If You Love To Make Things

I'm not sure that you understand the mind of a true inventor?

So you prefer to make all your robot parts from scratch?

Your last statement proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you don't understand inventing... No Clue... Maybe you understand tinkering?

Maybe I'm just a clue-less tinkerer who sometimes invents things inadvertently.

You still don't grasp inventing. Inadvertently is not inventing. Think a little more, and you may stumble inadvertently, onto what inventing really is. I will give you ten more chances; if you don't succeed, try and try again. There may still be a chance for you?

When I was a boy I remember removing burrs from my cocker spanial's fur coat. What a pain. I had an opportunity to examine how the burrs attach themselves to fur coats, I might have sought a practical use for these things. Instead of compalining everytime my dog came home covered with burrs, I might have invented Velcro!

Inventing is a mindset where you look beyond the way things are to the way things could be.

You pass with flying colors!

You wrote: "You still don't grasp inventing. Inadvertently is not inventing. Think a little more, and you may stumble inadvertently, onto what inventing really is. I will give you ten more chances; if you don't succeed, try and try again. There may still be a chance for you?"

Might you wish to take up this debate with Mr. Edison instead? You may wish to ask him, for example, how he "invented" the phonograph or how he "invented" any number of other successful products which saw the light of day simply because his eyes were open to new opportunities. Sure, a whole host of skills must be brought to bear on bringing an idea to market; but you might (clearly, would) be surprised how much serendipity plays a part in a successful idea.

So, when do you consider something to have actually been invented? When you see it on a shelf in a Wal Mart store? To tell the truth, I think it is you who are missing the point here.

By the way, when you go to see the tempermental Mr. Edison at his lab, just be sure you catch him on one of his good days. Who knows? He might even be willing to overlook your patronizing tone and condescending attitude!

--Europium

You missed the Edison point when you came up with a silly question, and then answered yourself with another silly statement as you did in your paragraph three.

I think Edison and I would be good buds.

I have had quite a few serendipity inventions, which became possible because of my original inventions.

An invention is NOT a variation of something which exhists.

An invention is a creation of you own, the very first of it's kind in existence. Anything else is an improvement. Spare parts help in conceptualizing. Look at the evolution of the internal combustion engine; they have come so far, but now they are in a rut, however it is full of improvements, which are classified as inventions.

You chew on this and get back to me!

Ciao!

You said "An invention is NOT a variation of something which exhists."

Actually ALL inventions are variations (combinations) of components that already exist. Maybe on your planet you can materialize new items that never existed before, but here on planet Earth we "invent" using things that already exist but use the combinations in a unique way that was not done before. By your definition nothing has ever been invented (including your "quite a few serendipity inventions).

Not so! For every invention which introduced a new concept to mankind, there was also the original inventor who made it happen. Lightbulb, tape recorder, jet engine, internal combustion engine, electric motor, penicillin, camera, film, plastic, televisions, etc. Did all of these things exist before they were invented. Some of the parts were there. You cannot get around the mechanical principles, you are locked into them, unless you invent a new mechanical principle like I did, and then once you know about it, you are then locked into that one too. To demonstrate my mechanical principle you need original parts, and I will not tell you what they are, even though I was granted a US patent, I still want to get more patents from the original. You find IT! I think your statement is lacking; maybe you should rethink, because you went beyond what I said. I also have another mechanical principle and 3 flight principles, which I have tested and verified with Physicists. You can't get around nuts, bolts, rivits, sheet metal, shafts, wheels, plastic, etc. The roots of our inventive nature dates back to pre-history, and even some of our friends the animals, insects, reptiles, birds, includig fish can be inventive. Even microscopic life adapts.

