About 3-4 years ago, I found that lots of "trival" details about certain things started leaking. Here is what I've found works
1) Remember the old hints about "a quiet spot to study" - yes it makes a difference. I find with my 2 kids running around, the TV blareing, the radio on, etc, I can't remember, my brain goes elsewhere (and it doesn't help that I have a chronic wound, and I'm on pain killers almost 24x7). Find a quiet place/time for the deep things
2)Personally, the thing _I_ tend to forget are appointments, and in particular, the details. "OK, I know my wife has an MD appointment one day this week, which day is it, and where and what time should I be picking up the kids that day?" A calendar - be it electronic, or written - the way my WIFE likes it (conflict here - causes extra work) is a lifesaver - write it down (and if you have an SO, have them write their stuff down). You can then "page out" that information till you need it
3)A Journal - Many years ago, a co-worker (Thanks Harry) taught me something important - keep a journal (I don't do as well as I should) - a bound numbered book you keep on your desk. Write EVERYTHING down, every day. Go to a meeting, write it in the book, get a phone call - it goes in the book. Have lunch with someone, in the book. Make an apointment to have lunch with someone? In the book.
This isn't only for memory, but if you faithfully keep the book, leave no blank pages etc, what you end up with a document that is legally acceptable as evidence. Just in case. It's like the scientists bound lab notebook. You'll find that EEs use them, etc -
4)Take a little time each day to have as "quiet" time. For me at least, the ability to sit down with a cup of coffee/tea/glass of water (or whatever) and just "clear my mind" makes a big difference - watch the birds, the clouds, or even (if you can get outdoors) look at a picture, gets my mind into a state where the rest of the day is a lot better memory and stress wise
5)A consistant routine. Remember I said about "offloading details" - I try and do as many things as I can on "autopilot", so I don't get overwhelmed in details - sort of like programming, a lot of the techniques in programming are all about "information hiding" - you can really do a lot of this in your life.
Oh, we will - hence the full machine ship and (what was for 1990) a well setup electronics lab - but just coming up with "ideas" without real world testing = mental masturbation
All the articles about the "tech" of Star Wars, Star Trek, etc (up to an including the old Star Trek 'Engineering Manual' are nothing but mental masturbation for geeks. They are great when your in your teens, but...
I don't know if my high school ever got 5150s, they did have a PDP-8 and an HP-1000. The 5150 came out after I left... (first pro programming was on a 5150)
I can (or at least used to be able to) do weapons spec aka NASA spec soldering. That said, as an electronics tech back then, when a "real" (not prototype) board needed rework, I brought it over to one of the "rework" ladies (Betty or Tasha), along with the replacement part, and a "rework order", and let the pros do the work. Trust me, I was good with a soldering iron (Hence being able to pass the WS soldering course), but the pros "On the line" made me look like a chump. Heck, those 2 ladies made the rest of the people on the fabrication line look like chumps, which is why they were the people you tool re-work too
Now my eyesight is gone, my hands shake - what used to be easy now take one of those lighted magnifing rings and a way to brace my hands, and when it comes to SMT stuff, I really want one of the nice 10x binocular stands with all the trimmings like we had, and I didn't need back when I was 25 years younger (Getting old sucks)
That's the storage scope version of the 461 - the A had SOME early "micro" tubes, and some early transistors, so you can run them on I think it's 10 amps
When I got mine (Free, when I started in electronics) - the company I got it from replaced every tube with NOS parts, including the CRT - I've put maybe 30-40 hours on it since then. Last I tried it it was WAY WAY out of cal - all the sockets are dirty, ditto the switches etc - nothing a BUNCH of time won't fix, but I think I'll get myself an early solid state unit like a 465B
Honest answer? I like the OLD Tektronix scopes - say a 465B - built like a tabk, but still semi portable (not like my old 461a - but then again, my 461 is a mere 40 years old, and still works - good for only 20Mhz however)
Stay away from the mid 1980s Textronix portable scopes. The company I worked for bought 3 of them - 60Mhz and 100Mhz back when they were new - the CRTs were always (and I mean right out of the box - and after calibration, and back to the factory etc) fuzzy
I haven't used a "modern" DSO since the EARLY 1990s, when storage became "normal"
(First Professional programming job was writing code to grab data/control test gear over the GPIB/HPIB/IEEE-488 bus)
