A month or so later, the LN2 bulk tank was hooked up - not to make the chamber COLDER (or normal tests only took us down to -72c) but to make it cold FASTER (we had to change temperature at 15 C/Minute). By the time I left the company, oh, 7-8 years later, I had 3 chambers running, and used about 3000 gallons of LN2/day!! Used to get a tanker truck 3x/week. And yes, a doubled up styrofoam cup works well - well enough that it will stop boiling inside the cup - between the air layer above the LN2, and the fact that the inside walls are cold, it stops boiling
I miss having LN2 to play with. Of course, I left just as "high temp" superconductors came out, so I never got to float my sample I have
That job, although it paid poorly, was probably the most interesting, and FUN job I ever had. It's where I learned to program professionaly, learned dynamic analysis (aka shock and vibration) and I got to use my electronics and machine shop skills. Every day was different. One day I'd be programming code to control racks of electronic test gear, the next day, I'd be in the machine shop running a lathe or a mill, and the next I might be in some outside lab doing tests to simulate the impact of artillery near our product. Everything from microcircuits, to code, to machines that could rip your arm off and beat you over the head with it. The guys that I work with now are amazed. How many programmers had to be SCBA trained to do their job, but at the same time were working in a lab that was clean?
(don't ask about the day the LN2 primary and backup valves jammed overnight, and we dumped 12K gals of LN2 into a closed room. Yes, the 02 warning alarms were going off when I got to work - there was NO oxygen in my lab - walk in and die. The ONE time I had to use the SCBA for real)
Heh, I used to run a "test chamber" at work. A few wees after we started the lab, it was time for the Christmas party for the department I had just left. In that day and age, a gift of a bottle of "booze of bosses choice" was a normal thing, and it was opened AT work
So we bought the manager of bottle of vodka. He promptly opened it. One of the guys said "I really wish the vodka was cold". I smiled, and asked "How cold do you want it?" He made a mistake, and said "as cold as you can make it" My reply was "frozen Vodka, coming up". He proceded to say that "You can't freeze Vodka - it won't freeze" - I ended up taking him for $10 on a bet - I ran the chamber down to -88c and left it there for about an hour, with a dixie cup of Vodka in it, but the fun was I put a popcicle stick in the middle - made a vodkacicle
Yep, Knew a guy when my wife was in Grad school. He had one of the BETTER jobs on a high end ship - he was in one of the bands.
After 6 months, all he wanted to do was get off that ship. he got 8-12 hrs on dry land a week. Said it was fun and exciting for about the 1st month, and after that, got old REAL fast
The band went back to playing the cassinos in Atlantic City, where when you were done with your 8 hrs, you got to LEAVE
Ah, You probably worked with the neighbor who lived across the street when I was growing up - last name Palmari. One of the big wigs on the LEM team from what I understand, also worked on the F-14, and the A-6 TRAM projects
Simple - He gets 3-4 weeks, and you are willing to "consult" - pick a nice consultant rate - say, $100/hr, and say a 2-3 hr minimum. If he wants 'On call' consulting (aka 24x7 support) it's from the time the phone RINGS to the time you get home
I wasn't talking headlamp BULBS - I'm actually talking what we today call headlight assemblies - aka, the reflector, the lenses, EVERYTHING - picture that your car has a hole where the whole headlamp assembly is today (you know, the part the dealer gets a few hundred bucks for if you ever get in an accident, or if the crooks rip off your HID headlamp assembly) You ARE locked into the dealer for those
Your right, the case I'm talking about IS a special case.
