• bob the dingo (unregistered)

    this isn't necessarily an over-complication of things... well, at least not at first. hand warmers can make a difference even with gloves, why do you think they've become a popular accessory on snow-blowers? but yeah, once they got into the tubes around your midriff thing, that was a bit much, lol.

  • denz (unregistered)

    It seems no-one found out that the human body is already equipped with a heat-transfer system using a liquid medium, pumped (through one-way valves) through flexible tubes, etc.

  • (cs) in reply to denz
    denz:
    It seems no-one found out that the human body is already equipped with a heat-transfer system using a liquid medium, pumped (through one-way valves) through flexible tubes, etc.

    LOL! My thoughts exactly. :)

  • anon (unregistered)

    "Gloves" would be great on a motivational poster.

  • Rafael Larios (unregistered)

    What a great story.... simpler solutions for any problem is what we need....

    This came just When I'm debbuging classes named AdminIntnlSecurityAuthorizationFactory3....

    Captcha: tacos.... mmm how appropiate.. it's time for lunch!

  • Logan Williams (unregistered)

    It reminds me of Dean Kamen's story about the South Pointing Chariots. The very early Chinese invented these marvelous chariots, with analog computers inside them that would cause a stick to always be pointing south. And it worked, even though it was extremely complicated. However, the chinese had already discovered lodestone (magnet), and knew about it's magnetic properties!

  • (cs)

    you know, we actually have these hand warmers here for if you don't have gloves. Pretty much any gas station sells them, it's some chemical in a little bag, feels like it's got little marbles in the bag. When you open the container, it just gets hot and stays hot for hours. If you hold those and the handles at the same time, you don't need gloves, so there already is a non-gloves solution. The correct path to a solution: find all the existing solutions, if none of those are suited to you THEN you create a new solution. You don't create a new solution and THEN look around and get mad that you reinvented the wheel!

  • (cs) in reply to anon
    anon:
    "Gloves" would be great on a motivational poster.

    Done! "Gloves" (de)motivator http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/output/motivator3155329.jpg

  • SomeCoder (unregistered)

    Also, if you really want heated grips, motorcycles have them. If you're talking about rigging a battery up to a bike for them, then you could just use motorcycle grips.

    A fairly weak IT WTF though....

    Captcha: ewwwwwwwwwww!

  • poss (unregistered)

    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

  • (cs) in reply to poss
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Sorry to hammer with posts, but that's a common misconception. Graphite flakes off and gets in the equipment... Russians use something like a grease marker. Still funny though!

  • Franky (unregistered) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Sorry to hammer with posts, but that's a common misconception. Graphite flakes off and gets in the equipment... Russians use something like a grease marker. Still funny though!

    and yankees got tons of $ for inventing gel ballpens.... captcha: alarm... yes, raise the alarm! complicators approaching!!! :P

  • Franky (unregistered) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    anon:
    "Gloves" would be great on a motivational poster.

    Done! "Gloves" (de)motivator http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/output/motivator3155329.jpg

    Simply gorgeous... ^^

    captcha: quake... ummm let's play

  • Franky (unregistered) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    anon:
    "Gloves" would be great on a motivational poster.

    Done! "Gloves" (de)motivator http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/output/motivator3155329.jpg

    Simply gorgeous... ^^

    captcha: quake... ummm let's play

  • (cs) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Sorry to hammer with posts, but that's a common misconception. Graphite flakes off and gets in the equipment... Russians use something like a grease marker. Still funny though!

    In Soviet Russia, pencil writes YOU!!!

  • lynn (unregistered)

    Gloves are simple. I like simple.

  • ruiner13 (unregistered) in reply to poss
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Not exactly accurate. The Fisher Space Pen was developed by Fisher at their own expense. NASA had simpler items they had used previously, but when Fisher showed them the pen, they happily took it (who wouldn't!). It was an experiment by Fisher, NASA spent nothing on it.

    Don't mean to ruin the moral of the story though :)

  • Mikademus (unregistered)

    "Complicators", "This has to be the most idiotic discussion I've read since ... well ... last week, when you were discussing the architecture for the UND component.

    The reason that this "hand warming system" does not exist is because most people have found a pair of gloves to be a perfectly suitable way for keeping one's hands warm."

