'Xtreme' Equipment That You Have Borrowed? 216
djupedal asks: "What's the most extreme type of equipment you've used from the lab/office/university, etc. for your own projects, etc.? Have you ever taken a piece of unknown lint into work just to check it out under the nuclear microscope? Ever used the UV curing oven on the production line to make custom wheels for an R/C car? Ever used the 100,000 ton press in the lab to meld a dime into a nickel just to have a present for your gf/bf on Valentine's Day?"
"Ever drop by the house on the way home from work and use your company's nuclear density gauge to check for hardpan in the backyard?
Was that you I saw driving a 50 ton crane into the sub-division just to have a platform to install a 3 meter dish on the roof of the garage?
Ever hog a T-3 so you could loop-logon on to your own box....after networking thru a minimum of 25 repeaters near the equator...just to see how much delay there is when going around the planet?
To get you started -- we used to work the night shift at a ski area - and when we found spare time, we would fire up a few of the $200,000.00 Kässbohrer PistenBully's and run off into the trees and play hide & seek in the dark, when it was snowing heavy and your tracks would be covered quickly. All lights out and nothing but iPods online, we would play tag until we either got lost, stuck, bored or the sun came up.
What's your best example of trivial use of some very expensive gear that wasn't yours?"
Secretary (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Secretary (Score:2)
"... I asked her for an updated phone list."
freeze drying (Score:3, Interesting)
Well.... (Score:2)
I also installed a Counter-STrike server on a server at my high school, and I think its been running for like 7 months and noone has noticed yet
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Careful! There was a story here a few years back about a guy who installed SETI on a network. He was then billed for all the run-time SETI used. The owners of the network used math a lot like yours to arrive at an outrageous number.
My advice? Watch your ass. I was nearly fired from a job once simply because I sent a text message over the network.
Re:Well.... (Score:2)
Details please...
Re:Well.... (Score:2)
Not a very interesting story, but the very next day I bought the first of my comprehensive Dilbert collection.
Re:Well.... (Score:2)
MANY of the computers already have it on there at my
Cryogenics (Score:4, Funny)
I recently used liquid helium to freeze the memories of thousands of Slashdotters.
The answers are:
-yes
-maybe
-only if hamsters are involved
-no
Cryo - for real. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cryo - for real. (Score:3, Insightful)
Craig Morton claims he will pound a nail into a board with a banana. He will undertake this folly tomorrow in front of an unforgiving audience: kids.
There is, of course, a secret that will prevent Morton from playing the fool. He will pretreat the banana with a component of air that has been compressed and expanded until it becomes liquid nitrogen. At minus-320 degrees, liquid nitrogen will star in several trick demonstrations all day tomorrow as part of COSI's "Strange Matters" exhibit.
More at: h [toledoblade.com]
Re:Cryo - for real. (Score:2)
Re:Cryo - for real. (Score:2)
Re:Cryogenics (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cryogenics (Score:3, Informative)
You want to be careful with LN2 and not just because it's so cold. Air is a bit heavier (no doubt someone will bring up dewpoints, density) than N2 but in a confined space liquid nitrogen will evaporate and displace oxygen.
The body needs oxygen, and inhaling gases that don't contain it causes the body to pull oxygen from other parts that do - this causes a system shutdown. You can't reboot, it is a true BSOD, no recovery possible (even if you use Linux).
Read this [bbk.ac.uk].
Compute power count? (Score:4, Interesting)
Back when it used to seem like a lot (~1997?), we used to "steal" all the processing time on 4 Sun E10Ks and 7 frames of IBM SP/2 nodes and do SETI and Distributed.Net work on them when they idle between real projects.
What about cool home science gear that doesn't belong in a home? A guy at my office has 2 and a half electron microscopes in his garage he uses to peek at anything and everything that interests him around the house. I believe between the 2.5 microscopes worth of parts, one is actually running at the moment.
Re:Compute power count? (Score:2)
Re:Compute power count? (Score:2)
Re:Compute power count? (Score:2)
Desk (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Desk (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Desk (Score:5, Insightful)
Ermm.. When you combine a Slashdotter, a woman that a Slashdotter could attract, and 'rejected photos' into a post... Ugh, I can't finish this sentence.
