So, my application at work is going away

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by LATB

Yadkin is not a builder.

Neither am I. Yet I have built. I am not an engineer. Yet I have engineered.

If you, Yadkin, and I were stuck in an apocalyptic wasteland, we would have no problem managing. Yadkin and I can even get cars and trucks overhauled and running. Real skills. Not 'software engineer/soft hands' skills. IMO, jobs that cannot be done when the grid shuts down aren't real jobs.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by dvarapala

Even with CAD software you're still off by 1/8".

Without CAD you couldn't design anything more complex than a dog house and you know it.

We didn't start using CAD until early 90's, and then it was a slow, ponderous main-frame application for the drafters only. I didn't start using CAD until I purchased my first computer, a Mac SE, mid-90s? And then it was only good for small details.

When I started my career in 1978 as a draftsman, my first project was a stormwater processing facility in Boston. The storm sewers were as deep as 40'. Later on, highway and intersection layouts. Lots and lots of intricate work well before CAD came into the picture.

So as usual, your assumptions have zero validity.

[Yadkin]

DV's focus on the 1/8" thing reminds me of a project that I did back in the early 80's, The Rte 128-I95 interchange in Massachusetts, north of Boston. We had laid out the project on 1" = 200' scale, then I was tasked with doing the COGO calculations along the approximately two miles of roadway. Back then we had a WANG computer, about the size of a microwave oven. The COGO applications were written by a former employee of that firm, E. Lionel Pavlo Engineering, Inc. (Look them up, they dd all kinds of giant civil engineering projects back in the day.)

The existing roadway coordinate points were given to us by the state's survey crew. They reported all their numbers in decimal feet to the 4th digit. We all knew that was bullshit because they were measuring off a 4" wide painted line on the roadway. There was no way that a surveyor can measure points along a roadway to 0.0001 feet, which less than 1/800 of an inch. So I was instructed by my mentor to round off the last two digits.

So I did the work- took me about two weeks. Then we plotted it on 1"=40' scale as the next step in the design process, and that also served as a check on my math.

Six months later the firm was sold, my mentor retired and I was working for a much younger engineer about 15 years my senior. One day, after reviewing my calculations, he called me into his office, upset that I had rounded off my beginning and starting points. "All this work has to be redone!" I then explained to him our reasoning, which of course was now my reasoning, that 0.01 feet is less than 1/8".

That man had a little epiphany that day.

[Don Rickles]

Originally Posted by Red Baron

I gotta ask, were you operating the Wang computer when you were using the Apple Mac- running at same time?

Cute little toy aren’t you

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Red Baron

I gotta ask, were you operating the Wang computer when you were using the Apple Mac- running at same time?

No. The Wang was late 70's to early 80's. Then came the IBM PC running DOS on floppies. The Macs were much later.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

We didn't start using CAD until early 90's, and then it was a slow, ponderous main-frame application for the drafters only. I didn't start using CAD until I purchased my first computer, a Mac SE, mid-90s? And then it was only good for small details.

When I started my career in 1978 as a draftsman, my first project was a stormwater processing facility in Boston. The storm sewers were as deep as 40'. Later on, highway and intersection layouts. Lots and lots of intricate work well before CAD came into the picture.

So as usual, your assumptions have zero validity.

I think we're about the same age. My first CAD workstation didn't happen until the late 80's and the computer was a 386e. I believe the AutoCAD release was 9.0. I never went back to the board after that. I was in a research and development lab supporting scientists. Everything was one-of-a kind and my machine shop rarely made two of anything. If whatever the scientists needed was already built, they bought it because the people paying us had deep pockets. If the widget didn't exist because nobody had ever thought of it before, I designed it and had it built. Did this for 14 years and never once designed the same thing twice. Some of the things I designed had to be hauled in on an 18 wheeler flatbed and required a crane to set in place. Others would fit in the palm of your hand and had 18 moving parts. Never knew what was going to be next.

