NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/consumer/21223

Text File | 1992-12-27 | 3.4 KB | 81 lines

Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!emory!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!zazen!doug.cae.wisc.edu!kolstad
From: [e-mail] (Joel Kolstad)
Subject: Re: Tell me about electric blankets
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Distribution: na
Date: 27 Dec 92 13:50:26 CST
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Lines: 69

Bill, Bill, Bill...

Here we go again...

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (bill nelson) writes:
>
>So. I used one word that some people to consider to be vulgar, and you get
>upset. It is also a word in common usage - yes, even among employees of my
>company. Anyone who assumes anything about my employer, from what I post,
>is a fool.

I'm just recommending that you don't use them.  There are one heck of a lot
of fools in this world, and they do indirectly affect the non-fools of the
world.

You're right that individuals shouldn't infer much about an employee's
company from want that employee says, but it's going to happen anyway.
Stereotypes are wonderful, you know.

>As an aside, how often, in my thousands of postings I have made over the
>years, have you seen what you consider to be a "vulgarity"?

I've only been here about three years, and I only see your postings here
and in sci.electronics. :-)

Again, I don't really mind if you want to use vulgarities, I'd just
_recommend_ that you don't.

>: Trust me.  Hook up one of your HP constant current power supplies to a coil
>: of wire or a resistor.  Set it to pump out 1A DC, constant current.  I
>: guarantee you that any E field you measure by the coil is not being
>: produced by that coil.  (Try inducing a voltage in another nearby coil for
>: starts.  It isn't going to happen, because you need an EM field to induce
>: voltages, and you only have a M field.)
>
>Nope - all you have to do is move the other coil. It is a simple high
>school physics experiment. Any conductor moving in that field is going
>to generate a changing electric current, with its associated electic field.

That's true, but the assumption is that people don't move very much while
sleeping, no?

>: >What does that have to do with my training? One of the people in my
>: >group got his degree in religious studies. He still is one of the
>: >brightest engineers in the division.
>:
>: I would hope that he has an engineering degree (or a science degree)
>: _as well_.  I think it's rather obvious what training in a given field has
>: to do with one's knowledge on the subject: It tends to lend credibility to
>: your arguments.
>
>Nope - he doesn't. Nor do quite a few other engineers in the company. The
>company has always been willing to employ people for what they can accompish,
>not which particular piece of paper they happen to possess.

I'll buy demonstrated performance in place of a degree.  Even so, people
with degrees are often thought of more highly than those without.  (Yeah, I
know, people that think this way are fools, blah, blah -- but it's still
true.  I'm glad that HP doesn't act like one of those fools, in this case.)

>In the more technical engineering programs, you learn little more than
>fundamentals. The rest, you learn on the job - or in specialized training
>that you take while working.

Yes.

>Bill

                        ---Joel Kolstad