Geeks

I love the people I work with. They're a bunch of geeks. A small example will serve to illustrate.

On one of our products there is a stepper motor. Stepper motors usually make cute little whirring noises as they operate. However, if a stepper motor is mechanically connected to a device that can resonate, it can create an irritating whine. The motor in question seemed to have been acoustically coupled in a way that would have made Antonio Stradivari proud (that is to say, proud that his violins sounded nothing like this motor).

There is a Christmas celebration organised for the software team on Monday morning. The new software manager will bring cakes for a feeding frenzy. No, there's nothing geeky about that. After cake, the product's overly vocal stepper motor will be put to intensely geeky use as a musical instrument (and I use the word musical very loosely) in a tune-playing competition. This will be a stepper motor eisteddfod that will make all other stepper motor eisteddfods sound like constipated bumble bees. I'm certain the sounds I hear on Monday are going haunt me for the rest of my life. This is the kind of musical experience you just can't buy in a geekless work environment.

(I wonder what tune I'll play.)