BJBBB

Tend to agree.

My previous employer did most of the ATE, quality, and production control in Python; and hardware drivers mostly in C. It worked reliably for about 15 years. During late 2017, the new 'code boss' mandated Python 3 for new stuff, and to convert as required for existing stuff.

Production continued with little or no problems until an important customer did a major spec change, plus the new safety and EMC regulations and standards became effective, so we had to get some stuff re-certified and some processes accredited (again). After three months, the boss fired the three programmers and assigned the task to the quality, manufacturing and regulatory engineers. We looked at the code for a few days, then said nope and re-designed and wrote in C/C++. When I left in November, things were humming along well, but the parent company saw this as a huge future liability and commenced to shut down that part of the company that made that class of widgets. Think about - a group of less than 40 production people and a few engineers that pumped 25 million USD profit annually into the mother company was dropped because of potential future code shenanigans.

Because of these experiences, I discourage use Python professionally (unless the contract allows for some specific indemnity clauses) for quality and manufacturing, and know of other manufacturing and hardware activities abandoning Python for new stuff and 'returning' to C and C++. I continue to enjoy and use Python (mostly 3) for personal projects, where support and making money do not always matter.

Location: Riverside and San Diego counties of California

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: TBD

Technologies: Python and embedded C/C++; data acquisition and control systems - analog front-end design, signal processing; agricultural control and monitor system design and fielding; PCB layout; quality systems - ISO implementation, process determination and authoring; compliance and regulatory - product safety assesments and Type Test, and submittals to NRTLs and national bodies.

Résumé/CV: on request

Email: bjoconnell@gmail.com

Location: San Diego and Riverside counties of California

Remote: yes

Willing to relocate: no

Technologies: Quality, regulatory, and compliance engineering for industrial power conversion equipment. ISO9001 and 14001 program origination and implementation. Product evaluation, Type Test, and TRF documentation for submittal per NRTL/SCC/NOM/EU requirements. EMC pre-compliance testing.

ATE to include hardware design (circuit, PCB layout, construction) and software drivers in C and Python. Stand-alone microprocessor-controlled custom 'test boxes' for customer field test and evaluation.

Agriculuture/floricuture control and monitoring systems.

Résumé/CV: on request

Email: bjoconnell@gmail.com

The American and Canadian military are significant examples where many organizations are 'run' by people under 30. Yes, most field-grade and general officers, and senior NCOs are over 35. But, for example, the day-to-day decisions of logistics and tactics and technological is done by people between 19 and 27, by junior enlisted and company-grade officers.

I have never had as much responsibility an operational control over my job, in both fiscal and mission terms, as I had between the ages of 19 and 23 while in the military.

Location: San Diego/Riverside Counties (California)

Remote:yes, but probably not applicable Willing to relocate: no

Technologies: quality (production test control, HALT, process evaluation and control), regulatory(product type testing, proto evaluation, and reports for formal submittals to NRTLs and Notified bodies), C, C++, Python, instrument control(GPIB,serial,ethernet), agricultural control and reporting systems. B.S. Computer Science, military class A/B/C avionics courses. Certification Seminars conducted by UL and TUVR.

Résumé/CV: on request

Email: bjoconnell@gmail.com

Per the common product safety standards (national standards based on IEC 60950-1, 60335-x, 62368-x), Class I and Class II construction are defined per the level and type of protection from shock for 'grounded' and floating enclosures, respectively.

Per your SMPS reference, the output reference depends on the design intent and intended end-use environment. Depending on the scoped standard, outputs greater than 50Vdc will require a minimum separation from the both exposed dead metal and stuff referenced to an earthing terminal. Where the output is considered safe to to touch, there are only functional spacings required. Also, Class II construction is, in fact, not intended to be 'grounded', and must not be a hazard for a fault condition where the enclosure touches either mains voltage or metal referenced to an earthing terminal.

