Somehow, game companies manage to figure out which CPUs/GPU are required and preferred for each of their games. Of course it's almost impossible to tell if my current hardware meets those specs because the numbering is completely out of order. i3, i5, i7, sure the i7 is somehow better, but how much better? Will my top end i5 beat the medium tear i7 that they ask for? It's maddening. At this point I only buy Nvidia GPU systems because I've sweated blood learning their numbering system and I don't want to figure out ATI's system and get them confused. This crap makes Windows version counting look simple.
There are some basic rules for running for the Senate, but criminal offenses are covered by state laws. In this case Maryland has chosen to allow felons to represent them. I have no idea how we have gotten to this point but I sure wish we could do take backs...
I tried Hangouts and it was too slow and too big for my uses. I mostly use Whatsapp now, it small and fast. I wouldn't even have looked for a different messaging app is Verizon SMS didn't suck so bad in my area. Messages don't arrive for hours even when the delivery receipt says they've arrived.
So, you're smart enough to have a firewall with port detection and know how to block a subnet, but you're not smart enough to write a filter that takes that port scan notification from that subnet and throw it in the trash? I've got buddies that work for banks, they do this crap all day long. They can't turn off port scan, because company policy, but they need to filter out stuff that doesn't matter. They do it at the monitoring software but most home users get email notifications. Use a mail client that has decent filtering. It's not like this is going to be the only time somebody scans you, you'll get better at writing your filters.
Your bank is going to lock down your account after a certain amount of retries. Sure, a password can be insecure, but you aren't going to brute force a bank account. Most banks also do some form of two factor authentication, in my case, three things I know, pin, password, and picture.
So, I've been an IT professional in the past and transitioned to industrial control systems. In IT I was a contractor that only got payed for my billable hours. I spent long days but got payed very fairly for the hours I billed.
When I moved into control systems my pay was negotiated as salary, I got insurance and retirement. But when I actually started working it was all figured hourly. The problem was it didn't matter how many hours I worked, I got payed for 40. I was always told to 'take time off', but there was never time. Always another project, always another emergency. 50 hours a week and on call every night became the norm. Eventually I got sick of it and switched jobs.
Now I'm actually an exempt employee. Most weeks are 40 hours, some are more like 50 and I get an occasional call at night. My boss is rabid about me taking a day off when I get a crappy week and never quibbles when the day is slack and I leave early. My team is expected to work 40 and OT is authorized as long as the employee isn't getting burned out. The only problem with this setup is it's easy to get slack. Without the constant pressure it's easier to let things slide. I find that if I drive my team hard on a project every couple of months, they stay more productive when the workload is normal.
It's been interesting to see how the individuals react to working conditions, what motivates them (and myself), and how to make sure they don't drive themselves too hard while still getting the job done.
It's a waste of time. My current work schedule has me going to work in the dark summer and winter. Which is awesome because I'm usually home from work at the same time as the kids get home from school. The only thing that DST does for me is screws up my sleep schedule twice a year.
Remember back when there was an iron grip on how menus were laid out? Remember when it frustrated us all that we had to use the same keyboard shortcuts to reach simliar functions? I miss those days. From the current nightmare that is Microsoft Office, where it took me twenty minutes to find the print command for the first time. To drilling down through three menus to find my bookmarks!
While you're at it, knock off that rapid release cycle! Version 12 looks just like Version 3, except that I had to completely wipe my copy of firefox, delete every single firefox folder on the machine, then had scrub the registry just so I could reinstall and not have weird errors and random things not work. Boy that was a fun way to spend my evening.
Ten years ago when I was hiking in Glacier National Park, we heard a whistle. Now back then a whistle was something you used to summon help. My friend and I hurried down the trail looking for whoever was in trouble. It turned out it was a stupid lady with her two small children making sure that the bears were scared away. Nothing has really changed with people, their whistle can just be heard at even greater distances. Park rangers have the ability to issue tickets for this sort of behavior, no reason they shouldn't.