Interesting job. Got to play with a lot of toys like Selcom lasers, LVDTs, load cells, Thompson shaft, etc... Material was steel, stainless steel, aluminums (T0 and T6), Monel, k-Monel. One time I had an application that required Invar. Due to the extreme temperature swings it would be exposed to, the only way it would work was to use Invar (FeNi36). My division chief had the vapors when he saw the bill for that.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

I think we're about the same age. My first CAD workstation didn't happen until the late 80's and the computer was a 386e. I believe the AutoCAD release was 9.0. I never went back to the board after that. I was in a research and development lab supporting scientists. Everything was one-of-a kind and my machine shop rarely made two of anything. If whatever the scientists needed was already built, they bought it because the people paying us had deep pockets. If the widget didn't exist because nobody had ever thought of it before, I designed it and had it built. Did this for 14 years and never once designed the same thing twice. Some of the things I designed had to be hauled in on an 18 wheeler flatbed and required a crane to set in place. Others would fit in the palm of your hand and had 18 moving parts. Never knew what was going to be next.

Interesting job. Got to play with a lot of toys like Selcom lasers, LVDTs, load cells, Thompson shaft, etc... Material was steel, stainless steel, aluminums (T0 and T6), Monel, k-Monel. One time I had an application that required Invar. Due to the extreme temperature swings it would be exposed to, the only way it would work was to use Invar (FeNi36). My division chief had the vapors when he saw the bill for that.

That's awesome. Pretty much everything I've done has been simple materials: concrete, steel and wood.

[Tikiman]

I'm a mechanical engineer. Widgets, toys, robotics, and sometimes five decimal places (my machinists loved me ). I would have to come to somebody like you to do a proper foundation.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

I'm a mechanical engineer. Widgets, toys, robotics, and sometimes five decimal places (my machinists loved me ). I would have to come to somebody like you to do a proper foundation.

I let my VA license lapse.

[Mick]

Originally Posted by GrandSportC3

So, your wife never worked? Single income?

My wife was a stay at home Mom. Like I said, we have been down this road before, and I had no advantages over you.

The 401k is not considered income BUT if I have to pull out money to pay the tuition, it becomes income. So, if I pull it out before she goes to college and then pay the tuition with that money, it's NOT considered income. If I pull it out to have money to pay her tuition, it becomes income.

The self-contradiction contained herein makes it hard to know where to grab a hold of this nonsense.

When you withdraw money from your tax deferred accounts, it is regular income regardless of what you spend it on, so there is no possible increment there.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

I let my VA license lapse.

That's okay. I never get anything inspected anyway. No point in it where I live. I don't pull permits either. Doesn't mean that I don't like to do things the right way. Couple of years ago, I built another deck on my house. I had some French doors in the living room that opened out into a ten-foot drop and my wife thought it would be nice to wrap deck on that side. Unsure exactly what to do where the deck met the French doors, I sent an email to my niece, who is a licensed Architect. She sent me a scan of the cross-section detail, complete with recommended spacings, fastener sizes, and most importantly, exactly what to do with the rubber membrane to prevent water intrusion into the house. You see, unlike Large Slob, I know that I do not know everything. So, I like to go to the experts when I'm unsure.

As an aside - I had that very niece out here a few years ago for a visit and showed her the house and she absolutely loved the large 12" laminated beam in my basement hung by soup cans.

[6spdC6]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

I'm a mechanical engineer. Widgets, toys, robotics, and sometimes five decimal places (my machinists loved me ). I would have to come to somebody like you to do a proper foundation.

My son works around people like you. All sorts of civilian engineers with all sorts of fancy letters behind their name. Add to that Naval Captains and the occasional Admiral. For want of better terms he is a experimental machinist, making things like the above people come up with. He has high security clearances and will be going out on a nuke shakedown cruise one of these daysl.

Obviously he is a skilled machinist, been doing it since he graduated college. From what little he can tell me a lot of the stuff he works on will not be out in the fleet for many years.

To think he started helping me hand load ammo when he was quite young. I taught him how to use Micrometers and Calipers.

