bavcyc

Software is more of an operating engineer, i.e. changing the state to accomplish a task.

Most of what people think of for an engineer, is someone using material properties to do something useful.

IMO concentrate on how to do your job/task/hobby to the best of your ability and learn new things to do better, and it doesn't matter as to the label under which you do.

The long trains you mention are called unit trains. They move from point A to point B as one unit. Typically the unit trains will be of all one type, e.g. tank, grain, container.

The trains with mixed types can be unit trains but they can also have intermediate stops where cars are added or dropped off.

The optimizations the rail companies perform to maximize the freight movement (and profit) is very interesting.

I'm more familiar with EE levels. From OPM: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qua...

and if you can find: POSITION CLASSIFICATION STANDARD FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING SERIES, GS-0850 ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING SERIES, GS-0855 TS-3 February 1971 It has good information on what level engineers are working.

I think you have the correct frame of reference, senior level positions are those who are used to handling projects/questions without guidance from others (although most senior folks are willing to ask questions to learn)

ZeroZeroZero by Roberto Saviano may have information you'd want.

Also looks like ZeroZeroZero is an Amazon Original series now as well.

Interesting essay, however it is written from a perspective of having basic needs met and having the resources to spend time 'hacking' a system. When you are struggling to pay the bills for the basics, you don't focus on the hacking just on the surviving.

The question I have is how do you hack the system such that you help those who are struggling to survive?

Rather than answer several individual posts, I'll be lazy and do a larger post which involves a lot of simplification and hand waving. I apologize in advance for any errors, but this seemed like a good way to handle insomnia instead of my normal lurking. If something is unclear or you think wrong, let me know.

Power Companies circa 1900 there were lots of power companies, I've seen pictures of urban areas where there were multiple circuits run on poles, how many companies tried to serve a certain area, I do not know. Through lobbying investor owned utilities (IOU), or in most cases a single IOU gained the rights to serve an area exclusive. IOUs concentrated, for the most part, on serving dense load concentrations. As such the US Govt implemented the Rural Electrification Act, so low density areas could be served. The 2 types of electric utilities are public power (municipal, REA, RUS, PPD, UD, etc) and for profit (IOU's typically). In most cases, the IOUs give something to the government in exchange for the IOU providing service exclusively, it might be a tax or it might be free street lights. Municipals tend to subsidize the local government in some way, either through returned dollars or free power (street lights, buildings, traffic lights). IOUs typically have a defined rate of return and are supervised by a governing entity of some sort.

Vegetation Management The recent SERC compliance meeting had a good presentation on vegetation management from the utility perspective and another on enforcement trends. In my opinion a lot of the issues in the W US is the result of the policy 'no fire is good', the sand pile game I think illustrates the issue where the longer sand keeps from falling results in a larger collapses (see Yellowstone fire). Since the late 1980's the issues with not burning has been known, I had an ecology class where if I recall correctly that was discussed for a couple of days. Tree trimming and clearing out undergrowth is done on a regular basis when the utility has an easement, but especially in urban areas folks tend to plant trees too close to power lines or even worse encroach on the easement with buildings. Most utilities patrol transmission lines at least once a year if not twice or monthly, sometimes this is aerial and other times it is feet on the ground walking the line. As an aside, the NESC governs clearance of electric lines to stuff and how stuff should be built; the RUS has publications on line design if you want to read about it.

Distribute Generation The electric grid in the US is divided into 3 areas, Eastern Interconnect, Texas and Western Interconnect; they all function essentially the same. If I have a generator connected to the grid, it has to synchronize to the grid before closing the breaker. If it is done correctly then there is very little mechanical stress on the generator, if done incorrectly then there is a large amount of mechanical stress on the generator. One mis-operation I know about involved the A and B phases being swapped during a re-wind, when the generator was closed in at commissioning it had a large bang/clunk and the breaker opened immediately. The generator then had to be examined, i.e. taken back apart, to figure out what went wrong and if it could be put back into service.

