A couple weeks ago I designed a radio system for Mongolia State Rail as part of a GE bid. The tracks ran from Chinese border, through the Gobi, into the mountains, through Ulan Bator and finally to the Russian border in the Khentii mountains.
As a Radio Frequency Engineer I thought that was a neat project; it's a challenging environment for radio and an exotic locale. I was curious as to what other professionals found interesting in their careers.
What are the neatest things you've done in your career? Not necessarily projects or accomplishments; it could be anything you've done. I'll leave the definition of "Neat" open to you (even though I know it will lead to witticism about the time you cleaned your desk...)
Once I edited a "Recipes for Shavuot" page.
Beat that.
Well, nothing now. Shit... :(
:P But seriously, nothing comes to mind. I've gotten to travel all over the continental US to see places I might not have otherwise, but nothing in particular stands out.
I defended a lawsuit in which my client was sued by Jesus Christ (a/k/a The Son of Man).
And no, it wasn't a frivolous suit, or brought by a lunatic - millions of real dollars were at stake. :D
I also participated in defending a lawsuit in which it was determined, as a point of law, that Martians did not have standing to sue in Ontario. That one was more, well, frivolous.
Probably the neatest things I've done career wise are the research trips I've taken for Sleeping Dogs (Hong Kong) and Max Payne 3 (Sao Paolo). I got to meet all sorts of interesting people - from criminals to cops to celebrities and a bunch in between - and visit interesting locales in foreign places (slums, paramilitary police stations, private homes, industrial facilities) in a capacity other than "tourist".
The whole start-up/ entrepreneur/ business development thing is probably more exciting personally, but I think it's less of a "neat" story to others.
I once got the shit beaten out of me by a teenager almost twice my size (I restrained him! But I also got my glasses smashed.). None of my jobs since 2001 have involved hand to hand fighting :(
Cameras I help make are on Mars.
Back in the Cold War I developed and proved a method by which US SSBNs could be resupplied for additional patrols using commercial ports rather than their home ports (which would presumably be staked out by Soviet SSNs). This developed into an entire black programs in which we actually carried out the replenishment of US boomers from various ports which had no existing USN presence. There was also a 3-day limit on the replenishment, because that was the window for the Soviets to discover what was happening and redeploy their assets. We had a SEAL team that played the Red Team, so operational and physical security were the two biggest challenges.
It was really neat to see an idea I came up with in a brainstorming session turn into an entire program with a budget and a cast of thousands. Probably the thing that surprised me most was how readily all of the bureaucratic stakeholders changed all of their assumptions when presented with the logic of the program.
I'm not gonna tell you details about my work.
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being Chernobyl, how would you rate your job satisfaction?
Basking in the warm glow of STEM I give it an 11.
I delivered a pizza to a chick that answered the door naked.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 08, 2014, 01:14:15 PM
I delivered a pizza to a chick that answered the door naked.
I've seen movies that started that way. :)
:unsure:
I mean I've heard there are movies that begin that way.
:Embarrass:
I went into this line of work because it allowed me to do all sorts of "neat" things. Let's see what I can come up with:
-flew into Nunavut and conducted court along western Hudson's Bay in January
-flew into Old Crow and conducted court north of the arctic circle in December
-did a fly-along in a police helicopter
-three jury trials
-got to argue a matter before the Court of Appeal
-my ongoing murder file
-did court in the historic Dawson City courthouse, which doubles as a museum when court is not in session
And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story. Got to know a lot of what it is like to grow up in a remote native community, of course. Dealt with several placer miners (and yet somehow I'm a sucker for those reality gold mining shows) and lots of oil roughnecks. I have a couple of "cheating at a casino" files, so I've been learning about their security. I had an employee theft from a jewelry store, so I got to learn all about their business. Heck my very first court case (which got me interested in litigation in the first place) was all about a failing septic system, so even now I know lots more about home septic systems than I otherwise would have.
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2014, 01:16:17 PM
And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story.
... and then fling them into jail where they belong. :P
Quote from: Malthus on May 08, 2014, 01:17:25 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2014, 01:16:17 PM
And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story.
... and then fling them into jail where they belong. :P
"jail"? :huh:
Gaol. Synonyms.
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2014, 01:16:17 PM
And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story. Got to know a lot of what it is like to grow up in a remote native community, of course. Dealt with several placer miners (and yet somehow I'm a sucker for those reality gold mining shows) and lots of oil roughnecks. I have a couple of "cheating at a casino" files, so I've been learning about their security. I had an employee theft from a jewelry store, so I got to learn all about their business. Heck my very first court case (which got me interested in litigation in the first place) was all about a failing septic system, so even now I know lots more about home septic systems than I otherwise would have.
I had to look up what a placer miner was. Is that common in the Yukon? Do they actually use sluice boxes and pans?
Writing a report for the Chair Force.
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 08, 2014, 01:45:32 PM
Writing a report for the Chair Force.
"Firebombing works."
"Tailhook: Was it Really So Bad?"