I haven't seen it mentioned, so I'll say it here. My work van has about 454 kg of tools in it. That a lot of crap that I would have to duplicate in metric if everything started showing up with metric bolts, nuts, and screws. I'll tell you right now that my van doesn't have space for that increased tool load. I'll also say that I regularly see equipment that is better than 40 years old. It's the back end that really makes it hard to switch to metric. Ask any auto mechanic. Every GM car out there has both metric and SAE bolts in it. It's a major pain in the butt to figure out what you are working on.
Rotating assemblies is where I would have the largest problem adapting. A standard 56 frame motor has a 5/8th inch shaft. That shaft mates to a fan section or pully where thousands of an inch count. So now if I crater a motor and the only thing I buy is a standard metric size, that means I get to replace the fan wheel as well. Now, can I find a fan wheel that has a metric shaft hole that still matches the dimension of the cage it rides in? Am I going to have to replace that fan cage as well? Is the new fan cage with slightly different dimensions going to move the correct amount of air? Am I going to have to adjust the TXV to account for the increased/decreased airflow?
This stuff snowballs really quick. Pretty soon it's a lot like having a hard drive crash. If you are doing the work yourself, it's cheaper to buy a hard drive and install it. If you are paying a tech to put it all back together for you, lots of times it's cheaper to buy a new machine.
With our government's current slide to a big brother state, I'm all for getting rid of all gun regulations. Frankly, the US's obsession with risk avoidance scares the shit out of me.
Wow, what gets modded as insightful around here scares the beejezus out of me. I've got three kids. The oldest is 13. He has a computer in his room and a gmail account. When we set up his email we were very upfront about it. We WILL POP download your mail, not because we don't trust you, but because we don't trust the rest of the world. He understands that and right now it isn't an issue. Someday it will be. As kids grow up, they want more privacy. The key is to talk. Kids give all kinds of signs when they aren't happy with something. Pay attention. When those problems start showing up, it's time to spend some one on one time. For me that means getting to neutral ground. For me and my son, that means going for a hike. A long one. By day three our world is so simple that talking is all that is left. As a parent, my son is not my buddy. At the same time, he needs lots of freedom, that means that I monitor his activities with as light a hand as I can. Mistakes happen, as long as it doesn't kill him, I gain nothing by preventing them. As he discovers chat clients, I intended to monitor his logs, by monitor the router connections, I can tell if he's turned off monitoring. Then it's time to talk again. Good thing I like walking.
It would be silly to build a custom board for this kind of work. I deal with embedded PLCs all day, they are all solid state and can read sensors wired to them from hundreds of feet away, even longer if you use 4-20ma. Lots of different models with anything from 4 inputs to 128. This is the brand I use: www.kmc-control.com
Ethernet connection available on several of the models, but for this kind of work, RS-485 is cheaper and more reliable.
I was on a short term contract with a major oil company. It was work I kinda just fell into. I'd fly out sunday morning, spend two weeks working 12 hour days. On the weekends I didn't go home, I played tourist. I learned a lot, explored a lot and just about ruined a relationship. By the time I got done flying to and from the job site I was spending 36 hours at home every two weeks. After a year the job was moving to off shore platforms, the work was more dangerous, the time away would have been even longer. I called a meeting with my contract manager and said, "This work is going to last at least another year, if you commit to 12 months of employment, I'll move my family, no more expensive plane flights, no more scary cell phone bills." He went to bat for me with his boss, in the end, they couldn't promise the contract length and I went home, got married, and had kids.
I've never looked back and I still keep in touch with my contacts in that company. Moving is a very real option unless you are doing site to site travel.
Consider non traditional work schedules, 3 weeks on, 1 off. Extended time is required to properly bond with your family. Big firms know this. They should also know that a stable family life makes for a more productive workier. At least twice a year, fly the family to you instead of flying home, it's an adventure and an educational tour all at once.
OK, first a disclaimer. I do this for a living and I am recommending the company that my company is a dealer for. I am not unbiased. I'm telling you what I would do if you were to come to me and request that we do the work.
These guys make a many different sized PLCs with a very easy to use programming language and excellent control features.
