Aldi bargain laser level

At 60 I guess I am one of the younger population, but wonder how many on this forum actually pre-date these acronyms? Famously "OMG" was used by Admiral Fisher in 1917 (although he helpfully put "Oh! my God" in brackets afterward), FUBAR and SNAFU go back to the 1940s, and RTFM to the late 70s, predating even Usenet and FAQ.

Brian

In the old days, one would need to phone a friend for such information - or walk over to ones Britannica collection. Nowadays, without getting up from the computer, you can go to Google and type " **** means".

I had not come across that particular acronym before (a sheltered life) but the bowdlerised version turned up at the top of the search returns page.

IMO, Google rocks for all ages/

That's a shame. Language is a fluid thing and, by ignoring the recent additions, you can miss out on a lot of useful stuff. If TTFN and ITMA mean something to you, then you were part of the new wave of acronyms in the past. Stay in touch; you won't regret it.

Hi, here's one for the level in question. NMFP It's not what you're thinking.

Answer; Not Meant For Precision, although there is a more well known answer in some of the work places that I've been into.

Regards Nick.

Sorry, I don't regard this as language in the true sense, and if you have to resort to looking up these stupid things on Google, I won't bother. It's just laziness if you only include it once, but I can see the advantage if you're having to repeat it several times so long as it's explained at the beginning!

The correct thing to do is to put the meaning in brackets following the acronym so everyone knows what you're on about. Language is all about communication, not research.

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In principle, I agree ... but unfortunately, quite a few of these common acronyms contain words which would not [or perhaps should not] be considered appropriate on a 'family friendly' forum.

MichaelG.

I'd be interested to know the age at which these things cease to have validity for an individual. I have a feeling that I am by no means the youngest member here and I wonder if it's I who am out of step. I certainly qualify as a grumpy old man.

Does acronymophobia kick in when the free TV licence does? Does it kick in at State Pension time - or perhaps when policeman start looking younger?

Language is a tool and we all like to use new tools if they do the job.

But what does RMA stand for? return Merchandise Authorisation?

I'm sure (most) younger readers will struggle as much to know what Dumpy and Cowley levels are*.

Neil

*Actually don't assume any knowledge of such things fr people of any age, I recently saw a clip from the Onedin Line where the skipper found his position using a theodolite. On its side. Under solid cloud.**

**I suppose, at a push, he could have been using it to measure the angular separation of two landmarks, although they appeared far out to sea and there was no evidence of him doing any trig.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 15/07/2019 01:16:20

Of course they are antiques now & consigned to the bin.(mine is not, I used it last year) But when Paul used a laser to align his fence & drains he could possibly have used a set of boning rods to far greater effect.

My grandfather was using water levels as did his grandfather before him & mine is hanging in the shed. But ask someone how to fill one (they do not work if they have air bubbles in them) -- there is another question for you

But should they assume that because it is a " laser" the instrument supplied is adjusted for accuracy in the first place? & just because it is modern it does not always make it the best tool for the job

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 15/07/2019 07:38:49

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Certainly not, Sam

But what they can reasonably assume is that [to within 'engineering' standards] the beam is massless and straight ... which is a very good start.

The beam will not be particularly well shaped, and will be divergent; but there are 'work-arounds' for these failings.

MichaelG.

But a laser level, which is a very common use for them, could be pointing up in the air (or down)

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 15/07/2019 08:05:45

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Yes of course it could, Sam ... That was the point of my first few [emboldened] words !

As with so many cheap modern products, there is something useful inside ... which probably has 'negative value added' tat surrounding it.

Consider the potential: A laser module probably costs less than a length of bricklayer's string.

MichaelG.

A dictionary is just as useful today as it was 50-100 years ago.

**LINK**

Concerning the use of acronyms, we had a case at work where one of my colleagues complained to a customer that their documentation contained too many TLAs that they hadn't defined. Their response was "what's a TLA?".

QED

Rob

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I take your point, but:

Personally, I lost faith in 'the dictionary' when they updated the definition of the word "literally" to include the informal usage.

I remain a [platonic] lover of old dictionaries.

MichaelG.

I don't think it is "text speak". If I remember rightly many of these abbreviations started in the early days of Usenet discussion groups. The use of abbreviations helped when you were using a modem that operated at 1200 b/s downstream and 75 b/s upstream or even a 300 b/s audio coupler. Those were the days

Russell

Mention of 300 baud modems reminded me of a gross example from my guilty past. We did it as a joke, but my career in computing included a time where we would use ASCII control codes in normal conversation. For example:

Question. Fancy a coffee?
Answer. NAK, NAK, NAK

In American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), Hexadecimal 15 is the control code for 'Negative Acknowledge'. Only elite members of the inner sanctum know that!

For reasons not understood by us young nerds, management were displeased when customers complained. Quite hard for chaps who fought at Alamein asking if their job was finished to be told 'NAK NAK NAK' by a spotty long-haired youth with a failed Zapata moustache, loon pants, psychedelic nylon shirt, and a smelly Afghan coat.

Dave

I posted this in the 'Aircraft Radio Scanner' thread - with my tongue in my cheek

I got a USB (Universal Serial Bus) SDR (software defined radio) for my laptop PC (personal computer). It cost about 16UKP (United Kingdom Pounds). I use it for meteor detection using RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging) scatter with free software, but it will pick up almost anything you can make an aerial for, and you can switch it between FM (Frequency modulation), AM (amplitude modulation), USB (upper side band) and LSB (lower side band) or even stereo FM.

As SOD (Silly Old Duffer) says, this is a really cheap and easy way to experiment.

Neil

Neil,that sounds like a pelorus,a simple horizontal protractor with a sight that is probably still fitted on ships today. Anything which relies on a spirit level is of limited use at sea but the horizontal angle between two known points will give you ‘distance off’,add a third point and you have a position fix. The same thing can be done with a sextant used on its side. No trig required,just a couple of lines on the chart but as you say you do need to be able to see the coast.

A Horizontal angle on its own will not give you distance off because it will subtend an arc which could be any distance from the shore dependent on the length of either leg. You need a compass to determine the direction of the legs. In which case the sextant is not required. Without the compass bearing you would not know where to draw the lines.

However, Charts show the height of light houses which gives the third dimension of your triangle for distance off if you take the angle vertically. You need to be able to see the base & know the height of tide then you can calculate the distance to the object That is unless you know the dipping distance, in which case the vertical angle is irrelevant. But you still need to know the bearing from the light to get a position fix within a reasonable estimate.

The "dipping distance" is the distance at which the light appears to drop below the horizon.Add to that, the dipping distance of the observers eye above the waterline & you have an approx distance off.

Better still if you have GPS & it is not being jammed

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 15/07/2019 16:47:42