Class II construction requirements are supposed to mitigate a single fault condition associated with seperation from and contact with a hazardous voltage or power source.

Most potentials between the user and ground are due to current flow through the y caps (noise filter caps rated to between a hazardous voltage level and the user). Touch current, depending on the scoped standard and category and class of equipment is typically limited to less to 5mA (some equipment is allowed 25mA). Class II equipment is typically limited to 250uA. Given the assumed human-body models in IEC60990, the voltage at max allowed current leakage would range from imperceptible to noticable but not effectual.

Shock hazards can exist from improper construction or improper installation and of equipment.

Perhaps this data does not indicate the obvious for some stuff. We have two 2001 Tacoma trucks, one is 4WD, and one is 2WD. My truck is ugly as sin, but is reliable and easy to repair. The new Tacoma is essentially a full-size truck, too much plastic, much more complex, too much is not accessible for maintenance, and per my three neighbors, much less reliable. This is why we have not bought new machines.

Sorry, but does sound a bit elitist. Coding has become a somewhat skill set among some blue-collar workers, and have seen some good stuff come from electricians, plumbers, and mechanics.

I know many civil, mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineers that write good code to solve important problems. I know few programmers that know anything about circuit design, plumbing, carpentry, etc. But do believe that the programmers that frequent HN are probably more apt to be multi-skilled and a more renaissance-type of person.

Suppose we stop throwing trillions at war machinery. Am not certain that any particular technology, or even social expenditures, would ever enable "love and peace".

Probably just 10% of the annual DoD budget bent towards education of girls and women and for free global birth control would stop our insane population growth. Slow growth is the only hope for the planet. Do not see how not funding weapons without the global education of females will fix anything. The root cause is not too many weapons systems, it is too many people.

Agree. Each service branch is a different culture. The different branches' cultures are reflective per their mission and the resultant qualifications and standards for the 'type' of person that would be able to pass the training requirements respective of the mission. Air Force and USMC are the most profoundly dissimilar, where a more appropriate analogy might be a comparison of Google to IH.

Marine aviation is very small, and they are naval aviators, so Marine squadrons do carrier duty. But they are small and mobile, and want to be able to operate from remove patches of dirt. Helicopters in general, and the F35B and V22 in particular are principle enablers of CAP. And Marines generally do not want Air Force over them as they tend to prefer Army and Naval aviator brand of CAP.

The Army is not allowed jets per the same post WWII regulations that separated the Army Air Corps to form the Air Force service branch.

1. not certain about the articles demographics - see https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio...

The big problem with immigrant-fueled growth in America is that the first derivative of most Latin American demographic trends indicates larger reductions in growth rate than the U.S. or Canada. So North America, in general, could become dependent on higher-risk immigrant populations from Asia to maintain any significant growth.

2. Most boomers will be dead and turned to dust before 2060. And age distribution could become flat as fertility rates go flat. After 2045, the over 65 population rate will probably decrease to under 25% for North America. Some actuaries are thinking that people will not necessarily continue to have increased lifespans.

3. Quality and financial incentives for production and design automation have been driving industry at increasing rate for at least 25 years. My three current employers (one full-time regular, two contract) are all under 200 employees, have all reduced head count by at 15% to 40% over last 5 to 10 years, and have mandated to either not increase bodies or to further decrease bodies.

4. Too much emphasis on self-driving vehicles. Most industrial automation is after the obvious low-hanging fruit - logistics and production, where you do not necessarily see actual robotics, but much process automation and decision-making sustained by ML.

5. Mid-level jobs are being increasingly targeted: parsing of legal documents, accounting, warehouse management and stock control, and some of the more simple product design functions.

6. Anecdotal stuff.

In Early 2016, employer's main site in Southern California terminated OVER half of the engineering group - mostly support and mid-level management. Only one technician, no PCB designers, no mechanical designers, and no engineering managers remain. The remaining engineers do it all - feasible because design automation tools have reached a 'critical' mass.