For a house with a radiant floor system, a forced air system, a complex schedule, and internet access. You could probably get away with the item they call the weblite. This board has 8 inputs and 8 outputs. Inputs can be 0-20ma, resistor, or contacts. You will also need a Wincontrol XL Plus software for programming. This controller will talk to as many other controllers as you could possibly want.
Now, all this is great, except the system you describe is vary complicated with overlapping systems that solve the same problem in very different ways.
A radiant floor system is designed for steady state control, setbacks are counter productive because the huge lag time to set point changes.
A forced air system responds very well to set back set points because it's actually more efficent because the furnace does not reach it's rated efficency until it has been running continuously for at least 30 minutes. Direct expansion cooling systems take 10-15 minutes to reach their efficency rating.
Programming in an adaptive recovery program is trivial compared to almost any pointer search you've ever programmed. This stuff isn't hard, but mistakes can be vary expensive.:)
These systems can just as easily control your sprinkler system, outdoor lighting, your garage heat system, etc.
If you have multiple zones, I'd probably recommend using a seperate controller for each zone rather than just getting a larger central controller, it makes the wiring easier and can still be controlled from a single computer.
For remote access, the weblite has a small, basic web server that allows you to adjust setpoints directly, as well as set schedules, and look at all your inputs and output directly. Heck, it's even pretty easy to run the fan for a humidifier cycle even if the house doesn't need the heat. If you have a PC running VNC already, you could skip the weblite and just go with the basic lanlite (10baset) or the 5801 (serial) and just run the webcontrol software on that PC. Could save some money.
Going with the 5801 controller has the added benifit of direct connection the 1181 netsensor, with a very nice display, universal programable buttons, integrated humidity sensor, and they you don't need the plus version of the software. Drawback is that you'll need an RS-485 to usb/rs232 converter.
It's also very easy to adjust the humidty setpoint based on outside air temperature. With integrated enthalpy and dewpoint functions, you could even use a commercial style economizer for low ambient cooling calls. Outputs can be analog as well as digital so it becomes trivial to control modulating motors.
I really love this kind of work and I hope you find it as rewarding as I do. Do realize that it's next to impossible to make your money back on these kinds of controls unless you actually plan on finishing the payments on that 30 year note. If you can live with 4 temps per day on a seven day schedule, the honeywell vision pro 8000 thermostat is a much more cost effective option.
Christmas is a great time of year if you have kids. It gives you something to focus on. Of course you'll never sleep again.:)
For the idiots out there, this is a joke post.
In 1985, the military standard for a hard drive wipe was 5 full writes. Why? Because that is the point where their experts could no longer pull data off the drive. I have no reason to believe that number has gone down.
Why would you have nightmares? Most modern ac systems come with alarm contacts, create an SNMP trap. If it doesn't come with contacts, make one using a couple of current sensors. Cheap stuff.
They didn't actually build below sea level. The built at sea level and the weight of the buildings actually caused a subsidence. The way the older building in town were built on what amount to floating pilings is facinating. I lived in New Orleans for a year. I came to hate the smell but I loved the people and city. They have problems but it is a very cool place. I for one, hope they do manage to rebuild. New Orleans is every bit as unique and New York, San Fransisco, or London. It deserves our best efforts.
KMC makes a small digital control board with a built in web server and the ability to talk to an SMTP server. Their Weblite product can easily be set up to control any AC system. It's got 8 inputs so you can monitor 8 temp/humidity/airprove swithes, really anything you want and any alarm to SMS,Email,etc. Built in graphing and logging. Their product line is perfectly capable of running an entire building, very modular. Easy to program. Anybody that can hack together some Perl can program this stuff. Just be careful, short cycling and AC system gets stupid expensive very quickly
http://www.kmc-controls.com/
Disclaimer: I work for a contractor that distributes and installs KMC systems.
Well, I live in Montana, so pay is low, I make about $20/hour. By the time benifits are all figured in it's about $35. In a real city, $30 would be a good starting figure.
