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- The circuit designed to protect the unit from catastrophic
failure won't.
- The circuit designed to be highly reliable isn't.
- Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is
obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are
still under development.
- If x is the amount of time you wait to touch a hot vacuum
tube, the time for the tube to be cool enough to touch is greater than x.
- An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less
until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
- A complex system that works has invariably found to have evolved
from a simple system that works.
- Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion
with confidence.
- Any component removed, tested, and found good has a
extraordinarily high chance of breaking in the re-installation process.
- Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want
to use it.
- Always draw your curves, then plot your readings.
- Do not believe in miracles - rely on them.
- Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the
tightness of schedule.
- Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. For
example, the velocity will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.
- Any wire cut to length will be too short.
- Tolerances will be accumulated unidirectionally toward maximum
difficulty to assemble.
- A fail-safe circuit will destroy others.
- A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the
fuse by blowing first.
- Only after completely disassembling the unit will you realize the
reason it wasn't working was because it wasn't plugged in.
- Any error in calculation will be in the direction of most harm.
- In specifications, Murphy's Law supersedes Ohm's Law.
- If a safety factor is set through service experience at an
ultimate value, an ingenious idiot will promptly calculate a method to
exceed the safety factor.
- Given any problems containing 'n' equations, there will always be
'n+1' unknowns.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic.
- If the number of screws which must be removed when disassembling
a given piece of electronic device is represented by x, the the
number of screws used when reassembling it will be some number less
than x.
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Ha ha!? I¡¯ve forwarded that to a few colleagues.? I¡¯m the current victim of the fast acting fuse, the fail safe, coupled with obsolete components, BTW.? All in the same unit.? The fail safe even self destroyed. ? Craig ?
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Show quoted text
From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf Of Mark Wendt
Sent: 21 September 2012 10:54
To: Tek O'scopes
Subject: [TekScopes] OT: Electronics humor: Murphy's Electronics Laws?
- The circuit designed to protect the unit from catastrophic failure won't.
- The circuit designed to be highly reliable isn't.
- Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development.
- If x is the amount of time you wait to touch a hot vacuum tube, the time for the tube to be cool enough to touch is greater than x.
- ?
- An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
- A complex system that works has invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.
- Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
- Any component removed, tested, and found good has a extraordinarily high chance of breaking in the re-installation process.
- Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.
- Always draw your curves, then plot your readings.
- Do not believe in miracles - rely on them.
- Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the tightness of schedule.
- Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. For example, the velocity will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.
- Any wire cut to length will be too short.
- Tolerances will be accumulated unidirectionally toward maximum difficulty to assemble.
- A fail-safe circuit will destroy others.
- A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the fuse by blowing first.
- Only after completely disassembling the unit will you realize the reason it wasn't working was because it wasn't plugged in.
- Any error in calculation will be in the direction of most harm.
- In specifications, Murphy's Law supersedes Ohm's Law.
- If a safety factor is set through service experience at an ultimate value, an ingenious idiot will promptly calculate a method to exceed the safety factor.
- Given any problems containing 'n' equations, there will always be 'n+1' unknowns.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- If the number of screws which must be removed when disassembling a given piece of electronic device is represented by x, the the number of screws used when reassembling it will be some number less than x.
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Not the first time I've seen this or similar, but it still brings a smile to my lips.
I too am currently battling with a piece of equipment with the builtin guarantee that the parts that are OK are all readily obtainable, and the parts that are suspect are all obsolete and a) Rare and very expensive, or b) are nowhere to be found and all substitutes are in category a), or c) total unobtanium custom parts, with not even a datasheet to be found :(
PS to all readers, I for one would much appreciate it if you could set your mail client to send "plain text" rather than RTF or HTML when sending to the list. Thank you.
Dave
________________________________
From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf Of Craig Sawyers
Sent: 21 September 2012 11:13
To: TekScopes@...
Subject: RE: [TekScopes] OT: Electronics humor: Murphy's Electronics Laws
Ha ha! I've forwarded that to a few colleagues. I'm the current victim of the fast acting fuse, the fail safe, coupled with obsolete components, BTW. All in the same unit. The fail safe even self destroyed.
Craig
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On 09/21/2012 06:52 AM, David C. Partridge wrote: Not the first time I've seen this or similar, but it still brings a smile to my lips.
