IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Paper Shear Blade - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

The following are several advertising images of paper shears. Each device is attractively presented with its blade arm lifted up from its resting position. However, leaving the blade arm of an idled shear up in that position is VERY dangerous. The blades of these things are sharp.

Figure 1            Paper Shears

One day, I saw someone get hurt. The person's right hand happened to brush against a shear's blade which was raised as seen in these images. The result was a nasty cut with quite a lot of bleeding. The cut didn't require stitches, but a sizeable bandage was needed.

The point is that these things deserve better respect. If you use one, when you finish, be sure to lower that blade arm back DOWN to its resting position with the blade thereby shielded from inadvertent contact.

Absolutely never leave the blade arm of a paper shear in a raised position.

Compelling Bait - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

In the last few weeks, I have noticed an upsurge in the daily number of e-mails coming my way with Subject lines that are designed to urgently compel me to open the messages. Maybe one or two might be legit but I do not believe so. Rather, I see them as malicious, malware bearing and not having originated from their ostensible sources, some of which I have cited below.

Please look these over:

These messages sometimes come in with red exclamation points to indicate how important they are. If you see such stuff in your in-box, my sincere advice is to delete those messages. You can always check up with UPS or FedEx or a department store or a utility company or .... via legitimate channels if maybe you were actually expecting a delivery of something.

Don't fall prey to something like this.

 

The Bean Counters - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I came across an item on Microsoft News of  "The auto world's greatest missed opportunities" by Richard Dredge and found at this URL:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/the-auto-worlds-greatest-missed-opportunities/ss-AAHczgV?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=oie9fvrt

The article was a summary of automobiles that had failed to live up to their potentials for a variety of reasons. I was quite struck by some of the comments I came across. A few examples:

As sarcastic as it may sound, I blame mismanagement by "The Bean Counters". In the mind set of making everything cheap-cheap-cheap, product sabotage is too often the end result.

Reading In The Waiting Room - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I found myself in my oncologist's waiting room this morning sitting near a magazine rack from which I sought to find something to read. What I found were many copies each of WebMD, WebMD Living Better, Cure, Advanced Lung Cancer, Living With Cancer, Cancer Today, Coping With Cancer, Oncology, Time Health and there among all those advisory publications, there was one single copy of Woman's Day Fall Food.

I didn't read any of them.

I have been told that all of those cancer magazines are good to have there because there is so much to be learned from them and I don't quarrel with that perspective. However, I would also like to find a copy of The New Yorker or New York or Popular Mechanics or Smithsonian or Scientific American or Time or something other than a medical journal in order to be able to find some respite and diversion, to digress, from the intense focus on C-A-N-C-E-R!!!

I am very fortunate that my particular blood cancer hasn't yet presented me with overt symptoms and that it may never do so. I have been very carefully instructed as to what regimen I must follow to cope with it and I follow that regimen quite precisely.

Quite frankly though, monomania does not appeal to me.