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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

Tell us about yourself. But only things you want us to know.
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bill_g
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#76

Post by bill_g »

sugar magnolia wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:07 am
I've done that for years. We have 2 accounts that are tied together and it automatically transfers a set amount every payday to the secondary account for bills. I rounded it up by a few bucks so it grows a little with every transfer. The primary account is to spend from and I know exactly how much I have to work with. Even when we paid off the house I kept putting the mortgage payment into the secondary account for big outlays, like the daughter's wedding or a big car repair. It's being depleted faster than I'd like by medical bills but those aren't forever. I hope.
Good morning Sugar. You can always tell who of us has longed for the fat but lived on the lean. We squirrel away a bit more now so we have more later.
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#77

Post by MN-Skeptic »

Cyrus Breckenridge wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:01 am The thing is, when I tell someone what I do, I get the feeling that I am looked upon at best as a bit of a nerd, and at worst as… how can I put it? A little TOO careful with money. But hey, it works for me.
:lovestruck:

I'm a definite spreadsheet nerd going back to the days of Visicalc. I understand your approach exactly and heartily approve!
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#78

Post by bill_g »

I heartily approve spreadsheet discussions!
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#79

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

I am a spreadsheet nerd, too, as long as someone else prepares it! :bighug:
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#80

Post by bill_g »

Day 39 of retirement and counting. It's also Day 6 of returning to work "part time", and I am a little a lot more than a little disappointed concerned angry pissed.

I took 30 days off so I could accomplish things around the house. It's first vacation I've had in a couple years. I returned because I promised I would. I returned because I have orphaned customers with projects that were delayed by all the reasons things get gummed up post-COVID. I took time off - not everybody else. There were tasks for them to complete. There were things they were supposed to accomplish while I was out of office.

Nothing got done.

Literally nothing. I heard excuses all last week from the prime contractor's team, our team, and even the customer's team. The meeting minutes from late June published the following day clearly stated what was required by each team member by name. They all had assignments. They all agreed thirty days were enough. They were all going to be ready.

Come last Wednesday not a one of them was. I distributed my August schedule prior to the chiseled in stone since Moses scheduled meeting, and immediately got responses begging off. During the call, those that attended were all backed up to the wall, pressed for time, etc, and yet somehow I am supposed to press forward without an acceptance procedure from the prime, and without consent agreements from the client. These are all boiler plate documents. They just required review and approval. How difficult is that? Site access is a phone call away. How difficult is that? Having a customer witness present has been part of their requirements from the beginning. Now they can't find someone.

And today is kickoff day. Project completion is by the end of August with all the contractual incentives to be done ahead of schedule, and all the penalties for delays. I will not be penalized for others laziness.

Ugh.

Okay. Off to the salt mines for me!
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#81

Post by Azastan »

I have no doubt that you will beat those plowshares into compliance by the end of the day, even if it's not your job.
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#82

Post by bill_g »

Azastan wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:12 am I have no doubt that you will beat those plowshares into compliance by the end of the day, even if it's not your job.
Actually, it went well yesterday. I wince and complain in here, but around the prime contractor I'm getting it done with a song in my voice. Despite the weather report predicting extreme heat, we had overcast skies and mild temps making everything bearable. The customer witness never appeared, but their PM (project mgr) verablly signed off on the exception. They also never produced an authorization to proceed, but the PM gave a verbal. I requested an email so I'd have an official communication. He agreed and we started, but he didn't send it until after lunch. The hasty procedure the OEM (original equip mfg) churned out had "errors" (formatting, spelling, syntax, grammar), but we dealt with it. Lots of boxes got checked NA (not applicable). This was expected. It will run for today while they watch for errors. Tomorrow we do it again at the next site. Rinse / repeat all through August and into September. Good times.
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#83

Post by bill_g »

[elmerfudd]Be verwy verwy qwiet, but Mrs_G just completed her sixth walk around the block with her new walker. [/elmerfudd]

I got her a new walker with four large wheels, not just dinky casters, and hand brakes, and a seat, and adjustable handles, under 20 pounds, easy to fold, and easy to push around. I put it together last Sunday, and she's made a loop around the block everyday this week before it heats up. Woohoo! Let's turn those broom sticks back into legs please! We're going to pump you up!
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#84

Post by Kriselda Gray »

