The Break Room (Non-Technical Discussions)

[#1]

C:\DOS     C:\DOS\RUN    RUN\DOS\RUN

[#2]

I took technical drawing in HS 'cause you couldn't take architectural drawing until you had.  It was a "go at your own pace" class, so I zipped right through the basics and beyond.  My classmates didn't care so much for that, but I was disinclined to care ... actually I met a few nice folks in that class I would never have known otherwise.

Anyway, the technical drawing was by hand and so was the first level of architectural drawing.  But for architectural drawings, we could use the parallel bar.   Since I was so quick, I got to use the computer for Arch Drawing II - R10 with a carpy-a$$ pen plotter (what do you expect for a high school class with hand-me down equipment?).

Oh, and we had one of those old diazo machines ... when I started work here 2 years later, they must've been surprised I knew how to make blueprints.

And random trivia - my HS instructor was a cousin of Goose Gossage. (I had no idea who Goose Gossage was in HS!)

[#3]

I took technical drawing in HS 'cause you couldn't take architectural drawing until you had.

Similar situation for me too.  In Jr High, I learned that I liked wood shop.  When it was time for 9th grade, I signed up for wood shop.  I found out on the first day of class that the first semester is spend doing board drafting with pencils, triangles and T-Squares etc.  I actually ended up liking that at least as much as the woodworking itself.

So after HS, I wanted to go to the local technical college to study drafting.  I was there for a whole semester when my drafting instructor announced that they had recently purchased a bunch of computers and something called "AutoCAD".  I decided to try it out just to see what it was like.  And the rest is history.

[#4]

This would work even better if they were all wireless!  I actually tried that here in the office once, but I think they were too far away from eachother, and the guys knew how to just hit the button and reconnect to their own machine.

[#5]

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CADiva wrote:

a carpy-a$$ pen plotter (what do you expect for a high school class with hand-me down equipment?).

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I remember when we got our first pin plotter at my first job. It was a wonder. The beginning of the end of hand drafting. But we didn't have CAD. We had a DOS based Surveying program that would interface with the plotter. You would create a batch file that would tell it to draw a line, bearing and distance between 2 points. 3 points described a curve. We would create a TXT file with notes and put the insertion point and size in the batch file. The first map was a wetlands delineation survey. When the boss met with the DEC. They were so impressed with the map that they just accepted it.

This does lead to a prank. Because the plotter used pens. You could use a 00 pen. The Town asked for a 1" = 300' scale plot of a subdivision plat. We knew it was because they wanted to be able to trace it on to their hand drawn tax maps. But we put out the whole map at the 300 scale, complete with notes, legend, bulk table, etc. It was completely readable with a magnifying glass. My boss even included on of the cheap flat plastic magnifiers with the plat plotted on Mylar.

[#6]

Reminds me of when I was working in the computer room in college and a bunch of guys in my class were standing round the computer right next to me.  Clearly there was something tittilatingly nefarious going on.  So I used the NET SEND feature in XP to send a message to them.  (I had to check my own NET NAME first, but I knew which way the numbers went in the room.)  I said something like "Please leave this website immediately and report to the office of Jane Smith" (she being our 'dear leader').  Well, I've never seen a computer room clear out so quickly.  I wonder what any of them said if they did report to the office, but I doubt they did.  At least I got to work in peace!

[#7]

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CADiva wrote:

 (I had no idea who Goose Gossage was in HS!)

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I still have no idea!  (OK, I just Googled him, so I have some idea.)

[#8]

R10 was my first CAD, too. But, I remember my Grandpa showing me an older version back when I was a kid.

http://www.augi.com/library/poll-what-was-your-first-version-of-autocad (may have to log in to see this)

The question was asked, what was your first release of AutoCAD? and the highest number (13.3%) was for release 10!

"It looks like 54% of our AutoCAD users began somewhere between Release 9 and Release 14."

[#9]

Well you can count me in that number too.  I started on R10 in 1991.

[#10]

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doni49 wrote:

Here's another one from way back in my school days. 

That was also the last time I did that.  The network admin was also my comp mgmt instructor and I'm sure he knew it was me.

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~sheepish~ Okay, that reminds me.

The sample AutoCAD files were stored on the network at my community college. We all would connect and then download a copy to our machines to work from.

I noticed that there were no write restrictions. I opened up the plan of the school's campus, zoomed into a random office, and, on the desk was a telephone, in the caller ID screen, I typed "Jacobs is a jerk." and saved the file.

(back story: That was the name of the head of the drafting program. He'd known me since high school, when I'd placed repeated in every drafting competition in the area, some of which he was an an admin over. He let me test out of Intro to Drafting, since I'd had 3 1/2 years of it in high school, but, he refused to let me test out of Intro to CAD, because I'd never used R14 (the school was using R2000 at the time, my last release used was r13 for windows). He let a kid who'd been homeshcooled test out of both during the same session.

I spent the first 10 minutes of each class doing the night's work while the teacher lectured, then I spent the rest of the class (first explaining to the teacher how I'd done each task differently than he'd expected me to do) helping other students.

I think I did the final in about 20 minutes... mirror and array were helpful. Bless that instructor, he was always curious about whatever I was experimenting with.

So, yeah, as someone who paid cash for their school classes all by themselves while working at barely above minimum wage, the hundreds of dollars I wasted on a class I could have easily tested out of it was something that still rankles with me 14 years later. LOL.)