OT: Language for the ages

[Tony Duell]

> >>Your comments make me wonder what the history of the buggy was though - 
> >>did it start out as a F-T kit in its own right, or was it a joint effort 
> > 
> > 
> > AFAIK it was never an F-T product. F-T never used stepper motors, and if 
> > they had they would not have fitted them with screws through the grouves 
> > of the blocks.
> 
> Yep, some aspects of it seem a little bodgy - but then the PCB's quite 
> nice if I remember, and the curved clear 'lid' was a pretty good job. 

The PCB is a fairly simple double-sided thing with wide tracks. It's the 
sort of thing that _could_ have easily been made at home (at least the 
prototype).  The lid is nice, and was certainly custom-moulded for that 
device. But it's not essential (see below).

> The whole thing seemed halfway between a F-T product and someone's 
> bedroom hack :-)

Personally, I think it started out as a bedroom hack (all but the cover 
could have been made at home, using normal electronic bits and stock F-T 
parts). It was then turned into a commercial (albeit low-volume) product, 
and the cover was made for it.

> 
> (Incidentally, I need to find suitable replacement tyres for Bletchley's 
> buggies; they've nearly all decayed now - not sure if rubber O-rings 

Mine too.

> would work or be of the wrong substance and therefore too slippy. Yet 
> another job to get around to at some point!)

The tyres are not an F-T part (although the wheels, and the little nylon 
rods to fill in the slots most certainly are). They look like standard 
O-rings to me.

If yoy find a source of them, let me koow, I need a couple too. The 
company I normally get O-rings from (for HP card readers, etc) doesn't do 
them large enough.

-tony