Silly resistor values

Not there, I think there VHS is all gone. Some brick-and-mortar stores do still sell vinyl records though.

Intel dual-core. But I ran sims on two other puters at the same time.

few

I have a squirrel cage blower sitting on the floor next to the door to my office... 76°F in here right now... 106°F outside ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Yeah, but you guys are running the A/C :-)

We lately ran it when it climbs above 92F in the living area (by that time the office is >95F) because the Rottweiler gets old and can't stand such heat too well anymore. Thermostat to 87F and he's happy again.

Other than that I've got a good old Crown Deluxe fan behind me. The ones with push buttons, 70's era design, very quiet, super quality.

Not sure what the Fed could have done about it. Banks were still bound by margin rules (8%, IIRC) on loans. The problem was the repackaging of mortgage securities traded as investments. I don't believe they fell under the Fed's purview, rather SEC. A *lot* of people saw the housing bubble as just that, far fewer saw the real problem, the ridiculous leveraging going on with trash securities.

it

whens.

Yes, which is exactly why I'm fighting management, who wants schematics for the product variants.

Yes.

That's the way it's working. There is also an issue with board assembly drawings, but the layout guy didn't fight that battle.

Ok, but that doesn't change the issue.

Let me try this again. The schematics are used to generate the board layout and BOMs (one for each SKU). There is one layout made from the schematic. The schematic has the configuration[*] information coded in part properties, which is used to generate the BOM for each SKU. Each SKU P/N then references the (same) raw board, and its BOM (generated from the schematic, filtered by part properties). These are under ECO control and that works.

What is wanted is a *NEW* schematic that shows the SKU. Making *that* is a manual process and would *NOT* be controlled. We already do this with the (above) assembly drawings (which are not used to assemble anything) and it causes grief. This *new* schematic is what I'm fighting. [*] A SKU is a board made from Chinese menu of configurations all wired on the board and represented in the schematic. These "configurations" are things like relays/no-relay, channels 3&4 (deleted for two channel SKU), Channel 2 (deleted for one channel SKU), Channel 1 (deleted if no wired channels), football,...

Well, that's exactly what gets my blood to boil. It does not make a smidgen of a difference under whose purview this falls. We pay those guys lots of taxpayer money and we expect service for that money, not passing the buck. It's like someone on the Titanic seeing the big iceberg and not telling anyone because it's "not in his job description". If the Fed see trouble, what is so difficult about picking up the phone, calling the guys over at the SEC and arranging some crisis meetings?

Currently I am with one foot in mechanical engineering stuff. My client (rightfully) expects me to see and flag potential issues I see to their engineers. I will never say "it ain't my job", because serving my clients is my job.

So far that sounds kosher, no complaints from me.

It needs to also be under ECO control. The first thing you need is a standard operating procedure (SOP) on how to create a "service level" new explanatory schematic. This SOP must include instructions to enter it into the ECO process. Now the schematic for the version without relay number 17 is created for the units that only get sold in Africa. Another for the Siberian unit is created where the panel defroster circuitry is populated. And so on.

This requires that all those different units have different assembly numbers (I assume they do because otherwise your ECO system ain't working right). The new explanatory schematics get released into each respective build, just like the user manuals do where one version might have a manual in Swahili and the other in Russian.

Understood, except for the football :-)

I believe you've now blacklisted yourself from being eligible to join any unions, Joerg. :-)

I once worked with a guy who had a story of a field installation where a union steward came up to him and told him that he couldn't take voltage readings with his multimeter himself -- a union electrician would have to do it for him. (He was wiring up various sensors/relay/small motors -- 24V or so, as I recall -- not any high power/high voltage work.) Since this wasn't really very practical if he wanted to finish on-time, they eventually agreed that it would be OK so long as a union electrician just sat around and *watched* him make the measurements.

---Joel

Damn right !

LOL !

And people wonder why all the work has gone to Asia or is rapidly heading there !

Graham

-- due to the hugely increased level of spam please make the obvious adjustment to my email address

I most certainly do not have any intent to join a union :-)

An engineer who traveled to Australia for a service case got into serious trouble. He "dared" to close the rack cabinet out in the field instead of calling and waiting for a union mechanic to show up. AFAIU it was several hours of grueling drive across rugged terrain just to get to that place. This guys said he was pretty much read the riot act. "WHADDAYA MEAN IT'S WORKING? YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO TOUCH ...". The fact that he could not have possibly called anyone from out there on account of zero cell coverage was not accepted as an apology.

Like firemen on Diesel locomotives. This pretty much hinted to me that Australia may not be my kind of place too live, at least not as an engineer.

Posted previously, in 2006...

Last time I had a confrontation with a shop steward was when I was a student at MIT (around 45 years ago now)...

Ordered up a 400VDC installation for our lab.

Couple of months go by, still no show of the electricians.

I go down to Building 20 stores and get a bunch of 4/0, and wire it up myself.

Another few months go by and the electrician shows up. I tell him to go away.

Next thing you know I'm called into the RLE (Research Lab for Electronics) main office.

There stands the union steward and the RLE Director.

They try to light into me.

I tell them, "I'm a student, go f... yourself", and walk out.

Never heard another word about it except that Professor Woodson (he was from Texas) laughed so much I thought he was going to be sick ;-)

...Jim Thompson

The weather forecasts for this week (Los Angeles area) have been HOT, HOT, HOT.

It's now 80F in my office. This is quite comfortable for me. Maybe the weatherdroids put their thermometers in the direct sun or something.

My office door opens onto a factory, with those big rollup doors at each end open and a little breeze, so it's probably only about 80 outside. It's 10 AM; I should report sometime this afternoon.

Cheers! Rich

In L.A. I have seen company buildings that essentially had one big hole in the ceiling, with a huge fan and a rain cover. There was nothing that could be engaged to close it so I guess it must be quite balmy down there all the time. Places like Santa Monica.

Global warming, anyone? >:->

Cheers! Rich

It's desert here, with intense irrigation. (which is pissing off other people who get their water from the Colorado River.) So we get essentially desert weather. I've even quipped once, "What? No seasons in So.Cal? Hell, we get four seasons in ONE DAY!" It's almost freezing at night - you need a jacket, at least - then the morning is like spring, midday is like summer, evening is like autumn, and so on. At sundown, the temp. drops so fast you can feel the difference almost minute by minuts.

But for the most part, it's not that bad. :-)

Cheers! Rich

Now it isn't so bad but I can remember days a long time ago when the L.A. smog was so bad that I was coughing.

I've kinda commuted from MN to CA a few times in the last few decades.

I had been in MN for about ten or so years, then got a call from a former employer in CA. I finished up my business in MN, drove to LA, and the first thing I noticed, cresting the rise from the high desert, was BLUE SKY! I hardly recognized the place! This was in February or March, which might have made a difference, but I had to admit, _somebody_ must have done _something_ right. :-)

Cheers! Rich

The Fed doesn't have the right knobs to turn. Congress asked for this mess.

Different issue.

But don't they have telephones? If I don't have the right knobs to turn I call someone who does. Like this morning when a client asked for something I usually don't do and don't have the time to do right now. One phone call later the matter was solved, now they have an engineer who can do it for them.

What prevents the higher-ups at the Fed to pick up the phone, call the higher-ups at the SEC and say "Hey, something fishy is going on and it will hurt our country, big time. Can we meet?"

I know Glass-Steagall was repealed and that was a stupid thing to do. But that shouldn't keep higher-ups from raising one heck of a stink.

Sorry, but here I disagree.