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The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

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Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#81

Post by bacon_waffle »

Tiki wrote: post #19

I'm just in awe that we're coordinating events world wide based on particle interactions one of which originated billions of light years away. That we're able to understand a little more about the vast space we live in because of it, the human cooperation, the technology, the amount of curiosity it took to get here, it's beautiful.

Totally! IceCube is such an amazing combination of great people, great Science, great engineering, and a completely amazing place where it all comes together (places, really, both Madison WI and South Pole ;) ). And, as you say, IceCube is just one project involved in this discovery.

All that effort focused on one incomprehensibly small neutrino...

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#82

Post by Cthulhu_ »

drumttocs8 wrote: post #43
dekhn wrote: post #20

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.

Power utility system operators, and other operators, are prime examples. Usually they just sit around and play farmville. But when it hits, they're the guys making complex decisions that affect when your power turns back on, and therefore how much money the company is losing until that happens.

Sometimes I wonder about an operator-type job like that, or security, or stuff like that - you know, sit around all day / night, browse the interwebs, play farmville or what have you, or do remote contract work to maintain skills and make a lot of money on the side. I had a neighbour who worked as a roadworks driver (like, the car that puts down cones and such), his job involved a lot of night shifts (good money) and then waiting for hours, occasionally moving - that gave him a lot of time to study.

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#83

Post by Ntrails »

skrebbel wrote: post #74
ghaff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Fun story, though off topic: Schlumberger, having people all over the world on dangerous places such as oil platforms (but also in offices), thinks that physical safety for their employees is very important. They iterated on this so well for so many decades, that the primary cause of employee death is now traffic accidents, involving employees thousands of miles away from oil wells, on their way to the office. Proble…

I do not want a company car that much...

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#84

Post by baxtr »

dekhn wrote: post #20
chris_mc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just to insert a CD and press reset That may have been all he did that time, but imagine if stuff had gone sideways, he'd have to troubleshoot it from Antarctica! I thought working from home was bad...

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.

Isn’t that exactly how firemen operate? In the business world these crucial roles are neglected and operations is driven towards maximum efficiencies. On the other hand, no one sane would suggest to utilize firemen better during their idle time.

EDIT: I guess that is the reason why consultants come into the picture

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#85

Post by ggambetta »

phyzome wrote: post #30

Off-topic: Imagine discovering the IceCube detector 10,000 years from now, and trying to figure out what it was for.

If archaeologists 10k years in the future are like their present day counterparts, they'll conclude it was built for ritual purposes :)

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#86

Post by consp »

snovv_crash wrote: post #66
craftyguy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some mission critical production systems don't really want you installing . That's probably a highly unpopular view on HN, but having downtime on IceCube, for example, means they may miss an extremely rare event (neutrino hitting something and generating muons/photon shockwaves) that they could detect.

Something released in 2012 isn't exactly what I'd call "trendy". Technically it really does have some improvements for poor latency and high-packetloss connections.

I'm pretty sure they consider everything sub 10 years old "new and untested" in this field, on this server/array.

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#87

Post by adrianN »

craftyguy wrote: post #64
scarejunba wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^A ^D

I assume (by trying on zsh) that this is a configuration change you made vs. some keybinding I've yet to discover?

https://dwmkerr.com/effective-shell-part-1-navigating-the-co...

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#88

Post by adrianN »

everybodyknows wrote: post #41
jjoonathan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a massive oversupply of people who want to do science vs science that people will pay to have done. Supply and demand are balanced by making the environment so toxic that most leave. Hence 'recovering.'

A pity some of our new billionaires don't make a hobby out of funding genuine science research. Rather than, say, adventures in space tourism.

The problem is that each professor trains more than a dozen PhDs over their career but they open up only one spot once they retire. Exponential growth in scientists isn't sustainable, no matter how many billionaires like science.

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#89

Post by dredmorbius »

craftyguy wrote: post #64
scarejunba wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^A ^D

I assume (by trying on zsh) that this is a configuration change you made vs. some keybinding I've yet to discover?

Readline bindings, emacs mode.

Despite (mostly) using vim as an editor, it's got to be emacs on the shell itself.

Re: The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

#90

Post by robocat »

chris_mc wrote: post #14
dekhn wrote: post #5

My coworker went down to the South Pole to install Debian on the IceCube cluster (funny story: it's hard to cool servers there because the air is really dry) ~14 years ago. Basically, a 48 hour trip both ways just to insert a CD and press reset. We were all jealous.

> just to insert a CD and press reset That may have been all he did that time, but imagine if stuff had gone sideways, he'd have to troubleshoot it from Antarctica! I thought working from home was bad...

I met some scientists (at the pub) from NASA the other day - they had been on a plane going repeatably from sea level to stratosphere all the way from from Hawaii to Chirstchurch,NZ to sample the atmosphere.

They had designed and built their own instruments, but they were on the plane so they could fix any problems, although the idea was to have no problems!

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