Mirror?! (Score:2)
Re:Desk (Score:2, Funny)
bittorrents of Star Wars Revelations (Score:3, Insightful)
hogged 1/2 a T3 for 12 hours or so.
Re:bittorrents of Star Wars Revelations (Score:2)
Yeah, the 100Mb was almost all outbound. I forgot about it and left it open all weekend and no one really noticed. i don't remember how much bandwidth I used up, but it was lots and lots.
SPE meter (Score:3, Interesting)
Tee hee (Score:2)
The Alan Parsons Project (Score:3, Funny)
How long did you work for Dr. Parsons? Did he complain when he caught you humping the "laser" ?
Charisma! (Score:2, Funny)
Not as much "borrowing" as "hijacking"... (Score:5, Interesting)
More than 20 years ago, a $MAJOR_CLASS1_RAILROAD celebrated it's 100th birthday. To celebrate, they borrowed one of their old steam trains from $MAJOR_SCIENCE_MUSEUM.
They had to ferry the train about 200 miles each time. Luckily, they sold tickets for those ferry trips, so we could enjoy riding the train.
At that time, my grandfather died; he lived in $RAILROAD_TOWN about 1/4 of the way between the museum and the rail office. He was a civil engineer, and one of his pet peeve was about railroaders calling themselves "engineers" because they ran the engines...
The day of his funeral, there was a steam trip scheduled. I was on the inbound trip a few days earlier, and I went to see the museum director (whom I have known for years before), and I told him that when they'll get back home, at $RAILROAD _TOWN, there would be my grandfather's funeral.
"We'll take care of it", the director said.
So, when the funeral procession went out of the church, there was the steam train, with crew at attention, saluting my grandfather... Later, at the cemetery, everyone was suspecting that I had a hand in that...
Not as much "Stole" as "Borrowed" an Army M915 (Score:2)
An M915 is a tractor trailer, think an International or Freightliner you see on the highway but painted OD green.
While I was in a class at AIT an instructor told me to find a truck with a working battery.
He failed to say where from.
The one I found was on the other side of the school and, as it turns out, was one that another class was going to use that day. When they got to their bay, the truck was gone and so all the instructors were called to find it.
My instructor knew where it was because he had
Re:Not as much "Stole" as "Borrowed" an Army M915 (Score:2)
Reminds me of an incident I saw some years ago, was following behind two flatbeds tandem-carrying an impossibly large treaded backhoe (it was hanging off the sides of the flatbeds and they were filling two lanes and some, wish I remembered enough to identify it, it was HUGE). They had a two car front and one rear police escort.
Anyway, they apparently got going a little fast, and took a turn onto another two-lane too fast, and the righthand truck
Re:Not as much "Stole" as "Borrowed" an Army M915 (Score:2, Interesting)
We have that tunnel under downtown, which has TV cameras mounted on the side.
One night, each TV monitor went out, one by one.
Turns out that there was this guy with the shovel on a flatbed. Every week, that shovel was brought somewhere else through the same tunnel. But that week, another driver was doing it.
He had loaded the shovel "backwards"...
Something was protuding that knocked-off the TV cameras off the wall.
Re:Not as much "Stole" as "Borrowed" an Army M915 (Score:2)
LOL
a lot of those lowboy haulers have a lowered front section for parking the shovel on, bet that was what it was, he parked it backward and the shovel "elbow" was a couple feet higher. Or it wasn't loaded on the right trailer? Of course it could be that whoever loaded it didn't park the arm right; we have that problem at work, if you take the forklift thru the back door the wrong way, you break things.
But if the TV cameras were placed dow
Re:Not as much "borrowing" as "hijacking"... (Score:2)
FYI, I believe this is exactly where the term "engineer" started.
i.e. those guys were the first engineers, and since then the term has become very generalized compared to its original meaning.
Re:Not as much "borrowing" as "hijacking"... (Score:2)
Not true.
