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Jamon Being an Adult

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owidjaja:

--- Quote from: jamonwindeyer on April 21, 2018, 12:24:51 am ---I felt really good at work this week - I think because I've actually got experience working with SCADA systems, I can be more to my boss than just a "yes man." I can actually challenge his thoughts and provide a different perspective. At one stage we were discussing something and I caught myself saying, "I don't think that's right mate, I think it's actually _________," and I sort of went on autopilot then because I was too busy thinking, "Wait, what am I doing." I'm actually at the point now where I can be a member of the team, and it sort of took me by surprise, because I haven't ever had the confidence in my own work to do that yet. Really cool ;D


--- End quote ---
Hello person who happens to be loitering around AN at obscene hours.
Haha must emphasise on the mate- the most Aussie thing I've ever heard (just read an article that Australian's aren't pronouncing Australia correctly anymore- very compelling news article from Sydney Morning Herald I lied it was ridiculous).


--- Quote from: jamonwindeyer on April 21, 2018, 12:24:51 am ---Haven't spoken about my home-life much lately, mostly because I've settled in to the new apartment and not much is happening. I'm majorly hating the lack of daylight atm though, has made it so hard to go for a run after work or generally do anything outside.

--- End quote ---
Yeahh, daylight savings is screwing up everything tbh, especially my cat since she asks for food one hour earlier than her usual time.
But I did see Asian dad meme pre-half yearlies of him being like: 'Daylight saving time: one extra hour for studying.' lol

jamonwindeyer:

--- Quote from: owidjaja on April 21, 2018, 12:36:36 am ---Hello person who happens to be loitering around AN at obscene hours.
Haha must emphasise on the mate- the most Aussie thing I've ever heard
--- End quote ---

It's a very 'colloquial' work environment ;)


--- Quote ---Yeahh, daylight savings is screwing up everything tbh, especially my cat since she asks for food one hour earlier than her usual time.
But I did see Asian dad meme pre-half yearlies of him being like: 'Daylight saving time: one extra hour for studying.' lol

--- End quote ---

That's such a good meme  :o

Ironically, daylight savings time is what is breaking the time synchronisation between the machines in the SCADA network I'm working on! It's fixed now (in theory), but apparently the version they currently have is all out of whack because of daylight savings :P

jamonwindeyer:
Week 14 (Days 1-3)

Public holidays rule ;)

Have spent the first half of this week continuing my work on configuring the machines for the new SCADA system. This system will be implemented in a train station in New Zealand, pretty exciting! Not a whole lot has actually happened, primarily because my boss and I have been spending 90% of our time troubleshooting stuff rather than actually doing stuff. But we hit a milestone yesterday so work should move faster now - We're at the stage where we are doing lots of tests to make sure it actually works properly when it gets to site.

I've gained a new appreciation for Windows. These computers cannot fail (at least not for an extended period), they are responsible for safety systems and security monitoring and all other sorts of important things. So, the system has lots of in built redundancy, which is just a fancy way of saying that we've got extra bits in there purely to take over if other stuff fails. It serves no function unless something breaks. Part of this is a backup disc with images of the operating system which will automatically boot into a recovery mode if the main disc fails - Which means modifying settings in the BIOS (Basic Input/Output Settings) of the board behind the operating system itself.

Basically, although I use Mac for non-work stuff - I shudder to think how I'd go trying this crap on a Mac where Apple locks you out of everything. In Windows, you can pretty much access and change anything you want to. This is great - But also like, keeps you on your toes. Gotta pay attention when you know you could potentially wreck a machine with a few stray keystrokes!

jamonwindeyer:
Week 14 (Days 4-5)

Bit late with this journal entry! Not much to report - Still working on configuring these SCADA machines.

Rant/Insight into Troubleshooting Process: Spent like two hours diagnosing why I couldn't get into the BIOS of one of the machines. I'd hold the F10/ESC or whatever key on startup like you were supposed to, it would make the beep like it was supposed to, then... Zilch. Blank screen. I was paranoid I'd deleted something important and that I'd need to re-download stuff from HP, etc.

I tried to stop assuming stuff. My supervisor was always super logical when he helped me troubleshoot. Stuff doesn't just happen.

So, why was just this machine doing it, not the others? What was different? All of the computers are identical and I'm trying to do the same thing. Faulty unit? Nah, brand new, what are the chances? Maybe I'll unplug all the extra networking cables to see if it is trying to remote boot or something. No, okay I'll plug them back in. What the hell is...

The monitor cable. Every other machine is a DVI cable. This is a HDMI connection. Swap it over - Yes! The HDMI drivers must be loaded as part of the Windows OS. So what I was doing was working, I just couldn't see it. Go figure.

Lesson for the Week: Nothing breaks/doesn't work for no reason. First step to fix something is to figure out why it broke ;D

jamonwindeyer:
Weeks 15-16

Decided to lump two weeks together for this entry because there's not a whole lot to discuss!! What's happened these last two weeks?

- Finished configuring the PCs for the SCADA network
- Finished the test sheets for the bench test. Since these computers are going into a system that is in charge of emergency evacuations, monitoring dangerous equipment (etc), it needs to be extensively tested. About 50 sheets full of checkmarks, essentially saying, "Yes I push this button and yes it does this thing."
- Wrote/edited a big chunky booklet detailing how everything on the machines works and how it has changed from previous versions

Interesting story - Had a PLC (programmable logic controller) power supply break in testing. A $20,000, literally designed to never break, piece of equipment - Broke. Lovely. It was super old (like, hasn't even been made in 15 years), but these things are designed to run a PLC forever. Boss said he's never seen one just randomly die like it did.

Two cool things about this. One, the company who loaned it to us had another one to loan us. Two, since they don't make it anymore, they don't want the broken one back - So I got to crack it open and check out the PCB on the inside, try to find the fault. I didn't (as if you could, it was a maze of connections), but it was really fascinating to get a look at. I've learned a lot about more complex PCB design at uni, but have never seen more than basic, small ones. Was cool to finally see something with more complexity ;D
I've seriously gotten lazy with going for runs, but I feel it's only partially my fault - It gets dark way too quickly! Instead, I've just been doing stuff in my apartment that I can. Super stupid circuit I came up with the other night because it was raining and dark and I was feeling so unproductive having not moved around a bit:

- Run upstairs
- 10 Push Ups
- Run downstairs
- 10 sit ups
- Repeat all that twenty times

Really should have anticipated this issue and bought some weights or something. Might make a trip to Kmart this week, find something to actually make exercising in this tiny apartment somewhat possible. I could also join a gym, but given I'm only here another two months, probably a bit late :P

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