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With Brian away on vacation, Adam, Carmen, and Jeff address issues and questions found on the “Engineering,” “Ask Engineers,” and “Ask Electronics” sub-Reddits.

• Carmen is off on an immediate rant about finding brown M&Ms in his trailer this week, which is apparently a violation of his appearance rider.
• We discuss needing custom-printed M&Ms for the podcast staff.
• Since are lacking for an opening question, we turn to the Engineering sub-Reddit for source material.
• Adam is predicting that humans are ruled by Robot Overlords in the year 2100.
• A five-minute video about PID control caught Carmen’s attention (Reddit post).
• Adam has been experiencing integral windup with the water heating unit he has constructed for producing home-brewed beer.
• An overview of PID control, authored by Bob Pease, is mentioned by Carmen.
• Carmen also cites a Bob Pease article about fuzzy control.
• An article about licensing engineers in the state of Indiana is mentioned by Jeff (Reddit post).
• Adam addresses a Reddit query about what engineering students should bring to college.
• Jeff prefers the Staedtler Mars-Plastic eraser for correcting his work, while Carmen and Adam are fans of the eraser included in the Twist-Erase III mechanical pencil from Pentel.
• If you’re going to be using a lot of engineering pad for recording your computations, Adam recommends buying a box (or splitting a case with others) as a Freshman.
• A good backpack is an important investment for the college student, says Carmen. He recommends the Dakine Campus or Terminal backpacks.
• Jeff notes that iconic brand McDonald’s is struggling financially, and that Amazon has surpassed Walmart in market capitalization.
• A troubleshooting saga, concerning a simple room door could mysteriously influence a TV’s reception, entertained Carmen.
• Do you hate your engineering job? Jeff addresses a Reddit post in which the author is dissatisfied with his engineering career.
• Carmen mentions that he has recently taken up rock climbing.
• When it comes to reference books, Jeff’s favorite is Machinery’s Handbook, while Adam prefers the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Carmen likes to spread his reading time across a variety of application notes.
• We discuss a Reddit post asking why some engineers seem to take pride in their lack of spelling and grammar skills.

Thanks to Colin Kinner for the photo titled “Question mark sign.” Podcast theme music by Paul Stevenson.