Back then - it was "tektronix for scopes, HP for spectrum analyzers and plotters, custom CIL (mil spec IEEE-488 stuff) to control - well custom stuff" - we made CIL products, 2 boards on a backplane that fir up to 6 - design the other 4 cars, write the custom eprom to control them (oh, and HP for crosspoint switches, and oscillators etc - about the only thing we didn't use HP for was scopes
In many many ways, the most interesting job I ever had, plus it was a whopping 6 minute commute from home. Saw the writing on the walls in 1992, and made a switch to "Business apps" - and got a 85% pay increase (yes 85%) in one day, after not having had a raise in 3 years due to the economy, and the downturn in defense spending. I miss the WORK still
I was going to say "Stock Drive Products" (disclaimer - I know some of the Sr Management), "Boston Gear" is another. There is an on line place called "small parts" that isn't bad
Surplus - look for old photocopiers and or laser printers (copiers are much better) - strip them for parts - keep gear sets in, well, sets, until you leard to determine how to check if two gears properly mesh - gears come in different pressure angles and tooth sizes and the like
Shafts - learn about 1)Cold rolled steel - good to run through say a bearing, or use as an axle for a gear, but if you are going to run roller bearings on them and the like, look into what is called "Turned, ground and polished " (TPG) shafting - this is what you run your needle bearings in and the like
In the middle of readin the book
on
Clean Code
·
· Score: 1
I'm in the middle of the book, and so far, I haven't seen much that I haven't seen before. In other places I think the author misses things, or I just plain disagree
Example Miss: I the section on comments, he misses one of the most import reasons to comment/type of comment - the explaination of WHY you used a particular algorythm. I have a real life example - In one of my projects, there is a vendor API call AAA that seems to do exactly what we want, but it has 2 HUGE problems, the first being that despite the vendors docs claiming the API is thread safe, it isn't (this has been confirmed by the vendor), and if you use the call one item at a time, the 80ms each call takes kills us on our large data sets (the data set we use is something like 15x the size of the average customer). So, we developed a hybrid method that uses 2 different API calls, which ARE slower for 1st call (about 115ms), but then we can do the rest of the work locally. The comment documents WHY we are doing this, points to a longer document in the SCS that explains the details
Example disagree: He uses the example of a gas tank and an interface. The "Bad" interface gives you CapacityInGallons and GallonsRemaining, while the "Good" interface gives you "PercentageOfFuelRemaining". Frankly, in most situations, I'd want to know what the first interface gives me - If I hook a 5 gallon hydrogen tank to the the space shuttle, I can have 100% of the fuel remaining, but I'm NOT going very far. Percentage of fuel remaining is useless unless you know what size the tank IS
I don't know - I got my first car when I was 21, so all those stupid 16 or 18 year old hormones were mostly gone. I will admit to having lived in NYC where public transport is/was a viable option
Get a copy of Code Complete - read it, and take it to heart
The big one - READ - study GOOD code, and understand WHY "clean code" is (There is another book for you "Clean Code")
Understand that you are NOT only programming for the computer, but that you are programming for the future programmer who comes in and looks at the code. (BTW there is a real good chance that the programmer who will be looking at that code in 6 months, or 5 years will be YOU) Code comments should not explain what, but why.
Find a few good blogs by experienced programmers - read them - particularly if they are the experts in the Business matters that you are working on.
Better to just take the risk. The laptop dies, I buy a new one. At the prices they want, the MBP is either extremely failure prone, or Applecare is a massive profit center
didn't do stupid shit, but once made a serious mistake - went to work for a consulting company that billed me out by the hour, and paid me by the week.
in the 6 months I was there, I averaged 67.5 hours/week, including my vacation week, Thanksgiving week, and Christmas/New Years, and I was told I was not working long enough hours!
Like the strict laws that say that your NICS record has to be deleted after 30 days, and the Mayor and Police chief of Phillidelphia refuse to delete, despite court orders because "it helps us solve crimes"
I never got my ticket, but in college, I was an Ironworker. I occsionally worked the high iron, but spent most of my time in the fab shop. The usual route - start of priming and painting, and worked up. Learned to run the lathe and mill, but probably the most usefuls skill was SMAW (stick welding for you 'normal' folks).
You're right - it changes the way you look at things "geez, look at the inclusion on that weld", "That guy just ended the weld, didn't build up at the end" "poor puddle control on that..."
