Posted by Tom Moertel
Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:00:00 GMT
The IEEE can always use a little grass-roots
advertising, and so I often wear my IEEE shirts when hanging out with
other technical folk. This is a great way to support the IEEE.
Upon seeing my shirts, for example, people sometimes ask me what the
IEEE logo means. I take these opportunities to explain that the logo
symbolizes the electrical engineer’s “right-hand rule,” relating
electrical and magnetic fields. When my listeners invariably lose
consciousness from boredom, I take their wallets and mail the money
therein to the IEEE. Like I said, it’s a great way to support the home
team.
The problem is, my shirts are getting a bit old, and it’s time to
replace them. So I went to the IEEE web site to order a new batch.
And they don’t sell t-shirts anymore.
A quick call to IEEE headquarters confirmed that it’s been this way since 2002.
A Google search on IEEE t-shirts shows
that many IEEE student chapters still sell t-shirts to raise
funds. Unfortunately, the shirts often lack the simple, professional
style that I seek. The Penn State
chapter, for
instance, sold t-shirts boldly proclaiming the practice of “Coed Naked
Electrical Engineering: Do it with frequency ’till it hertz.” While
I’m sure it works wonders with the ladies, it’s just not my
style.
Anyway, if you know where to get high quality, old-style IEEE
t-shirts, please let me know.
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Posted by Tom Moertel
Wed, 22 Dec 2004 17:00:00 GMT
Per our family tradition, my wife and I design and print our own Christmas cards. We print them on my 2650-pound, 10×15-inch Chandler & Price Craftsman platen press, which was manufactured in 1939. (See image below.) Presses like these are generally considered to be obsolete. They must be oiled by hand before each operating shift, print only one color at a time, do not meet current OSHA specs, and use the finicky letterpress process to put ink on paper. (Almost all printing these days is done on presses that use the offset process.)
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Posted by Tom Moertel
Tue, 07 Dec 2004 17:00:00 GMT
As you may know, the ultimate in dental floss is Oral-B’s Ultrafloss. Puffy and inviting, yet able to glide between the tightest of toothy configurations, this stuff is is the preferred instrument of the flossing elite.
But not all is perfect: Ultrafloss is ultra-hard to find in area stores. The local Wal-Mart doesn’t have it. Nor does the local grocery store. Even the large and newly renovated Giant Eagle in Bethel Park seems to be skimping on Ultrafloss. When they do have it, it is merely the puny 25-meter size.
What on earth is going on? How can this be? The way I always imagined it, store managers would pull stock boys aside on their first day of work and establish the priorities: “Listen up, Billy. Everything you know and everything you’re going to know is worthless. Except this: Ultrafloss is our life. When customers want Ultrafloss, they had better find it. I don’t care if you show up late, ogle the checkout girls, or even steal from the cash registers. That I can understand. But, heaven help you, if you ever fail me when it comes to Ultrafloss, Billy, you’re done. Done.“
Whatever the local stores are doing, clearly they are doing it wrong because I was forced to go online to replenish my depleted Ultrafloss stockpiles. I purchased twelve 50-meter cartridges of the miracle fibre from Amazon. To be precise, I purchased two six-packs – one mint, one regular.
And guess what arrived in the mail today? My Ultrafloss! Upon receiving the package, I ran to the kitchen, where I opened the package to find not twelve but only seven cartridges. WHAT?
Amazon, it would seem, has not yet learned that when they sell a six-pack of something – Mint Flavor Ultrafloss, for example – the requisite number of items to place in the package is six. And, as the Fates would write mockingly, Amazon’s return system was down when I tried to address the shortfall online. So I had to call their phone number. (BTW, here it is: 1-800-201-7575.)
As it turns out, there is a “known issue” with the fulfillment of this product. This my helpful representative, Michelle, informed me. Instead of sending me a replacement, which she feared would also come in the incorrect one-pack format, she gave me a refund for the missing six-pack. She also said that I could keep the one-pack of mint Ultrafloss that they had sent in error. (That the return shipping would have cost more than the floss may also have been a factor.)
So here I am, with seven cartridges of Ultrafloss. I don’t know. Somehow, it does not seem like an adequate stockpile for my personal Strategic Floss Reserve.
Maybe it is time to order more.
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