Worked at a company where the old school cable runners would still use wax string to lace the cables...
That was until the heat from the exhaust from the servers started to melt the wax and it became a really nasty sticky mess.
The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
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Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#92Wow never thought I'd see this on HN! I paid $20k to go to tech school for aviation maintenance. After doing that for 3 years I figured it just wasn't for me and I decided to go to university for computer science.
But before my last day of being an aircraft mechanic, I "accidentally" brought home a roll of high temp (non-waxed) lacing tape because I was already in the habit of using string to tie cables together (common in aviation). Figured if I paid $20k to go to school that I better at least find some other use for it. So far it is just cable lacing. I'm the only one I know that does it instead of zip ties. All kinds of random stuff in my house and on my cars is laced. Imgur proof: https://imgur.com/a/NLrJzlj
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is wild. It's perfectly logical what they're doing but I'm used to seeing this kinda thing after the trademark has lapsed (Kleenex, Xerox, etc). But to see a company release a pretty funny youtube video begging you to say their name less, well, it's just a weird thing to see.
I don't think trademarks can lapse in the US and many other countries (copyright can; which is a huge debate in an of itself: see Disney). I actually use "tissue" and "copy", but those kinda make sense. Personally I hate it when people keep saying "I Googled..." because it reminds me of this bullshit search engine monoculture we have right now (I try to use DuckDuckGo more, but I miss the days of Yahoo, Lycos, Hotbot…
> I don't think trademarks can lapse in the US
You can lose your trademark protection if the term becomes genericized and you fail to police its use. It's exceedingly rare for this to happen, the law isn't clear-cut, and different courts have ruled differently in similar cases, but it is technically possible. Velcro doesn't have to rabidly attack everyone trying to genericize its brand, and so long as they are still using it themselves and making some occasional effort to legally defend it, they're fine. But if other brands started calling their products "velcro" in the generic sense, and Velcro ignored it for a decade or more, they could in fact lose the trademark entirely.
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#94Aside: I work in med-tech. One of the largest complaints of doctors and nurses, especially in the ICU, is the cables and tubes. There are just SO MANY cables and tubes in a working ICU. Nurses and docs are constantly stepping on them, pulling them out, choking off blood/saline/urine/air in some tube, knocking power off of another, etc. Most of the machines can't do wireless, as some of the machines will 'jam' that pa…
ICU is not trivial as everything is done quickly.
At first thought, overhead cable gantries would be the best as you could quickly toss the cable/tube into it, but then the area around the patent would have tubes getting in the way, so some thought would have to be put into how the cables come out of the gantries.
Other techniques such as pre-laid cable guards could work (a smaller version of the things cables go through to temporarily cross a road), but those people would still be tripping on, laying a cable or tube would be disruptive and they would be annoying to keep clean.
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was going to say "found the Velcro employee"-- excuse me, I meant "employee of the company Velcro BVBA"-- but surely a Velcro employee would know that Velcro BVBA makes Velcro-branded hook-and-loop-fastener cable management products.
I was just poking fun at Velcro's absurdity. I in no way endorse their view of their branding. I just saw someone say Velcro and I never have had an opportunity to share that lovely page. Seemed tangentially relevant.
But do you endorse a company's right to meet their legal obligations to protect their brand?
Nintendo had a similar campaign decades ago: https://i.redd.it/20vipleteraz.jpg
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#96Aside: I work in med-tech. One of the largest complaints of doctors and nurses, especially in the ICU, is the cables and tubes. There are just SO MANY cables and tubes in a working ICU. Nurses and docs are constantly stepping on them, pulling them out, choking off blood/saline/urine/air in some tube, knocking power off of another, etc. Most of the machines can't do wireless, as some of the machines will 'jam' that pa…
This actually seems like a really interesting problem to me.
I don't think there's one pretty solution here. You'd have to break it down a bit.
- Do the patients go to the machine, or machine to the patient? Wireless makes sense for the latter, not the former.
- What's the failure mode? An alarm/alert to the nurse station, or death? Wireless makes sense for the former, I think.
- Are there any machines at every bedside? Do all of them need to be used at once? Detachable/modular cabling might make sense here.
- Are the cables different? Or can you come up with a "standard" cable/connector for most of the gear?
The audio world solved the "cables being knocked out" problem a long time ago with locking connectors (not screw-ins, so they're still quick connect) like Speak-On and XLR. The former is much more formidable.
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#97Here'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.
My memory of being worried about whether a "tie-wrap gun" [1] would be flagged during x-ray of carry-ons at the airport goes back to the 80's. A tie-wrap gun is used to tighten zip ties. But that company also used followed some practice akin to combing the wires.
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The rules of English grammar supersede those of the trademark office. If it's not a proper noun, and not the first word in a sentence, don't capitalize it.
As an example of all-caps trademark, LEGO bricks. Like velcro, LEGO is a portmanteau. Velcro is velour-crochet, and LEGO is leg-godt ("play good"). And like velcro before it, LEGO is now fighting genericization.
If they lose the struggle, kids will play with legos instead of LEGO bricks. They might be legos made by Lego then, but LEGO would be the trademark. It might not be relevant to the word mark, but the image mark is stylized in all caps.
This is nitpicky, but I am sharing some of my experience from writing software that produces brand reports for trademark lawyers. The USPTO might not be case-sensitive, but some of the lawyers are very case-oversensitive, so our software had to take that into account. I still have trouble using a trademark as a noun or verb.
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#99Wow never thought I'd see this on HN! I paid $20k to go to tech school for aviation maintenance. After doing that for 3 years I figured it just wasn't for me and I decided to go to university for computer science. But before my last day of being an aircraft mechanic, I "accidentally" brought home a roll of high temp (non-waxed) lacing tape because I was already in the habit of using string to tie cables together (com…
Neat! I don't tend to lace cables regularly, but it is my preferred method of wire management for old motorcycles. I use leather lacing, and it's mainly an aesthetic thing, since zip ties look so out of place, and the leather looks great w/ cloth wiring. My only gripe is how long it takes, especially if changes need to be made in a run. Are you aware of any good techniques or instructional materials to help with lacing faster?
Back in HS I worked line service, and I remember our mechanic being able to lace wires at least 2-3x faster than I can. Is this like welding, where it's all about time spent practicing, or are there tricks & techniques I'm unaware of?
Re: The Lost Art of Lacing Cable (2018)
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was just poking fun at Velcro's absurdity. I in no way endorse their view of their branding. I just saw someone say Velcro and I never have had an opportunity to share that lovely page. Seemed tangentially relevant.
Examples of alternatives to trademarked names: * "Velcro" -> "hook and loop" * "Kleenex" -> "tissue paper" * "Dumpster" -> "garbage bin" * "Frisbee" -> "flying disc"
I never knew "Dumpster" was one. Actually makes a lot of sense when I think about it. Thanks!