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I had to Google that.

Heiwashin wrote:

I had to Google that.

I hope they're well-paid for what they have to endure.

My guess is that the first heavy use of IRTs was the Soviet use of Lake Ladoga as a road to bring in supplies during winter through the Siege of Leningrad.

Captain Ned wrote:

My guess is that the first heavy use of IRTs was the Soviet use of Lake Ladoga as a road to bring in supplies during winter through the Siege of Leningrad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_of_Life
Always been fascinated by WWII history.

Eh, I really loathe office politics BS. So my code has been running without any errors or change for over two years starts throwing SQL 'timeout' warnings and the DBA(s) decide that the fault lies with my app and wants me to 'fix' it. The DBA supervisor goes to my supervisor and tells him that my code is the problem. My supervisor tells me to 'fix' my code. When I state the facts to him regarding the flawless run of my code over the past couple of years and that I had not submitted any changes to date, he asks my previous supervisor to review my code and 'fix' it. That person tells me that I should change a 'move' to a 'copy' because that is the way he would do it and that he would send me a capture of the offending code. I never receive it. I do a search and the only move I do is a temp log file from the working folder to the archive. It has no bearing on the SQL 'timeout'. The supervisor then asks my ex-previous supervisor to review my code...nothing.

A side note is these two people were in the same advanced cobol class as I was and took the entrance test for the state internship at the same time also. My GPA was higher than theirs and I also edged them in the entrance score.

Undeterred, my supervisor then has the new hire wunderkind review my project and he suggests a rewrite AFTER I do the necessary Threat Modeling and Data Dependencies charts, because he had no idea what the program was supposed to do but was sure going through the steps of creating the charts would make visible the issue.

In the meantime, they had moved the suspect DB three times as that was the DB group's 'fix' for when they couldn't find the cause. Miraculously, the moves alleviate the 'timeout' condition...for about two weeks. Like clockwork, the SQL error would return and, like clockwork, there were renewed calls for me to 'fix' my code.

Short story, the security group had implemented new protocols and one of which was updating the McAfee Security Agent on the servers. Not surprisingly, the McAfee Agent is a resource hog and the default install was locking up threads as it did scans. They never truly fix my timeout and I am still expected to rewrite/optimize my app though the 'timeout' went away when they disabled the McAfee Agent in the process of shutting down all extraneous processes on the server because another persons process had ballooned from 1.5 hours to 27 hours! I was just a side beneficiary.

The cherry on the cake is I just had a meeting with two 'investigators' from the Auditor's office related to an anonymous whistleblower program. They wanted to know why I had more than one browser installed on my workstation. Duh, I'm a programmer and, sometimes, web developer!?! Also, do I think I am cheating the taxpayers of the state by spending 32 hours a year on the internet on sites not directly related to work? (We have a reverse-proxy firewall to filter out the 'objectionable' sites and not sure how they categorize 'work related'.) I inform them that I am a salaried employee that is paid for my results AND to be available 24 hours a day to monitor and maintain parts of our system after they are deployed and my hours on the internet 'costs' the taxpayers about as much as the full-time firefighters watching a movie or cooking a dinner at the station. "If you had an FTE and had the choice of hiring a candidate who could do the necessary work in fifteen minutes and then took slack time or one who struggled mightily to barely finish the job after an entire day, who would you hire?", I retorted to their jab. I refrained from making a personal statement regarding the auditors and their jobs.

Anyways, they inform me that my name will be open for public inquiry but that the person who submitted the anonymous 'tip' will be protected. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who did the submission as the time the 'tip' originated in the same period wherein a certain DBA threw a hissy-fit when I pointed out the flaw in her logic regarding the timeout issue affecting my process. We will have to wait and see if the Techreport makes it on the ban list of sites on the McAfee firewall due it being in my history list of sites I 'waste time' on.

They have probably 'wasted' more taxpayer dollars on these witch hunts than have the defendants. *end rant*

Amazon trade-ins have got to be the best use ever for old tech books. There's $130 in gift card credit on my account now, just by sending in a bunch of old books I never use anymore.

Finally finished listening to the 3 nights of music in the Grateful Dead box set recorded at their "finale" at Soldier Field this past July. All through the listening something was bugging me at a very low level and I finally figured it out. Bobby Weir wouldn't allow any Pigpen tunes in those shows.

I need to go through all our books and see about that. I'm 100% OK getting paid in gift cards, I use Amazon for diapers, toilet paper, etc. Hell, I could almost buy a chainsaw on amazon for t hat....

If you've got a lot of them, like I did, it can work out pretty well. Some had a trade in value of only a few bucks individually, but with everything put together it started to add up. Plus, Amazon gives you a pre-paid shipping label so you don't have to pay for shipping. I threw everything in a spare box I had and dropped it off, and got the gift card a week or so later.

Wapakoneta, oh this weekend although I don't really get a break. Eating at a Mexican restaurant. Asked for a large drink and she said that was 45oz. Holy **** this town can drink. Medium thanks.

45oz? Oh, 1.33L, got it. I swear, I use metric so much that I actually don't understand fl oz...

localhostrulez wrote:

45oz? Oh, 1.33L, got it. I swear, I use metric so much that I actually don't understand fl oz...

I once saw a random sign on the interstate that said the distance to the next town in miles and km. It's the only one ive seen in the country. We really should convert to metric and stop being so stagnant.