Now let's go BACKWARDS - at one time, when you bought a car, headlamps were NOT included, you were required to go out and buy lanterns. Very quickly, headlamps became a "bundled" accessory, and gave people a lot less choice. Are we better off with headlights being included with your car, or should we be required to buy them seperately. I know if I was a guy who used to make lanterns, I'd want people to have to buy seperately
Disclaimer - I've worked with and for John, and he's worked for me
I know SOME of what John is doing now, and for all intents, he is NOT coding for a "General Purpose PC". They are writing for a PC that will be doing ONE thing, and ONE thing only - controling and monitoring their hardware
I've been there, done that
It's a different world. I can remember telling a vendor "No, I don't want the free upgrade to CGA graphics - give me the monochrome" (dating myself here - yes, I was programing PCs in the days of monochrome graphics cards, and the PC had no hard drive). Why didn't we want the upgrade? Because we had spent 100s if not 1000s of man hours PROVING that the system worked exactly as designed when we were runing a REAL IBM 5150 PC with 1 floppy and a Monochrome graphics card
We knew (within the somewhat variable latency of the OS itself - DOS isn't a RTOS) how long a loop would take, and we KNEW how the system would respond if an event occured at any part of the program
So yes, there are times you lock out the customer - it's a PC, but it's used for ONE thing, and ONE THING only
Blane, Exactly. There were systems that would have crashed. I spent 2+ years replacing one right before Y2K. Out of interest, we kept the old system live with no user logings for the rollover - was fun to watch it come crashing down, while the new system just kept running
So, was there a problem? Yep. Was it over hyped - Yep. I always got a kick out of the folks who were afraid their cars would stop running. I told them - you car doesn't even know the time of day (except for the clock) never mind the year
1)He was too far away to make it practical 2)It wasn't in his budget
I can relate to #2 - I work for one of the TV networks -a "real" prompter is NOT cheap to rent, but they DO a LOT more than what his laptop does, and he admits that. A "real" prompter has default scroll rates for different readers, the rate can be adjusted on the fly, and the up coming text can be change up to the last second (it's usually set to lock out text changes once they are displayed. Remember, your average show is made up of many segments, and you have associated cues that tell people OTHER than the reader what to do, but you may have a box on the set that is scrolling those, which is linked to the prompter
Of course, we could start discussing how a prompter gets hooked into a newsroom type system, but then you'd have to hire me:)
Yep - the discussions are great - I also check the Forcast Systems Labs Mesonet data (I also run a station that submits to the mesonet). Run a station, get your skywarn training, and you might be surprised (well YOU won't be, but some reading this will be) you may even get to know the forcasters at your local NWS office. Then when things get strange, you might even get a phone call, or call them. I've had them call me and ask for some local conditions
Yep - My father was born in southern France - in a section of town that was even then called "the antiquities" (Dad is over 80) - for good reason - the house my Grandparents lived in was built by the Romans. Dad went back for the first time in over 60 years about 10 years back - houses were still there, and still lived in
As one of my friends is fond of saying:
The difference between England and the US is that in the US 100 years is a LONG time, and in England 100 miles is a LONG way
The 100 years/100 miles deal holds true for Western Europe - It's much more dense, and has a LOT longer history
Not too detailed - more just a general "here's how a bunch of HS students did it"
Don't dig for the magazine - the whole stack was released on CD a couple of years back - I think I got it on sale for less than $20 - the ATM stuff (which was later released in a collection of 3 books) is worth that alone
Folks, Go out and get yourself a copy of "The Amateur Scientist" collection on CD.
For those of you who are too young to remember the column, or before it was dumbed down, Scientific American had a column called "The Amateur Scientist" - they had plans for a cyclotron, a SERIOUSLY high power CO2 laser and LOTS of other things that could get you hurt in a real hurry. And they showed REAL experiments, and REAL science in that column.
Of course, that was before SciAmerican got dumbed down, became half ads, and became PC - you could actually find desenting views in REAL papers
As someone who has borderline high eye pressure - I find this interesting. There is a syndrome called pigmentary dispersion syndrome - which is usually occurs in men, with brown eyes, who read a lot (close focus) - and can be aggrivated by changing light conditions - I wonder if it's related (I have pigmentary dispersion syndrome - it CAN lead to glaucoma)
WAY back when (22 years ago) I worked for a mid sized electronics company that was playing overtime games with their electronics techs (same kind of games that are being played by EA). Well, I was with the company, oh, 6 months or so, when all the techs were called into the office. In the office was someone from the state labor relations board. It seems a couple of months BEFORE I started, someone had dropped a dime on the company to the state labor board. They didn't just fix the problem with that guys pay, but they went back something like 5 YEARS, and fixed EVERYONES pay, plus a penalty. They explained in the meeting what our rights were, gave us a phone number to call if there were any more problems, and watched our CEO had every one of us a check for what we were due
I'd say EA is skating on VERY thin ice - particularly with the clear $42/hr law in CA. If you get it to the right folks - they could end up owing all their developers back pay, with interest, and a penalty
I've had the pleasue of meeting one man who had been awarded the MoH - very humble guy (can't remember his name - years ago when I was a kid)
From what I understand, MANY, if not most people who have been awarded the MoH feel that they didn't deserve it, and are typically quite humble about it
BTW for those lurking - you don't WIN the MoH, you are awarded it
Slashdot Mirror
A month or so later, the LN2 bulk tank was hooked up - not to make the chamber COLDER (or normal tests only took us down to -72c) but to make it cold FASTER (we had to change temperature at 15 C/Minute). By the time I left the company, oh, 7-8 years later, I had 3 chambers running, and used about 3000 gallons of LN2/day!! Used to get a tanker truck 3x/week. And yes, a doubled up styrofoam cup works well - well enough that it will stop boiling inside the cup - between the air layer above the LN2, and the fact that the inside walls are cold, it stops boiling
I miss having LN2 to play with. Of course, I left just as "high temp" superconductors came out, so I never got to float my sample I have
That job, although it paid poorly, was probably the most interesting, and FUN job I ever had. It's where I learned to program professionaly, learned dynamic analysis (aka shock and vibration) and I got to use my electronics and machine shop skills. Every day was different. One day I'd be programming code to control racks of electronic test gear, the next day, I'd be in the machine shop running a lathe or a mill, and the next I might be in some outside lab doing tests to simulate the impact of artillery near our product. Everything from microcircuits, to code, to machines that could rip your arm off and beat you over the head with it. The guys that I work with now are amazed. How many programmers had to be SCBA trained to do their job, but at the same time were working in a lab that was clean?
