The AP published an article describing how newly minted Brazilian middle class are coming to the US to shop. This brought back memories of my former Brazilian colleagues going on buying binges at Best Buy and stuffing their luggage with electronics to take home. After going to Brazil and seeing how much electronics and luxury goods cost it was understandable. The inflation in pricing is due to luxury type taxes.
The weather in Northern Illinois has been ridiculous. Tuesday morning it was 50+ degrees, Tuesday evening it was snowing sideways. There is snow on the ground now but it is supposed to be 60 degrees and sunny Tuesday. We have had a very light winter, not too cold and very little snow. Unfortunately that typically means the bugs will be very bad this summer.
Received the 2012 Baseball Prospectus yesterday. The predictions for the Cubs are less than stellar as expected. If they can finish at 0.500 (in the weakest division in MLB) it will be a miracle.
I started playing Rugby last week. It is a great game but I have a lot to learn. It doesn’t look so difficult when you are watching, but things on the field happen quickly and it is difficult to stay on top of what is going on. The guys on the team are very supportive though, nobody in this country played Rugby as kids and so everyone was in the same position at some time. I have been playing in running shoes on a muddy field because I don’t have boots (AKA cleats) yet. Having boots should make a big difference.
I have been trying to make progress on some java software development lately and not spending much time trolling the internet for interesting things to post here.
We provided a tour of SSC to the NIU IEEE Student Group yesterday morning. It went very well, they were all impressed with the steelmaking process and had some good questions. I was very surprised at the turnout for 0900 on a Saturday morning. As always I made a pitch for considering an Engineering career in steel.
I’m diligently working on Engineering for the replacement of metering, protection and control of our main distribution substation. It is all analog electro-mechanical Westinghouse equipment that is being replaced with SEL digital components. Our documentation is dated (~1950′s) and not the best which makes the job harder than it normally would be. I end up doing more reverse engineering than forward engineering.
Looking forward to spring….
Watched “The American” with George Clooney last night. It was a decent movie, but the ending was less than optimal.
We (SSC) have been fighting an issue on our EAF for the last few months. Once in a great while a spot on the lower front part of the B-phase current conducting arm electrode holder would become hot and start glowing. This area is made of copper. I have never seen an issue like this and discussed it with many of my contacts. We checked everything we could think of and could not find an issue. Unfortunately the hot spot would occasionally return, requiring EAF power to be switched off resulting in loss of production time.
We decided to change the B-phase current conductive arm last week. We had other reasons for the arm change besides the hot spot issue. Prior to energizing the arm we took meg-ohm readings between the arm and ground and came up with 6 meg-ohms of insulation (which is plenty). We also checked that the new arm was aligned properly on the pitch circle, it was perfect.
The arm is an electrical component of the EAF power delivery system, but the change is more of a mechanical than electrical task. Our guys got it done perfectly. We started the EAF last night with no issues. It is nice to work with competent maintenance. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the arm last night at start up so I can’t post it.
Fifty years ago yesterday Francis Gary Powers (a USAF/CIA pilot) and Rudolf Abel were exchanged between the USA and Soviet Union on the Glienicke Brucke. The History Channel has an article discussing high profile prisoner exchanges that took place on this bridge.
According to Forbes top executive recruiters claim there are only three true job interview questions:
This works for me.
Came across this while looking for something related. Black Duck Software apparently spent a lot of time looking at new open source projects and rated them on several factors to develop a top 10 list. The Diaspora Project came in at #1, which is cool. I didn’t recognize any of the other projects. This is the 4th year they have developed the top 10 rookies of the year.
Watched Apollo 18 last night. I haven’t seen a movie that bad in a long time. Don’t waste your time!
There was a post last week on kottke.org about the increase in completely open office layouts where rows of people work side by side. I was thinking about this and thought I would mention the various ‘office’ spaces I have worked in.
My first engineering job for Lockheed Martin was in a cubicle city, a converted former 2 floor warehouse with 12″ slits of glass for windows every 15 feet or so around the perimeter. There were approximately 10 rows of 25 or so cubicles if I remember correctly (in our bay). The facility was on a decent sized lot with grassy outdoor space, but we were discouraged from loitering around outside due to security concerns. This was the first time I had ever worked in an environment like this. I did not care for it.
My boss at NorthStar steel couldn’t be bothered to make arrangements for me to have an office, or desk, chair, etc. I was told to clean out a closet that was being used for storage by quality assurance and use that as an office. It was a closet, approximately 8×5 feet, no window obviously. I found a couple of file cabinets and a desktop and turned it into a desk. Found a chair and a bookshelf someplace else and made the best of it. Stayed in that office for about 2 years, then was able to move into a real office. After I accepted a corporate position and started traveling for the company the local people politely moved my things into the hall while I was gone. They needed the office. I ended up moving into another storage closet in the chem. lab. I was only there about one day every few weeks so it didn’t really matter much. The chem. lab closet was quiet, a little bigger than the first but the ceiling leaked.
NorthStar was purchased by Gerdau, a Brazilian company. Gerdau management in Brazil had embraced the open office concept many years ago. Most of their offices in Brazil were open floor plans with walled in meeting rooms available. I spent a decent amount of time in Brazil working in these offices and actually found them to be OK. It was better than a cubicle city. Most people popped in earbuds when they didn’t want to be distracted. The facilities in the US that have been purchased by Gerdau have been encouraged to convert to open office plans.
I worked from home for a year while consulting. This was by far the best office I have ever had. A nice view of the front yard and street, three windows that opened, a 20MB internet connection, comfortable chair, Macbook Pro and a Linux box. I had no distractions, was able to be productive and achieve very deep focus.
We have offices at Sterling Steel. When I started they had an office, laptop, desk and chair ready for me. I’m in the basement, so no window but the office is nice. It needs a paint job which I will probably do myself sometime soon.
The kottke.org post has a link to a blog post describing FogCreek’s new offices, very nice.