Electronics Forum / Design / July 2008

Yeah, I use ZipLoc bags for small parts and storage.  The commercial
variety can be had anti-static and in a fairly wide assortment of
sizes.  The supermarket variety arrive in pint, quart and gallon
sizes, with thickness measured in "storage", "sandwich", and
"freezer".  I determined experimentally that the freezer variety were
sufficiently anti-static to use with most devices, but the odd manner
of specifying the sizes left me wondering.  I can't think of any
useful application where I would want to store a gallon of something
inside a Ziploc bag.  Why would they measure it that way?  And, why no
thickness on the package?

It was about 1999, when I suggested to a friend that she have her 6th
grade(?) class measure the capacity of the common supermarket bags and
see if they really do hold a pint, quart, or gallon.  Like all simple
things, the project exploded well beyond my original intentions.

The first problem was getting 11 year olds to successfully fill a
Ziploc bag with water, close the seal to make sure it holds the water,
and measure the contents in a simulated graduate cylinder.  I had
originally thought, but not specified, that a small team would be
assigned to do the filling, but the teacher wanted the entire class to
have the experience of making measurements.  Everyone brought in an
assortment of bags, tried to fill them in the school bathroom, and
dumped much of the contents on the floor, in the hallways, and in the
classroom.  It's not as easy as it would seem.  I just tried filling
and sealing a pint size Ziploc bag with water and not spill any.  I
failed.

Measuring was another problem.  The skool doesn't have gallon size
graduate cylinders, or gallon kitchen measuring cups.  The typical
kitchen pint size measuring glasses were used, resulting in more water
on the floor.

Of course, the full bags closely resembled a water balloon, which
promptly precipitated a impromptu water filled Ziploc bag fight.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt or soaked.  Also fortunately, they
decided to do it outside.

I avoided the school janitor, who was rumored to be actively seeking
my execution.  Of course, I incurred the wrath of the administration,
who lectured me sternly, but did nothing.

I'm also good at creating problems where none had previously existed.
The teacher asked the class to tabulate the measurements they had made
during this exercise.  That's when I noticed a slight anomaly.  The
older Ziploc bags had only one seal line.  The newer ones had two.
When Ziploc added the 2nd seal line, they did not expand the bag size
to accommodate the loss in volume.  The old bags would hold the
specified volume.  The new bags were slightly short.

I decided that the student should have a suitably printed copy of what
was their first formal reports.  So, I took it upon myself to write up
the whole experiment, produce graphs, run some stats on the results,
insert some pictures, print about 100 copies, and pass them around.
There was some grumbling about the photos of the mess, but no real
problems.

Then, I cleverly decided to send a copy to SC Johnson, the new owners
of Ziploc.  Major mistake.  They noticed the part about the undersized
capacity and went into panic mode.  Most employees were good natured
about the issue and agreed that some production changes will need to
be made to slightly increase the size of the double seal bags.
Unfortunately, one phone call from their attorney was not so good
natured.

So, for storing my mice, would you like a pint, quart, or gallon size
mouse?

The original was "A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind."

I solved the problem by not having a real desk.  It's officially a
workbench which entitles me to make a mess without guilt:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/office/slides/radio-mess.html>
Any semblance to a desk is purely coincidental.  Notice that there's
no paper anywhere in sight.  It's all in cardboard boxes filed
chronologically.

I've also made a study of different styles of messiness.  The problem
is how to efficiently convert work area into storage area.  There are
two fundamental types of mess.  One is the vertical pile method.  The
object is to create the tallest pile, without having it fall over.
Falling over is the signal that it's time to clean up.  The other is
the territorial method.  It's intended to cover every square mm of
desk space with clutter.  No part of the desk may be visible.
Overlapping is the preferred method.  Once a persons desk is suitably
buried in clutter, it's perfectly acceptable to continue onto other
peoples benches, desks, and even the floor.  

I've successfully converted the territorial style into the vertical
style.  I became tired of having my bench turned into someone elses
temporary storage area and decided to retaliate.  I invested about an
hour cleaning up the lab.  I carefully piled all the papers, books,
magazines, dead boards, and debris on the culprits chair.  The result
was a very carefully balanced pile, about 2 meters high.  As a side
benefit, I found all my missing scope probes and clip leads.  Sorry,
no photos.

I also had a method to my madness.  The last hour of every Friday
would be devoted to cleaning up the lab.  I didn't want to deal with a
big mess when I came in on Monday.  Everyone dropped what they were
doing and cleaned up their mess.  Borrowed and stolen equipment were
also returned.  Leaving early was punishable by having all the
unclassified junk dumped on their workbench or desk.  Visiting
managers were handed a broom or told to file books and reports.  It
worked well.

No.  That's a function of the BIOS and motherboard.  The OS never sees
the error or the corrections, just the data.  There are monitor
programs (Intel DMI monitor) that will track the errors reported by
the BIOS.  

Intel BIOS ECC reporting specs:
<http://www.anime.net/~goemon/linux-ecc/ecc_and_parity_bios_specs.pdf>

I think you mean Dell Precision Workstation 380.  
For memory info, I like to look up what's compatible at:
<http://www.18004memory.com>
Your Precision 380 is at:
<http://www.18004memory.com/result.asp?modelID=54714&mfgID=31>
It supports both ECC and Non-ECC RAM.
PC2-4200/5300 ECC/non-ECC DDR2 SDRAM DIMMs. Supports Dual Channel DDR.
Up to 8GB max.

General explanations of ECC memory (and how it's handled).
<http://www.pcguide.com/ref/ram/errECC-c.html>
<http://www.tech-faq.com/ecc-memory.shtml>

Not illiteracy.  The problem is that different people have different
ways of learning things.  Some do best if they read it from a book.
Some of today's computer addicted kids only learn when delivered via a
CRT or LCD.  Some people have to have hands on experience or it
doesn't sink in.  Others have to have it lectured to them.  Still
others get it best via videos (infotainment).  I've seen some that
will not believe anything, unless it came from someone with
substantial credentials and proven credibility.  It varies
considerably and can also change over a personal professional
lifetime.

I have customers that are quite intelligent and probably have a
correspondingly high IQ.  However they often just can't read
instructions on a computer screen.  I find myself reading the manual
or the screen to them on the phone.  Sometimes, I walk them through
what most would consider a simple ritual (such as copying digital
photos from the camera to the drive to the DVD).  I've previously
attempted to "educate" them in different ways of learning new things,
and have always failed.  My guess(tm) is that once you've developed a
preferred method of information transfer, all other atrophy into
uselessness.  

Incidentally, I've been told that about 90% of tech support questions
are answered in the documentation or web pages.  That implies the 90%
of the customer base has some form of written or on-screen learning or
communications problems.

Kinda reminds of a project manager that could only communicate via
written (or emailed) memos.  In person, he was a disaster.

Incidentally, one of the better tech writers I dealt with, had a
serious speech impediment (stuttering) and required that everything he
heard be repeated exactly once.  He never got it the first time as he
had to be deliberately paying attention.  Yet, his writings and
apparently his readings, were superior.