Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by spike021

He went back to sleep and I feel depressed I had to even contact him when it's something I arguably should've known (I kinda suspected it but didn't check well enough till he went online).

No shame in that. As Ultra already pointed out, sometimes it helps to talk through the problem with someone else. I regularly call one of our circuit board manufacturers when I hit a wall trouble shooting something. A lot of times, he doesn't even really contribute anything besides being someone to talk with about it

[Capt Spaulding]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

No shame in that. As Ultra already pointed out, sometimes it helps to talk through the problem with someone else. I regularly call one of our circuit board manufacturers when I hit a wall trouble shooting something. A lot of times, he doesn't even really contribute anything besides being someone to talk with about it

So true. My son is an SE with a major tech firm and occasionally calls me when he's chasing an elusive bug. I'm 90% ignorant of what he's talking about, but just telling me what the problem is, what he thinks is causing it, and what he's done so far to fix it, can help him see where he needs to go next. Everyone needs a sounding board. I enjoy being able to provide that for my kids and friends.

[Stephen W.]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

I once worked in a place like that. My department made a couple of unfortunate hires over several years. Those snowballed into a number of really bad decisions and turned a great place to work into a snake pit. The ruling clique would sabotage their perceived enemies' evaluations and drum up reasons to try to fire them. At 67 I gave up trying to fix it and retired.

Henry Kissinger once said, "the reasons fights among academics are so viscous is the stakes are so small." It's true. You put a bunch of people who are highly educated and comparatively poorly paid into an enclosed space and some of them invariably turn into scorpions.

Or, put small minded people with an axe to grind in positions of power and watch the place go to hell.

The last company I worked for was really screwed up. The owner was Middle Eastern and at times, overly generous. But most of the time he was a penny pinching, lying, thief! In a back stabbing, he who laughs last, bid to get even with me he had a former foreman come in to act as Hatchet Man to clear dead wood. The formal line was the company had to downsize to cut costs. With almost 34 years of dedicated service, (of which I had received numerous awards for) and only two years from retirement, I was terminated. The acting GM, a guy I trained and thought was my friend, walked up to the door of my office five minutes before quitting time and handed me “THE” letter. So, without notice and without cause I was out on my butt.
Of course I sued for wrongful dismissal and age discrimination amongst other things. It took 10 months to reach an agreement and another 8 to finalize settlement. Bottom line, the jerks paid out far more than if they’d just let me work until I retired. “Downsize” to save money my a$$!!! I wasn’t the first they did this to and I’m sure I won’t be the last.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

So true. My son is an SE with a major tech firm and occasionally calls me when he's chasing an elusive bug. I'm 90% ignorant of what he's talking about, but just telling me what the problem is, what he thinks is causing it, and what he's done so far to fix it, can help him see where he needs to go next. Everyone needs a sounding board. I enjoy being able to provide that for my kids and friends.

The term for this in the industry is "rubber ducking." Some people will buy an actual rubber duck and leave it on their desk. Basically the idea is you walk through your problem/code either with a person or just talking it out to the inanimate object. By doing that, you use a different thought process to explain it. While doing that you can sometimes realize you've been going about it wrong and your usual thought process isn't able to figure that out.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by spike021

The term for this in the industry is "rubber ducking." Some people will buy an actual rubber duck and leave it on their desk. Basically the idea is you walk through your problem/code either with a person or just talking it out to the inanimate object. By doing that, you use a different thought process to explain it. While doing that you can sometimes realize you've been going about it wrong and your usual thought process isn't able to figure that out.

I hope your co-worker isn't ever in need of a bath toy.

[Capt Spaulding]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

I hope your co-worker isn't ever in need of a bath toy.

Could be worse, they could BE one.



I


AM


A


YELLOW


BATH


TOY!

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

Could be worse, they could BE one

"Alexa, make me a rubber ducky."

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

"Alexa, make me a rubber ducky."

[NoHaveMSG]

We had our yearly transformer explosion

Hopefully no damage to any of our equipment. Last year we lost the whole oven and it's control electronics.

[ls1ac]

I ran a R+D department for a number of years and trained the engineers and designers to use what was known as external thinking. When we gathered to talk about a problem you would talk out loud about what you were thinking to solve the problem. It took years of doing this before everyone felt comfortable about putting out their half baked ideas in front of a group. It lead to everyone trying to complete the process buy building on others ideas.
It is hard to put out an idea that is not complete for others to dissect and build on your start. No personnel credit or recrimination.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

We had our yearly transformer explosion

Hopefully no damage to any of our equipment. Last year we lost the whole oven and it's control electronics.

WTF?

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

WTF?

I dunno, we seem to have one go once a year. Our's isn't usually the only one that pops. A few others in the area went and one spilled it's oil all over. I didn't even know they had oil on the inside.

[ichitaka05]

My wife send me this ad


She told me how expensive it is for POS. I showed her the AE86 that sold for $40k… lol

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

I dunno, we seem to have one go once a year. Our's isn't usually the only one that pops. A few others in the area went and one spilled it's oil all over. I didn't even know they had oil on the inside.

So it's not just your stuff? Yeah, they're all filled with oil. That's how they shed the heat without shorting out until they short out. Then, well, you know the rest.