This is Hooovahh

[JÞB]

---

@Ben wrote:

---

@Ben wrote:

---

@Hooovahh wrote:

Failure to communicate

I was a young engineer working at my first real job.  I was still in college, ...

---

Sea Story Time!

I was in the Navy and responsible  for keeping a radar system (AN/SPS 58A) working. It was a piece of crap design that was always down...

---

Example of just how funky that radar was...

Being a search radar it had the ability (cough cough hack hack) to superimpose the IFF (Information Friend or Foe) over the friendly targets. It simply did not work on any of the ships.

I eventually discovered that when the radar console was installed the cable for the IFF feed was attached to the wrong connector on the back of the console! I move the cable and the IFF started working.

You wouda thought...

Ben

---

I am gonna 1up Ben.  While aboard the USS San B..... 6th ship of the fleet to carry the name.  <I was proud to man her but, sometimes I will use discretion > 

I found an SPS-10 under my care.  Sn 1 was in Great Lakes IL at ET A School,< I trained on it, and later, used it to teach new ETs.> #2 was on board the USS Wasp, which I later saw for myself in Bremerton WA, 3&4 were sunk in the Pacific Ocean.   I had inherited #5!

Transistors?  Nope, they were invented in 1947.... the ...58 Ben speaks of was an attempt to modernize the  SPS-10.  

3000hr btmf, -116dB RSS.... that bad gal left me no room for error!  Challenging my skills daily.  I miss her.

[Ben]

---

...

I found an SPS-10 under my care.  Sn 1 was in Great Lakes IL at ET A School,< I trained on it, and later, used it to teach new ETs.> #2 was on board the USS Wasp, which I later saw for myself in Bremerton WA, 3&4 were sunk in the Pacific Ocean.   I had inherited #5!

Transistors?  Nope, they were invented in 1947.... the ...58 Ben speaks of was an attempt to modernize the  SPS-10.  

3000hr btmf, -116dB RSS.... that bad gal left me no room for error!  Challenging my skills daily.  I miss her.

---

There are some cob-webbed covered memories that makes me think that rings true.

Did the SPS-10 have a weird blanking issue as the antenna circled back around past the masts etc.?

I swore the rotary waveguide coupling we had on the USS Detroit (AOE-4) was funky since it always had what looked return that absolutely screwed up the automatic gain control.

Ben

[Hooovahh]

Misunderstanding in Debugging a Tester 

I was working on a production tester at a customer site that I had written the software for.  The customer we were working with was someone that was new to the company, and likely new to the country.  His English was fine but it was clear he sometimes struggled with the nuances of the English language. He saw me working on the test stand writing software and he came by for an update of how the system was working.  And I said “Oh it’s going pretty good, I’m just doing some debugging at the moment.” he got a very concerned look on his face and raised his voice a little. “Why did you put bugs in it and why do they need to be taken out?”  I kinda looked at him strangely and asked, “Do you know what debugging is?” and he said “Yes it is when you have bugs that need to be taken out, and you must have put them there.” It was a bit difficult to explain to a non native speaker, who doesn’t understand how software development works, what these computer science and computer engineering concepts are.  It was strange to me how mad he got when he thought I intentionally put problems in the software that I could then charge him to remove later. Had that been what I was doing why would I have told him that?

[wiebe@CARYA]

Maybe draw a parallel to proof reading a text, removing mistakes? Why do you put the mistakes in the text in the first place?

[Ben]

---

@Hooovahh wrote:

Misunderstanding in Debugging a Tester 

....

 It was strange to me how mad he got when he thought I intentionally put problems in the software that I could then charge him to remove later. Had that been what I was doing why would I have told him that?

---

We do not have to go to other countries for similar thoughts;

 The president of Equitable Gas (now EQT) told my better-half that the "Y2K Bug" was invented by software developers to scare up jobs.

But back on your note of language challenges...

My contact at a company quit and was replaced by a foreign born person. When I completed the cod as specified by the former employee with the new contact I kept asking "is that OK?" and they repeatedly said "Yes". When we got to the end I asked if that met his needs and he said "Yes, but do it all 'backwards and inside out'." It was then that I learned that a contact change in mid-project was huge risk factor.

Another war story I was told from many years ago...

A Japanese company was contracted to manufacture resistors with a tolerance of Plus Minus 5%. They went out of their way to include values that were off by 5% to make sure they met the requirements.

Now "why do I have to debug?"

Because I am an imperfect being and my code inherits that trait.

On the other hand...

I have been known to make sure that my GUIs are not perfect. When reviewing code customers feel they have to point out issues and small issues with the GUI help them feel like they are doing their job.

Then there are the projects with an Ascetics comity. Run as fast as you can or insist on hazardous service rates. There is an old line that goes "Nothing good has ever come out of a comity."

Ben
 

[wiebe@CARYA]

---

@Ben wrote:

On the other hand...

I have been known to make sure that my GUIs are not perfect. When reviewing code customers feel they have to point out issues and small issues with the GUI help them feel like they are doing their job.

---

Of course you could (should?) always keep one bug, or put in one bug, just so you can tell they actually looked at it.

Like when doing a presentation, if you get 50 questions, something was wrong, but if you get 0 question, nobody was listening...

[JW-JnJ]

People always laugh at me when I give them an installer, it works the first time, and I mistrust it. Little do they know I'm being serious. Software does not work the first time.

Equally as odd is when you're developing for someone who doesn't give you written requirements (intracompany, I hear your screams of horror). You show them what you came up with after a few conversations, and it meets what they want and they don't add any scope creep. I immediately think something is horribly wrong.

Don't know if this is self-deprecation or realism.

[Hooovahh]

---

@JW-JnJ wrote:

Equally as odd is when you're developing for someone who doesn't give you written requirements (intracompany, I hear your screams of horror). You show them what you came up with after a few conversations, and it meets what they want and they don't add any scope creep. I immediately think something is horribly wrong.

---

I've only had that happen once, and the reason was because in 2 weeks when I visited their facility the previously deployed tester was on the floor propping open the door.  They didn't really want it, and they had no intention of ever using it.  But someone above them said to get it, so they didn't really care how it looked or how it worked.

[JÞB]

---

@JW-JnJ wrote:

People always laugh at me when I give them an installer, it works the first time, and I mistrust it. Little do they know I'm being serious. Software does not work the first time.

---

While working as a consultant to a 3rd party supplier.... I  wound up in a conference call with some Admiral in the Pentagon...  my installer work fine the first time.   And on a different Windows version! 😄

I took the boss's suggestion and had magnetic business cards printed

[JW-JnJ]

---

@JÞB wrote:

---

@JW-JnJ wrote:

People always laugh at me when I give them an installer, it works the first time, and I mistrust it. Little do they know I'm being serious. Software does not work the first time.

---

While working as a consultant to a 3rd party supplier.... I  wound up in a conference call with some Admiral in the Pentagon...  my installer work fine the first time.   And on a different Windows version! 😄

I took the boss's suggestion and had magnetic business cards printed

---

Well that's one heckuva time for that to happen. For an Admiral? Mine are always for an engineer here.

Magnetic cards are a good idea. I've been tempted to make PCB ones too.

Now I should say, I've usually tested the heck out of it in development by this time. However, I usually forget a dependency file, forget to switch a development branch of code off, and/or just general Windows and driver shenanigans.