XY Curve

[Controls Guy]

Bernie, it's not so much that what I do is inherently math intensive as it is that I tend to view ANYTHING as a math problem, work it out, and stick the solution in a MATH box.  Another programmer would probably find another approach more rational.  (pun intended)

It's also quite possible that your unconventional (for a controls guy) education gives you an edge on certain projects.  It's not exactly the same, but take as an analogy what I've seen as I've wandered from one industry to another.  Sometimes I'll look at something and think "Oh, in the X business we'd just do Y", and sometimes it turns out to be a more practical or better quality solution than the one that's standard in the new industry.

[plcnut]

Much of what I have been able to do in the PLC world has only been possible because I did not know how it was "supposed" to be done.Nobody was there to tell me "you can't do that" until it was already being done. Do-more has been a big part of that 

[Mike Nash]

Maybe we could convince someone to rename the MATH box to BACON. They both work so well with everything!

[BobO]

Much of what I have been able to do in the PLC world has only been possible because I did not know how it was "supposed" to be done.Nobody was there to tell me "you can't do that" until it was already being done. Do-more has been a big part of that 

I have pretty good information that you personally use more of Do-more than any user we have, and I attribute a big part of that to coming to it with no preconceptions. Without endorsing any particular political ideology, I'll borrow a famous Reagan quote: "It isn't so much that PLC users are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so."

[Controls Guy]

Maybe we could convince someone to rename the MATH box to BACON. They both work so well with everything!

...plus that opens up the opportunity to develop an expression for the LN(403.428) degrees of separation.

[Mike Nash]

Maybe we could convince someone to rename the MATH box to BACON. They both work so well with everything!

...plus that opens up the opportunity to develop an expression for the LN(403.428) degrees of separation.

I think I heard a whooshing noise as that went overhead. Very clever - it took me awhile online to "get it".

[BobO]

I think I heard a whooshing noise as that went overhead. Very clever - it took me awhile online to "get it".

I think this is what you are looking for: https://oracleofbacon.org/

[Garyhlucas]

Bernie, it's not so much that what I do is inherently math intensive as it is that I tend to view ANYTHING as a math problem, work it out, and stick the solution in a MATH box.  Another programmer would probably find another approach more rational.  (pun intended)

It's also quite possible that your unconventional (for a controls guy) education gives you an edge on certain projects.  It's not exactly the same, but take as an analogy what I've seen as I've wandered from one industry to another.  Sometimes I'll look at something and think "Oh, in the X business we'd just do Y", and sometimes it turns out to be a more practical or better quality solution than the one that's standard in the new industry.

Yep I've signed non disclosure agreements before seeing a secret process only to see something commonly done in other industries they were not familiar with!

[Ingeniero]

Maybe we could convince someone to rename the MATH box to BACON. They both work so well with everything!

bacon is great

[Controls Guy]

We have a family fried who's a chef, who calls bacon "the duct tape of food"!  

[ADC Product Engineer]

Yep I've signed non disclosure agreements before seeing a secret process only to see something commonly done in other industries they were not familiar with!

I walked into a pilot plant once that was doing biomass burning to create steam to run a turbine.  I walked up to the unit and was standing there looking at it when the chief engineer came up beside me.

CE: "What do you think?"

Me: "Looks like a gasification kiln to me."

CE: -jaw hits the floor with a loud thud-  "Shhh...  We have investors in the building."

Me: "Sorry."  Whispers, "It looks like a gasification kiln to me.  Those things were being used back in the early 20th Century.  I've worked on a ton of them."

[Controls Guy]

It looks like a gasification kiln to me.  Those things were being used back in the early 20th Century.  I've worked on a ton of them.

Everything old is new again!  

When I worked for an equipment OEM, I was looking over the ME's shoulder one day and he's drawing an assembly with several machined and anodized aluminum plates screwed together, plus a solenoid and a limit switch.    I'm thinking it's some kind of door locking mechanism and he needs it to have positive feedback to the control system or something, so I ask him what it is.  He explains that in a mechanism he's designing, there is a signal in a circuit of one voltage that needs to be sent to another, different voltage circuit, without electrically connecting the two.  [facepalm]  He actually just built a relay from first principles.  I didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified.

I say “Congratulations Joe, you've invented the relay!!  And only 150 years too late!  Are you aware those can be purchased for $3 apiece, and we inventory them in the stockroom by the 20-ct carton?”

At least I can say I know the guy that invented the relay.