Very cool, Bill!!
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#85

Post by Uninformed »

:thumbsup: :clap:
If you can't lie to yourself, who can you lie to?
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#86

Post by pipistrelle »

bill_g wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:06 pm [elmerfudd]Be verwy verwy qwiet, but Mrs_G just completed her sixth walk around the block with her new walker. [/elmerfudd]

I got her a new walker with four large wheels, not just dinky casters, and hand brakes, and a seat, and adjustable handles, under 20 pounds, easy to fold, and easy to push around. I put it together last Sunday, and she's made a loop around the block everyday this week before it heats up. Woohoo! Let's turn those broom sticks back into legs please! We're going to pump you up!
There are many programs like this, I believe. I've done some shorter ones. Would it be motivating to her? Although it sounds like she's doing okay just having better equipment.

https://www.theconqueror.events
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#87

Post by bill_g »

pipistrelle wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:36 pm
There are many programs like this, I believe. I've done some shorter ones. Would it be motivating to her? Although it sounds like she's doing okay just having better equipment.

https://www.theconqueror.events
Thank you. She's a special kind of stubborn. I'm not certain where this is coming from, but I'll take it. She found this walker on her own, had me order and assemble it, and I was very surprised when she immediately took it out for a putt. It hasn't collected dust like some of the other exercise things she's asked for in the past.

She wasn't sensitive to what she looked like, or what the neighbors would think. She just got out there and started to boogie. So, I'm going to be the willow. I'll let her sail under her own steam, and compliment her on her continued progress. If she slacks off, then I'll carefully, gently introduce her to something. She hasn't responded to other fitness programs in the past, but I'll keep these challenges in mind.
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#88

Post by pipistrelle »

bill_g wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 7:21 pm
pipistrelle wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:36 pm
There are many programs like this, I believe. I've done some shorter ones. Would it be motivating to her? Although it sounds like she's doing okay just having better equipment.

https://www.theconqueror.events
Thank you. She's a special kind of stubborn. I'm not certain where this is coming from, but I'll take it. She found this walker on her own, had me order and assemble it, and I was very surprised when she immediately took it out for a putt. It hasn't collected dust like some of the other exercise things she's asked for in the past.

She wasn't sensitive to what she looked like, or what the neighbors would think. She just got out there and started to boogie. So, I'm going to be the willow. I'll let her sail under her own steam, and compliment her on her continued progress. If she slacks off, then I'll carefully, gently introduce her to something. She hasn't responded to other fitness programs in the past, but I'll keep these challenges in mind.
My guess is don't overdo the complimenting. Maybe bury it in a, "What did you see today?" I hate coaching, compliments, motivation, etc. I want to be left alone to do what I want; I don't want to work out with anyone or hear how great I'm doing, etc. Dunno why but I hate it. (It's also in line with, "You can manage your pain. Use your mind." Yeah, no, the pain is real.)
Edit: I don't know is she needs a walker because she has a functional or balance issue or is overall weak, but she may have been afraid to do anything without a walker she has more confidence in, and she finally found it.
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#89

Post by Foggy »

The one I swear by is "Let the pain tell you what you can do and what you can not do." I'm getting really good at that one, although the pain has increased some this summer due to the stupid Popeye deformity I got in June.

You can only do what you can do, and if Mrs_g decided she could do more, then you go girl.
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#90

Post by sugar magnolia »

My surgeon is an angel. After my double mastectomy I asked him what I could and couldn't do. Totally expecting the "don't drive for 3 weeks, don't lift anything over 5 lbs, etc" litany of don'ts, but all I got was "if it hurts, stop doing it."
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#91

Post by bill_g »

Day 49 of retirement, and my project is paused by technical issues with the equipment. IE: the stuff don't work. So, I have an automatic four day weekend.

For the technically minded, here is an discussing a new chip to monitor and control Cartesian Loop Faults. It's even made in Foggy's back yard. This chip prolly isn't in this equipment, but the article gives an insight into what the alarm means. I had to look it up because it was a new one to me. Sounded exotic like you are supposed to make kissy faces everytime you say Cartesian Loop.

We didn't create the error. It's baked into the machine. The OEM is aware of it, and they are working on a firmware update to resolve it. In the meantime they are delivering equipment that will exhibit this fault. Nice. It's not a fatal fault, but it does cause the transmitter to take itself out of service until you manually reset it. Super swell. Who could possibly object to that? Certainly not I.

