Hadn't noticed this thread before! I'm a wetland engineer and deer farmer in Ireland. Main job is the wetland, which keeps me busy as all hell and the deer are more of a hobby farm than any true commercial agricultural enterprise. These are the style of wetlands we do: They're for treating wastewater of pretty much any source. Only water type that has given us any problems so far is acid mine drainage in Portugal and Spain, due to pyrite geology which results in high levels of Thio-Sulphates which, when the oxidise, drop the pH down as low as 1.5 (lower than stomach acid), but we're making good progress with our research trials with clients over there. In fact, I am off to Denver, Colorado tomorrow afternoon ahead of a conference where I'm presenting our work at an international symposium
I usually ignore the simple requests - things like "I'm covering Topic X this morning, so don't write about it yourself" - on the grounds that the person will quickly realise I did as I was asked when the request is immediately fulfilled. I'll only usually reply if I'm not going to do it ("tough ta-tas, I've already started.")
I write firmware for FPGA that goes on *classified* Though it's really interesting work with latest shinny FPGA's, but often I don't feel grounded to consumer electronics, as in, talking about the stuff I do to most people would draw a blank. Sometimes I wish I can just say stuff like "I designed that X chip in your phone" or "I was involved with that medical equipment you may have used." Ah well, company has really good flexible working scheme and pays reasonable.
That's one of the issues of working here although on a smaller scale. It's hard talking about new releases publicly as I can never remember which info is out there and which isn't
I used to work on a lot of defence stuff and naturally was unable to talk about the vast majority of it - once people knew this, every time I was vague about what I was working on, the mission impossible/war games/james bond plot that was in their mind was miles from reality... I was fine with that though, as I could say "can't talk about it" in place of "I can't be bothered to explain it to you and you wouldn't understand anyway" Around 50% of it actually was interesting/esoteric defencey stuff, whereas the other 50% was work identical to what it would have been on a project for Sainsbury's or Ikea or Match.com or anyone else in the world, that just happened to be located in a certain place, or owned by a certain organisation.
Well, I have little involvement in the highest security stuff. Only thing I can't discuss is the nitty-gritty implementation details, which doesn't pop up in general conversation. But it is indeed easier to say "can't talk about it". My aspiration in getting into electronics was to be able to say "I was involved with that thing you use everyday." At current workplace, not only I can't say that, nor does the stuff I do has much connection to most people's daily lives. But I am enjoying the speed of working on FPGA, going over to consumer products with my skillset will likely mean writing test chassis firmware. Designing for ASIC and FPGA require different skillsets. Might be easier to talk about stuff with a 1 month/few weeks delay? Or make up some spy stuff related to your job as per Mister_Tad "I'm evaluating a graphics card for the MOD, it's super secret." "I'm working with (insert missile company) to help them test a motherboard, I'd have to fire a missile to your house if I tell you."
You kids and your 'friends'. Don't you know those are bad for you? I'm pretty much exclusively technical, as much as my boss would like me to be part sales too, so the requests for free advice/help tend to build up if people catch wind of me being friendly.
It means i can't get involved in threads on the forums then. I generally just lookup any info I'm about to post and if I can't find it i delete it from the reply. Nearly worked for a missile company actually before coming here.
Rehearse this phrase, and variants of: "Hmm, not sure about that but I could look into it... best raise a support call in the meantime though"
Desktop & server hardware fettler for Large Faceless Financial Corporation. Keep poking the VR industry for openings, but effectively nothing over this side of the pond unless you want to go into advertising (eugh!) and that's almost entirely software anyway. Though about going the startup route (got a neat optics layout that nobody - publicly- has hit on yet for compact view-through wide FoV AR without holographic elements), but after attending a VC event and watching 40-year-old tech with a shiny presentation - persistance-of-vision displays, but for adverts... - get fawned above actually interesting devices gave it up as a lost cause.
I work in the third sector (that's the charity sector for the uninitiated ), I run a number of youth support, training and employability projects. It's actually a hugely competitive sector that deliveries an array of services alongside both the private and public sectors, just with a bit more of an ethical stance...usually. I usually explain to people that, in the simplest terms, being a "charity" is just a business model; charities can do/make/provide/supply/deliver anything that any other business can do, the only real difference is that any surplus (read: profit ) generated goes straight back into the work, rather than out to shareholder. That, and of course most small and medium charities exist in general to do good and are pretty damn ethical about it (don't get me started on the nationals! ) It's pretty interesting as it goes. I don't work on the "front line" anymore, but I dream up new support projects, bid on a variety of government tenders, host events, spend a fair bit of time writing beautifully worded reports and funding applications, and do a fair amount of hobnobbing, interviews, etc. Only the CEO is senior to me and he's good enough to know that if he just lets me get on with it without interfering too much (even with some of my more harebrained schemes) that I'll generally do a lot good, generate some income, and win a few awards along the way. I usually don't explain my job to people as the vast majority of Joe Public thinks that charities run on donations, just do fuzzy stuff and that all the staff are volunteers. To those people I just say that I'm a "senior manager for as regional infrastructure organisation" (which is also true ).
So you're not one of these Massive charities that uses tons of small peoples donations to take their rich mates out on trips using money extremely inefficiently without actually helping many people. Because I'm convinced Red Nose Day does absolute naff all and why I only donate to people directly. EDIT: On a side not I'm really glad to see members who don't normally post.
FUSS! Long time I guess I'm like a lot of old members, I've been lurking the last few years, haven't kept myself up to date on PC components so haven't got much to add in regular hardware discussions.
Who are you calling "old"? I haven't owned a "gaming" system and actively been into the hardware for 10 years, and haven't had a desktop for around 6. I guess me hanging around here is a bit like subscribing to penthouse, but only for the articles.