hi, mousey; you don't really need a "new mousetrap", just improve the effectivness of the current models. just replace the easily swiped "cheese" with something that they go "bonkers" for(so much so, they forget caution entirely!). good ole' salty regular "Fritos corn chips"!. corn/salt, is a "catnip" of flaver favorites to a mouse(rats too). over the last decade, or three, i have had a hi success rate, about 8 out of 10 traps made a clean "kill". in one case the determined furry thief had the frito in his front paws, as the trap clampted down and broke his back cleanly. i guess he died very happily with his last snack in hand, so to speech?. oh yes, the best record my mother got with the cheesebait traps was about 4 of 10!. the meese's told me their favorite "snack"; when i found they had chewed theirway into a bigbag of "fritos" in a lower/beneath the counter/cubbord. within a month, NO more mouse problems!!.. us observant "midnight engineers" are good for somethin' afterall, chukfinn

I think you are right about cheese. I experimented with three kinds of cheese, and no takers. So Fritos might just be the bait I need. However, I prefer to use those humane traps.

Thanks for the tip.

Forget cheese, forget Fritos, use peanut butter.

I tried peanut butter with no luck.

My brother in law offered to let me borrow one of his snakes, I'm sure that would be effective, but somehow the idea doesn't appeal to me.

Snakes are the best at this.

Get a couple of cats. No more mice.

peanutbutter is the way to go. Although the sneaky little critters can lick it off I have found if I wrap a little plastic wrap on the peanut butter they then try to dig through it and I got em

This is way off topic, but I have a new rodent nemesis. I use those humane traps (baited with peanut butter) but somehow the little furry one has managed to get the bait without being trapped.

Are mice getting smarter? This trap used to catch them. Now it looks like they knock the trap on its side so the door wont close on them and they feast on the bait.

I may have to deploy the less-than-humane kind of trap.

Me too. I love my Rat-Zapper!

Try baiting your traps with bits of raw bacon. Bacon has always worked for me and has eradicated any mouse problem I ever had. A helpful neighbor told us about it the first time we ever had to deal with mice. Problem solved. I never tried using anything else.

Mouse:

I appreciate your original post, and your willingness to share possible sources of materials and inspiration. That Erich would chose to fault you for that boggles the mind. I presume he is riddled with insecurities that compel him to criticize others. In the 99 percent of invention that is perspiration, prototyping is invaluable. Having sources for all the sorts of little bits and pieces that end up in prototypes is very useful. Thanks.

Mousejocky finally got it. You are parly right.

The whole point of MouseJockey's post was to announce a link to a cool site!!! That this and nothing else was the intent of his post should be obvious to even the most blinkered, philistine, pig-ignorant cretin.

Too bad for MouseJockey that he used trigger words like "inventions" and "invent," yes? His post was obviously a clearly-written, cheerful, enthusiastic attempt to share something cool he'd found with the rest of the forum.

But that's not what tripped you up, is it? Rather, wasn't his post just the opportunity you were waiting for? You needed to shit on somebody, and you needed to real hard, and so it was just MouseJockey's bad luck that you happened along? And please don't tell me this was the first time!

Well, let me assure you that if there was any shadow of a doubt before, this forum will surely know in short order that a giant indeed walks among them. That you rode MouseJockey's ass so hard and with such finesse proves beyond a doubt that you are, indeed, "superior" to at least one other person here. Hell, you didn't even spare the spurs!

Well, asshole? How was supper? Didn't it feel just grand to have brandished your own towering (albeit puckered) intellect to slash at someone else below the knees? Do you feel superior now, or simply full? A giant among mere mortals? An even taller Giant now? Bully for you!

It was clearly the whole point of your little exercise, after all!

After having had such a sumptuous feast, you must be very sleepy. You may wanna crawl back in that snug, warm, hole of yours for nice, long nap. But please, by all means, come back when you have less time. There'll be another hot meal waiting for you, Mr. Giant. Guaranteed.

Meanwhile, we'll miss your sweet laughter, Mr. Giant.

--Europium

By the way, did you just finish your first, or your fifth bottle of your rare wine? Or maybe you are only a parrot?