[GrandSportC3]

Originally Posted by Mick

When you withdraw money from your tax deferred accounts, it is regular income regardless of what you spend it on, so there is no possible increment there.

And that exactly is the reason that I will take out the 401k before my daughter is at college age. The key is to not take out anything just before or during her time in college as I can save up to $10k per year on tuition.

The 401k is my daughter's college fund.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

That's okay. I never get anything inspected anyway. No point in it where I live. I don't pull permits either. Doesn't mean that I don't like to do things the right way. Couple of years ago, I built another deck on my house. I had some French doors in the living room that opened out into a ten-foot drop and my wife thought it would be nice to wrap deck on that side. Unsure exactly what to do where the deck met the French doors, I sent an email to my niece, who is a licensed Architect. She sent me a scan of the cross-section detail, complete with recommended spacings, fastener sizes, and most importantly, exactly what to do with the rubber membrane to prevent water intrusion into the house. You see, unlike Large Slob, I know that I do not know everything. So, I like to go to the experts when I'm unsure.

As an aside - I had that very niece out here a few years ago for a visit and showed her the house and she absolutely loved the large 12" laminated beam in my basement hung by soup cans.

I did a deck for some folks in Haymarket VA before I let my license lapse. Their county had an excellent set of details for decks. The only thing I had to design was the attachment detail to the house, because they didn't want to strip off siding. So I attached it with a "drop ledger", which fastened to the concrete foundation wall.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by GrandSportC3

And that exactly is the reason that I will take out the 401k before my daughter is at college age. The key is to not take out anything just before or during her time in college as I can save up to $10k per year on tuition.

The 401k is my daughter's college fund.

Both my kids, I told them the same thing: "You can go to any college that you want, but we're paying for State." That saved us a boatload, and managed to pay the tuition bills as part of our household budget.

[GrandSportC3]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Both my kids, I told them the same thing: "You can go to any college that you want, but we're paying for State." That saved us a boatload, and managed to pay the tuition bills as part of our household budget.

I told my daughter that if she chooses not to go to the local Central Florida Universities (UCF or USF), she will need to take a student loan, especially if it is outside of reasonable driving distance and she'd need housing. The tuition is like $10k per year if household income (AGI) is below $80k. With write offs, I can get my income below $80k if I don't have a job.

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Both my kids, I told them the same thing: "You can go to any college that you want, but we're paying for State." That saved us a boatload, and managed to pay the tuition bills as part of our household budget.

Not only that, but they didn't get indoctrinated and turned out to be successful conservative adults.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by GrandSportC3

I told my daughter that if she chooses not to go to the local Central Florida Universities (UCF or USF), she will need to take a student loan, especially if it is outside of reasonable driving distance and she'd need housing. The tuition is like $10k per year if household income (AGI) is below $80k. With write offs, I can get my income below $80k if I don't have a job.

I don't know what the cutoff was for NC State 14 years ago, but I had a conversation with an administrator then and he told me, based on my typical AGI, not to waste time with the paperwork.

I forget what the tuition was. It's a top tier school. My son has done well, worked for Boeing after graduation, has 11 patents with them, now works for MIT.

My daughter went to Appalachian State, considered to be a second tier. Now a federal contractor with a security clearance that I can't know about.

Bottom tier NC colleges are extremely cheap. I think $500/ semester as long as you can keep your grades up.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by GTOguy

Not only that, but they didn't get indoctrinated and turned out to be successful conservative adults.

My son is a small l libertarian. Has yet to learn to vote against the D to for a candidate that can win.

Other than that, my vote fo the national elections is multiplied by three.

[Mick]

Originally Posted by GrandSportC3

And that exactly is the reason that I will take out the 401k before my daughter is at college age. The key is to not take out anything just before or during her time in college as I can save up to $10k per year on tuition.

The 401k is my daughter's college fund.

I have called many financial things "nonsense" in my life. I think this is the first time I would call something "negative sense". Everyone here is now dumber if they have read this.