In the short period of time I got to diddle dink with the problem so I could explain what I was seeing to the OEM support team, I came up with a band-aid that no one likes - mask the alarm. Just turn it off, and to be safe turn the transmitter power down a bit. I'm old school, and not a big believer in horsepower ala your Ferrari doesn't go any faster than my Ford in five o'clock traffic. So, if your system design requires full power from the transmitter at all times, we have bigger issues to discuss that just a few watts here and there.

But, what do I know. I'm just the hired help, and a retired one at that.

So, I'll find something to do around the house. Maybe wash windows.
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#92

Post by keith »

bill_g wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:50 am
We didn't create the error. It's baked into the machine. The OEM is aware of it, and they are working on a firmware update to resolve it. In the meantime they are delivering equipment that will exhibit this fault. Nice.
Not that unusual, of course. I'm old enough to remember when Intel was running around with their hair on fire because they screwed up the floating point arithmetic circuit on their brand spanking new all singing all dancing CPU (the Pentium, I think). Those CPUs were supported by Windows software kludges for years and years and years.
It's not a fatal fault, but it does cause the transmitter to take itself out of service until you manually reset it. Super swell. Who could possibly object to that? Certainly not I.
The Intel floating point bug wasn't fatal to the program either. Course it might have been fatal if you relied on it to land an airplane I suppose.
In the short period of time I got to diddle dink with the problem so I could explain what I was seeing to the OEM support team,
Wait, are you saying that YOU are the one that identified and reported the problem?

Kudos to you fine sir.

I'm still recovering from the broken arm that I gave myself from patting myself on the back over 40 years ago when I figured out a way to almost completely eliminate page collection in the IBM DOS operating system (I don't think it was DOS/VS yet, but maybe) by changing one instruction. My fix got adopted by a 3rd Party add-on software company, but not IBM. IBM's solution was to recommend that DOS always be run as a guest under VM and therefore use the much better VM memory allocation - which was an excellent idea for many more reasons than just that one.
Has everybody heard about the bird?
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Re: Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#93

Post by bill_g »

keith wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 4:19 am Wait, are you saying that YOU are the one that identified and reported the problem?

Kudos to you fine sir.

I'm still recovering from the broken arm that I gave myself from patting myself on the back over 40 years ago when I figured out a way to almost completely eliminate page collection in the IBM DOS operating system (I don't think it was DOS/VS yet, but maybe) by changing one instruction. My fix got adopted by a 3rd Party add-on software company, but not IBM. IBM's solution was to recommend that DOS always be run as a guest under VM and therefore use the much better VM memory allocation - which was an excellent idea for many more reasons than just that one.
I can't make that claim for fear of suffering that broken arm. The chain of events was pretty simple. We finished a major site, and within hours the NOC was reporting several stations off line. A remote view of the logs showed this new alarm: CARTESIAN LOOP FAULT. That led to a Google search that suggested a PA power control fault, and a groan from myself along the lines of "here we go again". That was confirmed by toggleing the transmitter self test bit which cleared the fault and placed the station back in service.

My groans became less pronounced. I had been battling this exact issue for years with the previous generation, and had arrived at a McGuiver to keep it in service. From the CLI I masked the LOW FORWARD POWER alarm so it was no longer reported by reducing the forward power threashold to something impossibly low, and then for equipment safety sake I reduced the overall power. Now they call it CARTESIAN LOOP FAULT. How very obscure of them. I'm sure it is quite literal and specific. Another clue would have been appreciated, but I muddled through.

The problem as I see it is a matter of how they measure the transmitter power. They are applying too much averaging. During a voice call, the power rises up quickly, hits the number, and stays there for the duration of the call. It hits that number during the power sample window (whatever that period is) thus not triggering the alarm. But, during a data call when packets are being exchanged back and forth (measured in microseconds), the average power target never gets achieved, the sample period expires, the alarm is qualified, and the station goes into self preservation mode taking itself out of service. When I later enable a self test, it reaches full power, shrugs, clears the fault, and merrily moves along with no remorse. Machines do that. Wonderful. They've kept me employed for years. Bless them and their silicone hearts.