Ken writes: "That Erich would chose to fault you for that boggles the mind. I presume he is riddled with insecurities that compel him to criticize others. In the 99 percent of invention that is perspiration, prototyping is invaluable."

Bingo! On both counts.

--Europium

Mousejockey's words read "get ideas for cool inventions". Is that how you get ideas for your inventions? If you have any? I do agree with your first sentence and the last one. I come from a position of total security, knowing who I am and what I have accomplished. I was not criticizing him, I was trying to make him think and ask himself if it really is possible to come up with cool inventions by looking at all sorts of "little bits and pieces". Apparantly you don't specificly look at what you read, or are you riddled with other thoughts, and maybe your mind does not recall specificly what you just read. You also criticized me first. My conversation was with mouse and not you. It seems like you can't even mind your own business. Mouse did have the answer, and I did comment that he passed with flying colors. Also keep your insults to yourself, and the same goes to the BIG MOUTH from texas. But then again, everything is BIG in texas.

Mr. FRy: A Colonel Bain, US Marines, a good neighbour, who happened to be inpecting an A bomb explosion site 2 days after it happened in Japan told me this: " If you assume [presume] anything, you make an ass of yourself, and an ass of every one around you." Keep that in mind the next time You "presume".

Erich (re: your posts numbered 23 and 24):

I'm sorry you misunderstood (and perhaps still misunderstand) the functioning of this forum. Comments made here are not private. You may have thought your belittling of Mouse (your words: "Your last statement proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you don't understand inventing... No Clue... Maybe you understand tinkering?") was somehow private. It was not.

You will find, as you go through life, that many people will naturally rise to defend those whom they feel have been unfairly attacked. This is what motivated my post to Mouse. From his few posts in this forum, I have seen that he is articulate and bright, and as a graphic artist who invents artwork every day, I assume he is fairly familiar with the creative process. Also, his initial post suggests that he is a just a generally "nice" guy, who is enthusiastic and willing to share things he's found.

How peculiar that you would take your own posts (addressed to no one in particular) as somehow private, but mine to Mouse (addressed to him) to be public. Interesting that you think I should not comment on your post, but that you should comment on mine.

You said "You also criticized me first." I am impressed if I am, in fact, the first person to have criticized you. These may be the words to which you are referring: "I presume he is riddled with insecurities that compel him to criticize others." If so, please don't take that as criticism. It is simply a presumption on my part, and aimed at offering Mouse a rationale for your rudeness and arrogance toward him. It was by no means a criticism of you, and was rather an excuse offered in your defense. (Mouse and others may have been assuming that you are a sociopath.) If you have other reasons for being rude and arrogant, please feel free to elucidate. And again, please don't feel criticized: it takes all sorts to make the world go round. If you appear to me to be rude, arrogant, and mean-spirited, rest assured that there are others who may find you very charming. Perhaps there are others right in this virtual room who will be happy to assert that you are a great guy.

Incidentally, the more succinct version of Colonel Bain's advice is "When you ASSUME, you make and ASS out of U and ME." It's catchy, isn't it? See how the ASS and the U and the ME is all part of the word ASSUME? Cute. It's also complete nonsense. If we consistently failed to make assumptions, we'd be paralyzed by having to analyze every situation anew.

Rest assured that I will take your various bits of advice to me with all due consideration and respect.

Mr. Mousejockey: I wish to apologize for being so insensitive and being such an ASS towards you. Please forgive me! Erich

This site is really cool Mouse, lots of inexpensive things! I can see hours of fun with my kids coming up, thanks for posting the link.

I had this URL once and lost track of it. Thanks for posting it.

Bill Morrow

Yes I too like A.S.S. (American Science and Surplus)..

Be careful though, just as the name implies it is surplus--untested and probably no mfg warranty (although you can probably return items) . I recently bought a few AC synchronous motors thru them and they had a manufac. defect; they would lock up.I modified them to bypass the problem, so no problem. Just a tip. Happy inventing.

IIi definitely look into this mouse thing,today market mousemakeing and writst sour year araound