Bygone tools

[Enzo]

Yeah, I took "mechanical drawing" in like 1960-1962, junior high and into high school. (There were no "middle schools" in those days, at least not where I was.) Don't know that I was good at it, but I loved the Leroy lettering thingie. To this day, if I draw in ink with a ruler or triangle, I put little taps of masking tap one the sides of them to lift them off the paper a sliver, so as not to smear ink or graphite.

[Steve A.]

Yeah, I took "mechanical drawing" in like 1960-1962, junior high and into high school. (There were no "middle schools" in those days, at least not where I was.) Don't know that I was good at it, but I loved the Leroy lettering thingie. To this day, if I draw in ink with a ruler or triangle, I put little taps of masking tap one the sides of them to lift them off the paper a sliver, so as not to smear ink or graphite.

I have all sorts of cool drafting devices like a folio with arms that keep a small t-square parallel to the edges of the page.

It is amazing how much drafting evolved since the introduction of the PC but we are now back to fingerpainting on our tablets and smartphones...

Steve Ahola

[btah]

A mental tool. Depending on your age, ask your kid or grand kid to do long division. Forget about it...

[J M Fahey]

Not even that, just try buying stuff at the supermarket and mentally keep tally of amounts, unit prices and multipliers , plus "second unit 50% discount" .
When at the cashier's queue I mumble to myself the rough result , always within a couple % (I skip cents, round off to nearest value and lots of calculations are not actual ones but table searches) ... sometimes people look at me and ask: "how do you know? ... I didn't see a calculator in your hands".

My daughter is working at a baker's ( long story) and is amazed/angered at some buyer's stupidity.
They ask, say, for a few units of "facturas"(Viennese inspired sweet pastry), which is usually sold by the dozen, and she barks the total order price instantly.
Many are bothered by that and doubtful/annoyed tell her: "hey, child girl, what stunt are you trying to pull? ... you didn't use the cash register or a calculator " or, if asking for, say, 13 or 14 pieces: "why so expensive if a dozen is "X" $"?
Oh well.

Only good thing is that she is getting pissed at these lowly no-future jobs and is considering again to get into the University or something.
Just will keep my fingers crossed .

[Enzo]

I may have told it before, but one of my wife's favorite encounters was at a copy store. She presented a document, and asked the clerk if they could reduce it by half. The clerk said, in all seriousness, "Oh, no, we can only do percents."

[The Dude]

...and good luck finding a kid who can figure out change without the cash register doing it for them.

[Justin Thomas]

At some point I knew how to use a abacus... And I can still read Roman numerals... Just bought a quill pen the other day... And young folks are afraid of my amps - they're too heavy and loud for them.

Justin

[Enzo]

An abacus will never let you down, you can count on it.



bwaaahahaha.


I used to train technicians in the coin operated industry. After 1976, the pinball machines were all digital electronics. There was a diagnostics button on the door inside. You pressed the button to step through tests. One press blinked all the lights off and on, next press put the numeric displays into a counting mode, cycling through all the numbers, then next a sequential pulsing of all the solenoids, then switch test, where all the little wires and targets the pinball hits could be pushed with a finger and the system would read them, and so on.

I like to think I trained them pretty well. Somewhere about 1978-79, one of the newer guys came to me as he tried to work on an older game. The older game was from the mechanical stepper and rely era. "Hey Enzo, I can't find the self-test button on this game." I imagine you can't, indeed. I bet that 1957 Chevy outside doesn't have a computer to check the codes either.

Then as technicians are wont to do, we sat around thinking all what we'd have to do to one of these older games to add the self test features to it.

[g1]

Not even that, just try buying stuff at the supermarket and mentally keep tally of amounts, unit prices and multipliers , plus "second unit 50% discount" .

This reminds me of something that perhaps I should re-think. The grocery store I shop at has been phasing in deals that are less simple than they once were. Like "3 for $7.98" or "3 for $5" where they would have had simple multiples like "3 for $9" or "2 for $10" before. I had just assumed they were trying to make things difficult for shoppers. Or misleading.
But is it possible they just don't have a clue? Is the generation(s) that never did anything without a calculator now in charge of these kind of things? Maybe they thought people were using the calculators on their phones to figure out the "10 for $10" anyway?

