What does everyone do for a living?

I'm a high school English teacher, this is my 10th year. I mainly teach sophomores (they're a buncha dramatic weirdos and I love them) and a couple senior Creative Writing classes.
One of my students bought their first guitar pedal the other day and I really had to dial back my excitement in talking to them about it.
 
I am an electrician by trade. 24 years now local 124. I was a floor layer before that and worked in the local guitar shop. I should have started making pedals years ago. I played in a band all through the 90s and we had a lot of fun. My job now is not really so much electrical work is just control systems. The company I work for specializes in control systems for jails and hospitals. Surveillance and access control. So really I spent the whole day configuring servers for a new system.
 
The Gator said:
I am an electrician by trade. 24 years now local 124. I was a floor layer before that and worked in the local guitar shop. I should have started making pedals years ago. I played in a band all through the 90s and we had a lot of fun. My job now is not really so much electrical work is just control systems. The company I work for specializes in control systems for jails and hospitals. Surveillance and access control. So really I spent the whole day configuring servers for a new system.
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I actually expected there to be more electricians here. I actually got into this trying to learn electrical, but electronics kept popping up in my YouTube stream, and so now I'm here. :)
 
Robert said:
Awesome! Planning to watch it tonight.

You have others?
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I've done a couple features and a handful of shorts, but "til death" has been my proudest. It's quirky, was fun to make and I stretched the shit outta those pennies! Total production cost was just over a grand all in.

People seem to like the vibe of this one we did for a Tacoma film festival. Written, shot and edited in 72 hours. Ya even get a cameo from yours truly and my wife in this one. I remember asking her if she wanted to go shoot this short film for our 4th wedding anniversary weekend.
I'm a lucky man, she's such a good sport!
but-im-never-gonna-say-my-lines-faster-than-jamie-taco-scott.png
 
Robert said:
Folks ask me all the time "When are you going to take a break from work??" ...

OK, no work tonight, just some good old fashioned "Me" time doing what I enjoy most... playing with schematics and circuit layouts.

Well shit, that didn't go as planned.
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Ha! Somewhat same here. My light reading and leisure activities mostly involve schematic studies and beta-testing different audio/FX chips for curiosity-based design considerations. Haven't done any PCB layout/design work in decades and don't think I'll ever be getting back into that aspect of circuitry.
 
The Gator said:
I used to build circuits and modify paintball guns to be electronic. Using solenoids and solenoid valves. That was back when the only electronic paintball guns were angels and those goofy rainmakers.
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Man I remember those Angel paintball guns! They were the best you could get, if I’m not mistaken the electronics would make it so you fire really quickly but not automatically right?
 
So interesting to read everybody’s profession!

I am a software engineer at Waymo (part of Alphabet) working on the self driving car of course. It sounds a lot more glamorous than it is and I keep thinking that tech is the wrong career for me (for many reasons). Has anybody here tried the robotaxi?
 
steviejr92 said:
Man I remember those Angel paintball guns! They were the best you could get, if I’m not mistaken the electronics would make it so you fire really quickly but not automatically right?
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The accuracy left a bit to be desired. I designed electronic autocockers and automags. I made an electronic autococker with a super light 2 ounce recocking system and on 300 psi.
Much smoother at high rates of fire.
 
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giovanni said:
I am a software engineer at Waymo (part of Alphabet) working on the self driving car of course.
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Wanna get depressed? Come to Canada in winter, where sometimes the road is pure white left, right and center, no visible lanes, all road signs blanketed in show, and snowing heavily on top of everything. Nearly zero contrast. On a night like that, on an unlit highway in the middle of nowhere, often not even the best of human drivers can really judge where the road ends and the ditch begins. It's all a continuous white blanket. The only clue to where the road might be is the taillights of the guy in front of you. I just keep enough distance so I can stop in time if he guesses wrong. I'd really like to know how any self-driving tech can resolve that... especially if only using vision.
 
JTEX said:
Wanna get depressed? Come to Canada in winter, where sometimes the road is pure white left, right and center, no visible lanes, all road signs blanketed in show, and snowing heavily on top of everything. Nearly zero contrast. On a night like that, on an unlit highway in the middle of nowhere, often not even the best of human drivers can really judge where the road ends and the ditch begins. It's all a continuous white blanket. The only clue to where the road might be is the taillights of the guy in front of you. I just keep enough distance so I can stop in time if he guesses wrong. I'd really like to know how any self-driving tech can resolve that... especially if only using vision.
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Well, with current technology I don’t know that any self driving company can solve that! Why do you think we are only in California and Arizona now? :)
 
JTEX said:
Wanna get depressed? Come to Canada in winter, where sometimes the road is pure white left, right and center, no visible lanes, all road signs blanketed in show, and snowing heavily on top of everything. Nearly zero contrast. On a night like that, on an unlit highway in the middle of nowhere, often not even the best of human drivers can really judge where the road ends and the ditch begins. It's all a continuous white blanket. The only clue to where the road might be is the taillights of the guy in front of you. I just keep enough distance so I can stop in time if he guesses wrong. I'd really like to know how any self-driving tech can resolve that... especially if only using vision.
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What is Snow?
 
The Gator said:
The accuracy left a bit to be desired. I designed electronic autocockers and automags. I made an electronic autococker with a super light 2 ounce recocking system and on 300 psi.
Much smoother at high rates of fire.
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That sounds like a pedal you need to build: AUTOCOCKER!
Controls:
PSI — 0–300
ACCURACY — LO–HI
RATE (OF FIRE) — 0–2oz



JTEX said:
Wanna get depressed? Come to Canada in winter, where sometimes the road is pure white left, right and center, no visible lanes, all road signs blanketed in show, and snowing heavily on top of everything. Nearly zero contrast. On a night like that, on an unlit highway in the middle of nowhere, often not even the best of human drivers can really judge where the road ends and the ditch begins. It's all a continuous white blanket. The only clue to where the road might be is the taillights of the guy in front of you. I just keep enough distance so I can stop in time if he guesses wrong. I'd really like to know how any self-driving tech can resolve that... especially if only using vision.
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I once had to drive a buddy home from hospital in a white out. Once the grader we were following turned off at the city limits, we continued on the 4-lane highway (2-lanes each way with broad shoulders) on open prairie...
... it was down to how much the crown of the road gave any indication, ie —
our shoulders level = good
left shoulder tipped down = steer right
right shoulder dipping = steer left.


When I got up to 30kph (18mph), the fastest I could risk given our "guidance system", he'd complain about the bumps in the road so I'd slow down to 15kph (9mph).
Then he'd complain "Hurry up, go faster, I'm in pain". At least it was mostly a straight shot.

Drove 55km (34miles) one way like that and had to camp out at his acreage, because of the white-out snowstorm closing the roads.




music6000 said:
What is Snow?
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Either visit Thredbo in the middle of your winter to experience it maybe if you're lucky and it's cold enough, or scrape away at the frost inside your freezer — that's snow. NOT to be confused with the kind that finds its way into noses.
 
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