Spent most of October through December automating the crap out of a factory warehouse and related processes. Last week, 14 people were terminated at the Mexico factory site. The factory warehouse had 14 full-time and 4 part-time employees in warehouse; there are now 3 full and 1 part-timer; and the part-timer will probably go away next quarter. And no robots in sight...

Need to correct some stuff.

Class 2 (arabic numeral) is for limited power sources, regardless of construction class.

Class II (roman numeral) indicates a construction class where safety cannot be dependent on a ground bond.

Class I (roman numeral) indicates safety is dependent on a reliable ground bound.

Class I equipment, depending on the scoped end-use equipment safety standard, can have up to 25mA of leakage.

Class II equipment, depending on the end-use environment, can be limited to 0.25mA of available touch leakage.

A good reference for Class 2 and 3 equipment is the UL5085-x series (same as CSA No66.x).

For the EU, there are no harmonized standards in the Low Voltage Directive that have an equivalent Class 2/3 construction, although there are several safety standards that address requirements for 'inherently limited' power sources.

Depends on the 'bandwidth' of the signal and the test equipment and the individual. Generally consider many non-medical measurements below 025mA suspect, as few design engineers make an effort to understand the various frequency components of the voltage and current leakage signals, and/or understand the effects to the signal of instrument impedances.

Have had several discussions with Mr.Pete Perkins (he sits on several STCs and has written several IEEE papers) on this subject, and we agree that the human body model referenced by these safety standards being used for the measurement network (IEC60990) have problems because the medical community does not understand physics. As the various standards committees continue to look at the body of work being done by bioengineers, will probably see better measurement methods being codified.

Human response and perception to electricity has significant variance and resultant effects/affects. My wife can detect less than 10uA at 200Hz/42V. My detection threshold is at least an order of magnitude greater, even at 50Hz.

Geez peoples - so much misinformation. Touch current test methods and limits are well-defined through out the world. Poor power 'quality' may affect this measurement, but is not a significant contributor to the magnitude of potential leakage through the ground wire or through exposed metal surfaces. It is a function of the power conversion equipment connected to, or internal, to the device. Even where wiring does not meet code, the upper limit to this measurement is well defined per the simulated fault conditions required in the test methods.

People that claim to be engineers need to read and understand the basic physics behind the product safety standards scoped by your equipment. For EU, code is defined in BS7671/IEC60364; and NFPA70 (mostly article 250) in the U.S.; and similar stuff in C22.1 for Canada.

ITE power supplies must meet the locally harmonized version of IEC60950-1 (soon to be obsoleted by IEC62368-1). Where there is no ground pin, North American power supplies must meet UL1310/CSA No.223. These standards all have specific limits for voltage, current, and VA levels that can be exposed to the end-user, for both normal and abnormal operating conditions.

Have done reviews for IEEE, APEC, and ACM stuff. There can be many reasons that a presentation is not accepted. Some rejects are a simple instance of subject matter not matching the scope of the symposium. Or there can be some problems with the math and other technical issues. Another unfortunate and not uncomman issue is where the English syntax and/or grammar is so poor that the meaning of the proposal is lost. And there can be the occasional submittal that is a bit before its time - it has happened to myself. Example is the IEEE (PSES and other societies) is probably at least 15 years behind the ACM on matters of software safety and test methodology. Members of the ISPCE tech committiee recently approached me about a session on software safety analysis for the 2017 symposium; yet my submittals for similar presentations were rejected at least twice during last 10 years, by this same group of people.

So a rejected presentation proposal may not have necessarly been a poor idea. Please do not take rejections personnaly.

Dude, also not too enamored with the guy, but this is not bad stuff; so worthy of a read. He came away from the meeting saying + things about FB. Am left of center, do not use or like FB (pun intended), but do appreciate the viewpoints of different people both politically and professionally.

