Hit a surprising milestone with my disability claim...

I was dead set against hiring a lawyer for my SSDI case, figured I could handle it myself and save the money. But after 8 months of waiting and getting denied twice, I finally caved and called a law firm in Fresno. Just hit my first approval milestone at the reconsideration level and I'm honestly shocked... they got me approved in 3 months. Has anyone else seen faster results after switching to a lawyer?

Found a load chart from 1972 for a Manitowoc 3900

Ngl I was digging through some old files in the shop last Thursday and pulled out a load chart for a Manitowoc 3900 from 1972. The safe working loads are way lower than what we run on modern cranes of the same size class. Crazy to see how much the engineering has changed in 50 years. Has anyone else ever compared old load charts to new ones for the same basic boom length?

Overheard a guy at the supply house say paper plots are dead

I was grabbing some rolls at the local supply shop near Buffalo last Tuesday and this older drafter was telling the clerk he hasn't touched a blueprint in 5 years. Actually said he uses a tablet to mark up everything in the field now. I stood there holding my roll of 24x36 like a dummy. Made me wonder if I'm just wasting money and effort sticking with paper. Any of you guys gone fully digital yet?

Found out Boeing 737 MAX hydraulic lines are routed next to hot bleed air ducts without proper shielding

Just realized I was crowding the basket this whole time

Been making air fryer fries for about 8 months. They always came out mushy on one side. Last Sunday I tossed in half the amount I normally do. Barely covered the bottom. Came out crispy all over. Game changer. Anyone else make this mistake for way too long?

A senior dev told me my comments were useless.

I used to comment every single line like 'increment i by 1' until a guy on my team said comments should explain WHY not what. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad commenting habits from tutorials?

Showerthought: is climb milling really better or is it just the new thing?

I keep seeing guys at my shop climb milling everything on the CNC, even on older machines. Last week I had a job with a 1/2 inch end mill in 4140 and tried climb cut like they said. First pass sounded great, second pass the insert chipped and I had to stop. So I went back to conventional milling for the rest and finished without issues. Am I missing something or are people just repeating what they heard without checking the setup?

Switched from a basket style to a tray style air fryer and wow what a difference

Why does nobody mention how brittle old shutter curtains get in dry climates?

I tried cleaning a 1960s leaf shutter on a Nikon F in Phoenix last week and the cloth literally crumbled under my finger. Has anyone else had curtains disintegrate like that or did I get unlucky with storage conditions?

Finally got the old keypad in that 1970s split-level to stop giving false alarms after three hours of tracing a single frayed wire behind the baseboard.

Anyone else have a trick for dealing with that old cloth-covered alarm wire that just crumbles when you touch it?