So, yes I identified it (again) (kind of), but unfortunately I embarrassed the OEM while causing great anxiety in the customer admins. Not deliberately. I saw it as protecting everyone's interests and forwarding the project. The contract managers saw it that way too. The project is restarting Monday, and the work we missed this week has moved to the last week of August.

Onward!
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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#94

Post by bill_g »

Ugh. I hate this. Probably the best thing for me to do is keep it to myself, and not start a shitstorm. I have a customer with an internal saboteur. I have photographic proof of the action, but none towards a specific person.

We're meat eaters in our company, and I'll do cold calls on potential major accounts to drum up business whenever I can. In this case it's a large regional healthcare provider with four large hospitals, several small hospitals, and dozens of satellite immediate care storefronts spread out across OR and WA. They have a radio system sold, installed and maintained by our competition. It's their account to lose. I've been courting this company for a couple of years, and they called me up a month ago to resolve some long standing issues. Woohoo!

I'll just say it's been bumpy and mysterious. Equipment with no history of going senile suddenly loses all of it's programming. Fiber optic cables swapped. Power cords on the floor and equipment dark. Antenna lines disconnected. And that the one I have proof of. I was at one of their big hospitals last Wednesday to investigate coverage issues as part of this introductory effort. That's not entirely unusual for large buildings with tons of electronics to have coverage issues these days. It comes with the territory, and yes - they have some easily identified dead spots, but no specific quick easily resolved failures. I took notes, and a lot of pictures.

I'm done by lunch and head home. I get a call mid-afternoon. What did I touch? What did I do because now nothing works out there. (Spock eyebrow) I head back out. Coverage seems the same to me. It's just as good or bad as earlier. Another peek at the headend. Another walk around the premises. Shoulder shrug. I can only guess what changed. My customer escort is equally baffled, but very concerned. I leave again.

The following morning we get another call out there. I put some other eyes on it. Fresh perspective. Maybe he'll see something I didn't. And he does. Immediately. The mainline jumper to the antenna is laying on the floor. Interesting. You'd think I'd catch that. Well clearly I didn't because there it is on the floor. That's when I go through my pictures, and in a couple I show that cable connected. It's not on the floor. It's screwed on tight. I recall tracing the line out to the wall gripping it the whole way to untangle it from the bundle of other wires it was entwined with. It was neither loose nor disconnected.

So, here we are. Mysteries abounding, an account that wants our assistance, and someone within it that doesn't. And that someone seems to have access across the region. Who they are isn't my problem, and maybe this account isn't worth the hassle. I have to decide what to do.

Ugh. I hate this.
Ugh.
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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#95

Post by Slim Cognito »

Cue up Twilight Zone theme song.


(Best of luck on a tough decision.)
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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#96

Post by bill_g »

It's the right season, but ectoplasmic beings generally leave me alone since I'm highly regarded as a friend and ally.
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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#97

Post by Foggy »

It would seem that someone high up enough in the administration to hire you would want the problem solved, and you should discuss with her. Or him, as the case may be.

I would tell that person that first they need to hire a private detective, and then you. But I am not you, and I often give people terrible advice. :mrgreen:
Edit: I know it's not bad advice to tell that person that you are NOT a private detective, and you can't do what they do.
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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#98

Post by Foggy »

Second thought - whoever is doing this knows what to do, which many hospital people do not. I think that's a clue. I would look for a recently fired tech. Who had the job before you, and what happened that they had to hire you?
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#99

Post by bill_g »

Foggy wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:10 am Second thought - whoever is doing this knows what to do, which many hospital people do not. I think that's a clue. I would look for a recently fired tech. Who had the job before you, and what happened that they had to hire you?
It is definitely someone that has a clue, keys, an employee badge, and can travel to multiple facilities (cuz I've had other mysteries in the brief time I've entertained this account). But, unlike the TV detectives, I do not have a legion of spokesmodel molecular biologists with PHd's and a microscope at my disposal. So, I'm kinda stuck rubbing two brain cells together hoping for some heat.
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Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

#100

Post by Kriselda Gray »

I think Foggy's idea is good. If they've got someone going rogue and trying to sabotage them, they need to know so they can try to protect themselves. It's possible a saboteur could also be messing with other systems as well. Bringing in someone neutral who's equipped to conduct an investigation would likely get them the best results.

Good luck with whatever you decide!
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