"However, low qualified workers are likely to bear the brunt of the adjustment costs as the automatibility of their jobs is higher compared to highly qualified workers. Therefore, the likely challenge for the future lies in coping with rising inequality and ensuring sufficient (re-)training especially for low qualified workers."

Would seem that the 'low qualified' worker is the prevailing demographic. So that alone should make the risk, as an overall percentage, much higher than 10.

FWIW, my employer has been targeting all levels of workers for past several years. HR is gone, warehouse people down 65%, engineering down 40%, logistics down 30%, production down 35%. Mostly through process automation, some through robotics, and some through out-sourcing. And there has been a careful and selective 'firing' of customers. Both Net and Gross have significantly increased for three years. As for me, just sit here and write the code to do some of this. Am I evil?

60+ become candidates because of accumulated wealth, accumulated critical mass of professional and political connections, and a bit of end-of-life ego.

As for what old STEM people do, my father started to learn C++ at 66, learned Python at 68, modified and invented variations of heat pipes for energy efficient home cooling, designed and built a home-brew control system (before weenie arduino stuff), mastered the art of the perfect grilled pork burrito, and learned to play jazz clarinet. Really miss that cranky old geezer. RIP, Dad.

As a former enlisted marine that later earned two STEM degrees and has been a practicing technologist for over 25 years, will have to disagree, but will concede that a four-year enlistment in some branches of the American military will have an effect on your behavior and perception for remainder of your life, regardless of your speacilty. And the military experience is not, in fact, "really alien and uncomfortable" to the 'intellectual' (whatever that genre may be defined as...), but the military culture can be 'uncomfortable' to the general society that the military is serving. The USMC has an extensive book-reading and continuing education requirments for both enlisted and officer. The MOS schoolhouse, wether combat arms or technical, is not a narrow, delimited curricula, and does not discuss only tactical considerations, but requires strategic thinking and emphasizes an ethical philospy not seen in anything outside of seminary school. While the previous 14 years have seen some very bad behavior by the military in SW Asia and Africa, the daily performance of the marine rifleman on combat patrol has been the best of any generation of marines that preceeded them, including WWII.

The downside to a tour in the military is that of distrust and isolationism. Your most trusted life-long friends will probably be those that were developed during a short four-year stint. You will have difficulty relating to those that did not share this experience.

Finally, few people are suited emotionally, intellectually, or physically for some military branches;and those branches having a less onerous lifestyle seem to have increased entrance requirments. And of those that do enlist but fail to complete initial training (43 graduated boot camp out of my 78 member platoon, and this was before today's more difficult training requirements), many are broken mentally and/or physically. A suggestion to start in the military is profoundly serious and should not be issued with any element of whimsy.

Kudos for having an electrical safety page. But is not complete. Some of these installations appear to be both fire and shock hazards. 1. even for flame-rated PC and ABS, the RTI is typically under 50C, so any long-term exposure to LED heat is a fire hazard. 2. unless the power supply is Class II construction, the indicated wiring does not provide a reliable ground bond. GFI will not always help, as it depends on which version of the NEC for the building wiring. Best to choose a p/s certified IAW UL8750 (will bear the mark of an NRTL and a reference number) that is rated for Class II ops (will have the double insulation logo). If Class I construction required, never use wire nuts for ground lead connections - use terminals and double-crimped connectors. 3. The power supply should be rated for end-use; that is, is should not be a 'component power supply'. UL refers to end-use stuff as 'Listed', and components as 'recognized'. There are other terms for other materials and eauipment, and the terms vary depending on the NRTL that issued the certification (CSA, TUVR, MET, UL, etc). 4. wiring 'styles' (UL has a exhaustive database for this stuff) should be rated for the temperatures the insulation is exposed to, and be rated for the voltage and current that would be present during a fault condition. Recommend style 1015 wiring or better. Most residential PVC wiring probably not suitable for all uses described on these pages. 5. EMI - most of the dimmiable units have poor EMC due to both conduction and radiated emissions. And the demonstrated wiring will probably exacerbate these emissions. Some power supplies that are rated as 'components' depend on the end-use installation to meet radiated limits (47CFR15 subpart B).

