IT manager, FedEx.

Jack

Currently Operations Manager for a logistics and archives company.
Before that Production Manager, Production Control Manager and Process Engineer at a high tech circuit board fabricator.
Before that sales, applications engineering and technical support at a flowmeter manufacturer.
Before that multiple Production Manager jobs in electronics assembly.

I keep all the flashing lights green.

Yowdee:

Mechanical engineer here (go figure). I work at the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). Here at the National Institute of Slow Thinkers (Slogan - give us a while and we'll figure out something that sounds ok anyway) I work in humidity standards research. We measure humidity from extremely dry values of interest to electronic component manufacturers (less than 1 part per billion of water vapor in a carrier gas) to dew points well above the atmospheric pressure boiling point, supporting fuel cell development. At NIST we are concerned with making very accurate measurements, and also in being able to produce calibration gasses with specific amounts of water vapor in them. We do this in a way that is linked to the thermodynamic properties of water (both liquid water and ice) by flowing a constant temperature stream of gas over water or ice at constant temperature and pressure. We're able to do this with temperature uncertainty of less than 0.005 degrees C and pressure uncertainty of around 15 Pascal (0.002psi), giving us calibration gass with water vapor uncertainty less than a tenth of a percent. The purpose of developing and maintaining this capability is to provide various industries with a means of calibrating critical instrumentation specific to the industry. For example, the semiconductor manufacturing industry loses millions of dollars due to manufacturing defects directly attributed to water vapor contamination of the gasses used to etch silicon. The level of water vapor that causes problems can be less than 100 parts per billion, which is REALLY hard to measure, let alone produce as a calibration gas. This particular industry struggles mightily with water vapor because water molecules are everywhere, they are very sticky, tending to grab hold of pretty much everything, and it's damn hard to measure water vapor concentrations that are so dry. We've developed thermodynamic methods of generating calibration gasses with this sort of humidity and also laser-based measurement techniques that allow us to accurately make these sorts of measurements.

Well temperature and pressure measurement and control, water evaporation, pressure vessels, etc sound like coffee, don't they. A lot of the stuff surrounding coffee process control is pretty easy for me to work on.

Before working at NIST I worked in motor racing as a mechanic and engineer for Bill Scott Racing in the late '70s and early 80s. We were a pretty successful team that did contract work for Ford (IMSA GTP Turbo Mustang program in 1981, SCAA Trans-AM in '82 and '83), Volkswagen ('80 thru '84), in addition to fielding our own team in a training series supporting Indy Car racing (CART) called Formula Super Vee, which was similar in a lot of respects to the European Formula 3 series.

Before motor racing i worked in a bunch of machine shops as a machinist.

There ya go.

-Greg

Director of Facilities Management, University Of Puerto Rico

Greg, I KNEW there was a reason (other than espresso! ) that I liked you! Super-V! Amazing cars towards the end of the series! as complex as any CART/USAC/F-1 car as far as the aerodynamics, chassis and suspension... Just not as powerful (alto they got a LOT out of those 1.6 liter engines!)...

cannonfodder wrote:I keep all the flashing lights green.

Man that is one big espresso machine behind you!
How many groups?



OK, I'll play...
I'm a wedding and event photographer.

That is the easiest way to describe what I do. When someone asks and I actually explain it, the eyes glaze over and in the end they say 'OK, so you are the computer guy'. In all fairness, that is the data center not my local office, I only have one rack of local computers and a couple racks of network/telco equipment.

If you really want to know, I am the local IT manager for M&M Restaurant Supply. We supply everything but the kitchen sink for McDonalds restaurants in most of Ohio, Indiana, northern Kentucky and West Virginia along with Chipotle Mexican grill (around 600 restaurants out of my facility) with other offices in northern Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Our parent company KeystoneFoods LLC also does beef and poultry production as well as international distribution for McD's (all of Australia, most of the UK, South America, Asia Pacific etc).

I support the local end user systems, servers, LAN, VOIP, as well as assist with the other facilities. I keep the flashing lights green, amber bad, green good (most of the time). Before that I was a sysadmin at Wright Patterson AFB, before that I did CAD work for the Department of the Interior laying out networks, before that CAD work for a contractor doing military and commercial aircraft engine manuals for GE, and before that...

In my previous life I was a software engineer for JP Morgan. I've now packed it in and I'm planning to open my very own espresso bar.

Currently fretting over espresso distribution techniques, writing a business plan and experiencing the odd "what the hell have I done" moments

Nice thread.

I'll keep it simple.
Software developer for over 20 years in various companies and areas.
I started out writing software for process control (e.g. PID) and now I write testware (software used to test software products).
In the future I'll be a roaster (if I can only close on a name for the rosterie).
--
Danny

ntwkgestapo wrote:Greg, I KNEW there was a reason (other than espresso! ) that I liked you! Super-V! Amazing cars towards the end of the series! as complex as any CART/USAC/F-1 car as far as the aerodynamics, chassis and suspension... Just not as powerful (alto they got a LOT out of those 1.6 liter engines!)...

