Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]germany is the world's #1 exporter in absolute dollars (just under 1 trillion in 2005), followed by the US, then china and japan, and france rounding out the top five. http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2006_e/its06_toc_e.htm -rei On Jan14 09:43, Rob McClure wrote: > I dunno. I love well-engineered things as much as most (BMW, Omega, > Mont Blanc, etc.), but sometimes items can be over-engineered. As an > example, our home came with a Clare Megasave furnace. This is a > Canadian unit, quite unique to my Ohio location (the nearest dealer is > 80 miles away). Initially I had trouble with it failing to start and > my neighbor, a retired Westinghouse electrical engineer and mechanical > genius, came over to help. The electronic controls were unbelievably > complex with all kinds of redundancy built in to meet the high > standards dictated by Canada, where severe winters can cause a > catastrophe in the case of furnace failure. Unfortunately one of the > backup features was conflicting the circuit and keeping the furnace > from consistently starting. He bypassed the backups and it has worked > perfectly these past 15 years. > > Rob McClure > > > On Jan 14, 2007, at 6:46 AM, Rick Dykstra wrote: > > >I spent today slowly pulling our Miele dishwasher apart, to figure out > >why its not filling fully. I think it's the solenoid. Not just any > >solenoid, but part of a failsafe twin solenoid leak-proof disaster > >safe design. And having seen the insides of this thing now, by golly > >what a beautifully designed well made, repairable bit of gear. An > >absolute contrast to the Australian made Vulcan gas heater I pulled > >apart last winter (worn out fan). And the Miele vacuum cleaner I > >pulled apart last year was also great to work on (worn out carbon > >brushes). > > > >So why is it that Germans are such good industrial designers? It's as > >if they know their work will be appreciated when customers finally > >need to fix the thing. :-) > > > >Impressed I am. > > > >Rick. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Rei Shinozuka shino@panix.com Ridgewood, New Jersey