Not able to understand the basis of this article.

1. What is 'work-horse' startup? 2. how is a 'work-horse' different from an 'unicorn'? 3. Would not the ubiquity of the 'cockroaches' result in many more c/r failures? Would their failure rate be much less, or would more survive just because there are supposedly many more? 4. is this a veiled zombie-apocalypse article? 5. is the 'plague' an economic bubble? If so, do the demographics and statistics map well with the precursor economic behavior for bubble formation? 6. and who has been 'living large'? Have yet to see any largess in this neck of the woods.

Will suppose that bulk of you people are corporate minions doing desktop or web stuff. At home and at work do 'deeply' embedded code. Assembly and C, with some Python honey poured on top to fill in the cracks. So perhaps it is a POV thing - huge company stuff done by several programmers vs small little black box stuff done by one or two EEs.

But a good tool, however mundane the task, will always be fun. This is my second Law of Engineering.

As an older and more cynical person, hard to be impressed by Yet Another Build system. Build systems just keep coming, one after another. New stuff, such as a new or different programming language or OS, is typically fun stuff. Another build system is never fun stuff. Please yell at me (have poor hearing) when you find a logical, useable build system that is fun.

FWIW, have used autotools, but mostly use scons.

Not certain if this employer is worse than any other small or mid-sized American business. The CEO pays competitively for STEM stuff, and probably at the low end of the scale of less skilled workers. The benefits are much better than similar for the industry sector - so much that we have asked to reduce perks some due to new tax and ACA regulations.

Perspective. Company size was approx 125 in 2007, but under 50 today. And the annual volume has returned to 90% of what it was for 2007. Unlike some of our big competitors, the boss has re-invested the increased margin after the recovery in next-gen product dev and an annual bonus system. My employer, to my knowledge, does nothing illegal or immoral, and struggles with 'doing the right thing' vs ensuring company survival.

For the low-skill stuff, treading dangerous ground. We had four part-time warehouse workers, each approx $11USD/hr.Did the mundane/grunt stuff. They were not poor employees, but they had no skills not easily replaceable, so managers gave little consideration to their joint demands for increased pay and benefits (not unreasonable requests). But the incremental difference of their demands did make it worthwhile for the boss man to block out several weeks of engineering time to automate. My employer now has ONE par-time warehouse worker.

And the result of this was essentially zero stocking error, and I learned pyQT.

There is still much suspicion in Germany. Families still remember their 'missing' members.

One the way home, stopped in Germany early 1991 to see a good friend. While sitting at sidewalk table, my friend abruptly arose and got in the face of another patron. Words were exchanged, and they went behind the building. My friend returned later, with blood on his sleeves and hands, with his pocket notebook out. With a grim smile, he indicated that he now has a "list of people to talk to...".

The wounds of Germany will not heal until their people of my generation have been buried.

Juror nullification not permitted in many states. In California, you will be found in contempt of court for doing so, or at best be removed from the jury for misconduct. Also, essentially zero federal judges will permit any open discussion of law nullification.

Perhaps too cynical after seeing medicos botch treatment for two family members. The main reason is the bottom line. If the allow people of marginal health to die too early, then their maximum utility diminishes unless the victim/patient can be kept alive for another 5 to 10 years.

This is a similar monetary basis for the cancer model - to extend the treatment period. Prolonging life has little to do with quality and meaning of life. The medical community is fundamentally corrupt.

Gave self a "terrifying lesson". Enlisted in the Marine Corps on an open contract. From Day #1, was surrounded by profoundly competent, but wholly crazy, people that seemed to cherish all manner of physical discomfort or mental terror experienced in the course of a day's 'work'. Damn right that the VA benefits were subsequently used for school and CS degree.