One little bug up my rear - schools teach metric, but industry forces you to english units for a lot of things. And unfortunately, there's a lot of mechanical stuff out there in english units. That's gonna be fun.

The sooner we switch, the better.

I got a flashlight on black friday. Nothing special; about 10 bucks on sale, takes 2 or 3 c cell batteries, low end metal construction...and 1000 lumens. *cackle* I can point it at my back gate from my kitchen, go to my back gate and read by it's light.

I liked it so much I bought 2 as joke gifts for friends (inside joke). I'm sure it's not as durable as a Fenix or Surefire but for indoors power out use, it's great. And I'm amazed at how far they've come sice I was a kid. Damn

Very nice. I have a fenix rc40 in the truck so when i'm pulling into pitch black areas and can't see where i'm supposed to go, i can just point a small sun out the window.

Only 3500 lumens? Ha, try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVqRy0sWWY

localhostrulez wrote:

One little bug up my rear - schools teach metric, but industry forces you to english units for a lot of things. And unfortunately, there's a lot of mechanical stuff out there in english units. That's gonna be fun.

The sooner we switch, the better.

Not going to happen in your lifetime, IMO. People have been saying this since I was in elementary school, if not longer. There was a pretty big push for it back in the 1970s which fizzled; we're not even really trying any more.

paulWTAMU wrote:

I got a flashlight on black friday. Nothing special; about 10 bucks on sale, takes 2 or 3 c cell batteries, low end metal construction...and 1000 lumens. *cackle* I can point it at my back gate from my kitchen, go to my back gate and read by it's light.

That must've looked pretty odd to the neighbors.

just brew it! wrote:

Dude, Where's My 747?

No "and then!"

That must've looked pretty odd to the neighbors.

Whats life if you can't puzzle the neighbors on occasion?

I did that when I gave DIY anodizing a try. Since I didn't want to buy a chiller to cool down the anodizing solution to the proper temperature the only time I could do it was early in the morning or late at night. It took me a few tries to get it right, so for a few days my apartment started smelling like pool chemicals at odd hours.

It also made me wonder what kind of watch lists I was on now having bought a big plastic tub, pool chemicals, and electronics all at once.

Diy anodizing sounds fun. I didn't know that was a thing. Now I want to do it.

paulWTAMU wrote:

I got a flashlight on black friday. Nothing special; about 10 bucks on sale, takes 2 or 3 c cell batteries, low end metal construction...and 1000 lumens. *cackle* I can point it at my back gate from my kitchen, go to my back gate and read by it's light.

I liked it so much I bought 2 as joke gifts for friends (inside joke). I'm sure it's not as durable as a Fenix or Surefire but for indoors power out use, it's great. And I'm amazed at how far they've come sice I was a kid. Damn

Obligatory XKCD from a month ago http://www.xkcd.com/1603/

I know exactly what you mean though, I was having more fun than I should've with mine. And Costco already replaced it with a 1300 lumen model... The things make Maglites look like a joke.

Heiwashin wrote:

Diy anodizing sounds fun. I didn't know that was a thing. Now I want to do it.

It's actually pretty simple, and relatively safe to do at home also.

it's that time of year for us. Got sent home from work because I can't quit bringing up my lungs. Been sick for 2 damn weeks. Ugh. On the flip side, got a masonry bit to bolt my gun safe down, and some more AA batteries that were on sale (10 bucks for 20 odd energizers, SURE!)

paulWTAMU wrote:

it's that time of year for us. Got sent home from work because I can't quit bringing up my lungs. Been sick for 2 damn weeks. Ugh. On the flip side, got a masonry bit to bolt my gun safe down, and some more AA batteries that were on sale (10 bucks for 20 odd energizers, SURE!)

Sorry to hear that, and empathize. I picked up something from the visiting nieces and nephews over Thanksgiving and still can't shake it. Started viral, transitioned to bacterial, and now its personal.

My theory is that all daycare is secretly a biowar program that the government figured out how to make self funding. I've never been as sick in my life as I have been the first year after each kid hit daycare

paulWTAMU wrote:

My theory is that all daycare is secretly a biowar program that the government figured out how to make self funding. I've never been as sick in my life as I have been the first year after each kid hit daycare

My exact term for daycare back when daughter needed same was "the pit of pestilence". Since her first daycare was across the road from the big IBM plant here in VT, which always had lots of foreign-based temp-duty kids in the daycare, I should now be immune to most tropical and South Asian diseases.

Parked in ennis texas.I worked 69 hours and 59 minutes this week. Legally i can only work 70 and still be able to drive. It's been a busy two weeks. Now i'm planning to find some nice drinks. Too bad i didn't have a few more minutes available. Would have liked to have found a place in dallas to stop.

Heiwashin wrote:

Too bad i didn't have a few more minutes available. Would have liked to have found a place in dallas to stop.

Are you OO or company? Oh, and stay away from the lot lizards (not that I have to tell you that).

Captain Ned wrote:

Are you OO or company? Oh, and stay away from the lot lizards (not that I have to tell you that).

Company. I haven't seen proof yet that being an owner is worth it. From what i can tell the economies of scale that bigger companies experience works out well enough that they can pay us similarly to what most oo's make anyway, and with less risk(practically none) to me financially.

*edit also my few encounters with lot lizards have been them quickly accosting me when i'm on my way back to the truck and saying they're selling jewelry or need a ride or some random nonsense. They always seem mad when you turn them down. I'm always scared they'll cut my lines or something.