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Somehow, game companies manage to figure out which CPUs/GPU are required and preferred for each of their games. Of course it's almost impossible to tell if my current hardware meets those specs because the numbering is completely out of order. i3, i5, i7, sure the i7 is somehow better, but how much better? Will my top end i5 beat the medium tear i7 that they ask for? It's maddening. At this point I only buy Nvidia GPU systems because I've sweated blood learning their numbering system and I don't want to figure out ATI's system and get them confused. This crap makes Windows version counting look simple.
There are some basic rules for running for the Senate, but criminal offenses are covered by state laws. In this case Maryland has chosen to allow felons to represent them. I have no idea how we have gotten to this point but I sure wish we could do take backs...
I tried Hangouts and it was too slow and too big for my uses. I mostly use Whatsapp now, it small and fast. I wouldn't even have looked for a different messaging app is Verizon SMS didn't suck so bad in my area. Messages don't arrive for hours even when the delivery receipt says they've arrived.
So, you're smart enough to have a firewall with port detection and know how to block a subnet, but you're not smart enough to write a filter that takes that port scan notification from that subnet and throw it in the trash? I've got buddies that work for banks, they do this crap all day long. They can't turn off port scan, because company policy, but they need to filter out stuff that doesn't matter. They do it at the monitoring software but most home users get email notifications. Use a mail client that has decent filtering. It's not like this is going to be the only time somebody scans you, you'll get better at writing your filters.
Living just northeast of Yellowstone means never having to worry about saying goodbye. It'll be over so fast you'll miss it.
Your bank is going to lock down your account after a certain amount of retries. Sure, a password can be insecure, but you aren't going to brute force a bank account. Most banks also do some form of two factor authentication, in my case, three things I know, pin, password, and picture.
So, I've been an IT professional in the past and transitioned to industrial control systems. In IT I was a contractor that only got payed for my billable hours. I spent long days but got payed very fairly for the hours I billed.
When I moved into control systems my pay was negotiated as salary, I got insurance and retirement. But when I actually started working it was all figured hourly. The problem was it didn't matter how many hours I worked, I got payed for 40. I was always told to 'take time off', but there was never time. Always another project, always another emergency. 50 hours a week and on call every night became the norm. Eventually I got sick of it and switched jobs.
Now I'm actually an exempt employee. Most weeks are 40 hours, some are more like 50 and I get an occasional call at night. My boss is rabid about me taking a day off when I get a crappy week and never quibbles when the day is slack and I leave early. My team is expected to work 40 and OT is authorized as long as the employee isn't getting burned out. The only problem with this setup is it's easy to get slack. Without the constant pressure it's easier to let things slide. I find that if I drive my team hard on a project every couple of months, they stay more productive when the workload is normal.
It's been interesting to see how the individuals react to working conditions, what motivates them (and myself), and how to make sure they don't drive themselves too hard while still getting the job done.
It's a waste of time. My current work schedule has me going to work in the dark summer and winter. Which is awesome because I'm usually home from work at the same time as the kids get home from school. The only thing that DST does for me is screws up my sleep schedule twice a year.
Remember back when there was an iron grip on how menus were laid out? Remember when it frustrated us all that we had to use the same keyboard shortcuts to reach simliar functions? I miss those days. From the current nightmare that is Microsoft Office, where it took me twenty minutes to find the print command for the first time. To drilling down through three menus to find my bookmarks!
While you're at it, knock off that rapid release cycle! Version 12 looks just like Version 3, except that I had to completely wipe my copy of firefox, delete every single firefox folder on the machine, then had scrub the registry just so I could reinstall and not have weird errors and random things not work. Boy that was a fun way to spend my evening.
Ten years ago when I was hiking in Glacier National Park, we heard a whistle. Now back then a whistle was something you used to summon help. My friend and I hurried down the trail looking for whoever was in trouble. It turned out it was a stupid lady with her two small children making sure that the bears were scared away. Nothing has really changed with people, their whistle can just be heard at even greater distances. Park rangers have the ability to issue tickets for this sort of behavior, no reason they shouldn't.
I'm tired of worrying about it. I'm switching back to cash.