If I have a generator partially supplying a facility (this can save a lot of money for an entity) and a fault happens on the grid then my goal is to protect the generator, so the generator will either shut off or island the facility while shedding load above the generator's capacity. This happens very quickly. One instance I know of, the urban area was supplied by transmission (aka remote generation), a 30 MW generator was the closest source, the utility had a fault because equipment misoperated and the generator was suddenly trying to supply all the power to that fault such that the generator protection operated and islanded the facility. It was no issue to close the grid interconnect back in (once it was ensured it was safe to do so) but the facility had to shed load to keep the generator running without causing electrical issues to load and damaging the generator.

Once a facility is islanded and running on its own generation the phase angle is a don't care until it is time to synchronize back to the grid. As long as the facility can shed load to maintain frequency (there is a NERC standard on Under Frequency Load Shed if you want to read about it) and not ruin equipment by having a power quality issue. During dynamic studies for system stability, it can be observed that a generator will diverge from the system frequency phase angle but not trip off because it is isolated from the grid which requires verification that isolation is happening and the protection scheme will indeed work that way on the actual system.

My observation is that most facilities, data centers and other processing facilities (refineries) tend to be the exception, concentrate on first costs when designing their electric infrastructure. It is possible to design a resilient system but it has a cost and it will not be utilized 100% until something goes wrong. And if you are doing research then that can be an issue as you may lose a large amount of data due to the power going out or possibly being sensitive to transients on the system, e.g. a switching operation on the transmission system affects the end user equipment. Even if you have redundant systems (and/or power supplies) it is possible to have single point of failures on your system. As well if you have enough local generation to supply your load, it may be more economical to not run 100% of your generation as the market price for electricity is cheaper than your cost of production (and there are folks who don't like idle assets, not realizing the greater benefit is not using it or only having to use it infrequently).

One other aspect of distributed generation is the automatic separation of the DG when loss of voltage is detected on the grid side. Utilities do not want voltage on their system if they have an outage due to worker safety (and other reasons). Utility crews in hurricane areas will typically investigate if they hear a generator running when the power is out to an area to ensure it is not back feeding the distribution line. As a reminder keep your feet together if you are near a downed power line and hop away, or even better don't go near downed power lines.

It really is a time issue more than anything. Electric utilities in the US have had monthly data from the revenue meters for a long time and the process of switching to having lots of information available is ongoing.

Data at the distribution circuit has been available for longer, but you have to have folks who know what to look for and the process to do it.

There are companies which are starting to offer analytic packages that make all of the above much easier.

depending on how much money you want to spend, there are methods you can use to determine your usage.

The most expensive would of course be to put CT's on each circuit in the house.

Least expensive would be to source a meter for the main.

In the US revenue meters are 1-2% accuracy (usually tested regularly), as such I recommend specifying a meter in that accuracy range for the anticipated amp readings

As an Electrical P.E., it didn't bother me per se; but it is interesting to consider all the different ways engineer is used in English.

Texas and Florida have software engineer P.E. according to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_en...

I think there are a couple of states where you are not allowed (by law) to use engineer unless you are a P.E. but there are industrial exemptions, which muddy the waters. As compared to "Professional Engineer", which is don't use it if you don't have a license in the U.S. state where you are offering engineering services.

KS and OK both have access to shipping ports, at least at the barge level.

Although some manufacturer's are including service with the price of a car. If you drive 15k miles a year with oil changes every 3k (or 5k) miles, then you are spending $60-100 /year for oil changes. Depending on the vehicle you might be paying for a tune up and mileage interval servicing as well.

$400-$800 isn't too bad for basic maintenance.

another method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchro

There is an actual physical basis for AT&T's position. When a pole line is designed, the poles and guys are designed for certain criteria (power poles are NESC and/or RUS plus any state specific regulations). If someone wants to attach to the same pole then the pole may not support the new attachment per NESC (for power poles) or the guying may need adjustment. Reviewing the new attachments can take time, 60 days is not unreasonable.

Along with this, the poles may need to be surveyed depending on how long the poles have been installed. Poles installed a long time ago may not have drawings and that means a field visit to collect the information.

If the party wanting to attach to a pole provides sealed drawings from an engineer that the attachments have no adverse effect, then it is usually a quick review of the submitted attachment package to make sure everything is in order.

Although not a completely different field/profession:

Power Engineering interviews usually have technical questions, or how you would approach a problem. Even if you have a license. But typically if you have worked in the field, the answers are straight forward.

If you are in a town with soccer (football) then you might follow the local team rather than learn about the other sports.