I too am currently battling with a piece of equipment with the builtin guarantee that the parts that are OK are all readily obtainable, and the parts that are suspect are all obsolete and a) Rare and very expensive, or b) are nowhere to be found and all substitutes are in category a), or c) total unobtanium custom parts, with not even a datasheet to be found :(
PS to all readers, I for one would much appreciate it if you could set your mail client to send "plain text" rather than RTF or HTML when sending to the list. Thank you.
Dave
Sorry about the rtf. I usually post in plain text. I missed that one. Mark
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On 9/21/2012 5:53 AM, Mark Wendt wrote:
<unimpeachable wisdom snipped>
Hello, Mark and the group--
...And don't forget the Law of Selective Gravitation:
A dropped tool or component will land where it will do the most
damage.
Corollary: when dropped into powered equipment, the damage
done by a dropped component is inversely proportional to
the component's replacement value (i.e., a $.10 resistor will
fry a $100.00 power transformer).
73--
Brad AA1IP
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On 09/21/2012 09:00 AM, Brad Thompson wrote: On 9/21/2012 5:53 AM, Mark Wendt wrote:
<unimpeachable wisdom snipped>
Hello, Mark and the group--
...And don't forget the Law of Selective Gravitation:
A dropped tool or component will land where it will do the most
damage.
Corollary: when dropped into powered equipment, the damage
done by a dropped component is inversely proportional to
the component's replacement value (i.e., a $.10 resistor will
fry a $100.00 power transformer).
73--
Brad AA1IP
Isn't that the truth. Another corollary: when dropped, it will fall into the least accessible area for recovery. Mark
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Ha! That was pretty funny! I too have forwarded that to others. Thanks for the laugh.
?
Chris
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--- On Fri, 9/21/12, Mark Wendt wrote:
From: Mark Wendt
Subject: [TekScopes] OT: Electronics humor: Murphy's Electronics Laws
To: "Tek O'scopes"
Date: Friday, September 21, 2012, 9:53 AM
?
- The circuit designed to protect the unit from catastrophic failure won't.
- The circuit designed to be highly reliable isn't.
- Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development.
- If x is the amount of time you wait to touch a hot vacuum tube, the time for the tube to be cool enough to touch is greater than x.
- An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
- A complex system that works has invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.
- Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
- Any component removed, tested, and found good has a extraordinarily high chance of breaking in the re-installation process.
- Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.
- Always draw your curves, then plot your readings.
- Do not believe in miracles - rely on them.
- Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the tightness of schedule.
- Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. For example, the velocity will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.
- Any wire cut to length will be too short.
- Tolerances will be accumulated unidirectionally toward maximum difficulty to assemble.
- A fail-safe circuit will destroy others.
- A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the fuse by blowing first.
- Only after completely disassembling the unit will you realize the reason it wasn't working was because it wasn't plugged in.
- Any error in calculation will be in the direction of most harm.
- In specifications, Murphy's Law supersedes Ohm's Law.
- If a safety factor is set through service experience at an ultimate value, an ingenious idiot will promptly calculate a method to exceed the safety factor.
- Given any problems containing 'n' equations, there will always be 'n+1' unknowns.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- If the number of screws which must be removed when disassembling a given piece of electronic device is represented by x, the the number of screws used when reassembling it will be some number less than x.
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And of course there is O'Rielly's Law, which states: "Murphy is an optimist"
D.
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This certainly gave me several chuckles. Sadly, it is all true.
Michael
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
--- In TekScopes@..., Mark Wendt <mark.wendt@...> wrote:
* The circuit designed to protect the unit from catastrophic
failure won't.
* The circuit designed to be highly reliable isn't.
* Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is
obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which
are still under development.
* If /x/ is the amount of time you wait to touch a hot vacuum tube,
the time for the tube to be cool enough to touch is greater than /x/.
*
* An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until
he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
* A complex system that works has invariably found to have evolved
from a simple system that works.
* Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion
with confidence.
* Any component removed, tested, and found good has a
extraordinarily high chance of breaking in the re-installation
process.
* Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want
to use it.
* Always draw your curves, then plot your readings.
* Do not believe in miracles - rely on them.
* Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the
tightness of schedule.
* Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. For
example, the velocity will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.
* Any wire cut to length will be too short.
* Tolerances will be accumulated unidirectionally toward maximum
difficulty to assemble.
* A fail-safe circuit will destroy others.
* A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the fuse
by blowing first.
* Only after completely disassembling the unit will you realize the
reason it wasn't working was because it wasn't plugged in.
* Any error in calculation will be in the direction of most harm.
* In specifications, Murphy's Law supersedes Ohm's Law.
* If a safety factor is set through service experience at an
ultimate value, an ingenious idiot will promptly calculate a
method to exceed the safety factor.
* Given any problems containing 'n' equations, there will always be
'n+1' unknowns.
* Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
* If the number of screws which must be removed when disassembling a
given piece of electronic device is represented by /x/, the the
number of screws used when reassembling it will be some number
less than /x/.
|
Yes indeed, but the OP (and Arthur Clarke) got one of them wrong: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Clarke's Third Law) Should read: "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." I can't remember the exact context, but it relates to short story about an Amerindian tribe (ISTR it was the Navajo) who start cornering the market in gadgets (Clarke?, Asimov?) Dave -----Original Message----- From: TekScopes@... [mailto:TekScopes@...] On Behalf Of amxcoder Sent: 21 September 2012 20:50 To: TekScopes@... Subject: [TekScopes] Re: OT: Electronics humor: Murphy's Electronics Laws This certainly gave me several chuckles. Sadly, it is all true.
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On 9/21/2012 4:11 PM, David C. Partridge wrote: Yes indeed, but the OP (and Arthur Clarke) got one of them wrong:
> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic." (Clarke's Third Law)
Should read:
"Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
I can't remember the exact context, but it relates to short story about
an Amerindian tribe (ISTR it was the Navajo) who start cornering the
market in gadgets (Clarke?, Asimov?)
Hello, Dave and the group-- I'm not sure that we're recalling the same story, but some years ago I read a short story written in technical-report format about a couple of walkie-talkies delivered to the U.S. Army for evaluation and designed by a team of Native Americans. The radios turned out to be noise-free, long-ranged, undetectable and thus unjammable. When the Army engineers opened the radios' cases, they found herbs, pieces of dried animal and some inscriptions. No electronics. The radios were rejected, natch. Does anyone recognize the story? It may have appeared in "Analog" magazine. 73-- Brad AA1IP
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My favorite:
* Only after completely disassembling the unit will you realize the
reason it wasn't working was because it wasn't plugged in
Mark
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On 9/21/2012 3:49 PM, amxcoder wrote: This certainly gave me several chuckles. Sadly, it is all true.
Michael
--- In TekScopes@..., Mark Wendt <mark.wendt@...> wrote:
* The circuit designed to protect the unit from catastrophic
failure won't.
* The circuit designed to be highly reliable isn't.
* Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is
obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which
are still under development.
* If /x/ is the amount of time you wait to touch a hot vacuum tube,
the time for the tube to be cool enough to touch is greater than /x/.
*
* An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until
he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
* A complex system that works has invariably found to have evolved
from a simple system that works.
* Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion
with confidence.
* Any component removed, tested, and found good has a
extraordinarily high chance of breaking in the re-installation
process.
* Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want
to use it.
* Always draw your curves, then plot your readings.
* Do not believe in miracles - rely on them.
* Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the
tightness of schedule.
* Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. For
example, the velocity will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.
* Any wire cut to length will be too short.
* Tolerances will be accumulated unidirectionally toward maximum
difficulty to assemble.
* A fail-safe circuit will destroy others.
* A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the fuse
by blowing first.
* Only after completely disassembling the unit will you realize the
reason it wasn't working was because it wasn't plugged in.
* Any error in calculation will be in the direction of most harm.
* In specifications, Murphy's Law supersedes Ohm's Law.
* If a safety factor is set through service experience at an
ultimate value, an ingenious idiot will promptly calculate a
method to exceed the safety factor.
* Given any problems containing 'n' equations, there will always be
'n+1' unknowns.
* Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
* If the number of screws which must be removed when disassembling a
given piece of electronic device is represented by /x/, the the
number of screws used when reassembling it will be some number
less than /x/.
|
David C. Partridge