According to this source [grahamnasby.com] the term engineer has been in use since the 1700 and originally referred to military engineers.
Unfortunately, just about anyone calls themselves an engineer these days.
I took a pen once (Score:5, Funny)
I felt pretty bad about it, so I filled out the form to have my original pen replaced, and then I put the pen back in the box.
But then I thought about all the ink I used filling out that form. I thought to myself "did I really need to fill out all that stuff on the second page? They know me here.. but it's better to err on the side of caution".
So I wrote out an apology and attached it to the pen with a rubber band, then put it back.
Well, after a while I got to thinking.. they can recognize my handwriting, can't they? And then they'll put two and two together... how many people have filled out requests for new pens in the last week? I could really get in trouble.
So I snuck back into the closet.. except.. Jones was there. He was looking for staples, thank God, which are on the other side. I tried to act cool but I'm sure he knew *exactly* what was going on. Could he see my eyes darting toward the box of blue Bic pens? Just stare straight ahead. Thankfully, he just grabbed his staples and left.
I grabbed the pen and the note, ran back to my office, and wrote out my resignation explaining the whole thing. In Word this time.. by this point just *touching* a pen made me nervous.
Quite a crazy episode in my life, I tell you.. but sometimes you gotta go a little "wild" sometimes, eh?
"It's a huge frickin' LASER!" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"It's a huge frickin' LASER!" (Score:2)
I've only seen it advertised in PCmag (pron: ueber-biased), but at least the laser seems too cool.
IF it does what it advertises.
Trivial use of expensive gear (Score:3, Funny)
Well, there's all those years I spent as an announcer at various AM and FM stations. :-)
Big Computers (Score:4, Funny)
The other day, I wanted to see how fast this cluster could encode The Matrix... it took 4 seconds... I was pleased.
We're upgrading to 256 IBM Blades soon so it should get fun then. I'm a big fan of blades... the Sun blades we use are tremendously fast and perfect for what we do. need more processing power? chuck in another 64 blades into that rack and there you go... Those blades are the same that are used in the MareNorstrum cluster in Spain... that would be the 5th most powerful supercomputer in the world (and is at par with the Earth Simulator, costing 10% as much heheh)... damn I can't wait to get those going...
For some reason, when I get home, not having all that power and an internet connection to match just feels wrong.
Re:Big Computers (Score:2)
Sun blades are great too... smaller form factor but less CPU and more KW needed. and equal number of processors in traditional pizza box units consumes 3 times as much power and releases 3 times as much heat. not to mention it fills an entire rack, while the IMB blades take only half or less (I can't remember the exact unit size, and i'm too lazy to dig out the info...)
For an enterprise setup, you'd be a dumbass not to go with bla
Re:Big Computers (Score:2)
So blades would not be a no brainer.
Re:Big Computers (Score:3, Funny)
military grade laser (Score:3, Funny)
then the fire started.
Re:military grade laser (Score:2, Funny)
very cold ice cream (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:very cold ice cream (Score:2)
They? Both the ice cream and your dad?
Re:very cold ice cream (Score:3, Interesting)
I used to run a "test chamber" at work. A few wees after we started the lab, it was time for the Christmas party for the department I had just left. In that day and age, a gift of a bottle of "booze of bosses choice" was a normal thing, and it was opened AT work
So we bought the manager of bottle of vodka. He promptly opened it. One of the guys said "I really wish the vodka was cold". I smiled, and asked "How cold do you want it?" He made a mistake, and said "as cold as you can make it" My reply
Re:very cold ice cream (Score:2)
I pored 1/2 a cup orange juice and 1/2 a cup LN2 into a polystyrene cup. It took ~30-45 mins to melt; and at the beginning it wasn't even wet to touch or anything.
So, in summery, some types of polystyrene cup are amazing insulators and can be handled with liquid nitrogen inside
Re:very cold ice cream (Score:2)
Google. (Score:3, Funny)
They even give you an API.
