How many of your jobs are like this?

I am currently working in a Scientific Research Lab and we have a very good management system which means that the important paperwork gets written, reviewed and approved. Our experiment uses high energy fields, explosive gas mixtures and cryogenic fluids inside a vessel under high vacuum. We have a wide range of equipment types, some manufactured by foreign science labs in a massively international cooperative effort.

Our engineers are expected to be able to estimate costs for projects to build the next piece of desired equipment for the physicists to play with. Fortunately our physicists are good at explaining the sort of thing they are after. So, we always have written specifications to work from, even if the engineers have to write them to get the physicists to agree that the engineers have captured the requirements properly.

Glad to hear it.

The biggest win I have made in the 10 years I have been in the current situation is to improve the modularisation quotient. Gone are some of the megalithic PLC systems and specialised hardware logic. In are some faster, smaller and more general purpose modular systems which cope with a fixed area of the overall experiment. There are, surprisingly few module types required to accomplish the control and measurement activity we require.

Have thought about it. I'm also a musician, and have worked through the grieving process brought about by rheumatoid arthritis (now under control, but for a while it looked like my muso days were over). So, have considered exactly this kind of thing.

For me, so long as I could find a replacement to keep me busy (let's ignore income), whether it's books, music, museums, concerts, I'd be fine. If I couldn't keep busy, I'd go to pieces. Lost my sister and my father last year, and survived by keeping busy - it's my refuge. (Which is not to say it's escapism - it's more that I don't like to have time to mope. I'm good in a crisis; maybe not so good otherwise.)

YMMV.

Steve

Just spotted this bit ;).

It's a fair cop; I'll come quietly. Need a bit of (in)sanity to keep me (in)sane...

Steve

Then we have almost opposite work styles ;-)

Then it's best for you not to do consulting, at least not my kind. Today about 20% of my job was crisis mediation between an underperforming vendor and a client. That isn't exactly fun but has to be done. One of the gazillion reasons I work T&M based. That way they can call me in whenever stuff hits the fan, no matter what it is that hit the fan.

The cardiologists in catheter labs often do. It's like a factory in there. And after 10h or so you back hurts from that heavy lead vest.

Good man. Not many SW guys think that way.

Our house sits smack dab in the full sun all day long and has (thick) single pane windows. So buttoning up doesn't help much.

In our case a subterranean tunnel would require lots of blasting. Then pretty soon it'll reach ambient temperature and not be so useful anymore. Except for all the critters than tunnel in from the side and rejoice over the large palace I just made for them :-)

Hey Steve, I know where you are coming from. My wife has osteoarthritis which is slowly destroying every joint in her body. She is having both knees replaced next week.

She had to give up running and dancing. The running is gone forever but perhaps she will be able to start dancing again. She is not yet 50. nasty stuff.

Be Well, Mike

Bummer. Sorry to hear that.

Let's back up and go over that again. Imagine your RA had effectively made your hands useless (or, too painful to tolerate use). So that you now became a *passive* participant -- NEVER again "making" music but only *listening* to it. Is that "enough"?

E.g., I wonder how a marathon runner adapts to the idea of no longer being able to *run* in a marathon. Is a "wheelchair" event an *equivalent* substitute? Or, is this a "compromise"?

What if said runner develops ALS and even the wheelchair option is denied him. Is *watching* an event (in person or on TV) "enough"?

Understood.

I've a friend who was just told "the cancer is back". And, in such a way that options which *might* have been available (though undesirable) are no longer on the table. I would imagine every minute that he's alone with his thoughts must be unbearable -- which is probably why he "keeps busy".

Yikes! Both at the same time? Best wishes to her!

I've been told this is a painful process. That the physical therapy is *essential* if you want to regain use of those limbs (apparently there is pain associated with that therapy, like any other recovery). And, that the "fix" isn't "forever" (i.e., some folks have to have them "redone" down the road).

OTOH, everyone that I know who has been down this path was happy to have done it. I guess it's hard to imagine what "pain from locomotion" must be like. We take for granted the act of getting up and opening the refrigerator or walking across the room, etc. -- until it hurts to do so.

Wow. Young. Makes the idea of those "losses" even harder to swallow.

Good luck to her!

Very sorry to hear it. I consider myself lucky to only have rheumo, which responds well to meds, diagnosed early enough. Osteo, however, is a whole 'nother ballgame...

Wish her the best from me with the op.

Steve

Interesting comment. For me, the grieving process had one weird side effect - I almost never listen to music now. Which also means that while I *can* now play guitar again, I've lost interest.

Seems my grieving process was too effective - I not only came to terms with leaving my guitar to grow dusty, I "wired" music out of my life. Didn't mean to. Just did.

So am in the slightly odd situation now of being able to play, but finding no motivation to do so. Recently my daughter had a BBQ, and a lot of friends came over; found myself picking up the guitar and playing for 6 hours or so, like old times. Found that my chops were still there, and after a couple of hours the discomfort I felt at first revealed itself as me purely being out of practice - hadn't picked up a guitar in over a year. I resolved to play more regularly. Have I? Nah...