    This has to be the sorriest WTF posted here ever. Most sane and good developers successfully combine creativity with pragmaticism. Quoting from the Hacker's Dictionary, "Drudgery and Boredom are Evil", while we know that precise, minimal and functional solutions are elegant, we all harbour mad scientists within who loves super-elaborate solutions, not for their practicality but for their self-entertainment value. My wager is that none of the above quoted developers had any intention of building those over-engineered solutions to the silly problem, but nonetheless were gratifyingly stimulated by generating them.

    I doubt I'd enjoy conversing with the author of today's "WTF" or the party pooper quoted at the end.

    CAPTCH: ninjas; bah, this reply didn't require any guitar wailing, boners, massacres, or any other kind of real ultimate power.

  • anon (unregistered)

    I've got poor circulation. In cold weather gloves don't work very well, my little finger freezes. Plus, gloves never fit me because my fingers are obviously non-standard and short - the ends always flap over which is annoying. Stretchy mittens, perhaps? Stuff that, I'll just drive in instead.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    Anywhere I can dl that schematic per chance ?

  • asfwefaw (unregistered) in reply to poss
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Oh God. Please go to snopes.com every time someone tells you something, because you don't seem to possess any critical-thinking skills.

    http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

  • Corporate Cog (unregistered)

    Great wtf, but the original problem does persist. No gloves ever created are adequate for even warm winter days in Colorado. Current winter excluded, you could ride a motorcycle during most winter days if it wasn't for the hands and knees. I always envisioned simply having some air ducting that would route air off the engine to the hands and knees. In the end, I opted for the simpler alternative; ditch the motorcycle and own only a car (mine doesn't use much more gas than a motorcycle anyway).

  • Tel Janin (unregistered) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    Done! "Gloves" (de)motivator http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/output/motivator3155329.jpg

    Getting a 404 when I try to access...

  • (cs)

    This is a cool WTF. I do understand that the discussion was probably just a way for people to kill boredom and thereby let their imaginations run a bit. But you have to ask yourself whether they do this while working, if they're bored of their current coding. I think that was the point.

    PS, I also found the image link broken

  • Blame (unregistered) in reply to denz
    denz:
    It seems no-one found out that the human body is already equipped with a heat-transfer system using a liquid medium, pumped (through one-way valves) through flexible tubes, etc.
    Not only that, but one that reduces heat loss from the important areas by pumping less of said medium to the extremeties when they're cold. I'm sure we can override that safety feature, though.
  • snoball (unregistered)

    I don't like using thick warm gloves because it's much harder to operate shifters and the brake levers. I think the discussion that happened would have been lessened if the original poster had raised this issue.

  • StabnSteer (unregistered)

    I think the main idea here is not to toss out the whole idea of innovation - but to use some common sense when it comes to complicators, because we know they're out there and they have a tenuous grip on reality.

    I know I've seen 'em before...my favorite brush with one came at a company many years ago where we had a corporate intranet where 80% of it was maintained by the individual departments and workgroups using flat HTML. Most of the folks enjoyed the control this gave them over the design and maintenance - to upload content they used a simple, but horribly flawed java upload system that came with the Netscape web server of the time (let's just say that it "didn't scale well").

    We decided that we needed to come up with a new way of having the clients get their content onto the server since the web publisher was too buggy - and it had to allow the clients to retain control of their HTML - something like the Tripod web manager upload system. This was outlined in a meeting at which point our (senior designer) complicator started off on the whiteboard proposing to develop a massive database-driven content management system with all the bells and whistles and form-input for content maintenance. We sat there listening for a few minutes before it sunk in that he was completely ignoring the initial requirements. We stopped him and told him we had to keep things as flat HTML since that's what our client really wanted and preferred. He blinked, our voices echoing inside his head for a moment, then continued talking about his content management system idea as if the requirements didn't register.

    We eventually ignored him and created a browser based app with perl. I do believe the perl system is still being used 5 years later with minimal edits. Happy clients!

    captcha: bathe - what every techie should do at least a couple times a week. Please.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Mikademus
    Mikademus:
    Most sane and good developers successfully combine creativity with pragmaticism. Quoting from the Hacker's Dictionary, "Drudgery and Boredom are Evil", while we know that precise, minimal and functional solutions are elegant, we all harbour mad scientists within who loves super-elaborate solutions, not for their practicality but for their self-entertainment value. My wager is that none of the above quoted developers had any intention of building those over-engineered solutions to the silly problem, but nonetheless were gratifyingly stimulated by generating them.