Doh
microscope & Civilization (Score:2)
We've got a laser that can cut metal traces in IC's; I've been dying to find a use for it. Or the
Re:microscope & Civilization (Score:2)
So how long did they last?
haven't done this yet, but... (Score:2)
RF Home cooking (Score:4, Interesting)
Moral of the story,800+ watts = burnt hot dog in under 1 sec.
Re:RF Home cooking (Score:2)
Hmm, strange... (Score:2)
Also, large directional antennas usually don't have that much near-field gain. It's only until you get far away from the antenna that the gain becomes apparent.
What we really can learn here (Score:3, Funny)
Geeks really need to address the mental disability that hinders their ability to procreate.
Remember those old SGI o2... (Score:2, Interesting)
Su root, uncomment the entry in /etc/services and lo ! Friday night were turned into combat-mode flight simulator lan parties.
That was of course 10-15 years before lan parties were invented, of course.
Re:Remember those old SGI o2... (Score:2)
We had a cluster 15 of those expensive beast
O2 was the cheapest SGI workstation ever sold! The prices only went up from there! Octane, Onyx, Origin $$$
Re:Remember those old SGI o2... (Score:2)
Also, the 10-15 year time estimate seems off. When was the O2 introduced? Sometime around 1996?
Not trying to pick nits -- just curious if you were doing this on an Indigo or somesuch.
Re:Remember those old SGI o2... (Score:2)
Re:Remember those old SGI o2... (Score:2)
Heavy trucks... (Score:2, Interesting)
I am a bartender (Score:3, Funny)
Solid Vodka = Vodka + Liquid Nitrogen (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Solid Vodka = Vodka + Liquid Nitrogen (Score:2)
At the laser lab... (Score:3, Interesting)
...where I used to work, I borrowed their huge laser powersupply to try experiments with nonstandard lasing devices.
I also borrowed a toothbrush, some of the boss' expensive pens, his chair, and his desk lamp.
We discovered that, given enough energy, you can make just about anything lase.
Navy Helicopter (Score:3, Interesting)
After hitching a ride to the pier, I walked up behind friends and family waiting for me while the ship was still tieing up.
My ship, USS America, was towed out to sea last week and will be sunk this week [navy.mil].
Well, let's see... (Score:2)
There was the time I was working on an amateur radio repeater that was co-located with several commercial systems, including a commercial FM radio station. We had my COM-120B (a US$20,000 piece of test equipment). At the same time the FM radio station's engineers were out working on their gear, with a IFR-500S (a decade+ old US$10,000 piece of gear that cannot do half the things the 120 can). It was kind of funny watching those guys look over at us with envy.
Then there were the times a fri
Re:Well, let's see... (Score:2)
But yes, it's a bit scary to think about how many millions of dollars of test gear spends most of it's time being a radio reciever - I'm sure that this happens at R&S, Tek, and Agilent too.
How'd you pull off the TV trick? I'm assuming you used the HP to get the video signal, one 500 to get the audio, and
Snot (Score:4, Funny)
Haven't had many opportunities other than that.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see my own spunk.
Re:Snot (Score:2)
Does that mean you mean you looked at someone ELSE'S spunk under an electron microscope?!?
Re:Snot (Score:2)
This is getting scary
Try this one on... (Score:3, Interesting)
We also use the laser for demonstrations for visiting high school students (etc) to carve hot dogs and to engrave names on tongue depressors. I think it is fairly memorable for the students to see a building-sized apparatus used for this. The only hope is that it gets some of them excited about science.
Re:Try this one on... (Score:2)
Sun E3500 (Score:2)
The one that tops them all. (Score:2)
The navigator of a multi-billion dollar nuclear submarine needed to come up with a track (a course) to follow in an oparea to kill time.
Across 150 miles of ocean we wrote "Go Navy Beat Army".
Spectrum analyzer radio (Score:4, Informative)
One day in the RF and Microwaves lab, we wanted to listen to some radio programme. Now, there were several kinds of receivers lying around, but most of them were in the higher frequency ranges.
Except for the HP140 series spectrum analyzers. These had a range going to 110 MHz, just right for FM broadcast radio.
