheets.

 

[Antares JS]

And they were sharpened using sandpaper on a little paddle that had multiple sheets.

Not in my case, I just had 0.5 mm pencils and leads so sharpening wasn't necessary.

 

[Joekeyo]

Finish reading one book, start another the next day (or is that "geek"?).

 

[Doug Holverson]

"Wanna see my drawin of a cyclop gurl?"

 

[tsmith1315]

I give serial numbers to all my AAA and AA NiMH rechargeable batteries and keep track of their use in an Excel file.

The force is strong in this one ^^^

 

[MALBAR 70]

Ummm....I fly model rockets, isn't that enough to qualify for supreme nerd status?

 

[jqavins]

Nerd status, yes. Supreme Nerd status, no. I've said my piece and counted to three.

 

[SecondRow]

I still do contest math problems — for fun. AIME, AMO, IMO, other countries’ Math Olympiad problems, whatever I can find.

 

[OzHybrid]

I occasionally use my slide rule. It freaks out my students!

The good thing about them is you have to know which ballpark you are in before you do the calc. The bad thing is you need to know which ballpark you are in before you do the calc....

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I occasionally use my slide rule. It freaks out my students!

I'm too lazy to use a slide rule. I just pull out a book of logs and do simple addition/subtraction/whatever, then go backwards.

 

[fyrwrxz]

I'm sure the average homeowner has a T-square, right? If I got a t- shirt made that says "Notta Nurd", I'd be okay, right?

 

[milehigh]

And they were sharpened using sandpaper on a little paddle that had multiple sheets.

Haha! I still have the sandpaper paddle from my 70s college drafting days. It now resides in my rocket range box and is regularly used for cleaning the micro clips!

 

[jqavins]

I occasionally use my slide rule. It freaks out my students!

I've never really used a slide rule, only worked a couple of operations for the fun of it. Does not using one count against me? Does the fact that trying it was fun count for me?

My dad used one for decades, and it made him good at estimating because he could use the image of a slide rule in his head.

 

[neil_w]

The good thing about them is you have to know which ballpark you are in before you do the calc. The bad thing is you need to know which ballpark you are in before you do the calc....

Do the numbers come out different if you're in, say Yankee Stadium vs. Dodger Stadium? And why would one be playing with a slide rule during a baseball game? I am so confused.

 

[jqavins]

No, but there's a noticeable effect if you're at Mile High Stadium.

 

[Alan15578]

I'm too lazy to use a slide rule. I just pull out a book of logs and do simple addition/subtraction/whatever, then go backwards.

A slide rule is just a compact analog book of logs for lazy people. This may sound like circular response, but my most usee slide rule was circular.

 

[PDawg]

I drive a Subaru, and my Wife and I have had 8 total. I suppose the one with the Manual Trans doesn't count.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

A slide rule is just a compact analog book of logs for lazy people. This may sound like circular response, but my most usee slide rule was circular.

You get more significant digits from a book, plus it's easier (and more accurate) when you interpolate.

Once upon a time, every good chemistry, physics, math, and engineering reference and textbook had a section on logs and trig functions. Some had forms of various equations and integrals.

Heinlein wrote about the use of circular slide rules in "The Rolling Stones". The family was traveling from moon orbit to the Asteroids and Jupiter. A good slide rule gives you three, maybe four significant digits. That can give you a precision of one part in ten thousand, max. That means every ten thousand miles or so, they had to take a sighting and calculate position and needed course corrections. On average, the distance from Earth to Jupiter is around 450 million miles. That's a lot of sightings and calculations.