    I doubt I'd enjoy conversing with the author of today's "WTF" or the party pooper quoted at the end.

    And I doubt I'd enjoy maintenance programming for your software, although it might prolong the contract somewhat. There's a difference between throwing around complex solutions for a laugh, and programming them for a career, and the article makes it apparent that the developers there do not know the difference.

    I'd argue that a good developer comes up with the solution that is most appropriate for the business requirements, rather than an over-engineered maintenance nightmare.

    Hardly a WTF because shameless over-engineering is a daily occurrence in IT.

  • kuroshin (unregistered)

    Umm, I'd like to know more about the UND component. Is that some Universal Nincompoop Destroyer ?

  • OJ (unregistered) in reply to snoball

    Re: snoball

    The solution is simple and beautiful: fixed gear bike. No brake or shift levers to worry about. Also makes you work harder and thus increases heat output.

    Racing style handlebar is also nice in winter: The cork tape wrap is a good insulator and Campagnolo levers are quite easy to use even with mittens on.

  • Wil (unregistered)

    This problem already has a solution.

    Lightweight heated gloves http://www.gerbing.com/heat/gloveslw.html

    Portable temp controller http://www.gerbing.com/tc/port.html

    Batteries & belt packs http://www.gerbing.com/acc/batteries.html

    I have a Gerbings jacket liner and a heavier version of the gloves, all powered off my motorcycle's electrical system. They've kept me toasty at ambient temps below 35 degrees F. Could have ridden colder, but it was time to stop for the night. It's kind of like wearing an electric blanket.

  • MrBester (unregistered) in reply to ruiner13
    ruiner13:
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Not exactly accurate. The Fisher Space Pen was developed by Fisher at their own expense. NASA had simpler items they had used previously, but when Fisher showed them the pen, they happily took it (who wouldn't!). It was an experiment by Fisher, NASA spent nothing on it.

    Don't mean to ruin the moral of the story though :)

    I've had one for years. Never written one character with it. When I dig it out after another decade and find it has depressurised it can then be thrown away...

  • bramster (unregistered) in reply to poss
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Which was great until they had to sharpen the pencil.

  • Dave Wallace (unregistered)

    When I was a High School kid in a small Australian town, we just poured hot water into the handlebars. Just gotta remember to drain before nightfall so that it doesn't freeze...

  • (cs) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Sorry to hammer with posts, but that's a common misconception. Graphite flakes off and gets in the equipment... Russians use something like a grease marker. Still funny though!

    And to further shoot that down, the pressurized pen was developed by an independent company, without any assurance that NASA would go for it.

    The pressurized pen has other advantages, too: it can write while upside-down here on Earth, and it won't leak ink in a low-pressure environment.

  • eight days a week (unregistered) in reply to snoball
    snoball:
    I don't like using thick warm gloves because it's much harder to operate shifters and the brake levers. I think the discussion that happened would have been lessened if the original poster had raised this issue.

    Just use a track bike: no shifters and no brake levers!

    This reminds me of a discussion I had once with an engineer. He wanted to design a bike light that could detect an approaching vehicle and adjust the intensity of its brightness accordingly. It would use all sorts of sensors to calculate the distance of the vehicle.

    I told him he should get a reflector.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to ruiner13

    Hey, even the Soviet and Russian cosmonauts have used (and continue to use) the Space Pen. See: http://history.nasa.gov/spacepen.html

    captcha: cognac (as in I could use a swig of cognac right about now...)

  • LRB (unregistered)

    When I was in high school I owned a motor cycle and had this problem. Since that was the early 80's and technological solutions were much less than now and much more expensive than now, I just used thick cotton hunting gloves with felt insulated lining. I would put them in the clothes dryer for about 10 to 15 mintues before leaving and it would last me the 20 or so minutes to get to school. This worked fine even on the day it got to below zero Farenheit.

  • RxScram (unregistered) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Sorry to hammer with posts, but that's a common misconception. Graphite flakes off and gets in the equipment... Russians use something like a grease marker. Still funny though!

    NASA didn't spend a dime on the development of the spacepen: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp.

  • Old and Cynical (unregistered)

    I have an example of this I keep tucked away for when someone proposes some elaborate solution to a problem. It's not my example - it's one I kept from a magazine some years back.

