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Top Gadget of 2006 — The HurriQuake Nail
eldavojohn writes "Popular Science is naming its Best of What's New of 2006 and the one at the top doesn't have much to do with circuitry or computers. Instead, it's a nail. Not your average nail though, the HurriQuake nail [flash] spent six years in development." From the article: "As the Bostitch team tweaked the head-to-shank ratio, Sutt and metallurgist Tom Stall worked on optimizing high-carbon alloys, trying to find the highest-strength trade-off between stiffness and pliability — the key to preventing snapped nails. 'Meanwhile,' Sutt says, 'we were focusing on how to keep the nail from pulling out.' The team machined a series of barbed rings that extend up the nail's shaft from its point, experimenting with the size and placement of the barbs. 'You want the rings to have maximum holding power,' he says, 'but if they go up too high, it creates a more brittle shank that shears more easily.'"
I can't wait to use this in Quake.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
that long of development when they could have just wrapped about a mile of duct tape around each building and no parts would blow off or fall apart or anything! If you think that's stupid, look at step two of the flash. The nail has "fat head technology"
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No, they just forgot to put a microchip in the nail. Maybe a RFID tag for finding them after the storm...
They patented the fat head technology. I'm sure many people in Hollywood or Washington D.C. could claim prior art on this one
You just got troll'd!
And....you can take them out if you screw up!
And if you screw down, you can put them in!
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I can just picture it now... President Bush delivering a speech in New Orleans to the flood victims proclaiming his administration successfully found a solution to the problem thanks to good old fashioned American ingenuity. Of course, during this time military aircraft will do overhead drops of "Freedom Hammers" and "Salvation Nails". Pound it in the name of freedom, baby.
So instead of your roofing blowing off, now your whole house blows away!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
What idiot dreamed up the name "HurriQuake"? That is amazingly poor.
How about something builders won't feel like a homosexual saying out loud? The less syllables the better.
Permafix
NailBolt
PermaNail
Relianail
SureNail
Safe-T-nail
SaferNail
SafeNails
PosiNail
FirmaNail
StrongNail
XtraNail
XtremeNails
TuffNail
OMG WTF LMAO BBQ nail
Schwarzenail
Nailinator
Securinail
SecuraNail
PermaFix
PermaHold
EQnail
S-Nails
T-Nails
There are lots more too.
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"