So the entire staff is sitting in the conference room for the obligatory Monday Morning Meeting. The boss is going around the table calling on each of us in turn to explain his/her activities and plans for the new week.
The building PA system comes to life: “BUBBA JONES, CALL EXTENSION XXX. BUBBA JONES CALL EXTENSION XXX.� . This was a volume that would have brought pride to a backward-hat-wearing, droopy-pants’d piece of Gen-Y trash if it was coming from his car stereo.
There was reason. We’re in the midst of having our office remodeled and during the course of this work they replaced the old speaker, which had a volume control, with a new speaker, which didn’t.
The speaker came on again. Old Bubba was proving hard to find today.
We managed to get through the meeting, and we called our electrical department to come adjust the speaker volume. We need the speaker. It tells us important things from the facility across the fence, like “It’s a good idea to evacuate the facility now before our process upset results in a fireball two miles wide with you in it.�
So the electrician shows up to fix our problem. The new speaker has no volume control, so it now sports a muffling layer of acoustically significant paper towels held in place by brown tape which closely matches the new office décor. This will remain in place until a replacement speaker with volume control shows up. Sometimes the quick solution is just what you need.
I would say what we call this type of engineering, but I probably would get hate mail,,,
Just refer to it by its more-current yet PC title:
African-American Engineering. (grin)
Actually, I shouldn’t call it that. AAE has always run strong in my family. My grandaddy could fix anything with tape and wire, my daddy still can, and I’m not bad at it either. Don’t knock it if it works, right?
I prefer the term “Black Magic”. Nicely ambiguous…
Regards,
Ric
only problem with southern engineering is that eventually it will bite sumbody in the butt
Usually people that performed fixes like that were referred to as graduates of the Congolese Engineering Academy.
My high-tech climate control adjustment in my office is a piece of cardboard from a copy paper box lid tucked into the air vent and secured with a few blank address labels.
Now now, folks – can’t someone solder a little variable resistor in series with the speaker??
And as far as using cardboard and labels to adjust HVAC performance, this is why office supplies should include more substantial equipment – plastic sheet and duct tape. (I have had to resist the urge to bring my cordless drill/driver and self drilling screws on more than one occasion.)