I've got one of those little 90a buzz boxes at home. Gahhh, hard to weld with that - need tiny electrodes. Need to put in a 220 line to the garage so I can get a one the the classic 225s, or maybe an inverter tig (Heck, I already have a 12x36 lathe, and a bridgeport....)
Ah - maybe the problem is that we've made execution so expensive. Last I check a round of 9mm costs less that $1 - bring the guy out back and shoot him - ooops, the stay came in 15 minutes too late - ain't that too bad
I really hate when I hear from anyone "XXX will make my/our job harder" - that sounds like YOUR problem, not mine And for managing prisoners with "Nothing to lose" - they have something to lose - their life. Riot in prison, we extend your term. If your on life, we give you the death penalty
For most part, PC Mfg is a commodity business - one is the same as another. What those companies sell is support/service and on price, which is how it is in a commodity marketplace. So, although they are selling you a computer, what differentiates between brand A and B is price and service
Re:No Chapter On The "Failed Off-Shoring"??
on
My Job Went To India
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Not meant for you, but your bosses
Outsourceing your "product" is just plain stupid. If you're in the electronics business, don't outsource your electronics design. If your in the software business, don't outsource software. If you build electronics, and the PC program that interfaces with it is a "it's nice to have", but isn't "the product", go ahead, have someone else write the software. If they take it, it doesn't kill you.
Figure that ANYTHING you outsource will be in your competitors hands - if that is going to hurt you, don't do it. So, lets say you are NOT an accounting company. It won't kill you to outsource your payroll, etc.
Sigh You would think management would think about "what makes US special as a company", and keep that in house, but they seem to look to the next quarter, or at most, next fiscal year
Around here Item #1 requires the guy who is already there 7x24 to double check - yawn 90% of traffic lights are not internet linked - they are dumb mechanical timers - kinda hard to cyber that P25 - go to talk around mode Overload the transformers - way easier said than done, but when that usually happens, a breaker pops, you lose a substation - OK, they find the short, away we go
Slashdot Mirror
About 3-4 years ago, I found that lots of "trival" details about certain things started leaking. Here is what I've found works
1) Remember the old hints about "a quiet spot to study" - yes it makes a difference. I find with my 2 kids running around, the TV blareing, the radio on, etc, I can't remember, my brain goes elsewhere (and it doesn't help that I have a chronic wound, and I'm on pain killers almost 24x7). Find a quiet place/time for the deep things
2)Personally, the thing _I_ tend to forget are appointments, and in particular, the details. "OK, I know my wife has an MD appointment one day this week, which day is it, and where and what time should I be picking up the kids that day?" A calendar - be it electronic, or written - the way my WIFE likes it (conflict here - causes extra work) is a lifesaver - write it down (and if you have an SO, have them write their stuff down). You can then "page out" that information till you need it
3)A Journal - Many years ago, a co-worker (Thanks Harry) taught me something important - keep a journal (I don't do as well as I should) - a bound numbered book you keep on your desk. Write EVERYTHING down, every day. Go to a meeting, write it in the book, get a phone call - it goes in the book. Have lunch with someone, in the book. Make an apointment to have lunch with someone? In the book.
This isn't only for memory, but if you faithfully keep the book, leave no blank pages etc, what you end up with a document that is legally acceptable as evidence. Just in case. It's like the scientists bound lab notebook. You'll find that EEs use them, etc -
4)Take a little time each day to have as "quiet" time. For me at least, the ability to sit down with a cup of coffee/tea/glass of water (or whatever) and just "clear my mind" makes a big difference - watch the birds, the clouds, or even (if you can get outdoors) look at a picture, gets my mind into a state where the rest of the day is a lot better memory and stress wise
5)A consistant routine. Remember I said about "offloading details" - I try and do as many things as I can on "autopilot", so I don't get overwhelmed in details - sort of like programming, a lot of the techniques in programming are all about "information hiding" - you can really do a lot of this in your life.
Oh, we will - hence the full machine ship and (what was for 1990) a well setup electronics lab - but just coming up with "ideas" without real world testing = mental masturbation
All the articles about the "tech" of Star Wars, Star Trek, etc (up to an including the old Star Trek 'Engineering Manual' are nothing but mental masturbation for geeks. They are great when your in your teens, but...
