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"Nothing like this will be built again"

antipope.org

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Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#51

Post by joezydeco »

"For starters, some embedded controllers in racks in the auxilliary deisel generator control rooms have EPROMs which have been known to be erased by camera flashes in the past, triggering a generator trip"

Wow, I don't know where to begin with this one. Either the engineers have completely lost all knowledge about how their controllers operate, or nobody has the right mind to think about putting opaque labels on the EPROM chips or over the controller board itself?

This kind of stuff borders on urban legend / cargo cult engineering territory.

Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#53

Post by EdwardCoffin »

cdr wrote: post #47
jmduke wrote: post #2

Mirror: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:S384WfJ... Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140900

This is many, many years old - maybe even 10 years old? Maybe someone can find the original date and put it in the title.

Archive.org's earliest snapshot of it [edit: at this URL - see below] is from January 6, 2010, but have a snapshot of the same content at a different URL from December 26, 2002. Their snapshots of the site itself go back to July 6, 2005, so I'm inclined to believe the article dates only back to 2010 or late 2009 at the earliest.

Edit: and archive.org has an even earlier snapshot from December 26, 2002, under a different URL.

Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#54

Post by shardling »

joezydeco wrote: post #51

"For starters, some embedded controllers in racks in the auxilliary deisel generator control rooms have EPROMs which have been known to be erased by camera flashes in the past, triggering a generator trip" Wow, I don't know where to begin with this one. Either the engineers have completely lost all knowledge about how their controllers operate, or nobody has the right mind to think about putting opaque labels on the…

Err, or maybe it's just a sensible precaution, because relying on a single defense against failure is a bad idea?

Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#55

Post by joezydeco »

shardling wrote: post #54
joezydeco wrote: post #51

"For starters, some embedded controllers in racks in the auxilliary deisel generator control rooms have EPROMs which have been known to be erased by camera flashes in the past, triggering a generator trip" Wow, I don't know where to begin with this one. Either the engineers have completely lost all knowledge about how their controllers operate, or nobody has the right mind to think about putting opaque labels on the…

Err, or maybe it's just a sensible precaution, because relying on a single defense against failure is a bad idea?

In 1997, someone taking a picture of an embedded controller board at the Haddam Neck nuclear plant set off the fire protection systems in the control room, causing everyone to evacuate the control room for an hour.

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-...

And the conclusion?

"They also confirmed that the light from the Canon flash and the Polaroid flashbulb could be effectively blocked by "black bagging" the flash, or by blocking the EPROM window with "tin foil" held in place by clear cellulose tape, or by blocking the EPROM window with "standard electrical tape."

Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#57

Post by tomjen3 »

moomin wrote: post #14
objclxt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we as a country don't do actual engineering anymore ...is that really true? The UK is currently home to Europe's largest civil engineering project (Crossrail), my hometown produces Trent jet engines and designs wings for all Airbus aircraft. And there's the cars that are both manufactured (BMW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc) and designed (Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, McLaren...) here. The engineering we do has ch…

I seem to recall that, measured by value in real terms, the UK does more engineering than ever. Just because it's a smaller part of the economy and doesn't support as many unskilled people doesn't mean it's not happening. On an unrelated note, some of the social issues we complain about these days seem to be a direct consequence of the off-shoring of manual labour.

I don't know if that is the case in the UK, but it is the case in US vs. Chinese manufacturing. The US output never went down and more things are produced in the US than ever - it just takes fewer people to do it, and it isn't the kinds of things that are currently visible to most consumers.

Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#59

Post by msandford »

quattrofan wrote: post #52

Can someone explain this? "generators spin in a sealed atmosphere of hydrogen gas", hydrogen, really?

If they're sealed and there's no oxygen in there, then there's no boom.

Since hydrogen is so light it makes for less aerodynamic drag on the moving parts.

Re: "Nothing like this will be built again"

#60

Post by mikeash »

joezydeco wrote: post #51

"For starters, some embedded controllers in racks in the auxilliary deisel generator control rooms have EPROMs which have been known to be erased by camera flashes in the past, triggering a generator trip" Wow, I don't know where to begin with this one. Either the engineers have completely lost all knowledge about how their controllers operate, or nobody has the right mind to think about putting opaque labels on the…

Or they do put opaque labels on the EPROMs but such labels occasionally fall off or are forgotten.

Belt and suspenders.

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