Ultimate Screw-ups
Light string has contradictory instructions
Karen Field
8/27/2010 7:45 AM EDT
What to do when a product's safety labeling contradicts the design itself
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20 comments
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ReneCardenas
To wswbln: I agree, we have allowed our society to seek legal recourse at every instance of self ...
A case for not choosing the latest components
8/17/2010 9:31 AM EDT
An engineer's tale shows how quickly the leading edge can become the bleeding edge when new components are unexpectedly cancelled or never produced
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18 comments
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Patk0317
Then there is the flip side of the coin. Using devices that are nearing end of life cycle. Not ...
Lawn mower catches some, misses some
Jon Titus
8/4/2010 11:00 PM EDT
A mower is designed to capture the cut grass, but dumps some out instead
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7 comments
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Chinaeu
please find our robot lawn mower: http://robotlanwmower.chinaeu.de/
Apple iPhone 4: Can't engineers just say no?
Karen Field
7/29/2010 5:14 PM EDT
Apple’s recent troubles raise questions about who exactly is empowered to stop-ship when a product doesn’t conform to design requirements
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16 comments
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IqbalSingh.Josan
Engineers definitely have the right to say "no". Please refer IEEE Code of Ethics for engineers at ...
Why nuclear reactors and cold medicine don't mix
Radcliffe Cutshaw
7/20/2010 7:30 AM EDT
A physicist is horrified to discover a reactor running at full power
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18 comments
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squarewheels
I can't comment about the reactor operators, but where I went to school, we had a subcritical ...
Video camera's file management system defies logic
Jon Titus
7/14/2010 8:27 AM EDT
Keeping track of files is a headache when a camera insists on renumbering them
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4 comments
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ylshih
This kind of debilitated file system (or other similar user interface "features") makes you wonder ...
PCBs work flawlessly and then they don’t. Sound familiar?
7/14/2010 4:11 AM EDT
A circuit designer is on the case when a client’s PCBs inexplicably can’t pass a functional test after three years
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4 comments
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Bellhop
I remember a case where new PCBs exhibited increased audio noise. One trace was inexplicably thicker ...
Southpaws, use at your own peril!
By Steve Corak, Contributor
7/13/2010 7:00 AM EDT
A stop top reminds us that the appropriateness of a design is all in the eye of the beholder
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7 comments
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Corak
Courtesy of Google, I just discovered that a friendly editor submitted this posting for me, along ...
Charles Glorioso, EE Life Guru
7/7/2010 5:33 AM EDT
An engineer decides a name-brand appliance with less than a 36-month life isn't worth the added cost
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8 comments
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t.alex
The more complex the product is, the higher chance it will fail early :)
Grant Griffin
7/5/2010 5:26 PM EDT
Elaborate fakes that appear to be based on Faraday’s Law; in reality the components have as much functionality as a pet rock
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4 comments
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Megatester1
This seems a bit ridiculous. Why not just get rechargeable batteries for your flashlights? ...