Star Trek TNG. Without a doubt.

Macgyver is up there, so is Westworld.

My last one was the Battlefield 1942 complete collection. So, 20 years here.

Uhhh… Because it’s easy?

I switched whenever it was that I woke up and Copilot was installed on my computer without my consent. 2 years ago? More? Idk. I bought new drives because I didn’t want to dual boot, but also wanted to keep Windows “just in case.” Well, I haven’t booted from those drives once in that time. I did plug them in to get some files off them a few months ago, but they are back to collecting dust again. I think it’s about time to finally wipe them and put them back to work.

I forgot about typing of the dead! Good times.

The dreamcast still exists, you can go get one right now! And with the VGA cable, it really doesn’t look half bad on a modern TV. If your TV doesn’t have VGA in, I have had good luck with even cheap VGA to HDMI adapters. Go on, play Crazy Taxi again with the good soundtrack. Play Episode 1 Racer. It’s still awesome. Shenmue can still go to the arcade.

Mechanical Engineer. 14 years in automotive interiors. I design tooling for instrument panel toppers, door uppers, arm rests, etc.

Primarily, the type of tooling I specialize in is known as edge wrapping or edge folding. Basically, you have the plastic “substrate” and the leather or vinyl “skin” that is either vacuum formed or press laminated to it. Extra material is left around the edges, and that is heated, wrapped, and glued around the back of the part with a number of metal fingers. I do the wrapping tooling, as well as the lamination tooling.

The most complicated tool I ever designed was for a large, flat component behind the back seat of a car, by the rear window. Let me walk you through the sequence for it.

• Operator loads plastic substrate in tool upper
• Operator loads flat skin pattern in the lower on skin pins, and a clamp in the rear
• The infrared heating shuttle moves in and the upper closes to the heating position, where the skin and substrate are blasted with tens of thousands of watts of IR heat to activate the glue
• The IR shuttle retracts, and the tool fully closes to the lamination position, and the skin pins all retract. In the case of this tool, it had (I think) 0.25mm of compression a-side of the part.
• Seven slides extend to laminated areas that were either undercut in tool draw, or protruded in a way that prohibited skin loading.
• Three 200C hot air heaters extend down from the upper to heat the back edge of the part, and around the two speaker openings.
• Once those retracts, 25 edgefolding pieces wipe the skin around the back, and up through the speaker openings (that’s the coolest part)
• The edgefolders retract in the reverse sequence of which they extended
• The slides retracts
• The tool opens, and the skin pins extend
• the Operator can now step in the light curtain to remove the part, then return with the new substrate and skin.

So far, I would say it is the pinnacle of my career. But car parts are getting more complicated all the time. My design focuses lately have been focused on simplicity over that level of complexity. Where can we use a guided cylinder where we used to use linear rails? Can this detail be made in multiple pieces to reduce waste material? What components can be 3D printed? It’s great fun, really. I do love my job.

When did these come out? Wow, that was a steep enshitification slope.