I think I need therapy ;).

That's pretty much what happened with my sister and father. I emphasise and can offer few words of comfort to you or to him. It sucks.

My sister surprised me. Last (phone) conversation I had with her, a couple of days before she died, I'd been told her condition was bad and the local (rural France) hospital couldn't help. I suggested to her she should get up to the experts in Paris. Her response: "I'm sitting in my garden by the river, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing, and I'm with my husband. Why would I want to leave?"

We didn't always get on - she did tend to attract drama, which made her announcement of her terminal diagnosis while my father was fighting bladder cancer appear a tad competitive - but she proved me wrong in the end. Humbling.

Steve

It's one of the most practical ways I know of figuring out "what's (personally) important" -- to seriously imagine living without it!

Ah, that's a true loss.

Understandable. "All or nothing" is often easier to deal with.

You might try rechanneling that interest to *teaching* someone to play. That or another instrument.

Ha! Anyone here who *doesn't*?? :-/

I've often wondered (though I am by no means eager to find out!) what must go through folks' heads at these times. I mean, we all ****KNOW**** we are going to die. Yet, when you are *told* "you're going to die" it somehow comes as a surprise. Though two days earlier you could have been hit by a bus while crossing the street and died on the spot -- without "warning".

Cool!

Several friends passing away recently has made it interesting to watch to see how they each have handled this penultimate aspect of their life. And, how those around them have dealt with those decisions!

Unfortunate that the subject is so "taboo"...

Then she has left a "good legacy", no?

------- To end on a cheerier note:

"I want to die peacefully, in my sleep -- like GrandPa. Not screaming, in terror, like the folks on the bus he was driving!"

If you're lucky, you can pick the style that best suits your needs. For me, its "do not disturb". (One thing I hated working 9-5 was countless fruitless meetings. "Can we just work on getting the job done, already?")

I clearly *don't*! :>

Early in my consulting career, I worked T&M. As I said, folks figured they were paying for your time so they felt they could

("No, that's how employees work!")

I spent lots of time holding hands with clients, listening to their "war stories" on the phone, debating various options for a product's design, documenting discussions/meetings, etc. That's not what I want to spend my life doing.

So, I've changed the types of jobs I am willing to take on. They tend to be more interesting, less time constrained, etc. Many will never turn into *real* products. But, something will be learned in the process (by all parties) -- at least enough to justify "their" expense.

I'm provably a "night person" so "contacts" often were at the wrong time of day for one or the other of us. The further west I move, the worse this becomes :<

Email is a wonderful mechanism for me. It *documents* everything we say. It forces each party to *think* about what they want to say (whereas picking up a phone often results in an unorganized ramble of topics). And, it gives each of us time to think about the *replies* we receive as we formulate further questions (plus it makes it easy to augment the discussion with other documents, video, etc.)

I've settled on FrameMaker for my "written" documentation (previously Ventura but then Corel screwed it up) because it has all the features I need to make a "professional" presentation. And, is reasonably portable.

For devices that interact with people, I try to write a detailed user manual in lieu of a formal specification. This tackles that task "early on" -- instead of having someone chase after me as I finish up the design *trying* to understand all of the different ways the device can be used (and what can go wrong in each branch).

Presently, I am trying to integrate that manual with the product's "run time". So, when something happens in the system, it brings up pertinent information to explain the situation (instead of "error 2341"), potential remedies, etc. Sort of like "context sensitive help" but much more integrated (i.e., if there are two "if {}"s that can result in a particular error -- the causes for each being presumably different -- then two different links to the "manual" exist which allows the remedies to be tailored to each specific case instead of lumping them both together)

Well, I have managed to cut down the trees that previously provided *some* shade so we're in pretty much the same boat! (though the new trees will eventually fix this a bit)

Adding it after-the-fact would be hard. But, here, it would have been easy for them to lay a string of "cinder blocks" beneath the slab and draw air in through this. Cheaper than running pipes through the soil...

The topper, so far: Me on a long flight. Meeting invitation was sent but we were already at flight level 410. Arrived at company, engineer brought me to the lab bench with the culprit on there, and we had at it. After 3h or so the problem was unearthed and a method to fix it was derived. Then a higher up manager came in all hollering. Why I wasn't at the meeting and all that. What meeting? So I followed him. Most of the big brass in there, frowning a bit. "So, you were supposed to tell us how you'll plan to diagnose this XYZ problem ..." ... "Ahem, Sir?" ... "Yes?" ... "Ahm, well, this noise problem is now fixed, it's no longer an issue" ... "WHAT?"

It is, and I am currently working in a team where one guy only wants to work through email. However, it's rather inconvenient at times because that way architectural discussions can drone on for 2-3h versus 5-10mins over the phone.

