What was it ..and I mean every part of the process/mechanism etc

..for David Bowie it was 'the fountain pen'

Quote from: SeanWhat was it ..and I mean every part of the process/mechanism etc

..for David Bowie it was 'the fountain pen'

Mmmm... I'm pretty technical, so... laser range finder/target designators? GPS real-time mapping? Sonic lithotripty? X-ray fluorsescence provenance determination of archaeological artifacts? It's pretty current whatever it is.

-clash

:jaw-dropping:

I'm not sure I understand the question.  Though I will admit to getting Clash's answer.

Are you suggesting that there are people out there that find things more technical than a fountain pen beyond their simple minds and they accept it as 'magic' as much as anything else?

 if so I should be doing the googly eyes thing, not you. :raise:

Spike, there are people who don't understand how a rainbow works, let alone a simple camera or a cathode ray tube ?

I'm pretty confident that I could fully understand a number of 19th-century/Edison-stage inventions and maybe even build some of them myself. Incandescent light. Phonograph. Telegraph. Motion-picture projector (though not a talkie). Telephone. A/C generator.

For the stuff that clash mentions I have a general understanding of the principles but there are ingredients on which they depend that I couldn't replicate even on paper. Like, the idea of a laser rangefinder is simple, but I don't completely understand how a laser itself works.

But velcro's pretty recent and I understand its operation--I just couldn't begin to say how to manufacture it.

I had to google some of Clash's and I'm pretty technical too.

The last thing I understood was an Artificial Intelligence algorithm called Temporal Plastic Self Organising Maps. Everything from memory management in the computer through the the results.

Most of my day job of programming involves me using libraries so although I understand the nitty gritty of computing and I understand coding, there is a huge grey area inbetween.

Roll vs Gadgeteer skill......


- Ed

Do you need to know how something works just to use it?

I'm an engineer.

I know more about inane crap like "PCI bridge chips" than I ever wanted to know.

I mean, I can't claim to know every bit of every peice of technology I've ever heard of (or those I haven't...), and Rob's computing example left me cold... but seriously, anything I've ever wanted to know more about I've always been able to grasp, I just figured that was how higher brain functions worked, man...

And oddball stuff like Clash's examples, I just happen to know enough of the fundaments of what he's talking about (though never having before heard some of the terms he used put together) to pretty much grasp the entire thing from concept alone.

This is, as you say, odd? Jaw droppingly so?

Great. I'm a genius working peanuts. Now I'm off to sulk and generally drink my advanced brain into the cell death so I can feel comfortable around all you baselines...

A cathode is this thing that goes into the TV and does stuff there, yes?

I'm not with Clash, I'm with Bowie.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityA cathode is this thing that goes into the TV and does stuff there, yes?

Not for much longer, I'm afraid.

What will replace it? Gremlins?

Quote from: Pierce InverarityWhat will replace it? Gremlins?

What's in my house. LED and Plasma screens. I have one CRT left, bought just before it became silly.

-clash