(don't ask about the day the LN2 primary and backup valves jammed overnight, and we dumped 12K gals of LN2 into a closed room. Yes, the 02 warning alarms were going off when I got to work - there was NO oxygen in my lab - walk in and die. The ONE time I had to use the SCBA for real)
see my post higher in the thread - some folks just won't believe vodka can freeze - I won some money that way
Heh,
I used to run a "test chamber" at work. A few wees after we started the lab, it was time for the Christmas party for the department I had just left. In that day and age, a gift of a bottle of "booze of bosses choice" was a normal thing, and it was opened AT work
So we bought the manager of bottle of vodka. He promptly opened it. One of the guys said "I really wish the vodka was cold". I smiled, and asked "How cold do you want it?" He made a mistake, and said "as cold as you can make it" My reply was "frozen Vodka, coming up". He proceded to say that "You can't freeze Vodka - it won't freeze" - I ended up taking him for $10 on a bet - I ran the chamber down to -88c and left it there for about an hour, with a dixie cup of Vodka in it, but the fun was I put a popcicle stick in the middle - made a vodkacicle
Yep,
Knew a guy when my wife was in Grad school. He had one of the BETTER jobs on a high end ship - he was in one of the bands.
After 6 months, all he wanted to do was get off that ship. he got 8-12 hrs on dry land a week. Said it was fun and exciting for about the 1st month, and after that, got old REAL fast
The band went back to playing the cassinos in Atlantic City, where when you were done with your 8 hrs, you got to LEAVE
I saw him about 4-5 weeks ago - looked good. My parents still live across the street from him
Ah,
You probably worked with the neighbor who lived across the street when I was growing up - last name Palmari. One of the big wigs on the LEM team from what I understand, also worked on the F-14, and the A-6 TRAM projects
My 4 are organic - 2 kids, 2 cats
Simple - He gets 3-4 weeks, and you are willing to "consult" - pick a nice consultant rate - say, $100/hr, and say a 2-3 hr minimum. If he wants 'On call' consulting (aka 24x7 support) it's from the time the phone RINGS to the time you get home
I wasn't talking headlamp BULBS - I'm actually talking what we today call headlight assemblies - aka, the reflector, the lenses, EVERYTHING - picture that your car has a hole where the whole headlamp assembly is today (you know, the part the dealer gets a few hundred bucks for if you ever get in an accident, or if the crooks rip off your HID headlamp assembly) You ARE locked into the dealer for those
Your right, the case I'm talking about IS a special case.
Now let's go BACKWARDS - at one time, when you bought a car, headlamps were NOT included, you were required to go out and buy lanterns. Very quickly, headlamps became a "bundled" accessory, and gave people a lot less choice. Are we better off with headlights being included with your car, or should we be required to buy them seperately. I know if I was a guy who used to make lanterns, I'd want people to have to buy seperately
Disclaimer - I've worked with and for John, and he's worked for me
I know SOME of what John is doing now, and for all intents, he is NOT coding for a "General Purpose PC". They are writing for a PC that will be doing ONE thing, and ONE thing only - controling and monitoring their hardware
I've been there, done that
It's a different world. I can remember telling a vendor "No, I don't want the free upgrade to CGA graphics - give me the monochrome" (dating myself here - yes, I was programing PCs in the days of monochrome graphics cards, and the PC had no hard drive). Why didn't we want the upgrade? Because we had spent 100s if not 1000s of man hours PROVING that the system worked exactly as designed when we were runing a REAL IBM 5150 PC with 1 floppy and a Monochrome graphics card
We knew (within the somewhat variable latency of the OS itself - DOS isn't a RTOS) how long a loop would take, and we KNEW how the system would respond if an event occured at any part of the program
So yes, there are times you lock out the customer - it's a PC, but it's used for ONE thing, and ONE THING only
Hey,
I have a IIp with a postscript cartridge - still works
Add in "Peopleware" and you can explain about 80% of what goes on.
