71–80 of 109 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. And the same goes with finance people, and people in lots of other fields. Jargon rich conversations that outsiders think is mumbo-jumbo.
I'm the author of the Spectrum article: this is the exact reason why I get paid for my job :)
OT: I keep meaning to join IEEE - do you get any commission or perks for referrals?
Off-topic: Imagine discovering the IceCube detector 10,000 years from now, and trying to figure out what it was for.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even on a good console I put a # at the start of the line before editing or typing it in case I accidentally hit Enter too soon. And never ever paste commands without first trying it into a trash terminal or editor.
That's an interesting technique that I've never heard of. Do you have fast shortcuts/keybindings for removing the # when you are ready, or is it '(left arrow x N) + ^H' each time?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, that's why he was sent. In case something went wrong, he was qualified to fix it in production. I've come to an appreciation for people who have jobs where they don't do much most of the time, but when the shit hits the fan, they do exactly what was required.
Pilots being another good example. Years ago, I interviewed for a couple of positions with Schlumberger which, at the time, basically went out to oil wells and made various measurements. In a lot of ways, it was essentially a tech job but the reason you had engineers (assisted by techs) was that you had various training and, presumably, other background for when things went sideways.
Problem solved? Of course not. Employee safety is still a core KPI after all. So to address this problem, they installed a device in every company issued car which makes a BEEP! sound every time you drive aggressively (as judged by the device). After three BEEP!s you have to explain yourself to your boss.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work on an experiment at the south pole (not IceCube). sshing into fix stuff is painful, even when the "good" satellite is up. Protip: pressing up several times and then enter is very dangerous since the command that you will actually run may not have appeared on your screen yet.
Since you're here! Is Iridium out of your price range, or does even that have latency/bandwidth issues for the kind of SSH work you're talking about?
I think the situation now is a lot better than it was, but a few years ago, most of the day there was no connectivity except Iridium. Most communications satellites are in orbits that don't take them near the poles, with Iridum being the obvious exception.
Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES_3 was an amazing piece of the South Pole infrastructure for several years. There was a period every year where the Earth would eclipse GOES-3 - the batteries onboard were long dead - so the satellite would power down and everyone just sorta crossed their fingers and hoped it came back online with the right orientation and with enough electronics going so that we could keep using it. Bandwidth wasn't great, but it was quite reliable especially considering that it was launched in 1978.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess the details will depend on whether it happens before or after the discovery of the giant poo-bergs nearby :).
I believe all the poo is taken away.
The water supply for the station comes from a rodwell, which is effectively a big bubble of molten ice, sustained by heat from the diesel generators. Once the rodwell gets to a certain size, some water can be extracted for use on station, and the bubble lowers progressively in to the ice. Eventually, the liquid surface in the well gets too deep for the pump in the well to pump water all the way to the surface, so a new well is started.
Waste water then goes in to the void left from the old well; poo, gunk off the dirty dishes, etc all included.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dry air also increases the probability of static damage. They probably can't use outside air exchange to cool the server room. I imagine just circulating your nice toasty air into a larger area filled with moist humans who want to be warmer would work, but it depends on your building layout.
Static damage? Where I was raised, winter temps regularly reached -40. That cold, outside air already had most of the moisture 'wrung out of it'. Now let that cold dry air into the house and warm it: the relative humidity plummets. Now walk across a carpet in leather-soled shoes. Do NOT even touch metal doorknobs, let alone metal faucets!