Free Tools!
Dec. 1st, 2003 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tyggerjaiIt's been years since I knew where my tech gun was, let alone used it in anger.
Ad boy, have they come a long way. I'm now the proud owner of a Black and Decker 14.4V FireStorm Cordless Drill. I'm not entirely sure about calling a tech gun "FireStorm", nor am I sure red is an appropriate color. It's not black, nor is it Power Tool Green. IT is, however, a tech gun, and hopefully not a bad one. And I also have an angle grinder - good, solid, Power Tool Green B&D, with no wanky name. Ph34r!
And Ben and I disassembled meese on the weekend in preparation for building a couple of these. Under $25 for the parts for each, which is nifty.
Question probably for lederhosen and maybe Thorfy, arising from discussions on "How I'd re-engineer the human body if I were God." on saturday. Me, I'd start with knees. If they're only meant to bend one way, then the actual joint should only bend one way - none of this ridiculous "joint bending any way you like with arbitrary and inadequate constraints retrofitted in the form of vulnerable ligaments." Feh. It's ridiculous. But I digress. It was a somewhat beery discussion, but the main point I recall is someone mentioning the human retina, because it' somehow "backwards". The point was made that it's still perfectly functional, but things that are backwards and *still* functional are guaranteed to annoy engineers. So the question I'd had too much beer to bother asking on Saturday is: In what sense is the human retina backwards?
And can I fix it with a tech gun and an angle grinder? ;)
(update: GIYF. For those similarly in the dark (har har), apparently the photoreceptors in human (and other vertebrates?) eyes point *away* from the light source, and presumably rely on reflection to a large extent. Which is indeed backwards, but apparently works OK. So the question now becomes, are there real advantages to that structure?)
sol.
.
Ad boy, have they come a long way. I'm now the proud owner of a Black and Decker 14.4V FireStorm Cordless Drill. I'm not entirely sure about calling a tech gun "FireStorm", nor am I sure red is an appropriate color. It's not black, nor is it Power Tool Green. IT is, however, a tech gun, and hopefully not a bad one. And I also have an angle grinder - good, solid, Power Tool Green B&D, with no wanky name. Ph34r!
And Ben and I disassembled meese on the weekend in preparation for building a couple of these. Under $25 for the parts for each, which is nifty.
Question probably for lederhosen and maybe Thorfy, arising from discussions on "How I'd re-engineer the human body if I were God." on saturday. Me, I'd start with knees. If they're only meant to bend one way, then the actual joint should only bend one way - none of this ridiculous "joint bending any way you like with arbitrary and inadequate constraints retrofitted in the form of vulnerable ligaments." Feh. It's ridiculous. But I digress. It was a somewhat beery discussion, but the main point I recall is someone mentioning the human retina, because it' somehow "backwards". The point was made that it's still perfectly functional, but things that are backwards and *still* functional are guaranteed to annoy engineers. So the question I'd had too much beer to bother asking on Saturday is: In what sense is the human retina backwards?
And can I fix it with a tech gun and an angle grinder? ;)
(update: GIYF. For those similarly in the dark (har har), apparently the photoreceptors in human (and other vertebrates?) eyes point *away* from the light source, and presumably rely on reflection to a large extent. Which is indeed backwards, but apparently works OK. So the question now becomes, are there real advantages to that structure?)
sol.
.