For 33 years he tested bombs, developed complex gadgets like lasers and rose high in management.
Drag racing's core appeal, though, remains simple and visceral: complex gadgets moving at high speed, the marriage of egghead and gearhead.
Researchers have long envied complex gadgets in nature, such as the protein-based motors that flex muscles.
It is the software giant's first step into the relatively uncharted market for "smartphones"–the complex gadgets that allow users not only to chat, but also send and receive e-mails and digital photos, store detailed contact lists, track appointments and, in a more far-fetched sounding scenario, watch movies.
He cast himself as the lead character, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, who visits wealthy relatives in their luxurious ultra-modern home only to be so flummoxed by their sleekly styled, but unfathomably complex electronic gadgets that he ends up breaking them, with disastrous results.
In the early days, it was tough trying to convince potential customers that our complex, expensive, shiny new gadget would make them a ton of money.
The shop still displays an array of Swiss-made knives, from the basic pocket knife to the complex SwissChamp with 33 gadgets.
Talk of engineering is apt when protecting gadgets as complex as the iPad from sand and surf.
As it has scaled from one person to a 75-person team, Quirky's product development department has been able to move from creating plastic kitchen gadgets to more complex designs, like electronics.
