Everybody's so different...
... I haven't changed
1014 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Sep 2006
Yes, yes idiots are everywhere, but so are naughty folks. I have an e-stop outside a lab to kill the power, for emergency use only. Labelled of course, but even so it kept getting pressed with no one admitting to it. It now has a very sturdy steel cover over it, painted red, screwed to the wall so hard to accidentally hit. Still gets pressed.
I had a go in a light aircraft last year, first time at the controls. All I can say is my respect for pilots has not gone down.
Flying the plane was easy (nice sunny day), dealing with the radio, ATC, Nav, fuel, traffic etc etc makes the workload immense for a single pilot and I now understand better why 2 in the cockpit is a really good idea. Splitting the workload and adding automation is just a no-brainer when scaled up to a proper plane. Thanks to all the engineers and pilots who continue to make flying as safe as it can be.
Yup, "no such thing as bad news" has been used before and sometimes it works. Many predicted that no sane country would elect someone like DT but look what happened (and the UK did the same with BJ). Self publicists are very popular with a certain section of society, that drives attention which attracts the money. I'm not betting against an evil genius :-)
I think of it as a great source of entertainment, sort of like the red top newspapers in the UK used to be 40 years ago. There is some truth there, but mostly exageration, sensationlism, shock tactics etc. Oh, and a lot of funny stuff, but that is available from many other places.
If, however, you want to argue with a pig then dive right in, you will come out very muddy and maybe eventually realise that the pig likes it (old but good).
p.s. keep Dabbsy in the sea for me.....
Isn't that the way it's done? Day tank good for a few hours, very local to generator(s), re-filled from bulk storage in a more accessible location for the tanker. Bulk storage good for 7 days at full chat, anything else is not really a backup.
Perhaps I have only ever dealt with folks who do it properly . . . .
Maybe the oldies can teach the youngsters a thing or two about attitude, reliability & responsibility. It sometimes seems that these are no longer important if you still live with your parents. Not all, obviously, but too many.
"Why did you not do/finish $task when you said you would?"
"CBA" comes the reply.....
"Fuck that for a game of soldiers." A much underused phrase, thanks for speaking up from the trenches.
p.s. any day now many folks will get their new gas bill (projected) and be glad to go back to a warm office rather than keep the heating on all day at home, what's that phrase again?
"...negative work - their "work" causes more work for others!"
This applies to all who make mistakes and is worse than many think.
Example:- mistake made - throw away, start again - cost 1
second attempt - cost 2
but while making second attempt you are not doing what you should - cost 3 and other jobs now run late!
In many industries this is very hard to fix.
Given that the water is under quite a high pressure, contamination is not a concern until you shut the valve off to fix the leak. Several bar usually, hence water spouts and blown roads in extreme cases.
I agree the real issue is the cost in terms of resources, other chemicals, energy used to treat it etc.
"because the switch contacts were under-rated"
This is all of enginering. It is easy to make something strong enough, but we also have to balance cost, or in the case of rockets, weight. So everything has to be JUST good enough. No more or it won't fly/sell.
Switch contacts are a good example as they also have a life dependent on use (load vs switching operation count) so they wear out. Getting all that right is not easy, fair play to the vast numbers of engineers who do.
Clearly you don't work with accountants. Nothing happens fast in that world, especially change...
Also if your audit company uses Sage it's a big wrench/hassle to switch. Sage know this better than anyone.
Still, if you push folks hard enough eventually they will walk away. We have been Autodesk free for a decade now for the same reason.
As pointed out by others, aluminium is used in many places instead of copper either to save weight or cost. There are many areas where this is not sensible/cost effective e.g. requirement for high current density (e.g. motors) or strength (cables and swithgear). UK DNOs use it quite a lot underground. So cost will decide, as with most things.
"..so structures would need to be about 59% physically larger by volume to compensate." This is what is known in the trade as "bollocks". The cable may be larger, the structure not so much.
Yes industrial plants (in most of the world) have hard wired interlocks/protections and will fail safe, but that can still be disruptive in the short term. Turn off the electricity to a water treatment plant and folks go thirsty pretty quick (hours/days). Luckily there are also contingencies for this including manual overides so I'm also not really worried. Your domestic smartmeter however - if anyone cracks that we are doomed....