Where Did I Get That Logo?

I first saw this logo, if memory serves me right, at the Space Telescope Science Institute when I worked there from 1983 to 1984 (see my background for more on that). I was walking down one of the corridors and saw this logo, on Cliff Stoll's office door (yes, the same Cliff Stoll who wrote The Cuckoo's Egg; that book is highly recommended, by the way; at the time Cliff was working at STScI on computer graphics and other interesting things). I couldn't resist, so I grabbed the logo, ran to the photocopier and made a copy.

Why?

In the support of a large system such as AIPS, or running things like the Charlottesville Computing Division (both of which I did in the past), it is often necessary to resort to kludging just to keep things running. Many times a solution to a problem can be found by throwing a few disparate tools together, and often it's not justifiable to spend more than a few minutes on such problems. The Kludgemeisters logo seems eminently fitting for this sort of work.

I've had it on my door at the various NRAO sites at which I've worked over the years. Currently it's not, but I'm sure it's around here somewhere... maybe it's time to revive it. Still apropos after all these years!

For years I had an appeal to Cliff or anyone else asking about the origins of the logo, and finally now I have the answer! (Thanks, Cliff!!). Non Vacuo Sine Glyptum means "There's no vacuum without GLYPTUM. Apparently Glyptum (or Glyptal?) is a molecular sieve that's used to patch leaky vacuum seals on things like dewars for infrared and optical CCD detectors on telescopes. It's easier to pour a teaspoon of glyptol into the dewar and then re-evacuate it than to take the dewar apart in the middle of the night to rebuild it. Any of you observational Infra-Red Astronomers out there who researched your way through the 70's or 80's will, I'm sure, resonate with this explanation!

Cliff is still around, and now has an interesting focus on Klein Bottles. Fun!

Ahh, the joys of the quick fix; too bad they fade so rapidly!