Lihu and Duff's OT Engineering/Lawyer Stuff

[CR McDivot]

OK, we have several professional engineers here with graduate degrees and experience in civil engineering and/or transportation.

I have no degree but that of 30 years of intimate experience with highway maintenance, from snow removal, to pavement maintenance, to right of way, to weed management, to grey water management, to endangered species mitigation, to drainage, to bridge inspection and repair, to geolocation, to project management and materials testing. In other words, REAL WORLD experience that lives with the end result of the transitory dreams and hopes of the the civil engineer. I dealt with the road long after the engineer got his bonus for completion under time and budget.

I have seen the way (documented in the old Highway Department standards) things were done when roads were expected to actually survive thru their expected lifetime, and I have lived with the consequences of the degradation of said standards pushed by suppliers, sucked in by overly optimistic college graduates who had no other understanding of what makes an efficient and durable roadway than the newest textbook promoted by the contractors association (who of course have an interest in the need to completely rebuild said roadway every few years).

I understand that the politicians who control the dollars have made unrealistic demands on engineering departments, not to mention those in maintenance who end up trying to make the most of poor design, but why not do it right at the start?

Should one engineer a project that will have no real chance of viability in order to please the bureaucrats and enrich the contractors?

[Golfingdad]

Civil Engineer here as well.  Nothing wrong with dirt, without the dirt the architect would have nothing to build on.  ;-)     $75 for textbook, I wish I found one for that cheap.  :loco: Master's Degree in Civil Engineering (Water Quality and Treatment) and now I'm a Construction Manager for putting pipe under the ground for the most part.

Well I went to college in the mid 90's so books weren't nearly as outrageously expensive as they are now. Which is funny to say considering how absurdly expensive they still were to us at the time.

[boogielicious]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsgolfer

Civil Engineer here as well.  Nothing wrong with dirt, without the dirt the architect would have nothing to build on.

$75 for textbook, I wish I found one for that cheap.

Master's Degree in Civil Engineering (Water Quality and Treatment) and now I'm a Construction Manager for putting pipe under the ground for the most part.

Well I went to college in the mid 90's so books weren't nearly as outrageously expensive as they are now. Which is funny to say considering how absurdly expensive they still were to us at the time.

Mid 90s! When I went to college, we still had punch cards!  We were the last class in my high school to learn how to use a slide rule! OK, start the old guy jokes now.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsgolfer

Civil Engineer here as well.  Nothing wrong with dirt, without the dirt the architect would have nothing to build on.

$75 for textbook, I wish I found one for that cheap.

Master's Degree in Civil Engineering (Water Quality and Treatment) and now I'm a Construction Manager for putting pipe under the ground for the most part.

Well I went to college in the mid 90's so books weren't nearly as outrageously expensive as they are now. Which is funny to say considering how absurdly expensive they still were to us at the time.

Mid 90s! When I went to college, we still had punch cards!  We were the last class in my high school to learn how to use a slide rule! OK, start the old guy jokes now.

My father actually used slide rules until HP came out with their first calculator . Now, my father is actually old. . .

[Hardspoon]

My father actually used slide rules until HP came out with their first calculator. Now, my father is actually old. . .

The first calculator I learned to use was an HP with Reverse Polish notation, when I was probably 4 years old (my dad was a civil engineer).  It even had a printer.

[DaveP043]

Mid 90s! When I went to college, we still had punch cards!  We were the last class in my high school to learn how to use a slide rule! OK, start the old guy jokes now.

My father actually used slide rules until HP came out with their first calculator. Now, my father is actually old. . .

I too had stacks of punch cards.  We'd take them to the computer center and run them through the reader, and come back the next day for the print-out.  I also had one of the first generation calculators, a Texas Instrument that did calculate a square root, but no trig functions, no logs, all of that came from tables in the textbooks.

[jsgolfer]

I too did the punch cards, yuck!

[rkim291968]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boogielicious

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsgolfer

Civil Engineer here as well.  Nothing wrong with dirt, without the dirt the architect would have nothing to build on.

$75 for textbook, I wish I found one for that cheap.

Master's Degree in Civil Engineering (Water Quality and Treatment) and now I'm a Construction Manager for putting pipe under the ground for the most part.

Well I went to college in the mid 90's so books weren't nearly as outrageously expensive as they are now. Which is funny to say considering how absurdly expensive they still were to us at the time.

Mid 90s! When I went to college, we still had punch cards!  We were the last class in my high school to learn how to use a slide rule! OK, start the old guy jokes now.

My father actually used slide rules until HP came out with their first calculator. Now, my father is actually old. . .

Trained in using abacus.

[Lihu]

The slogan seemed very. . .:-P :-D

[DaveP043]

What are those, sandbags for flood protection?  Are they planning to sue GOD?

[Lihu]

What are those, sandbags for flood protection?  Are they planning to sue GOD?

Yeah!

Actually, there's a golf tournament at 11:00am today. . .

[DaveP043]

Send lawyers guns and sandbags!

[Pretzel]

This is very common, and the part about professors not understanding the students total work loads is pretty hilarious in retrospect. In retrospect, that is. . .

As someone who is beginning a Computer Engineering degree, this is true still. I have a physics paper, a 7-10 page lab report, and a humanities paper due at least once a week, in addition to my "actual" homework for the week.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

This is very common, and the part about professors not understanding the students total work loads is pretty hilarious in retrospect. In retrospect, that is. . .

As someone who is beginning a Computer Engineering degree, this is true still. I have a physics paper, a 7-10 page lab report, and a humanities paper due at least once a week, in addition to my "actual" homework for the week.

Yeah, I remember suffering through this. . .It should ease up towards spring, unless you're a "procrastinator" as most of the professors seem to think.

Good luck with your mid terms and remember it's all good.

[boogielicious]

Send lawyers guns and sandbags!

My favorite WZ song!