Mac Gyver

MacGyver is the name of a show from the 80's as well as its main character, played by Richard Dean Anderson (of "Stargate SG-1"). His claim to fame was using simple, found items in ingenious ways to defeat the bad guys or extricate himself from precarious situations. In one episode he uses bamboo, sheets, and a small engine along with duct tape to create an ultralight and fly away from his kidnappers.

His trademarks are DuctTape and the SwissArmyKnife.

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Also used to express (hasty/crude/kludged) design and implementation AntiPattern/s of sorts with which many of us are unfortunately familiar.

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MacGyver once explained to a shocked agent that he preferred to stay loose, eschewing formal plans because they reduce flexibility. Instead, he stays observant and learns things out of curiosity; then as a situation builds up, he constantly takes little actions to increase his options, like grabbing a piece of rope or taking shelter in a room with possibly useful chemicals.

Now that might be interesting -- I could prepare myself for the day's encounter with coding and design by taking shelter in a room with possibly useful chemicals.

    :-)

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Apparently, there was a Swiss Army Knife Society Convention in San Diego last weekend (supposedly a tongue-in-cheek gathering of people totally enamored with those handy little pocket wonders). A speaker read a TV promo from a recent Macgyver episode, "Macgyver must stop a bulldozer using only his Swiss Army Knife and a two-by-four", and someone in the audience asked "What does he need the two-by-four for?"

So how do you stop a bulldozer using only a Swiss Army Knife and a two-by-four?

• "Hey, buddy! If you stop that bulldozer I'll give you this spiffy SwissArmyKnife!" ;)

[Followed by, THUNK! Bulldozer stopped and Swiss Army Knife recovered.]

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By the way, the tongue-in-cheek pronunciation of this character's name is "mic-jive-er".