The Segway

[Harv]

Al -

Yeah, I heard it was going to be tested by police officers, and it will be interesting to see how that turns out. If it catches on, can you just picture what police "chase scenes" are going to look like in movies of the future? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I just noticed that the official name for these things is the Segway Human Transporter. Now then, how would you pronounce the resulting acronym? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Reminds me of a true story from one of my early jobs with a company that produced telephone testing equipment. One of the projects I worked on was to computerize their original Line Insulation Tester, affectionately referred to as a LIT. The marketing department was already announcing the new Computerized Line Insulation Tester until us lowly engineers voiced our misgivings about that acronym. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Bird]

Harv, part of my college education was extension courses from Sam Houston State College (later Sam Houston State University) in Huntsville, TX. I heard they first intended to call it Sam Houston Institute of Technology until they looked at the acronym./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>Sam Houston Institute of Technology</font color=blue>

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[P.K. Burke]

Hey Harv:
That LIT machine you referred to became known as ALIT. Must have substituted Automatic in place of Computerized. Those machines have been used for years and are still in use in a lot of older COs.

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>became known as ALIT</font color=blue>

Holey Moley, Patrick!!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif That is absolutely correct -- "Automated Line Insulation Tester", to be exact.

The company was Badger Meter Electronics, a divison of the parent company in Wisconsin that made water meters. We made telephone test equipment and remote alarm systems. I was there in the mid 70's.

Now catch this -- one of our hardware engineers was named Steve Burke. Any relation? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RBManufacturing]

DVerbarq,
You mean I would have to get a REAL JOB ???
BTW, I'll be out of town starting here in about 10 minutes,
until next Friday. Going to the Indiana/Illinois Farm Show.
If I get any messages, I'll try to answer when I get back.
You guys keep it safe. Rick






Rick Hedgecock
R&B Manufacturing
http://www.tiltmeter.com
(816)587-9814

 

[P.K. Burke]

Harv:
No relations in that neck of the woods and no relative I know of named steve. But there are a lot of Burke's running around out there. I still have some relatives in Ohio and Pennsylvania and South Carolina but that's about it. When I had worked as a maintenance splicing foreman we used to dispatch on ALIT reports, that's how I came to know about the machine. Have you been able to get anything done with this great weather going on? Iv'e had over 11 inches of rain so far this season and about 10 and 3/4 inches of that since November. Take care
PK Burke

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>get anything done with this great weather going on?</font color=blue>

Fact is, P.K., I'm over a hundred miles from my tractor property, and I can't seem to sell my wife on the idea of going up there during the rains. Some nonsense about being cooped up in a small house or letting the kids go out to play in the mud. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

I did get an encouraging phone call from our caretaker up there. Said the culverts are holding up just fine. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[glennmac]

Kamen's first implementation of the technology was a four-wheeled wheelchair, called the Ibot, that is still undergoing FDA testing. The Ibot can stand up and balance on two wheels so the handicapped person is at eye level with regular adults. It can also go up and down stairs, as the wheels flip end over end, and can travel rough terrain. Kamen has a garage with two helicopters in it, which he flies to work every day. He also owns an island in Long Island Sound, which seceded from, and then declared war on, the United States. His estate planner owns a B2910 that gets stuck in Connecticut mud a lot.

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>His estate planner owns a B2910 that gets stuck in Connecticut mud a lot. </font color=blue>

Does that mean you're gonna be the first TBN member to get one of the new 2-wheel thingies? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Where ya been hiding, Dude? Life getting in the way of tractor board surfing? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif