Slashdot Mirror
Duct Tape Goes Minature
metal_llama writes "There is a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a man, Christopher Blummel, who "has a vision for a better world - one where every man would carry in his wallet a small cellophane packet containing a product that can come in handy in an emergency. Duct tape." This is exactly what I've always wanted: an ever-handy supply of duct tape."
In their duct tape wallet?
Is it just me, or did this guy just watch an episode of Macguyver and go "Hey..."
That being said i'll bet Richard Dean Anderson's ex-mullet is turning in his grave.
Cogito Eggo Sum, I think therefore I'm a waffle
My old childhood hero MacGyver has defeated entire armies with just a swiss army knife and duct tape.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
I'm not sure what I'm more speechless about. That this guy got a patent, or that this made Slashdot.
"Duct tape is a lot like the Force... It has a dark side, it has a light side, and it binds the galaxy together...."
I can't remember who said that but man is it funny.
-Skrud
Duct tape is great stuff, if only because no othery type of tape is as strong, and I can really understand the need to carry it around for unexpected situations, but at the price he's trying to get for it, there's no way it'll catch on.
Of course, provided he wasn't granted a patent for it, 3-rd parties should be imitating it in no time, and selling it for a fraction of the cost.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
...is there really a need for this? I keep a roll or two of the regular stuff in my car in case something falls off and I need to re-affix it, but do I really need to carry this stuff around like a condom? (obligatory geek remark: not that most of slashdot's readers need condoms, mind you, but still.)
Rushing toward Entropy one iteration at a time.
If you can't duck it, f..k it.
This is simultaneously both the most pointless and the coolest post ever to be on the front page.
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
they can at least find you handy. Right? Or did I fall asleep while watching the Red Green show, and am now dreaming of the Red Green /. show? Quick, call Rothschild's Sewage and Septic Sucking Service, and get rid of all the trolls!
*GRIN*
Lemon curry?
So if the terrorists attack when you're on the go, you can simply duct-tape yourself into the nearest phone booth.
-a
Actually because of the kind of glue used as an adhesive in most duct tape it isn't very good for sealing ducts. The glue degrades in the presence of heat and moisture, both of which are in abundance in a most ducting situations. Instead a flexible plastic hose with metal ring clamps should be used.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Duct tape and WD-40.
If it does move, but it shouldn't, you use the duct tape. If it doesn't move, but it should, you use the WD-40.
What's this guy going to come up with next, a miniature spray can of WD-40?
I don't recall that I've ever owned or used a roll of duct tape. The stuff is a cludge, and there's almost always a better way to do something: glue, rope, wire, nails, rivets.
I just don't go for the cludgy/temporary fix; I'd rather take a few extra minutes and do it right. Duct tape is sticky, leaves a resudue, fails in high heat, deteriorates quickly and smells funky.
I still don't understand why it's called "duct tape" when ducting is the one thing you DON'T want to use it for.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
You never know when you need to gag someone.
I mean some people, just talk and talk and they can't shut up. It's not like everybody has the time and patience to listen to someone just rumble about something or other of no interest. It's even worse when they start detouring from the subject of the whole thing like some 1950's valvule computer with one too many holes in the punch-card, i mean those things must have been a pain to program and all. Not to mention they were big. And hot. Which reminds me of that time i is was driving my van on the highway and *shraaap* *oooo* *oooo*
I gets used as actual human skin as a matter of fact.
If you ever watch a 100K marathon, you'll see that, by 1/4 through, just about everyone has duct tape covering their feet. This is due to the blisters that have formed on their feet after rubbing against their shoes for so long.
Yes, duct tape is a quick, strong, and painless skin graft.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Carl Zwanzig
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
It was stretchy, self-sealing, could form sterility-preserving seals. It was acid/base/alcohol/corrosive-resistant, we used it to wrap bottletops before placing them in the autoclave, and god knows how hot it got in there. Heck, we used it to seal unfinished beers.
I actually took to carrying around a few sheets of it with me everywhere, and I undoubtedly found uses for them. I took a few sheets with me to summer camp, and on the night of the big bonfire, the bigger (and less geeky) children swooped down upon the field and managed to snag all of the long sticks for marshmallow-toasting. After 20 minutes of scavenging, all I could find were a small pile of 6-inch-ish twigs. Parafilm to the rescue! I bound these twigs together into a trifurcated, flame-resistant monstrosity that noone could argue with. Sadly enough, my popularity was not much improved by this feat.
Appreciating the merits of duct tape may have been a clever observation once (e.g. in the 70's, it wasn't carried in all hardware stores, much less every retail store, pharmacy and gas station) but now it's cliche - the stuff of stand-up comedy routines that *everyone* understands, even if they are completely 'tape incompetent' (We've all seen it). I see a wide array of uselessly cheap shiny grey plastic (or even paper) so-called duct tapes, because manufacturers know that most people are aware of its reputation, but not its properties and use, and will buy anything that looks similar.
Too many of the posts sound like "Level 1 geek wannabes" Top quality gaffer tape (for example) may run up to $20 a roll, but it's still pennies per job and it'll handle jobs the plastic stuff won't (including things you wouldn't expect - it's often better for sealing leaks than duct tape, which studies have shown to be the worst option for sealing ducts) I carry top notch gaffer tape in my house and car, not duct tape. I also keep countless other plastic tapes (packing tapes, stranded tapes, etc.) that have greater strength and other properties. Nowadays 'moving' and packing supplies are widely stocked.
Every geek should be able to improvise, true, but they should also have a fine understanding of the fine points of common tapes. It's the difference between success and failure for those who actually improvise instead of imagining doing it. 95% of the time, a top quality gaffer tape will beat the pacts off duct tape, but the guy in the article knows the duct tape mystique will sell where genuine gaffer tape quality won't.
The one true advantage of duct tape is that it is somewhat more widely available, in the stores and in your friend's closets. In the 70s, masking tape was everywhere and the duct tape crowd knew masking tape would quickly fail, if it worked at all, for most jobs where duct tape works great- but geek-wannabes and kids used masking tape for every job, and considered themselves clever. A slight edge in availability does not make it any better or less ignorant a default choice. Today, duct tape occupies the place in the market that masking tape once did: a passable cure-all for those who don't know better options exist or can't be bothered to think ahead and stock them.