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'Xtreme' Equipment That You Have Borrowed?
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?"
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?"
I once borrowed my boss's secretary!
I recently used liquid helium to freeze the memories of thousands of Slashdotters.
The answers are:
-yes
-maybe
-only if hamsters are involved
-no
My wife and I have used her bosses desk to do a little photo shoot we submitted to a mens magazine (and a little something else that didn't get photographed.) Sadly, they(the photos) were rejected, like all of the informative articles I've submitted to slashdot.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
How long did you work for Dr. Parsons? Did he complain when he caught you humping the "laser" ?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Starbuck? Is that you? I bet those Vipers are much nicer to fly than those Cylon Raiders which are filled with wet corned beef.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Careful! There was a story here a few years back about a guy who had no command of the English language.
I can see his response clearly.
"I once used the American people to push my and my friends' own financial objectives! LAWL!"
Once, I'd lost my Bic pen, so I snuck into the supply closet and took another one. I just needed to sign something.
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?
Well, there's all those years I spent as an announcer at various AM and FM stations. :-)
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I work for a large telecom in the back end software devision and the team I work on develops the operating software for the network. My usual test environment is a cluster of 64 Sunfire servers with each of those servers containing 8 processors and 32 Gb of RAM. Including the infrastructure, Myranet optical lines, and NetApp storage boxes this brings my setup from the uber to the l33t.
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.
while(1) { fork(); };
then the fire started.
Clusters of computers. More than 100K computers. For trivial use.
:).
They even give you an API.
Doh
Geeks really need to address the mental disability that hinders their ability to procreate.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Every Slashdotter knows CHA stands for Charisma.
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Well, does ethanol count? Especially if you add in a hot college girl every now and then? That's a yes? Good!..
is it that bad seein a hot chick again? if i see a hot chick walkin down the hall i dont say "repost"
Snot under the elctron microscope. I'm sure it's been done many a time before.
Haven't had many opportunities other than that.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see my own spunk.
A blog I run for the wealth
so he's from a porn site?
but also got a nice windfall and are now on a beach where they gave you the wrong drink