"Turbo Encabulator" the Original
Dave Rondot4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2016–2026
comedy · general · evergreen · 2016–2026 on HN
The earliest filmed version of the Turbo Encabulator technical-jargon parody, shot in the late 1970s with narrator Bud Haggert. It deadpans a stream of meaningless engineering language.
Used as the canonical reference for the jargon-parody trope, and as a joke whenever technobabble appears.
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12 comments from Hacker News
"Still it's amusing how Whitney's style seems to personally offend people" So it was for the lols after all... Notably, a Lisp interpreter written in Lisp is a common assignment for second year CS students. In a production setting, there is little reason to misappropriate resources for such toys. Bud Haggert still teaches smart people something very important about communication with interdisciplinary crowds: ▶ this video Doug Zongker's presentation similarly instructs people how to make better presentations to peers by demonstrating what not to do: link Best of luck =3
I don't know why people are always posting the Rockwell version when the older Turbo Emcabulator video is far superior. ▶ this video
There's a proud tradition of this kind of parody: the Turboencabluator is one of the most famous in engineering, a joke that goes back to 1944. link Bud Haggart's industrial training videos for the Turboencabulator from the 70s/80s are things of beauty. See ▶ this video
I think you're gonna like this one [1]. The B-25 Mitchell instructional that was linked here some few weeks ago is also amazing [2]. [1]: ▶ this video [2]: link
Wouldn't the real story be to get government contracts? Those are more immune to public fickleness and market competition and usually have truly ludicrous margins. If they're the only ones who ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶u̶t̶o̶n̶o̶m̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶b̶o̶t̶s̶ can draw a reciprocation dingle-arm to reduce soinosoidal repleneration, then "I'm sure the government will buy it" [0] [0] ▶ this video
There are youtube channels with old TV Ads. Some of those will be non-existant. You could also go down the Turbo Encabulator rabbit hole: ▶ this video link
PoE works better (cheaper, higher bandwidth, differential signalling for higher EMI resistance, readily shared, etc.). Plastic covers are ~free (splash out and deploy duct tape if necessary). MEMS mic -> I2C -> cheap MCU -> ethernet. Theory: Capture digitally, and send the data - forget XLR and other expensive analog 'professional' fancabulation[0]. [0] ▶ this video
The article is conflating buzzword laden hype-cycles with qualitative artifacts. It takes experience to recognize most software is still garbage, but more importantly determine which parts of the garbage heap is useful. The primary problem is the very definition of any unique terminology or product is distorted by the industry itself to fit a marketing niche. After a few years people sound like they had a stroke, and bought a Turbo Encabulator: ▶ this video
Oh, dear. I read as far as "Its generator system is a rotor-stator system with a highly efficient 5 kW permanent magnet generator", then immediately thought of the Turbo Encabulator: ▶ this video
I agree - college is a filter - not a tech tree. In engineering school you solve problems similar to industry - but its more the difficulty than the similarity. New grads can handle the difficulty your job provides. If you train them - they should get the hang of it. Industry leads academia in undergrad - not the other way around. Industry knew that new grads needed 6-12 months of niche education (this is the general operation of Turbo Encabulators ▶ this video ). It was in their budget. Now.... not so much.
Reminds me of the turbo encabulator presentation [1]. Quote: "The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented." [1] ▶ this video
> That works even if you remove the "Blockchain". That's a key criteria for being Web 3.0. Now basically, the only new principal involved is that instead of value being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive-interactance... ▶ this video