Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
Oh Vaughn you nailed it for sure.
How do you know about those “participation” trophy’s kids get these days. Thought u managed to dodge that bullet of having kids.
Just as an aside story I had a similar experience in business back in the day.
Was a project manager and our project was building some really hi tech train controllers as part of local content program. Contract came via GEC UK train division.
Well they stipulated we had to use Fluke functional testers and they even supplied the programs to be used in order for the 19” rack boards to be considered tested before a full functional test of the whole rack as a controller.
Well one of my techs came to me and said the program supplied would never work.
Well I sat down with him and we went through the code line by line. And fortunately for both of us I knew the chip that was the issue. I still remember it was the Intel 8259 interrupt controller. A beast of a chip at the time with all sorts of internal flags that are set by a single bit.
Well I concurred with the tech that there was no ways the program had been verified and could work.
So not being allowed to do anything I called a meeting with the local GEC project manager and raised the issue.
Now naturally them there in the UK did not like anyone from the “colonies” opening their mouth and talking back. They liked it even less to be told the program they supplied could not work. Nope as far as they were concerned the “natives” were doing something wrong.
Well they did not send a gunboat and fire a shot across our bows lol.
Instead they organized a Chinese Engineer from Hong Kong (still British at the time) to come out and fix things.
I guess we were not worthy of a trip from a UK rep.
Anyhow, guy arrives we get on like house on fire (as is always the case if technical guys are left to it) and he gets to see our point.
Well that very day we sitting down to some Chinese food in a fancy Chinese place in Johannesburg and he says...”Rob you guys are right, it needs Toni’s fix (Toni was my tech) but I cannot admit this in the morning at the meeting. So I won’t be admitting anything.
Well first thing in the am I met with our In US terms Exec VP of technology and relayed the story. He was not surprised. Fortunately we both just wanted to get on with getting the job done so we agreed to just let it go and for them to act like they fixed the problem rather than delaying things further to get a confession. They knew the truth after the Chinese guy reported back to base.
Had a few of these instances in my time, mostly with the Brits.
So I guess the man buns at Carbide got their nickers in a knot being told how to engineer their machine especially by me a foreigner.
Anyway best left to rest in piece.
There is not much to be gained by rubbing their noses in their mistakes any further.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How do you know about those “participation” trophy’s kids get these days. Thought u managed to dodge that bullet of having kids.
Just as an aside story I had a similar experience in business back in the day.
Was a project manager and our project was building some really hi tech train controllers as part of local content program. Contract came via GEC UK train division.
Well they stipulated we had to use Fluke functional testers and they even supplied the programs to be used in order for the 19” rack boards to be considered tested before a full functional test of the whole rack as a controller.
Well one of my techs came to me and said the program supplied would never work.
Well I sat down with him and we went through the code line by line. And fortunately for both of us I knew the chip that was the issue. I still remember it was the Intel 8259 interrupt controller. A beast of a chip at the time with all sorts of internal flags that are set by a single bit.
Well I concurred with the tech that there was no ways the program had been verified and could work.
So not being allowed to do anything I called a meeting with the local GEC project manager and raised the issue.
Now naturally them there in the UK did not like anyone from the “colonies” opening their mouth and talking back. They liked it even less to be told the program they supplied could not work. Nope as far as they were concerned the “natives” were doing something wrong.
Well they did not send a gunboat and fire a shot across our bows lol.
Instead they organized a Chinese Engineer from Hong Kong (still British at the time) to come out and fix things.
I guess we were not worthy of a trip from a UK rep.
Anyhow, guy arrives we get on like house on fire (as is always the case if technical guys are left to it) and he gets to see our point.
Well that very day we sitting down to some Chinese food in a fancy Chinese place in Johannesburg and he says...”Rob you guys are right, it needs Toni’s fix (Toni was my tech) but I cannot admit this in the morning at the meeting. So I won’t be admitting anything.
Well first thing in the am I met with our In US terms Exec VP of technology and relayed the story. He was not surprised. Fortunately we both just wanted to get on with getting the job done so we agreed to just let it go and for them to act like they fixed the problem rather than delaying things further to get a confession. They knew the truth after the Chinese guy reported back to base.
Had a few of these instances in my time, mostly with the Brits.
So I guess the man buns at Carbide got their nickers in a knot being told how to engineer their machine especially by me a foreigner.
Anyway best left to rest in piece.
There is not much to be gained by rubbing their noses in their mistakes any further.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