College sports are also fun to follow.

By engineer he means programmer? developer?

He's looking at relationships early in life as the most important. You (or anyone) can have great relationships later in life that are more important than the early relationship(s).

How is the load going to change over time? The passive house movement shows how efficient houses can be built. Also the change from CRT to LED tv's, also change loads. Refrigerators are more efficient than 20 years ago, but can they be made more efficient? Lots of small changes can change the amount of load (for lots of customers (summed)).

The other big issue is how fast can you repair 'own generation?' Utilities typically do a good job in restoring power and assist each other to restore power. Today everyone wants power all the time, 50 years ago power outages were not as much of an issue.

Interesting article.

I can't remember who said it, but humans tend to over-estimate change in the long term, and under-estimate change in the short term.

It will be interesting to see what changes do occur in this time frame.

What's the difference between this method and this method: https://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jun15/cancerpaten... ?

The processing that wheat goes through to become flour is interesting. Stuff is removed and then stuff is added. Different batches of wheat are blended to obtain a consistent product.

By grinding the grain in the bakery, it avoids the processing. The baker has to adjust recipes on the fly to adjust for the different gluten/protein levels since that will vary.

That might account for taste difference. Double blind trial would be interesting with different flours.

Power is currently dispatched according to the most efficient units run most frequently. Peaking units run only when it is most cost effective, i.e. power is needed and there are not cheaper options. Yes it is possible to store the energy (one method is pumped storage) for peak shaving, but different methods have different break even points.

Also of interest is the Clean Power Plan and how it will change the generation mixture.

A battery is not available 24 hours as the article indicates. There is the time to charge and the time to discharge. There is also the time for maintenance activities on the batteries.

If a battery system or solar system is installed then it breaks and power is wanted from the local utility, the utility has the costs associated with supplying that power with less time in use although it is expected to be available at need and at the peak demand for all customers. Will end users be willing to pay for the emergency back up or will another solution be found? How long will it take to repair battery or solar when it breaks? And what do you do for power until is repaired (if you don't use the utility)?

Using more energy efficient building technologies, e.g. ICF or something like enteria.com; will probably be useful in combination with batteries. And using a chest fridge as a refrigerator can also help: http://newlifeonahomestead.com/convert-chest-freezer-to-frid... (one example from the google search results).

It is an interesting time as energy use and supply are modified. 30-50 years ago, a 15-50 minute outage wasn't that big of deal, but today it is expected that power is always available. Interesting how our perspective changes.

3 unless you have legacy code.

And even if you have legacy code, I'd learn 3 then learn the difference(s) required to use the legacy code.

It is all interconnected, but I'm not sure anyone knows 100% how.

I've started studying economics; the more I learn, the more I know that I don't know.

BTW the Baking Science and Management degree is for large scale baking. One option for BSaM degree requires the same math/physics as Engineering while I believe both require Organic Chemistry. Easy to make fun of the degree if you don't know the requirements and the goal.

The American Institute of Baking is close to K-State and it brings in bakers from around the world to learn even more about large scale baking. This includes knowing why the batch went wrong.

Very interesting stuff if you like applied chemistry.

Think someone posted this some time ago: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html

A recruiter does not have any right to your salary information. Their contract is with the client and they will do what is in the client's best interest. Salary is like any form of negotiation, decide how you can negotiate most effectively.

If you do better in a classroom setting, pursuing the CS degree is probably worth it. Check with the school and see if you can pursue the CS as a MS rather than a BS, this may require a number of undergraduate classes to fulfill delinquencies. With an Econ degree, I expect you are already good at research and analysis.

I went back to school for an EE degree (and it has been worth it) since credentials are needed in certain areas of the EE realm. And the credential is definitely a benefit that trumped the costs associated with pursuing another UG degree.

An e-book that may be of interest is "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist."

My $.02 on this.

In teaching you talk about time on task, and how to get everyone in the classroom to focus on the work.

The open office environment can work in certain circumstances (roles) but if you are paying someone to focus on work, then provide them with an environment where they can focus on the work.

At least these days, ear phones that subdue external sounds are available and folks can usually figure out how to block visual distractions.

"Orbiting the Gaint Hairball" has a good example of someone setting up an office that is outside of corporate guidelines that serves the people that work in it.