[LINK] The Register: Canadian MCSEs aren't engineers...

[Jeff Fulton]

One of the more interesting classes I remember from my civil engineering
days had a textbook titled something like "Explosives for Engineers".
Contained lots of practical information, including one section on tree
planting.  According to the book, a half-stick of gelignite or similar is
ideal in rocky country - not only does it create the hole for planting, but
also loosens the ground helping root propagation.   Unfortunately, only a
short course, and theory only, no prac work.  :-)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank O'Connor" <foconno1@bigpond.net.au>
To: "Bernard Robertson-Dunn" <brd@austarmetro.com.au>
Cc: "Link" <link@anu.edu.au>
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: [LINK] The Register: Canadian MCSEs aren't engineers...


> G'day Bernard,
>
> My limited experience with engineers en masse was during my salad
> days at Tassie Uni. There they impressed me with their bent for
> serious evil, no end.
>
> In the early 70's I saw them:
>
> 1. Drill a miasma of holes in the SRC building as they tunneled their
> way toward the SRC's newly installed and fully computerised Student's
> Bar. There they proceeded to tap the computerised bar equipment so
> that a goodly proportion of the hops soaked product somehow made its
> way to the Engineering Club room without passing through the
> computerised measuring devices. The Bar Manager was quite perplexed
> by the shortfall he kept observing in the barrels he received from
> the brewery.
>
> 2. We had a demo about closing a road that went through the uni a few
> months later (after a couple of students were killed crossing same.)
> At any rate, we vainly attempted to find a few politically conscious
> engineers (the breed doesn't exist!) before we finally hit upon the
> strategy of appealing to their competitive natures. We posed the
> problem that given a certain amount of explosive, it would be
> impossible to do anything more than minimal damage to the offending
> road. Our engineering brethren got quite het up about this, and
> proceeded to use said explosive and numerous calculations on ever
> present slide rules and calculators, to take out near 200 yards of
> the offending road in a single swoop.
>
> A few other like incidents convinced me that the word 'evil' was a
> defining characteristic of those of the engineering persuasion.
> :)
>
> Regards,
>
> At 2:23 PM +1100 13/11/2002, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> >Frank O'Connor wrote:
> >>
> >>  G'day Richard,
> >>
> >>  Other than the unmitigated evil real engineers can propagate on your
> >>  ass given a few cents worth of seemingly harmless electronic
> >>  components, or some innocuous code, and their typically devious and
> >>  cunning engineering oriented minds, you mean?               :)
> >
> >Real engineers don't do evil things. We sometimes do smart things:
> >
> >An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and
> >said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess".
> >
> >He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke
> >up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful
> >princess, I will stay with you for one week."
> >
> >The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned
it
> >to the pocket.
> >
> >The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a
princess,
> >I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want." Again the engineer took the
> >frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog
> >asked, "What is the matter?
> >
> >I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a
week
> >and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"
> >
> >The engineer said, "Look I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a
> >girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool!".
> >
> ><stolen from
> >
> >--
> >...and you want a witty sig as well??
> >--
> >
> >Regards
> >brd
> >
> >Bernard Robertson-Dunn
> >Canberra Australia
> >brd@austarmetro.com.au
> >_______________________________________________
> >Link mailing list
> >Link@mailman.anu.edu.au
> >http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link@mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>