Yeah they were pretty cool cars for their time. We used to run Ralts (RT1 in '78-80 and RT5 from 80 to 84). At the time, we were the Schrick Engines agent for the US, and I did our engine development program and serviced all of the customer motors as well. We got around 190 hp from 1.6L at 8800 RPM, depending on the particular cam, intake trumpet, exhaust combination, which isn't all that much in terms of specific power output, but it's pretty phenomenal for motors that ran restricted intake port diameters (rule imposed) and gasoline as fuel with no turbo. We ran different systems for oval tracks and road course, with the oval motors winding a bit higher with a narrower power band. Minimum weight for a Super V was just under 950 lbs, as I recall, which meant that the cars power to weight ratio was 5 lbs per hp. That's about like having a Volkswagen GTI with 650 horsepower, but with waaay less frontal area. A Super V was faster in a straight line than a Formula Atlantic car because it had so little tire by comparison, so a Super Vee was really quick in places that put a premium on acceleration and top end. Our average speed around Michigan International Speedway was over 175 mph. At some places, like Milwaukee, pole time for a Super Vee would have been 6th or 7th on the Indy Car grid. Milwaukee was a special case because so much of getting around Milwaukee involves having good grip and aerodynamics, since the corners are so flat and relatively fast. Distance down the front and back straight there is too short for the horsepower difference (around 1000 vs 190) to offset light weight, mechanical grip and aerodynamic downforce.

Things are really different now in motor racing, but they're still the same in a lot of ways. Nowadays telemetry systems and on-car sensors / diagnostics make it much easier to get performance data and set up the car for a specific circuit. Cars are a whole lot safer and more sophisticated. but in the end you still gotta have good preparation, dedication to the sport and a shoe who ain't afraid to put the hammer down and go racing.

I miss a lot of things about professional motor racing and I often think that I should have stayed in it because I was pretty good at it. I really liked the intensity, the simplicity of purpose, and the cleansing nature of having complete focus on one thing - winning motor races. I really liked the pursuit of perfection in all parts of the effort. I also liked living on the road and the fact that all of my friends were at the same race track in a different part of the world every couple of weeks. I don't miss the work schedule though, and I don't miss fixing crash damage or otherwise getting behind at the race track when something went wrong. I still have friends in the business and it's really funny how I run into racers and ex-racers at odd times. John Blackwell from ESI and his brother still race Atlantic cars. It turns out that we know a lot of the same people. I've met a lot of folks in sailboat racing that used to be car racers. Once a racer always a racer I guess.

-Greg (who once said: "Who wants a house! You can't race one of those!) Scace

Semi-Retired Mechanical Engineer previously involved in operation, design, and maintenance of marine power plants (steam, diesel, gas turbine). Sailed on merchant ships as a licensed engineer for about three years in the late 60's-early 70's.

20 years in telecom R&D, 10 years in management consulting and the last ten as a photographer with a few consulting gigs tucked in when I run out of cash

Cheers

Ian

http://www.underwater-imaging.com
http://www.stewarteventimages.com

And now for something completely different...

I played french horn for a number of years (Akron and nearby orchestras, then Guangzhou) and am now studying acupuncture and tuina here in Hunan.

Henry

Am I the only sales type?

I sell static control equipment, also static generating. Static electricity can be as big a friend as enemy in the right application,

Barry B

bdbayer wrote:Am I the only sales type?
I sell static control equipment, also static generating. Static electricity can be as big a friend as enemy in the right application,
Barry B

With the troubles we have with "doserless" grinders, a friend in the business would good to have! My "3M" static gun doesn't even do the job.
sincerely
richard / espressme

Manager of a group that supports J. D. Edwards OneWorld (which became PeopleSoft Enterprise1 and then Oracle E1 as each fish got eaten by the next bigger fish) software for a global sales company.

- Steve

espressme wrote:With the troubles we have with "doserless" grinders, a friend in the business would good to have! My "3M" static gun doesn't even do the job.
sincerely
richard / espressme

The cost of an industrial solution is more than a lot of the grinders, particularly ours. I have an idea for a solution, but since I don't see much static on mine I can't test it. But that's for another discussion though.

Barry B

cannonfodder wrote:I keep all the flashing lights green.

Odd, that kinda describes my gig, too!
I'm a sound engineer. Live music, theatre, and corporate events, design for theatre, occasional (if its interesting) installation, and recording for film. I'm following some band around with a boom mic and a portable mixer on Monday!

Sleepless wrote:Manager of a group that supports J. D. Edwards OneWorld (which became PeopleSoft Enterprise1 and then Oracle E1 as each fish got eaten by the next bigger fish) software for a global sales company.

- Steve

Sweet, we just deployed JDE. Went to it from our home grown AS400 system a few years ago at one of our facilities, then upgraded a year later (original deployment was XE). We just migrated my facility and maxed out our capacity. We are mid conversion from a Windows platform running SQL (prod database is quickly rising to half a terabyte) to a Linux Oracle platform.