Sigh.
Blane,
Exactly. There were systems that would have crashed. I spent 2+ years replacing one right before Y2K. Out of interest, we kept the old system live with no user logings for the rollover - was fun to watch it come crashing down, while the new system just kept running
So, was there a problem? Yep. Was it over hyped - Yep. I always got a kick out of the folks who were afraid their cars would stop running. I told them - you car doesn't even know the time of day (except for the clock) never mind the year
1)He was too far away to make it practical
:)
2)It wasn't in his budget
I can relate to #2 - I work for one of the TV networks -a "real" prompter is NOT cheap to rent, but they DO a LOT more than what his laptop does, and he admits that. A "real" prompter has default scroll rates for different readers, the rate can be adjusted on the fly, and the up coming text can be change up to the last second (it's usually set to lock out text changes once they are displayed. Remember, your average show is made up of many segments, and you have associated cues that tell people OTHER than the reader what to do, but you may have a box on the set that is scrolling those, which is linked to the prompter
Of course, we could start discussing how a prompter gets hooked into a newsroom type system, but then you'd have to hire me
Yep - the discussions are great - I also check the Forcast Systems Labs Mesonet data (I also run a station that submits to the mesonet). Run a station, get your skywarn training, and you might be surprised (well YOU won't be, but some reading this will be) you may even get to know the forcasters at your local NWS office. Then when things get strange, you might even get a phone call, or call them. I've had them call me and ask for some local conditions
Yep - My father was born in southern France - in a section of town that was even then called "the antiquities" (Dad is over 80) - for good reason - the house my Grandparents lived in was built by the Romans. Dad went back for the first time in over 60 years about 10 years back - houses were still there, and still lived in
As one of my friends is fond of saying:
The difference between England and the US is that in the US 100 years is a LONG time, and in England 100 miles is a LONG way
The 100 years/100 miles deal holds true for Western Europe - It's much more dense, and has a LOT longer history
Not sure - but it's got a "tux" linux logo on the box, so I "assume" it'll work
Not too detailed - more just a general "here's how a bunch of HS students did it"
Don't dig for the magazine - the whole stack was released on CD a couple of years back - I think I got it on sale for less than $20 - the ATM stuff (which was later released in a collection of 3 books) is worth that alone
http://www.brightscience.com/
Sept 1953 - cyclotron
Folks,
Go out and get yourself a copy of "The Amateur Scientist" collection on CD.
For those of you who are too young to remember the column, or before it was dumbed down, Scientific American had a column called "The Amateur Scientist" - they had plans for a cyclotron, a SERIOUSLY high power CO2 laser and LOTS of other things that could get you hurt in a real hurry. And they showed REAL experiments, and REAL science in that column.
Of course, that was before SciAmerican got dumbed down, became half ads, and became PC - you could actually find desenting views in REAL papers
As someone who has borderline high eye pressure - I find this interesting. There is a syndrome called pigmentary dispersion syndrome - which is usually occurs in men, with brown eyes, who read a lot (close focus) - and can be aggrivated by changing light conditions - I wonder if it's related (I have pigmentary dispersion syndrome - it CAN lead to glaucoma)
WAY back when (22 years ago) I worked for a mid sized electronics company that was playing overtime games with their electronics techs (same kind of games that are being played by EA). Well, I was with the company, oh, 6 months or so, when all the techs were called into the office. In the office was someone from the state labor relations board. It seems a couple of months BEFORE I started, someone had dropped a dime on the company to the state labor board. They didn't just fix the problem with that guys pay, but they went back something like 5 YEARS, and fixed EVERYONES pay, plus a penalty. They explained in the meeting what our rights were, gave us a phone number to call if there were any more problems, and watched our CEO had every one of us a check for what we were due
I'd say EA is skating on VERY thin ice - particularly with the clear $42/hr law in CA. If you get it to the right folks - they could end up owing all their developers back pay, with interest, and a penalty
I've had the pleasue of meeting one man who had been awarded the MoH - very humble guy (can't remember his name - years ago when I was a kid)
From what I understand, MANY, if not most people who have been awarded the MoH feel that they didn't deserve it, and are typically quite humble about it
BTW for those lurking - you don't WIN the MoH, you are awarded it
Actually AWACS is for tracking AIRCRAFT - JSTARS is the equivilent for tracking stuff on the ground - different optimization
a rs /
t m
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/jst
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/jstars.h