Slashdot Mirror
Man Digs Out Basement Using Radio Controlled Toy Tractors
Phurge pointed out a story about a man with a fleet of remote control toys and a lot of patience. "Excavating a basement using professional machinery is nothing new but doing it with radio controlled (RC) scaled models is something unheard of. Welcome to the little big world of Joe, from Saskatchewan, Canada. For the past 7 years, Joe has been digging out his basement at an average annual rate of 8 to 9 cubic feet using nothing more than RC tractors and trucks. And we're talking about the whole nine yards here — he starts by transporting the excavator on an RC truck to the basement, unloads it, digs and uses other trucks to transfer the dirt up to the ground through a spiral ramp! He even has a miniature rock crusher! 'I feel quite fortunate to have stumbled onto this basement excavation idea, it's been a great past time to date dreaming up new ideas to tackle different projects along the way,' Joe wrote on the Scale4x4rc forums where he also posted pictures and videos of his feat."
Joe says that he plans to have his house built within the next 18 months, at which point his mother will move in upstairs and he will take up residence in the basement with his computer.
Well, at least now he'll be able to move out of his parents' basement.
Next week, Joe plans to hold a conference with his star wars figurines to discuss possible reasons for his inability to attract a girl friend.
Average rate of 9 cubic feet per year X 7 years = 63 cubic feet.
That's a cube of dirt 4' x 4' x 4'.
Hardly sounds like 'excavating a basement'.
I'm guessing that the 9 cubic feet number is wrong. Maybe 9 square feet (with an undisclosed height of about 8'-10') for an annual average of 72-90 cubic feet and a final excavation of a room about 8' x 8'?
This type of do-it-yourself story is what we like to see on slashdot. Inspiring, nerdy, and a bit over the top.
... this man should have been a bit more geeky and lazy at the same time by putting the camera and the RC controls on the Internet, then having remote volunteers run the RC toys to dig out his basement.
This gets me thinking I can probably get the internet to excavate and build me a large swimming pool, given about 50 RC bulldozers and a month of use of my web-server.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
My first thought was that he should have spent the first two years making this an automated robotics project, and then started digging. He may have completed sooner.
My second thought was that this guy will be fist in line to operate remote manipulators on the moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator
My third thought was that we could have used this guy and some bigger RCs at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Radio controlled equipment is already used in construction. Working in trenches is dangerous and required elaborate and expensive safety precautions. To avoid this, contractors use methods that avoid putting people in trenches. This usually involves equipment with long arms to manipulate things (like a robotic pipelayer) but some equipment is remote controlled. Like this compactor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc18eKDyMlc Radio control of large pieces of equipment like concrete pumps is also common, but for the opposite reason. It allows the operator to be at the location where the action is happening rather than in a cab far away.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
You missed the fact that he does this for *RECREATION*, he even removed a conveyor belt assembly for helping to speed it up too much. (As well as making the basement difficult to traverse). This guy is a FARMER, and if he's to be believed has limited time off-farm for recreational purposes, so this activity fills that gap for him.
No different than the time many people invest into model trains or dozens of other activities that provide no 'measurable' productive expenditure of time, but through which they derived immense satisfaction in the process of doing.
I wonder how many years he'll be gone from society if he discovers minecraft..
I've reread the title four times, and I can't figure out a single way to parse the sentence in a grammatically-correct fashion other than the one way that was intended -- especially since the only place I can think of where a hyphen would apply would be in "radio-controlled."
So how did you misread it, out of curiosity?
Dear Mr Joe,
Our company is looking for talented remote-control specialists.
We need dedicated operators for a long term commitment in R-C cleaning on large areas of confined space.
You are likely to have all qualifications required to join the main R-C team at our Fukushima-Daichi facility.
We're looking forward to hearing from you,
Tepco Director
(my emphasis)