this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (3 children)

My dad used to refer to something he called "Scottish engineering", which meant you start a project with good intentions but just end up swearing frequently and throwing everything in the fire lol

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I mean, the Scots invented paved roads, tires, bicycles, steam engines, penicillin, postage stamps, television, radar, and universal standard time so they must have been doing something right.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

A global industrial empire probably helps a bit for those things.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

this is also hobby software development

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

This tracks, have you seen how many times I restart a React project?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (2 children)

"unplanned rapid disassembly" is one of my favorites

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

*Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, a RUD.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Sometimes referred to as a "hard start"

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

If it doesn't work, force it; if it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

This simple advice has saved me from countless analysis paralysis problems.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"Thermal shock" doesn't necessarily mean it burned; it can also mean that it spontaneously shattered.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My favorite one of these shows up in 3D printing. The most popular open source 3D print server gives you a head’s up if your printer’s firmware lacks “Thermal Runaway Protection”. If you click the learn more link, it patiently explains, “There aren’t preventative measures to stop your printer from accidentally catching itself on fire”.

(It’s fine, you usually just need to install a decent MOSFET in the cheaper printers.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

electrocuted

You mean shocked.

If you got electrocuted, you'd be dead.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I only learned this very recently! I guess it makes sense, it's like electro-execution

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Exactly!

I mean, if you look in dictionaries, you'll see both definitions, but as I said to another user in this thread, dictionaries include a definition because it is common, not because it is accurate. Just look up the term "literal"; most common dictionaries define it as meaning either "literal" or "figurative".

Words exist fundamentally to communicate something; if a term is defined so as to be ambiguous, it has failed in that purpose.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Look up the definition. It's changed to include severe injury from electricity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Prescriptivism vs descriptivism.

The technical definition is as I described above.

It's only been expanded in common dictionaries because the dictionaries practice descriptivism, i.e. they reflect not what is the best definition, but how it's most often used.

In other words, just because it's in the dictionary doesn't mean the word means that in a technical context; it just means that's how it's commonly meant when used in everyday parlance.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

My personal favourite is "structural integrity failure".

Applies to sandwiches as well as anything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I'm pretty fond of "unscheduled lithobraking" (it crashed).

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

If I'm ever on life support, I want you to unplug me.

Then plug me back in because sometimes that works.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Isn't that basically what a defibrillator does?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Pure by ocular spectroscopy = it looked good enough

Pharma distillation = tossing the chemical and buying a new bottle from Sigma

Retro-retro-Cope rearrangement = no reaction happened, go home and cry

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I use “Observational Maintenance” all the time:

When you ask someone to look at a problem and it’s fixed by the time they do.

A friend showed me an issue they’d been having for over a YEAR. I did almost NOTHING and it was working by the time I looked at it.

More often than not it’s me that looks dumb, though.p

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Something moves where it shouldn't? Apply tapes.

Something doesn't move where it should? Apply WD-40.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Don't forget to add actual lubricant to the thing that should be moving.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I heard the three basic rules from somewhere:

  1. Always use the right tool for the job
  2. A hammer is always the right tool
  3. Every tool is a hammer
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

AFAIK, that is Russian rules of maintenance. Oh, and point 3 is: anything can be a hammer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I see you're an Indian developer.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

"enclosure acting as dwelling without permit" : mouse got in and died bud.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

I also like RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

~~Duct tape~~

Gaff tape. You’re welcome.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

"client billing issue," "client legal issue," and "safety compliance issue" are my personal favorites