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The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

thebroadcastbridge.com

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Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#81

Post by plorg »

OT: the fullscreen modal on pageload made me want to bounce immediately. But, in good faith, I tried to register. It took like 10 minutes, because required fields (Industry, Company Name, Job Title) automatically cleared in the case of a form submission failure, "Other" categories broke the form, and the user is required to sign up for at least one category of bulk mail, told it's "optional", and given the frequency options "daily", "weekly", or "monthly". If no categories are checked the form submission fails and the form clears half of the fields. The password field gets reset but still appears to be filled, so if the user submits an otherwise correct form the second time the same fields clear again.

A new visitor is visually assaulted before even seeing the linked article (e.g. evaluating your site). The prospective user is then lied to and punished for attempting to register, and the site is shown to be shoddily constructed.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#82

Post by mikestew »

crysin wrote: post #53
crysin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.velcro.com/legal-and-privacy/dontsayvelcro/

I'm assuming my down votes are for the link being off-topic. Just wanted to apologize if I annoyed some people with it. I thought it would be fun to share it since Velcro doesn't come up very often in online discussions.

Innocent though it might have been, we were discussing tying cables together, someone dared to mention the word "Velcro", and out comes Captain Pedantic to remind us that it is a trademarked term. Hey, we were trying to discuss cables, not trademark law. You also don't know that parent wasn't specifically calling out the Velcro brand: "buy the Velcro ties, not the shitty off-brand, Velcro; I used the word for a reason."

That's my guess, I don't necessarily hold that view. But it did drag the conversation in a vastly different direction. :-)

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#83

Post by _Microft »

mikestew wrote: post #79
gotts wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if zip ties are used at all in a project like this one.

Leave plastic out in the sun, exposed to UV radiation: plastic degrades. Sub-zero temps? Plastic snaps. Snip the end, they leaves sharp edges. Zip ties are great for most conditions under which humans can survive. Now, NASA could have special "space zip ties" that are formulated to resist such conditions, but I would imagine they would bear little resemblance to the ones at Harbor Freight that comes in bags of 100 fo…

On top of that softeners in plastics can/will outgas in the low pressure environment and maybe contaminate nearby sensors or cause other unexpected things.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#84

Post by wodenokoto »

plorg wrote: post #81

OT: the fullscreen modal on pageload made me want to bounce immediately. But, in good faith, I tried to register. It took like 10 minutes, because required fields (Industry, Company Name, Job Title) automatically cleared in the case of a form submission failure, "Other" categories broke the form, and the user is required to sign up for at least one category of bulk mail, told it's "optional", and given the frequency…

Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s like they expect people to not use the call to action and just close the modal. Then why even show it?

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#85

Post by 52-6F-62 »

ken wrote: post #50

For stage rigging , the "method of choice"? Never seen it. It "lasts longer than cable ties"? Not sure if they mean zip ties, velcro, tie line, etc, but I've never seen any of these fail due to age. It "does not create obstructions along the length of the cable"? We use e-tape. Rigging isn't generally about electrics, anyway. I wonder if that's a typo.

As someone who managed a department that looked after stage/film/tv electrical rigging and distribution/cable/breaker-box rental equipment for five years or so I will be happy to agree with you in that the modern technique seems to not be elegant tying with cord, but "gaffer the shit out of it and yer good, bud". (Had to clean a lot of that crap up!)

Then again, those were the cases largely in temporary rigging. The gaffer tape will dry out after a while and fail. Very rarely sold equipment to permanent installs.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#86

Post by jascii »

I learned cable lacing in aviation maintenance school when I was burned out on tech. It has a lot of advantages (less abrasion, plastic flow, plastic waste, etc then zip ties). With a bit of practice it can be faster too. I still use it in personal projects, at work not so much: wouldn't want to confuse my coworkers to much ;)

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#87

Post by esaym »

_Microft wrote: post #11

Here's cable lacing visible on a Mars rover: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/MER-2_On...

Most everything in aviation still uses lacing (former aircraft mech). I think zip ties only started to be used (lightly) around the early 2000's.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#88

Post by technothrasher »

logfromblammo wrote: post #66
technothrasher wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think trademarks can lapse I think the original poster meant "genericized" instead of "lapsed". But Velcro is clearly already genericized, as you note.

No, "velcro" is genericized. The capitalized word "Velcro" is still a trademark. As such, you can buy "Velcro [BVBA] velcro", or you can call 3M's hook-and-loop fasteners "3M velcro". 3M, naturally, avoids using the term "velcro" in its packaging and marketing, and would never use "Velcro", because even though they could , because the term is genericized, it would still be free advertising for a competitor.

The capitalized word "Velcro" is still a trademark.

Capitalization has no bearing on word marks (in the US, at least. I can't speak for other countries). "Velcro", "VELCRO", "velcro" are all the same thing as far as the trademark office is concerned. And yes, there are still active trademarks for the word "VELCRO", but it has still been unquestionably genericized.

Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)

#90

Post by jschwartzi »

crysin wrote: post #53
crysin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.velcro.com/legal-and-privacy/dontsayvelcro/

I'm assuming my down votes are for the link being off-topic. Just wanted to apologize if I annoyed some people with it. I thought it would be fun to share it since Velcro doesn't come up very often in online discussions.

It's alright. One of the things that separates discussion on HN from other sites is that we like to try to stay on-topic. In the past I've witnessed many articles on Slashdot go from discussing the article with the first two or three comments to somehow having a 100-comment discussion of the merits of Open Source and Linux. This would happen even on discussions of some new science or new widget. Inevitably there would be some derogatory comment about Microsoft in there regardless of the content of the original article.

As a consequence I try to avoid mentioning things that will go in a political direction, like Trademark, Copyright, etc. as these terms tend to be very charged for certain people. Once you bring it up people will dogpile the discussion and eventually your article on the Lost Art of Lacing Cable is full of comments about how Trademarks are stupid and Copyright is Copywrong.

It's not really about relevance, but rather that the main focus of the comment is something that invites a lot of political discussion with very little substance.

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