So we made a simple antenna from a pair of wires that we stuck onto one of the windows, and connected this to the input of one of the HP-140 series spectrum analyzers. In addition to the convenient range, they had all kinds of nice filtering functions to limit bandwidth to an FM radio channel. We could even see the various broadcasting stations on the display.
These analyzers had a vertical output, to which we hooked up a linear power amplifier that originally was designed for driving a tele-coil system for the benefit of the hard of hearing. We hooked up this to a speaker that originally had been in someone's car but became surplus when they got a new stereo system.
By stopping the sweep and tuning the spectrum analyzer a little to the side of the frequency of interest, we got slope detection of the radio signal, and we got the sound of the station of interest.
Of course, the sound quality wasn't the best, obviously not stereo; and we noticed that the spectrum analyzer would slowly drift into and out of tune with the temperature variations of the day, so frequent readjustments were necessary. Fading was also noticed, but this wasn't too bad. Still, this set-up remained in use for quite a while, something around a year.
So this is how to make a set of $~10^4 equipment sound much like any old $~1 radio as found at flea markets, garage sales, or thrift stores...
Same sound for a 40 dB increase in price...
"10 Wheeling" in Army Tractor Rigs (Score:4, Interesting)
On the way we would get a buzz on and take the things off-roading in the desert hills on base. Wonderful US Army 5-ton ten-wheel-drive tracter trailer rigs [airfieldmodels.com].
First gear on a good incline and these beasts would just dig straight down.
The conceit was we had to warm them up to get the oil flowing
Peace,
PFC Burton (ret)
Re:"10 Wheeling" in Army Tractor Rigs (Score:2)
Re:"10 Wheeling" in Army Tractor Rigs (Score:2)
Thanks for your concern,
PFC Burton
Jump started an Aeroplane (Score:2)
So we pulled around a car, chained together two jumper leads (the battery isn't exactly conveniently located in one of these) and let it charge for about 10 minutes with the car running. Tried to start the plane, just about stalled the car and had no joy on starting it.
Left it to charge another 10 minutes or so, and managed to get the plane started. No problemo!
Old Indy (Score:2)
A $10,000+ SGI Indy with all the trimmings. Xtank ran well. The screensavers were also a huge hit.
Card-Access Door (Score:3, Interesting)
At work, they had me clean up a card-access system (Northern Win-Pak 2.0, yuck...) and I still have admin access on it since it's still messed up
So, now I walk in and out with no card, with the door sliding just as I walk up to it, without even breaking my stride. Our fridge and microwave is right next to the door, so I can't wait to mess with people's heads. Maybe I'll tell them we just installed retina scanners
MMOG servers, and rapid prototyping (Score:2)
But I'm just a software guy; a friend of mine is a mechanical engineer. Most recently, he used the rapid prototyping machine (sometimes called a "3-d printer") to build some miniature props for our D&D game. Teeny little dead monsters and decapita
Caterpillar 10 ton loader (Score:2)
HOW do you get a PistenBully STUCK?? (Score:2)
So
Starbuck? Is that you? (Score:4, Funny)
Starbuck? Is that you? I bet those Vipers are much nicer to fly than those Cylon Raiders which are filled with wet corned beef.
Re:Dodge Viper (Score:2)
Re:I hate Bush, mod me up! (Score:2, Funny)
"I once used the American people to push my and my friends' own financial objectives! LAWL!"
Re:I hate Bush, mod me up! (Score:2)
Re:I hate Bush, mod me up! (Score:2)
Or maybe what you're saying is that if he makes an order for 435 trillion dollars worth of arms and then decrease it to a few billion, then all of a sudden that's taking a gargantuan chunk out of that arms manufacturer? I guess you could look at it that way. And maybe you have some other information.
Carlyle is n
Re:I hate Bush, mod me up! (Score:2)
Check again. This link [defenselink.mil] says that the program was terminated completely.
Re:Couple misuses of college property.. (Score:2)
Re:"Xtreme equipment" you say... (Score:2)
Battery Operated Sawzall.
Cut the door locks off very quickly.
Re:I got you all beat. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Slashdot needs (Score:2)