As a Hokie, it drives me crazy that journalists (and ESPN) continue to use the non-name “VA Tech”. It’s VT, Virginia Tech, or the full name, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. https://brand.vt.edu/licensing/university-trademarks.html#tr...
eitally 50 minutes ago [-]
If it makes you feel any better, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo is most commonly just known as SLO. There are two other Cal Polys, one of which is known as CPP (Cal Poly Pomona) and the other mostly just referred to as Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt). Moreover, unless you knew this already, if you Google "cal poly" it'll only return results about SLO, further muddying the waters.
As a Wahoo, I don't have the "VA Tech" issue, but I assume journos write it that way because their style guides tell them abbreviating states is acceptable, and they don't care that they're doing it to a trademark that doesn't support abbreviation.
loudmax 10 minutes ago [-]
Fellow Virginia Tech alumnus here. "VA Tech" is perfectly legible and unambiguous. "VT scientists" is straightforward to Americans, but not everyone in the world will know what "VT" is in this context. It could be Vermont scientists, or who knows what else.
"VA Tech" is a reasonable balance between writing something unambiguous for a global audience, but short enough to be interesting. Nobody's going to be interested in an article titled "Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University scientists build a better fog harp."
Of course, you still need to read the article itself to find out what the heck is a "fog harp," and why we need a better one.
patwolf 2 hours ago [-]
I occasionally hear people pronounce it out loud as "vah tech". But seeing it written "VA Tech" is even more bizarre.
scroot 21 minutes ago [-]
Yeah I hear that on TV a lot also, but no one who has spent any time in the Harvard of the Blue Ridge would say it that way
itsmartapuntocm 3 hours ago [-]
As a fellow Hokie I'm just happy they aren't calling us Virginia Tech University.
btreecat 10 minutes ago [-]
Go Hokies!
anton-c 1 hours ago [-]
I don't even know that much about the school but I read the headline as "Virginia based tech sector scientists"
VA tech does not have the most agreeable ring compared to the others you listed tho that's for sure.
45 minutes ago [-]
mycall 1 hours ago [-]
Instead of a 2D matrix, why not go in depth and have many layers similar to a bee hive box?
schiffern 5 hours ago [-]
Nice, very practical engineering.
I wonder if arranging the stabilizing wires at an angle (instead of directly horizontal) might reduce their tendency to cling water, or could the acute angle actually make it worse? Maybe the best would be a zig-zag pattern, but that's more complex to manufacture and might be worse at holding the strings apart.
timlod 5 hours ago [-]
It's not virtual analog tech scientists building a better musical instruments :)
I had no clue what a fog harp is, turns out it's used for harvesting water - interesting tech!
mkesper 8 hours ago [-]
It's interesting because you can turn this into meter-ware (like moskito nets) and it does not need fancy materials or coating processes, just clever use of geometry.
Rendered at 14:41:27 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
As a Wahoo, I don't have the "VA Tech" issue, but I assume journos write it that way because their style guides tell them abbreviating states is acceptable, and they don't care that they're doing it to a trademark that doesn't support abbreviation.
"VA Tech" is a reasonable balance between writing something unambiguous for a global audience, but short enough to be interesting. Nobody's going to be interested in an article titled "Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University scientists build a better fog harp."
Of course, you still need to read the article itself to find out what the heck is a "fog harp," and why we need a better one.
VA tech does not have the most agreeable ring compared to the others you listed tho that's for sure.
I wonder if arranging the stabilizing wires at an angle (instead of directly horizontal) might reduce their tendency to cling water, or could the acute angle actually make it worse? Maybe the best would be a zig-zag pattern, but that's more complex to manufacture and might be worse at holding the strings apart.
I had no clue what a fog harp is, turns out it's used for harvesting water - interesting tech!