[sdiy] 300-400 student hours of work, tossed out by our custodial staff

[harrybissell at copper.net]

It is my experience that the fastest way to assure something
will be destroyed is to store it in a cardboard box. The value
of the items has NO relation to the odds of destruction.

In fact, at my work the first question asked when something
goes missing is "was it in a cardboard box" ???

(I had a bunch of test equipment and tools go missing like this... ;^(

H^) harry
>
>
>---- Original Message ----
>From: lanterma at ece.gatech.edu
>To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>Subject: RE: [sdiy] 300-400 student hours of work,tossed out by our
>custodial staff
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:52:16 -0400 (EDT)
>
>>Most of you know that in the Fall and Spring 2006 semesters, I
>taught a 
>>special topics class on the Theory and Design of Music Synthesizers.
>(If 
>>any of you have ever been curious to see how I lecture, most of my 
>>lectures from the Spring semester are up on the website in RealVideo
>
>>format. You probably only don't know that if you've recently joined
>the 
>>list.)
>>
>>The final project consists of designing, prototyping, and
>constructing a 
>>modular synthesizer circuit. I had two boxes, one containing the
>projects 
>>from the Fall and the other from the Spring. I was fortunate to be
>able to 
>>show these to Paul S. in person a few weeks ago ad get his feedback.
>>
>>My eventual plan was to mount them all in a nice case with a nice
>front 
>>panel, and put it the Music Dept. so that Tech students could make
>music 
>>for years to come with circuits my students designed and built.
>>
>>I showed off the circuits when I spoke at our graduate seminar.
>Since my 
>>parking deck is some distance from our main classroom building, I
>left the 
>>boxes under a table in our mail room, planning to come back on
>another day 
>>at night when I could park closer and get the boxes without fear of
>a 
>>ticket.
>>
>>On Monday, I went to retrieve the boxes of circuit boards, and they
>were 
>>gone. Further investigation revealed that, on Friday, the custodial
>staff 
>>mistook them for trash and threw threm out.
>>
>>I was willing to go dumpster diving to retrieve them, but it turns
>out it 
>>had already been compacted and shipped off; contemplate hundreds of 
>>dollars in parts and around 300 to 400 person-hours of time in 
>>construction and debugging, crushed and hauled off to a landfill.
>>
>>The designs are still documented in reports and schematics (I still
>need 
>>to post the projects from the Fall), but the wonder of the students'
>
>>unique first-effort constructions is now lost.
>>
>>I am beyond angry-beyond-comprehension and gone to 
>>depressed-beyond-comprehension; want-to-punch-someone-and-scream has
>now 
>>gone to crawl-in-the-corner-and-cry.
>>
>>- Aaron
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>---------
>>
>>Dr. Aaron Lanterman, Asst. Prof.
>>and Demetrius T. Paris Junior Prof.  Voice:  404-385-2548
>>College of Electri. and Comp. Eng.   Fax:    404-894-8363
>>Georgia Institute of Technology      E-mail: lanterma at ece.gatech.edu
>>Mail Code 0250                       Web:   
>users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma
>>Atlanta, GA 30332                    Office: Centergy 5212
>>
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