I haven't seen it mentioned, so I'll say it here. My work van has about 454 kg of tools in it. That a lot of crap that I would have to duplicate in metric if everything started showing up with metric bolts, nuts, and screws. I'll tell you right now that my van doesn't have space for that increased tool load. I'll also say that I regularly see equipment that is better than 40 years old. It's the back end that really makes it hard to switch to metric. Ask any auto mechanic. Every GM car out there has both metric and SAE bolts in it. It's a major pain in the butt to figure out what you are working on.
Rotating assemblies is where I would have the largest problem adapting. A standard 56 frame motor has a 5/8th inch shaft. That shaft mates to a fan section or pully where thousands of an inch count. So now if I crater a motor and the only thing I buy is a standard metric size, that means I get to replace the fan wheel as well. Now, can I find a fan wheel that has a metric shaft hole that still matches the dimension of the cage it rides in? Am I going to have to replace that fan cage as well? Is the new fan cage with slightly different dimensions going to move the correct amount of air? Am I going to have to adjust the TXV to account for the increased/decreased airflow?
This stuff snowballs really quick. Pretty soon it's a lot like having a hard drive crash. If you are doing the work yourself, it's cheaper to buy a hard drive and install it. If you are paying a tech to put it all back together for you, lots of times it's cheaper to buy a new machine.
With our government's current slide to a big brother state, I'm all for getting rid of all gun regulations. Frankly, the US's obsession with risk avoidance scares the shit out of me.
Wow, what gets modded as insightful around here scares the beejezus out of me. I've got three kids. The oldest is 13. He has a computer in his room and a gmail account. When we set up his email we were very upfront about it. We WILL POP download your mail, not because we don't trust you, but because we don't trust the rest of the world. He understands that and right now it isn't an issue. Someday it will be. As kids grow up, they want more privacy. The key is to talk. Kids give all kinds of signs when they aren't happy with something. Pay attention. When those problems start showing up, it's time to spend some one on one time. For me that means getting to neutral ground. For me and my son, that means going for a hike. A long one. By day three our world is so simple that talking is all that is left. As a parent, my son is not my buddy. At the same time, he needs lots of freedom, that means that I monitor his activities with as light a hand as I can. Mistakes happen, as long as it doesn't kill him, I gain nothing by preventing them. As he discovers chat clients, I intended to monitor his logs, by monitor the router connections, I can tell if he's turned off monitoring. Then it's time to talk again. Good thing I like walking.
It would be silly to build a custom board for this kind of work. I deal with embedded PLCs all day, they are all solid state and can read sensors wired to them from hundreds of feet away, even longer if you use 4-20ma. Lots of different models with anything from 4 inputs to 128. This is the brand I use: www.kmc-control.com Ethernet connection available on several of the models, but for this kind of work, RS-485 is cheaper and more reliable.
I was on a short term contract with a major oil company. It was work I kinda just fell into. I'd fly out sunday morning, spend two weeks working 12 hour days. On the weekends I didn't go home, I played tourist. I learned a lot, explored a lot and just about ruined a relationship. By the time I got done flying to and from the job site I was spending 36 hours at home every two weeks. After a year the job was moving to off shore platforms, the work was more dangerous, the time away would have been even longer. I called a meeting with my contract manager and said, "This work is going to last at least another year, if you commit to 12 months of employment, I'll move my family, no more expensive plane flights, no more scary cell phone bills." He went to bat for me with his boss, in the end, they couldn't promise the contract length and I went home, got married, and had kids.
I've never looked back and I still keep in touch with my contacts in that company. Moving is a very real option unless you are doing site to site travel.
Consider non traditional work schedules, 3 weeks on, 1 off. Extended time is required to properly bond with your family. Big firms know this. They should also know that a stable family life makes for a more productive workier. At least twice a year, fly the family to you instead of flying home, it's an adventure and an educational tour all at once.
http://www.kmc-controls.com/
These guys make a many different sized PLCs with a very easy to use programming language and excellent control features.