[Justin Thomas]

I like when folks at the store say, "oooh, 8oz bottles of dressing are 2 for $3! A deal!" Meanwhile, the 16oz bottle is $2.79...

I mighta flunked Algebra II twice, but I at least get basic arithmetic. And I passed Geometry with a 103.
Justin

[J M Fahey]

I guess "there" it must be the same, but here in Argentina, by Law all price stickers at supermarket shelves *must* nhave the "price per kilo/liter/unit" by the product price, in the same label.

Which has the side effect of showing, for those who care about it, the price inflation caused by simple processing which really does not justify it, and also detecting the contrary.

Such as seeing the simplest kid's sweet cookies, basically flour+sugar+ a drop of vanilla/lemon/orange essence (certainly synthetic) costing up to 3X the (by the kilo) price of plain crackers : flour+salt+a little grease material.

On the contrary powdered milk (which does have a somewhat complex process and needs expensive machinery) costing same (by reconstituted liter) as liquid milk.

Oh well.

As a side note, anything labelled "for kids" or "for women" costs lots more than anything for the general population.

[Justin Thomas]

Not sure it's a law here, but we have the same thing, price per unit. Fun part is this: two of the same product, but either different brand or different container size. Brand A will have $/oz, Brand B will have $/lb. Extra fun when we still use Imperial measures... Or, Size A will be in $/pint, and Size B will be $/liter.

So despite efforts to "help" consumers, they still confuse us. I will definitely pull out my calculator sometimes to help with the better buy. And "more" isn't always "cheaper." What a lot of people REALLY lose on is, ooh, a gallon jar of mustard is only $5 (or whatever). They use 1/10th of it then toss the rest when it goes bad. So, 13oz. of mustard? $5. Or, you can get the amount you actually USE at 16oz./$1.50.

Maybe we're an obese nation because we try to not waste all that bulk-purchase Mayo we would otherwise throw away... "Mom! What's for dinner? Not Miracle Whip sandwiches again, I hope?" Again, grossly over-simplified, of course...

Justin

[Leo_Gnardo]

anything labelled "for kids" or "for women" costs lots more than anything for the general population.

"For musicians" too. A popular metal polish sold cheap at hardware stores, costs 5x as much when labeled as "cymbal cleaner."

[rjb]

Not sure it's a law here, but we have the same thing, price per unit.

In the U.S., laws vary by state.
How the Unit Pricing Labels in Stores Can Trick You into Spending More

In Maryland, like products are supposed to be priced in like units- but often aren't.
I've also found that a high percentage of unit-price tags are just plain wrong.

In the case of laundry detergent of different concentrations, the unit-price per ounce or liter or whatever is useless- I want to know price per load.

[J M Fahey]

Fully agree, but understaffed enforcers need very simple , easy to check parameters to work with, so weight/volume/length are preferred ones.

Funny: Brazilian speaker makers (Brazil *does* protect local Industry) complained of Chinese dumping, so Government made a worldwide study comparing speaker prices (I'm still amazed they actually did that) and detected dumping, price under reporting (which also affects Tax revenue), extra price hidden under freight/insurance/packaging cost, sending more "free samples" than actual product, the works.

Now how to calculate a proper tax, given speakers are not a generic commodity (such as rice/iron/etc.) but can take a zillion different forms and models?
They ended up using the ridiculous but better than nothing taxing by the .... kilo ..... not kidding.
Plus "aforo" which is a generic assumed minimum price for any product, for Customs/Tax purposes.

So "aforo" was, say, 1$ minimum per speaker, which murdered tiny radio/PC/interphone speakers, *nothing* on a typical guitar or PA speaker, plus 1.50$ or so per kilo (minimum charge 1 kilo) which again kills small light speakers and is felt on large magnet 12" and 15" types.

Incredibly this ridiculous (from Tech point of view) system worked very well, swept all cheap chinese garbage away (to hundreds of smal Brazilian makers can supply the market) and made PA/MI speaker makers be competitive and keep doors open.

In fact it worked way too well: JBL (in fact parent company Harman international) had to buy Brazil's largest speaker company (Selenium) just to have their own product (I guess china made) to get inside the country, I *guess* parts get in paying low tax as "spare parts" and get assembled at Selenium factory, which is a state of the art facility, certainly larger and better than anything JBL still has inside USA, and probably same as what they have in China.