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Apr. 14th, 2006
A little back story. Fall '04 I was planning on taking an advanced computer security course which required heavy use of Red Hat Linux. So I downloaded it, burned a couple of CD images, and installed it on my laptop. This made my laptop dual-boot so that I could continue using my Win XP installation.
Naturally the class was cancelled.
I've had an interest in learning LAMP, an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The AMP portion of it powers a HUGE number of web sites, I can't give you the exact number, but it's impressive. So I used the Red Hat installation to work with AMP, largely unsuccessfully. Time passes, and I forget my Linux passwords! Yes, I should have put them in an encrypted note in my Palm Pilot, but I shouldn't have needed to as I was using a formula that I use for generating passwords, but somehow I screwed up.
And since a lot of people on my flist have probably zero interest in Linux, I'll hide the rest under a cut!
( Read more... )
Naturally the class was cancelled.
I've had an interest in learning LAMP, an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The AMP portion of it powers a HUGE number of web sites, I can't give you the exact number, but it's impressive. So I used the Red Hat installation to work with AMP, largely unsuccessfully. Time passes, and I forget my Linux passwords! Yes, I should have put them in an encrypted note in my Palm Pilot, but I shouldn't have needed to as I was using a formula that I use for generating passwords, but somehow I screwed up.
And since a lot of people on my flist have probably zero interest in Linux, I'll hide the rest under a cut!
( Read more... )
Russet needed someone to help her do some tests on the tertiary mirror of the telescope. So she crawled under and literally into the telescope to test some movement limit switches and observe the mirror's motion as I entered commands to move it.
Pretty cool!
I am such a geek. :-)
I also helped prevent a bit of nastiness and a potential extremely expensive catastrophe. Tonight is an engineering night, so there is no one using the telescope for science, it's just Russet and a programmer in New York who is helping her with some software issues via remote access and chat. Before I helped her with the tertiary test, she had mounted an instrument on the telescope called DIS (Dual-Imaging Spectrograph). After we finished her tests, she decided to mount CoreMas, so I helped her take DIS off and put CoreMas on. Well, until I noticed one of the catches wasn't seating quite right.
The instruments mount on the side of the telescope on a rotator collar that can rotate the instrument a full +/- 360 degrees. The instrument sits on two big steel pins, then four clamps hold it flush against this ring. Standard procedure is to position the cart, lower the cart until the instrument is resting on the pins, clamp the two top clamps, lower the cart another inch or two, clamp the lower clamps, then remove the cart entirely. Generally there is a box or something on the instrument that would hit the cart and damage the instrument if the cart is not removed.
Tonight one of the lower clamps did not lock in place.
So basically, if it had not been noticed, it is possible that if the instrument had been rotated so that the insecure clamp was on top, there would be uneven stress on the three remaining clamps and it is possible that the instrument could fall off and drop to the ground.
Though I don't know for certain, I would guess that these things run $100-200,000.
Not a good thing!
So I get mentioned in tonight's log report twice: once for helping with the tertiary diagnostic, and again on the problem report for the bad clamp!
WHEEE! (I am still such a geek.)
(oh, almost forgot to mention, I also got to close and open the dome!)
Pretty cool!
I am such a geek. :-)
I also helped prevent a bit of nastiness and a potential extremely expensive catastrophe. Tonight is an engineering night, so there is no one using the telescope for science, it's just Russet and a programmer in New York who is helping her with some software issues via remote access and chat. Before I helped her with the tertiary test, she had mounted an instrument on the telescope called DIS (Dual-Imaging Spectrograph). After we finished her tests, she decided to mount CoreMas, so I helped her take DIS off and put CoreMas on. Well, until I noticed one of the catches wasn't seating quite right.
The instruments mount on the side of the telescope on a rotator collar that can rotate the instrument a full +/- 360 degrees. The instrument sits on two big steel pins, then four clamps hold it flush against this ring. Standard procedure is to position the cart, lower the cart until the instrument is resting on the pins, clamp the two top clamps, lower the cart another inch or two, clamp the lower clamps, then remove the cart entirely. Generally there is a box or something on the instrument that would hit the cart and damage the instrument if the cart is not removed.
Tonight one of the lower clamps did not lock in place.
So basically, if it had not been noticed, it is possible that if the instrument had been rotated so that the insecure clamp was on top, there would be uneven stress on the three remaining clamps and it is possible that the instrument could fall off and drop to the ground.
Though I don't know for certain, I would guess that these things run $100-200,000.
Not a good thing!
So I get mentioned in tonight's log report twice: once for helping with the tertiary diagnostic, and again on the problem report for the bad clamp!
WHEEE! (I am still such a geek.)
(oh, almost forgot to mention, I also got to close and open the dome!)
Looks like things might be improving for me on that front, though the reason behind it is kind of sad.
My boss said that we can start putting in more hours, and he told me that he'd be doing a review on me soon and putting me in for a raise. So the other part-timer and I can go up to 39 hours pretty much effective immediately (except we're closed Friday-Sunday this weekend for Easter, and since I really didn't get any time off for Spring Break, this is a good thing). So between the additional 20 hours and the raise, that should be good for at least $150 a week.
I'm still going to look into other jobs over the summer that are more in line with what I do. I freely admit that I am a rather lazy person in many regards, this job is boring even unto me. But it is a good opportunity to get my homework done, but that only takes a third or less of my (formerly) 19 hour work week. I'll have to see how I can work in the additional hours, especially factoring in having to do two or three more shoots for my portraiture class.