I use MS-Word and OpenOffice because that makes it easy to share documents in the making with clients.

Problem is, eventually the warm air being sucked in will heat up the cinder blocks. Less so if it's an inside circulation but those tend to create stale air. I get tired in "buttoned up" buildings.

Some things are poorly suited to "long latency" communications. Likewise, other things are poorly suited to "low latency"!

The latter is too easy to abuse. It's too easy for someone to pick up a phone to ask a question instead of *thinking* about the question *before* asking it. I attribute this to the "instant gratification" that people seem to have become accustomed to and *dependant* on (e.g., if you don't answer your phone on the second ring, they're in a panic!)

I'll sometimes meet a client at an airport (my end or their end) and sit down in a lounge/unused gate waiting area and just talk through the important issues, then reboard the return flight and be home before the end of business that same day.

But, there needs to be lots of *value* in those exchanges to justify the time involved. No, I'm not really interested in your son's baseball team. Or, your daughter's dance recital. Yes, I may be interested in how your wife's pregnancy is progressing. Or, how successful that back surgery you had last month was. But, the point of being here isn't to toss back a few beers and discuss sports scores...

I make PDF's out of everything so they can view them and mark them up. It lets me use "better" tools to maintain and create the documents without sacrificing their exchange.

The soil temperature -- which is what controls the temperature of these things buried in it -- tends to remain relatively constant year round. Especially if you work at "some depth". Regardless, you're still using air that is 30 - 40 degrees cooler than the exterior air to begin with. Then, add humidification for additional cooling.

Dunno. I am perpetually puzzled by how little thought is given to these sorts of issues in the *design* of most buildings. E.g., why isn't the majority of the structure below grade??

But that must have been eons ago, the other party would need boarding passes to get in there :-)

I did that with a SoCal client but instead I took them to a nice river restaurant a few miles from our airport.

But one beer should be ok. Or maybe two ...

Can't do that here. The formats *.doc or (seldomly) the dreaded *.docx have become industry standards. We send that back and re-word, redline, accept some redlines, others not, add new ones, replace a graph, and so on. You can't do that with PDF.

It's not going to stay that way because the cinder blocks will gradually warm up as air streaks across them.

In some middle-eastern regions they have that down to a science. Because, unlike place like Arizona, people had to live in buildings there for well over 2000 years in a rather hostile climate. Very cold nights, blistering heat in the day. So they gradually adapted their building technologies. For example, their houses often have a flat roof with high walls sticking out above for privacy. Then the whole family would sleep up there at night because the house below has become stuffy during the day. Richer folks have wells and horizontal ducts way below ground dug. Not just a few feet below, tens of feet. Then the air streaks across water naturally, and with some luck a convection flow can be achieved without electrcity. And voila, there's the medieval swamp cooler :-)

Funnily enough, I'm doing (occasionally) just that (teaching). And I enjoy it immensely. Should do more...

Steve

Joerg wrote: [ ... ]

The best boss I ever worked for convened that meeting and didn't invite me. It got all the frantic people off the floor. After the three hours were up he took in the good news. Those managers are rare.

Mel.

All airports are different. E.g., Hartford has virtually nothing in the "unsecured" areas. I think all that's there is ticket counters (unless you want to meet in "baggage claim").

Larger airports tend to be worse than smaller ones as they like to have umpteen gates on a long radial "terminal" arm that extends the terminal into the tarmack.

I effectively stopped drinking when I moved west. My favorite beer is not available, here (so, that's a good excuse to avoid the stuff! :> )

You can markup newer versions of acrobat. But, for the most part, I act as the "coordination point" so I simply fold everything into my "next release" for others to re-review.

The point isn't about the tool you use but, rather, about the *process*.

I'm not sure about that. Things that aren't in direct sun son;t seem to heat up here. E.g., a cinderblock sitting on the back porch (there's one there, now) feels like "cool concrete" whereas the ones piled up by the back wall (sunlit) feel warm to the touch.

Yes, neighbor (Iranian) described his house (there) as exactly such.

True, but as a consultant I have to make it easy for clients. All they usually have in terms of word processing in Engineering is, well, MS-Office. Anything else would require a P.O. to be signed and IT to waltz in to install. So direct PDF edits are out. I can't imagine it being very efficient anyhow to chop a scope plot, replace it with a bigger new one and then the TOC needs an update because pages have moved. I don't think a PDF editor can do that at all. In the word processor the TOC either updates automatically or you right-click into it.

We have a kitchen counter that's done in the classic concrete and mortar-bed fashion. It adapts rather quickly to the temperature of air moving across it (in front of the fan that sits on top or where the swamp cooler air passes over).

He probably shook his head the first time he saw the massive compressor in a 5-ton A/C unit :-)

Ah, then it's not a "loss" but, rather, a "lateral trade"! Excellent. You may inspire someone to go on and ... inspire someone *else*!