The Home Machinist!

Use Google Advanced Search. "Copy" the URL for the Forum you wish to search. Below is for the General forum here. "Paste" the URL into the "Site or Domain" field
Enter any search terms you wish in the appropriate field(s)

Below is what produces a search on General for the word "cab". You can enter that into any google search window to perform that site (well,forum) scoped search for the word "cab".

This is another issue to take care of.
In the meantime, you can try using google to search the site.
Go to google, enter site:www.chaski.org/homemachinist cab
for example to search for cab on the machinist site.
There is a suggested fix for the short searches, which I will try when I do the bugfix upgrade next week.
By the way, the search results are not so bad.
See the picture.
-Mike

I turns out that indexes for 3 character searches requires more than a configuration change for the phpbb software.
We can do 4 character searches, but with 3, for now, we need to rely on google.com.
-Mike

I consider this board as a chat between friends linked by a common interest. Think of getting all together in my or your shop, helping with a problem, exchanging tips and having a good time. While we have a common interest we come from all types of backgrounds, native speakers, English as second language, professional college education and folks that learned by doing, some are sharp some just average folks.
None of us would really appreciate a nitpicker pointing out trivial error and speech impairments (the equivalent of keyboard clumsiness).
In my opinion there is a fine line between being a literary stickler and a snob.
On the other hand, I consider it a mark of intelligence to make an effort to understand the meaning, whenever is obvious and unequivocal. I consider it a mark of maturity to be able to distinguish when is appropriate and useful to point out trivial writing errors and when it is wiser to ignore them.
And, in final analysis... If there is nothing to be gained by either party, why do it?

I haven't seen any "literary sticklers" or "nipickers" here, or, for that matter, on most of the fora I follow. What I have seen were posts filled with misspellings that would have been automatically flagged by the forum's software when the post was written. In other words, the writer was too lazy to correct errors flagged to him, not by a "literary stickler" but by an emotionless program. The most common misspellings are simple, everyday words, not some esoterica or hyper-technical terms.

I see posts full of errors that would have been caught if the author weren't too lazy to proofread what he wrote.

These comments about turning the forum into an English class, making everyone write like a professor, pity the poor non-native speaker are just strawmen meant to deflect attention from the basic problem - a lot of people are just too lazy to bother learning how to write simply and informally in their native language.

Informal English is not sloppy English.

I had a parochial school education starting 83 years ago. People back then took pride in speaking and writing well. Penmanship especially was a skill that is lacking with the current generations. I don't profess to be able to speak or write like the English scholars of past, but I manage to make myself understood. I have always been good at spelling but I use an online dictionary when necessary. I have always felt communications skills are of the utmost importance. I know people today may unfortunately have less education due to circumstances and we should not hold such lack against them; but that doesn't excuse poor writing or speaking as long as we have the power to self improve. We are what we speak and write. That is what defines us. When it comes to tools, I am a stickler for exact nomenclature.

I hear many times someone will call a saw a "skil saw". To me that is wrong. I call it either a portable electric saw or a "Skil" type saw unless it is actually a Skil saw made by Skil. If you are familiar with the TV program, "How-it's-made", I find many wrong callouts of tools used in the episode. One such episode called out an open end wrench when it was actually a box wrench. To most, a wrench is just a wrench; I like to be more precise than that. The more precise you can be, the more clearly the message is conveyed and understood. If you were an electrician's helper and the electrician asked for a pair of pliers, what pliers would you retrieve. He would have to be more specific; linesman, needle nose, diagonal, etc. It may just be a quirk of mine, so don't think i'm crazy.

We'er never too old to learn.
My maternal grandfather decided to learn to play the piano, starting when he turned 80 years old.
Never got very good but it kept his brain alive!

Take the time to learn something very day.
And build models of trains!!
~RN

Are side cutters dikes? Are skil saws skillful? Are Kleins the only pliers you have? There is a lot to be said for naming the correct tool. I get aggravated when I ask for a pilot drill for a screw and they come back with a step drill. Really? Crescent wrench, bowl wrench, fence pliers... Good luck trying to explain cross peen hammer to a carpenter guy. I have to specify a crack hammer or three pounder or I get a straight claw rafter hammer every time. How about a t-handle hex key. or pulley wrench. Crow foot? A grease zerk, not a zit, an Alemite not a button head. A pillow block not a pillar, and a conveyor bearing, not a slide bearing thingy.

Dont get me started on the guy that came through and tossed all the brazed copper gas can spouts with rubber hoses in the trash and bought those gov approved plastic non-working monstrosities for fuel cans so we dont have fumes. Probably the same guy that hoards the only funnel in the shop, and uses plastic trash cans. He was supposed to be the safety guy, putting out plastic barrels because they looked clean. Fire regulations spec steel drums for obvious reasons with a swing lid to smother a fire. ON and on about smart acres that really dont know or check. Too lazy to get smart.

Some things are just wrong. The state of Indiana requires cable for cantenary suspension to alternate directions of cable clamps for signage and traffic lights. Industry dictates you never saddle a dead horse, so the saddle of the clamp goes on the live (long )side of the wire rope with the u-bolt on the short side (dead end). So some inspectors give you grief on the odd count if they dont like you. Various writings to the state went against industry standards, as they set the program and it is in the political arena.

If everything can be proven via mathematics, one could ask, “What’s the formula for Beauty?”

Yet the next input comes along and states, “Well, you have to define what ‘Beauty’ is… first.

So… what exactly is PRECISION?

[John precisely types his first name]

John

John writes:
> If everything can be proven via mathematic...

No mathematician has ever claimed that.

> So… what exactly is PRECISION?

A measure of statistical variability.

After reading all the replies to this topic and posting a response myself, I now fail to understand how this topic,"In search of precision" went from measurement precision to English language precision. The very first post set the stage for the precise use of the English language, although it was not implied by the name of the subject. I responded to this post based on previous responses although my first thought was that it was about precision in measurements.
I think the title of the subject should have read, "Precise English language use".

Mr Ron wrote: ↑Sat Mar 31, 2018 11:23 am After reading all the replies to this topic and posting a response myself, I now fail to understand how this topic,"In search of precision" went from measurement precision to English language precision.

It actually didn't transition. As you said, it was based on "language", not physical dimensions. "Precise language is useful for describing our hobbies:

They're searching for their dog who is over there.
It's looking for its food.'"

I can see how one might get the wrong impression.

It's all good!

H