Unexpected reference in software specification

[Vidar]

I came across an unexpected yet logical reference to SAKs in the GenIcam Standard which is a document that describes a Generic Interface for Camera control and programming. (GigE industrial cameras, telescope and microscope cameras and such).

One node in this is named SwissKnife and another IntSwissKnife, and they handle a variety of floating point and integer computing tasks respectively. It might be just me, but I thought that was both fun and descriptive naming in an otherwise desert dry ocean of naming conventions.  (Desert dry oceans - you might have seen it here first 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yes I totally saw that while doing some bedtime reading last night!

 

Def

[Vidar]

It does tend to make me sleepy, so there is that... It was a success though. I managed to get the GigE cameras discovered, connected, setup and happily streaming video and grabbing pictures without having to use the manufacturers various elaborate software setups and solutions. Which means our solution is not dependent on their software, updates or licenses. So no lock-in for us, and we can choose another camera supplier if we'd prefer later on.  (We also get to use the programming language we want rather than having to deal with their options).

There must be better reads for bedtime though! I can recommend ISO 8764-1 "Assembly tools for screws and nuts". Although that might too exciting to sleep? 

[Farmer X]

I've had to sit through an ISO lecture or three. The guy who gave the lectures was very knowledgeable where ISO was concerned, but it's not exactly the most exciting stuff out there.

[Vidar]

I find the technical definition ones quite useful with dense accurate information. But they are hardly exciting. I hope you got well paid for attending! 

The thing about standards are there are so many organizations making them. Sometimes these regulate the exact same topic / area / field but with slightly or very different end results. That can be confusing at best and expensive or prohibiting at worst. Maybe one day they can actually agree on universal standards. That would be quite useful. Sadly I believe standard differences are also used as political trade tool at times, thus with differences maintained on purpose, so that is likely never going to happen.

And there are the prices... Buying standards are eye watering expensive!

[Farmer X]

I hope you got well paid for attending!

Just what would today be about $35/hour. Man, I miss raking in that kind of money.

[Vidar]

Money certainly helps on motivation! Back in the day when I was a smurfbroke student I had a part time job. That one had a quite motivating weekend shift: You had to go there and do some checks and routine operations both Saturday and Sunday. Most days everything was fine and it was about 1.5 hours work per day. But regardless of actual work you always got paid for a minimum of 3 hours for showing up. And since it was a weekend there was also a 100% extra pay per some general agreement there. And on weekends the work bus didn't go, so you got paid to use your own car.

It all added up quite handsomely, and was so attractive that we part timers sometimes had to make a lottery of who did it. (Full time employees typically prioritized the weekends off). It all ended after another one got into potential life threatening trouble while being there all alone. It was then decided it should be a minimum of two persons even in weekends, and while they were at it they also changed it to minimum 3 hours of actual work since that was the minimum they paid for anyway. The budget however stayed the same...  Oh well, great while it lasted.   

[Farmer X]

Seems like a good deal to me! The last job I had when I lived in California saw me doing a lot of driving. I clocked in when I left the house and clocked out when I got back home. Of course, if I was thinking straight, I could have claimed my mileage on my taxes. Live and learn.

[Vidar]

Yes, but that milage paperwork is such a hassle!

I know someone who worked for a package delivery service at some point. They got some packages to deliver in the morning, and after delivering them they were supposed to come back and get some more to deliver.

What really happened is that they delivered their morning packages, then met up at a cafe, sat there and chatted and lazied for quite some time, and then drove back when there wasn't enough time left  in the day anyway to do more deliveries.

I think that is a fun twist, but I also have issue with that on many levels. (As a side note some years ago one delivery company fitted one of their trucks with a tracking device.  After seeing the truck standing still at the same non-delivery spots for a long time every day the driver eventually got fired. Which turned into a freak court case as the driver claimed that was illegal surveillance at his workplace, while they of course claimed he didn't do what he got paid for).