    Assembly line had problems with the parts bins running empty and stopping the line. IT was informed of the problem and immediately started talking about light sensors that would trigger when the bins reached a certain level and would then page the supervisors on duty, etc. They were quite excited.

    Returning to the assembly line with their shiny solution they were amazed that the problem no longer existed. The workers on the line found a solution that worked. When they emptied boxes of parts into the bins they flipped the last box upside down and tossed it in the bin too. When they couldn't see the box any more it was time to add more parts.

    That little anecdote has kept me focussed for many years...

  • Konstantin Savenkov (unregistered)

    The alike story has happened in quite famous russian hardware forum site (http://ixbt.com). There was a thread where one person put an interesting question: how to burn some picture on a CD. Many software solutions was proposed, with strong mathematical basis (e.g. formulas that describe how to project bitmap to polar coordinates and then to a position on a spiral CD track). There was even man who claimed they made such software. After 400+ messages (with more fine grained formulas and techniques) the thread was killed on a flight by some man, who posted the following message: "Why don't you just cut your picture from adhesive tape, applicate it to a CD and then burn ANY data over it?"

  • Its a Feature (unregistered)

    I've always thought of this as "Thinking too hard".

    You think so hard, that your solution becomes an impossibility to implement--such that it actually becomes the problem.

    When you really should have just stepped back, taken a deep breath, and said, "Gloves will do".

  • akatherder (unregistered) in reply to Konstantin Savenkov

    Ok, I feel like an idiot. Possibly because I am.

    First of all I don't understand the assembly line and box thing. If you put the last box on top of the bin after filling it, it would seem the box would be in your way and make it even harder to see when the bin is getting empty.

    Secondly, what is putting a sticker on a CD and burning it going to do? Is this for labeling the CD or attempting to burn some design on the bottom or what?

  • ajp (unregistered)

    i gotta say, when ever i see anything about glove i think of the juice.

    [image]
  • NancyBoy (unregistered) in reply to Mikademus
    Mikademus:
    Quoting from the Hacker's Dictionary, "Drudgery and Boredom are Evil", while we know that precise, minimal and functional solutions are elegant, we all harbour mad scientists within who loves super-elaborate solutions, not for their practicality but for their self-entertainment value. My wager is that none of the above quoted developers had any intention of building those over-engineered solutions to the silly problem, but nonetheless were gratifyingly stimulated by generating them.

    I doubt I'd enjoy conversing with the author of today's "WTF" or the party pooper quoted at the end.

    The people that the hacker's dictionary (jargon dictionary, geek dictionary...) describes do seem to like to waste huge amounts of time and effort on masturbatory exercises like this. I think it's their substitute for being creative, which is next to impossible for them. Most of the time their efforts are confined to regurgitating Simpson's quotes though.

  • foo (unregistered) in reply to anon

    I'd buy one.

  • Homer (unregistered)

    I'm in the middle of an actual project that succumbed to this mentality. To call it hell, would be giving hell a bad name.

  • Franck (unregistered)

    Wow, this one is real funny. But when I think about it twice, I can easilly imagine my co worker having this kind of discussion.

    But as some other commented, the original concept isn't bad; it does exist on snow-mobile too (ski-doo).

    I think the main point why it doesn't exist on bike is that cycling in the cold is a pain, with or without any "hand warming device".

  • Zygo (unregistered)

    Frankly, my first thought was "these guys are crazy. No way am I going to sacrifice the kinetic energy for an electric warmer, nor am I going to carry the extra weight of sufficient batteries to power it for the up to 90 minutes I spend on a bike each day (not to mention the cost). But a kinetically powered fluid pumping system might be reasonable since it's not generating the heat itself, just moving it around, maybe it could be powered just by a small battery and wouldn't need a kinetic feed at all..."

    Then I thought "Hmmm. Point taken."

  • BitShifter (unregistered) in reply to Franky
    Franky:
    sir_flexalot:
    poss:
    Reminds me of the story about the millions that Nasa spent during the Space Race, developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity.

    The Russians just used a pencil.

    Sorry to hammer with posts, but that's a common misconception. Graphite flakes off and gets in the equipment... Russians use something like a grease marker. Still funny though!

    and yankees got tons of $ for inventing gel ballpens.... captcha: alarm... yes, raise the alarm! complicators approaching!!! :P

    This is an urban legend, Fisher designed and built the pen using their own money. See: http://history.nasa.gov/spacepen.html

    Captcha: tastey Mmmm

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