lucius septimius 7/27/2021 5:58:51 AM

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doppelganglander 7/27/2021 8:03:02 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 1:

I hope you didn't have to drive home in it.

I'm at my new office for the day. My desk has those horrible low barriers, but it's next to the window, with an incredible view from the 13th floor. It's a clear day and I can see Kennesaw Mountain, about 20 miles away.

JCM 7/27/2021 8:07:32 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 2:

This is typical of our office spaces. However I've only been to our new building twice, and don't have an assigned desk.

I'm hoping to stay remote. Good chance since we have way more people on the project than desks and my team's work is perfect for remote work. So much so we have contractors working for our team around the globe.

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 8:22:39 AM

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Reply to JCM in 3:

Not that I go in much, but we have offices with, in the past, 2-5 people in them (more for summer interns)

Offices with steel walls and doors that close. Staff and some contractors that have been there for a while have windows; my office is interior.

But there are reasons for limiting the number of people in an area where conversations can go on.

doppelganglander 7/27/2021 8:31:28 AM

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Reply to JCM in 3:

This is mine. When the floor is fully occupied, it's going to be deafening. I'm very happy that I'm in a corner where I won't have people walking behind me all day. 

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 8:39:03 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 5:

One place I worked had hexagons, not cubes. On the other side of the partition was someone who dealt with the Taiwan manufacturing site, and his conversations were usually a mix of Chinese with English terms "Chinese chinese chinese chinese gold plated contacts chinese chinese....."

JCM 7/27/2021 8:40:25 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 5:

Noise canceling headphones are a must.

A least where I'm at they are also equivalent of a DO NOT DISTURB sign.

JCM 7/27/2021 11:02:39 AM

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Typical response....

After a weekend in which Seattle's murder rate was higher than Chicago....

These are not dumb people, they are smart people. 

They know damn well what the problem is.

Therefore I'm left to make other conclusions.

That is they are using the Cloward-Piven strategy on crime. Their solution is enable criminals with guns at the same time disarm the law abiding citizen. Then when the citizens demand safety and security, the Durkan's et. al. will offer a Police State as the the solution.

This is the history of the Leftist, the Statist. 

Occasional Reader 7/27/2021 11:18:52 AM

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In #3 JCM said: This is typical of our office spaces.

But did you get the memo about the new cover pages for the TPS reports?

JCM 7/27/2021 11:22:04 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

No the printer is broken......

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 1:23:45 PM

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In 1984, the building i worked in still had some offices for the rank and file.  The partitions stopped short of the ceiling by a foot or 2, but they had real doors.

They were taking them out and replacing them with cubicles.

One person locked his door and refused to leave. They had to have Security remove him.

I inherited the project he was working on. I doubt he would have gotten it to work; this was on an 8051 microprocessor and the hardware group refused to add memory beyond the 4K ROM on the chip. I managed to squeeze it all in there. Then it never went into production.

Well, I thought it was a dumb idea - it was a modem-sized device that would allow a computer to dial out while some telemarketer would handle the call when it was connected. One phone line per device. 

JCM 7/27/2021 1:44:27 PM

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Office used to be open plan, rows of desks or drafting tables.

Then came cube land.

Now the trend is back to open plan.

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 2:35:20 PM

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Previous place I worked,  VP of engineering decided to try out open plan, so he converted around 8 cubes and asked for volunteers to try it.

He got 2 volunteers.

Another place made a worse mistake. They expanded into a nicer area, and the executives decided that would be for management. They made window offices.

Then they found out the heaters were at the windows, and the AC vents in the middle of the area. Not so good in the summer for them. The cube farm was in the older area.

lucius septimius 7/27/2021 2:42:50 PM

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JCM 7/27/2021 2:56:16 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 13:

One of my favorites was company decided to set up a server farm for simulation work.

In a conference room.

I told the facilities guy about it, he rolled his eyes.

We went to the manager for the idea.

The conference room is not on the server room or the lab AC system. Your servers will generate this amount of heat. The AC in the conf. room cannot handle that. Additional the AC is turned off for the people and conf. rooms most weekends.

Ignored us.

First weekend ever single server shut down for in thermal protection mode. Thousands of hours of simulations lost.

Facilities guy got blamed. I back him up.

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 3:32:07 PM

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Reply to JCM in 15:

One place I worked, we had a lab with cable trays in the ceiling. We had to run the cables. Asked for a ladder; refused because we weren't supposed to do that ourselves (but unclear who was to do it, and on what timescale) So we stood on chairs on wheels. 

Same lab had a hardware workbench with a heat gun - located under a smoke/heat detector. They finally moved the detector when the fire dept said they would charge if they had to show up again.

JCM 7/27/2021 3:57:21 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 16:

Guy I knew worked for worked for Bonneville Power. Drove him crazy because of the union shops.

A simple adjust which he could do himself in 5 minutes for often require scheduling a electrician, a machinist to help him.

The machinist uses a screwdriver and removes a cover plate.

The electrician attaches test probes as direct.

Guy I knew would make the reading. Tell the electrician what adjustments.

Electrician would removed the probes.

Machinist replaces the cover.

Often would take half a day to get the scheduling and approvals from 3 departments.

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 4:17:14 PM

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Reply to JCM in 17:

When I worked where I work now, back in 1983, I used a screwdriver to install something in a PDP-11.

Was told never to do that again. Union.

Never did. Needed a device that would show what was being sent over an IEEE-488 bus. Budget was cut so they couldn't buy a $300 device to do that. They found a design to have the union guys build one. A month later, I left, and they still did not have it working. Way over $300 in labor costs.

BTW, one of the techs had worked on building Whirlwind (link)

Occasional Reader 7/27/2021 4:34:43 PM

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JCM 7/27/2021 4:35:31 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 18:

My personal best was maintaining temperature forcing units. This would blow precise temperature air down on a board to test a chip. Things could be controlled over a IEEE-488 for testing across many temps. 

$35,000 for a new one.

I was keeping a couple units running that were over 20 years old, and I was out parts and none were to be had.

I asked for two new ones.

No, too expensive.

So I documented that new product testing schedules were at risk should a unit go down. They told us delays in new product test was $1 million a week.

New product rolls in, both old units crap out.

Big meeting why is test schedule delayed.... everyone looks at me.

I say bring up the document.

Nobody is looking at me anymore.

Kosh's Shadow 7/27/2021 4:59:03 PM

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Reply to JCM in 20:

I remember burn in and temperature testing ovens/rooms. Back in a different building.

Was once the #2 computer company in the world. Products were great, until the PC era, when they thought they could make all closed systems.

Management was #2

I'm sure some people can guess the name of the company.