For a house with a radiant floor system, a forced air system, a complex schedule, and internet access. You could probably get away with the item they call the weblite. This board has 8 inputs and 8 outputs. Inputs can be 0-20ma, resistor, or contacts. You will also need a Wincontrol XL Plus software for programming. This controller will talk to as many other controllers as you could possibly want.
Now, all this is great, except the system you describe is vary complicated with overlapping systems that solve the same problem in very different ways.
A radiant floor system is designed for steady state control, setbacks are counter productive because the huge lag time to set point changes.
A forced air system responds very well to set back set points because it's actually more efficent because the furnace does not reach it's rated efficency until it has been running continuously for at least 30 minutes. Direct expansion cooling systems take 10-15 minutes to reach their efficency rating.
Programming in an adaptive recovery program is trivial compared to almost any pointer search you've ever programmed. This stuff isn't hard, but mistakes can be vary expensive. :)
These systems can just as easily control your sprinkler system, outdoor lighting, your garage heat system, etc.
If you have multiple zones, I'd probably recommend using a seperate controller for each zone rather than just getting a larger central controller, it makes the wiring easier and can still be controlled from a single computer.
For remote access, the weblite has a small, basic web server that allows you to adjust setpoints directly, as well as set schedules, and look at all your inputs and output directly. Heck, it's even pretty easy to run the fan for a humidifier cycle even if the house doesn't need the heat. If you have a PC running VNC already, you could skip the weblite and just go with the basic lanlite (10baset) or the 5801 (serial) and just run the webcontrol software on that PC. Could save some money.
Going with the 5801 controller has the added benifit of direct connection the 1181 netsensor, with a very nice display, universal programable buttons, integrated humidity sensor, and they you don't need the plus version of the software. Drawback is that you'll need an RS-485 to usb/rs232 converter.
It's also very easy to adjust the humidty setpoint based on outside air temperature. With integrated enthalpy and dewpoint functions, you could even use a commercial style economizer for low ambient cooling calls. Outputs can be analog as well as digital so it becomes trivial to control modulating motors.
I really love this kind of work and I hope you find it as rewarding as I do. Do realize that it's next to impossible to make your money back on these kinds of controls unless you actually plan on finishing the payments on that 30 year note. If you can live with 4 temps per day on a seven day schedule, the honeywell vision pro 8000 thermostat is a much more cost effective option.
Never seen an inkjet ink that I'd trust for more than a year or two. They always fade.
Christmas is a great time of year if you have kids. It gives you something to focus on. Of course you'll never sleep again. :)
For the idiots out there, this is a joke post.
In 1985, the military standard for a hard drive wipe was 5 full writes. Why? Because that is the point where their experts could no longer pull data off the drive. I have no reason to believe that number has gone down.
Congrats, you picked a really expensive hobby. Now get a job to support your habit. Try to avoid wife/kids. Probably the most expensive hobby of all.
Why would you have nightmares? Most modern ac systems come with alarm contacts, create an SNMP trap. If it doesn't come with contacts, make one using a couple of current sensors. Cheap stuff.
They didn't actually build below sea level. The built at sea level and the weight of the buildings actually caused a subsidence. The way the older building in town were built on what amount to floating pilings is facinating. I lived in New Orleans for a year. I came to hate the smell but I loved the people and city. They have problems but it is a very cool place. I for one, hope they do manage to rebuild. New Orleans is every bit as unique and New York, San Fransisco, or London. It deserves our best efforts.
KMC makes a small digital control board with a built in web server and the ability to talk to an SMTP server. Their Weblite product can easily be set up to control any AC system. It's got 8 inputs so you can monitor 8 temp/humidity/airprove swithes, really anything you want and any alarm to SMS,Email,etc. Built in graphing and logging. Their product line is perfectly capable of running an entire building, very modular. Easy to program. Anybody that can hack together some Perl can program this stuff. Just be careful, short cycling and AC system gets stupid expensive very quickly http://www.kmc-controls.com/ Disclaimer: I work for a contractor that distributes and installs KMC systems.
Well, I live in Montana, so pay is low, I make about $20/hour. By the time benifits are all figured in it's about $35. In a real city, $30 would be a good starting figure.