My boss also told me that there's a full-time position opening up, so if I decide to stay, I'll definitely be putting in for it.
Here's the sad reason for the hours becoming available. In my corner of the computer center, there are a total of four people. Two full-time (including my boss) and two part-time (including me). There's another full-time computer person in the center, he's pretty much the head honcho. I've never known what was wrong with him. I thought he might have MS, he was always on a walker or with the forearm crutches, he wore an eye patch, he had a soft but steady voice. He was obviously physically frail.
I found out a week ago that it wasn't a medical condition per se, he had a motorcycle accident, and it was a doozy.
He was riding to Albuquerque on back roads and he had a stroke.
On a motorcycle.
He went over the handlebars, breaking both femurs (the upper bone in your leg commonly known as your thigh). Damage from the stroke, lots of damage from the wreck. And he wasn't wearing a helmet, so add some additional brain damage and head trauma to the mix.
He was discovered by a farmer on a back road near Moriarty.
This was two something years ago, and he made it back to work. He seemed to be doing fairly well. He sometimes used a walker, but mostly used the crutches. Well, last Friday as he was heading to his truck to go home, he fell and broke his femur again.
The initial reports were that he fell and broke his leg, subsequent reports are that his leg did not fully heal and broke while he was walking with his crutches, causing the fall. I don't know which is the accurate report, I suspect the latter.
Well, the additional hours are available so that my boss can begin covering Stan's job while he's out. People started saying "Oh, he'll be back in a couple of weeks." I was thinking that we'll be having snowball fights in Alamogordo any afternoon now if he's back before the Fall semster. Now they're saying that he might take a medical retirement and retire for good.
I feel really sorry for the guy. He's less than 10 years older than I am, it's kind of funny how someone i their mid 50's would seem ancient when you're in your 20's or 30's, but when you're in your mid 40's, suddenly he becomes "not much older than you are". He has a wife and one or more kids, I just think it would really suck to take a disability retirement when you're still potentially vital, and he's the second person this year who is well under retirement age who might have to do it. What's worse is the other potential early retiree is my renter and friend, Michelle. She hasn't hit 40 yet and her fibromyalgia is just wiping her out. She had a $70,000+ job and was working on a Master's in Accounting, and that's all going out the window.
My boss said that we can start putting in more hours, and he told me that he'd be doing a review on me soon and putting me in for a raise. So the other part-timer and I can go up to 39 hours pretty much effective immediately (except we're closed Friday-Sunday this weekend for Easter, and since I really didn't get any time off for Spring Break, this is a good thing). So between the additional 20 hours and the raise, that should be good for at least $150 a week.
I'm still going to look into other jobs over the summer that are more in line with what I do. I freely admit that I am a rather lazy person in many regards, this job is boring even unto me. But it is a good opportunity to get my homework done, but that only takes a third or less of my (formerly) 19 hour work week. I'll have to see how I can work in the additional hours, especially factoring in having to do two or three more shoots for my portraiture class.
My boss also told me that there's a full-time position opening up, so if I decide to stay, I'll definitely be putting in for it.
Here's the sad reason for the hours becoming available. In my corner of the computer center, there are a total of four people. Two full-time (including my boss) and two part-time (including me). There's another full-time computer person in the center, he's pretty much the head honcho. I've never known what was wrong with him. I thought he might have MS, he was always on a walker or with the forearm crutches, he wore an eye patch, he had a soft but steady voice. He was obviously physically frail.
I found out a week ago that it wasn't a medical condition per se, he had a motorcycle accident, and it was a doozy.
He was riding to Albuquerque on back roads and he had a stroke.
On a motorcycle.
He went over the handlebars, breaking both femurs (the upper bone in your leg commonly known as your thigh). Damage from the stroke, lots of damage from the wreck. And he wasn't wearing a helmet, so add some additional brain damage and head trauma to the mix.
He was discovered by a farmer on a back road near Moriarty.
This was two something years ago, and he made it back to work. He seemed to be doing fairly well. He sometimes used a walker, but mostly used the crutches. Well, last Friday as he was heading to his truck to go home, he fell and broke his femur again.
The initial reports were that he fell and broke his leg, subsequent reports are that his leg did not fully heal and broke while he was walking with his crutches, causing the fall. I don't know which is the accurate report, I suspect the latter.
Well, the additional hours are available so that my boss can begin covering Stan's job while he's out. People started saying "Oh, he'll be back in a couple of weeks." I was thinking that we'll be having snowball fights in Alamogordo any afternoon now if he's back before the Fall semster. Now they're saying that he might take a medical retirement and retire for good.
I feel really sorry for the guy. He's less than 10 years older than I am, it's kind of funny how someone i their mid 50's would seem ancient when you're in your 20's or 30's, but when you're in your mid 40's, suddenly he becomes "not much older than you are". He has a wife and one or more kids, I just think it would really suck to take a disability retirement when you're still potentially vital, and he's the second person this year who is well under retirement age who might have to do it. What's worse is the other potential early retiree is my renter and friend, Michelle. She hasn't hit 40 yet and her fibromyalgia is just wiping her out. She had a $70,000+ job and was working on a Master's in Accounting, and that's all going out the window.