Just enjoy the show/movie
I don't know if my high school ever got 5150s, they did have a PDP-8 and an HP-1000. The 5150 came out after I left... (first pro programming was on a 5150)
I can (or at least used to be able to) do weapons spec aka NASA spec soldering. That said, as an electronics tech back then, when a "real" (not prototype) board needed rework, I brought it over to one of the "rework" ladies (Betty or Tasha), along with the replacement part, and a "rework order", and let the pros do the work. Trust me, I was good with a soldering iron (Hence being able to pass the WS soldering course), but the pros "On the line" made me look like a chump. Heck, those 2 ladies made the rest of the people on the fabrication line look like chumps, which is why they were the people you tool re-work too
Now my eyesight is gone, my hands shake - what used to be easy now take one of those lighted magnifing rings and a way to brace my hands, and when it comes to SMT stuff, I really want one of the nice 10x binocular stands with all the trimmings like we had, and I didn't need back when I was 25 years younger (Getting old sucks)
That's the storage scope version of the 461 - the A had SOME early "micro" tubes, and some early transistors, so you can run them on I think it's 10 amps
When I got mine (Free, when I started in electronics) - the company I got it from replaced every tube with NOS parts, including the CRT - I've put maybe 30-40 hours on it since then. Last I tried it it was WAY WAY out of cal - all the sockets are dirty, ditto the switches etc - nothing a BUNCH of time won't fix, but I think I'll get myself an early solid state unit like a 465B
Honest answer? I like the OLD Tektronix scopes - say a 465B - built like a tabk, but still semi portable (not like my old 461a - but then again, my 461 is a mere 40 years old, and still works - good for only 20Mhz however)
Stay away from the mid 1980s Textronix portable scopes. The company I worked for bought 3 of them - 60Mhz and 100Mhz back when they were new - the CRTs were always (and I mean right out of the box - and after calibration, and back to the factory etc) fuzzy
I haven't used a "modern" DSO since the EARLY 1990s, when storage became "normal"
(First Professional programming job was writing code to grab data/control test gear over the GPIB/HPIB/IEEE-488 bus)
Back then - it was "tektronix for scopes, HP for spectrum analyzers and plotters, custom CIL (mil spec IEEE-488 stuff) to control - well custom stuff" - we made CIL products, 2 boards on a backplane that fir up to 6 - design the other 4 cars, write the custom eprom to control them (oh, and HP for crosspoint switches, and oscillators etc - about the only thing we didn't use HP for was scopes
In many many ways, the most interesting job I ever had, plus it was a whopping 6 minute commute from home. Saw the writing on the walls in 1992, and made a switch to "Business apps" - and got a 85% pay increase (yes 85%) in one day, after not having had a raise in 3 years due to the economy, and the downturn in defense spending. I miss the WORK still
I was going to say "Stock Drive Products" (disclaimer - I know some of the Sr Management), "Boston Gear" is another. There is an on line place called "small parts" that isn't bad
Surplus - look for old photocopiers and or laser printers (copiers are much better) - strip them for parts - keep gear sets in, well, sets, until you leard to determine how to check if two gears properly mesh - gears come in different pressure angles and tooth sizes and the like
Shafts - learn about 1)Cold rolled steel - good to run through say a bearing, or use as an axle for a gear, but if you are going to run roller bearings on them and the like, look into what is called "Turned, ground and polished " (TPG) shafting - this is what you run your needle bearings in and the like
I'm in the middle of the book, and so far, I haven't seen much that I haven't seen before. In other places I think the author misses things, or I just plain disagree
Example Miss:
I the section on comments, he misses one of the most import reasons to comment/type of comment - the explaination of WHY you used a particular algorythm. I have a real life example - In one of my projects, there is a vendor API call AAA that seems to do exactly what we want, but it has 2 HUGE problems, the first being that despite the vendors docs claiming the API is thread safe, it isn't (this has been confirmed by the vendor), and if you use the call one item at a time, the 80ms each call takes kills us on our large data sets (the data set we use is something like 15x the size of the average customer). So, we developed a hybrid method that uses 2 different API calls, which ARE slower for 1st call (about 115ms), but then we can do the rest of the work locally. The comment documents WHY we are doing this, points to a longer document in the SCS that explains the details
Example disagree:
He uses the example of a gas tank and an interface. The "Bad" interface gives you CapacityInGallons and GallonsRemaining, while the "Good" interface gives you "PercentageOfFuelRemaining". Frankly, in most situations, I'd want to know what the first interface gives me - If I hook a 5 gallon hydrogen tank to the the space shuttle, I can have 100% of the fuel remaining, but I'm NOT going very far. Percentage of fuel remaining is useless unless you know what size the tank IS
I don't know - I got my first car when I was 21, so all those stupid 16 or 18 year old hormones were mostly gone. I will admit to having lived in NYC where public transport is/was a viable option
Yes -
Eats, shoots, and leaves
No - buy BOTH books, they really do compliment each other
Get a copy of Code Complete - read it, and take it to heart
The big one - READ - study GOOD code, and understand WHY "clean code" is (There is another book for you "Clean Code")
Understand that you are NOT only programming for the computer, but that you are programming for the future programmer who comes in and looks at the code. (BTW there is a real good chance that the programmer who will be looking at that code in 6 months, or 5 years will be YOU) Code comments should not explain what, but why.
Find a few good blogs by experienced programmers - read them - particularly if they are the experts in the Business matters that you are working on.
Your right - I was running on about 2 hours sleep when I posted. Still, $350 is still way high
Applecare - Umm - yeah. Refurbished MacbookPro - $2000. Applecare - about $900
Better to just take the risk. The laptop dies, I buy a new one. At the prices they want, the MBP is either extremely failure prone, or Applecare is a massive profit center
didn't do stupid shit, but once made a serious mistake - went to work for a consulting company that billed me out by the hour, and paid me by the week.
in the 6 months I was there, I averaged 67.5 hours/week, including my vacation week, Thanksgiving week, and Christmas/New Years, and I was told I was not working long enough hours!
Worst job I ever had
Like the strict laws that say that your NICS record has to be deleted after 30 days, and the Mayor and Police chief of Phillidelphia refuse to delete, despite court orders because "it helps us solve crimes"
I never got my ticket, but in college, I was an Ironworker. I occsionally worked the high iron, but spent most of my time in the fab shop. The usual route - start of priming and painting, and worked up. Learned to run the lathe and mill, but probably the most usefuls skill was SMAW (stick welding for you 'normal' folks).
You're right - it changes the way you look at things "geez, look at the inclusion on that weld", "That guy just ended the weld, didn't build up at the end" "poor puddle control on that..."
I've got one of those little 90a buzz boxes at home. Gahhh, hard to weld with that - need tiny electrodes. Need to put in a 220 line to the garage so I can get a one the the classic 225s, or maybe an inverter tig (Heck, I already have a 12x36 lathe, and a bridgeport....)
You going to get 3 convictions wrong? OK, let's say you got 1 of the 3 wrong - I won't cry that a 2x felon gets offed instead of a 3x
Ah - maybe the problem is that we've made execution so expensive. Last I check a round of 9mm costs less that $1 - bring the guy out back and shoot him - ooops, the stay came in 15 minutes too late - ain't that too bad
I really hate when I hear from anyone "XXX will make my/our job harder" - that sounds like YOUR problem, not mine
And for managing prisoners with "Nothing to lose" - they have something to lose - their life. Riot in prison, we extend your term. If your on life, we give you the death penalty
Ohhh - the replacement system won't be in place till the end of 2008.
Ah, as in 3 months? Not too bad - mus mean they are almost done. The hardware will go into place, be tested for weeks before it's turned on etc.
For most part, PC Mfg is a commodity business - one is the same as another. What those companies sell is support/service and on price, which is how it is in a commodity marketplace. So, although they are selling you a computer, what differentiates between brand A and B is price and service
Not meant for you, but your bosses
Outsourceing your "product" is just plain stupid. If you're in the electronics business, don't outsource your electronics design. If your in the software business, don't outsource software. If you build electronics, and the PC program that interfaces with it is a "it's nice to have", but isn't "the product", go ahead, have someone else write the software. If they take it, it doesn't kill you.
Figure that ANYTHING you outsource will be in your competitors hands - if that is going to hurt you, don't do it. So, lets say you are NOT an accounting company. It won't kill you to outsource your payroll, etc.
Sigh
You would think management would think about "what makes US special as a company", and keep that in house, but they seem to look to the next quarter, or at most, next fiscal year
Around here Item #1 requires the guy who is already there 7x24 to double check - yawn
90% of traffic lights are not internet linked - they are dumb mechanical timers - kinda hard to cyber that
P25 - go to talk around mode
Overload the transformers - way easier said than done, but when that usually happens, a breaker pops, you lose a substation - OK, they find the short, away we go