I have been fortunate enough to do and be present at a lot of neat things in my career. There are few I can talk about :D
But one that I can that was really neat was when I took a tour of a deep mine site for a case I was defending. I was given a full day safety training - basically learning how to use all the safety gear I would be carrying or had access to. then they geared me up and sent me down the shaft with one of supervisors. We walked around for a couple hours so I could see all that I needed to understand some of the facts in the case. By that time I was exhausted. The heat and the effort of walking on that enviornment is something. Then the really cool part. We were in an unworked area when he turned off all the light sources. I have never seen black like that and probably never will again.
The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for miners.
Quote from: Savonarola on May 08, 2014, 01:44:31 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2014, 01:16:17 PM
And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story. Got to know a lot of what it is like to grow up in a remote native community, of course. Dealt with several placer miners (and yet somehow I'm a sucker for those reality gold mining shows) and lots of oil roughnecks. I have a couple of "cheating at a casino" files, so I've been learning about their security. I had an employee theft from a jewelry store, so I got to learn all about their business. Heck my very first court case (which got me interested in litigation in the first place) was all about a failing septic system, so even now I know lots more about home septic systems than I otherwise would have.
I had to look up what a placer miner was. Is that common in the Yukon? Do they actually use sluice boxes and pans?
Around Dawson City, yeah it's common. You'd see a bunch of signs saying "This business supports placer mining - placer mining supports this business". It is of course the reason Dawson City and the Yukon even exist - the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. In the years following all the little bitty gold mines were bought out into one big consolidated gold mining company which employed hundreds if not thousands of people, and they systematically and very literally turned the Klondike river valley upside down looking for gold.
By about the 1960s the creeks were no longer economical. Since then there are still dozens and dozens of mom-and-pop operations working away in the hills.
They still use gold pans - it's a quick and easy way to see if there is any gold in a sample of gravel - but sluice boxes are now mechanized and industrialized. They're big deisel-powered things (though last time I was at the Yukon general store you could buy a manual sluice box).
Lots of people do it almost as a sideline or summer job. It's moderately capital intensive - you need an excavator or bulldozer as well as your sluice box / shaker box, but I think the cost for that stuff runs into the five figures. If you have a half-decent claim you can probably earn $50k or more in a summer.
In terms of risk vs return on investment it is of course insanely stupid, but there's a hell of a romance about it.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 08, 2014, 01:53:04 PM
I have been fortunate enough to do and be present at a lot of neat things in my career. There are few I can talk about :D
But one that I can that was really neat was when I took a tour of a deep mine site for a case I was defending. I was given a full day safety training - basically learning how to use all the safety gear I would be carrying or had access to. then they geared me up and sent me down the shaft with one of supervisors. We walked around for a couple hours so I could see all that I needed to understand some of the facts in the case. By that time I was exhausted. The heat and the effort of walking on that enviornment is something. Then the really cool part. We were in an unworked area when he turned off all the light sources. I have never seen black like that and probably never will again.
The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for miners.
Before I went to law school I worked for a mining company in Flin Flon (well - I worked for THE mining company in Flin Flon). My work was entirely above ground, working with ore samples, but one day they did give me a tour of one of the mines.
I sure didn't get a full day worth of safety training though. :unsure: I guess they value lawyers more than junior mineralogists. :(
But yeah, they did the light out thing too. You can't describe just how black it is a mile underground.
And of course it was that job which drove me to go sign up for the LSAT. :)
Travelling around the US/Europe for 3 weeks listening to people with rheumatoid arthritis talk about their condition and how its affected their lives. Though not ultimately used for a particularly..."good" purpose, it was neat to have the opportunity to summarize all those lived experiences into a report on what it is like to live with RA and the support that those individuals need.
Of course - that was 5 years ago. -_-
Quote from: grumbler on May 08, 2014, 01:06:16 PM
Back in the Cold War I developed and proved a method by which US SSBNs could be resupplied for additional patrols using commercial ports rather than their home ports (which would presumably be staked out by Soviet SSNs). This developed into an entire black programs in which we actually carried out the replenishment of US boomers from various ports which had no existing USN presence. There was also a 3-day limit on the replenishment, because that was the window for the Soviets to discover what was happening and redeploy their assets. We had a SEAL team that played the Red Team, so operational and physical security were the two biggest challenges.
It was really neat to see an idea I came up with in a brainstorming session turn into an entire program with a budget and a cast of thousands. Probably the thing that surprised me most was how readily all of the bureaucratic stakeholders changed all of their assumptions when presented with the logic of the program.
Wow!
That is not just neat. We need a super cool thread for this. I am impressed Grumbler.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 08, 2014, 01:53:04 PM
I have been fortunate enough to do and be present at a lot of neat things in my career. There are few I can talk about :D
But one that I can that was really neat was when I took a tour of a deep mine site for a case I was defending. I was given a full day safety training - basically learning how to use all the safety gear I would be carrying or had access to. then they geared me up and sent me down the shaft with one of supervisors. We walked around for a couple hours so I could see all that I needed to understand some of the facts in the case. By that time I was exhausted. The heat and the effort of walking on that enviornment is something. Then the really cool part. We were in an unworked area when he turned off all the light sources. I have never seen black like that and probably never will again.
The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for miners.
OK Grallon.
Quote from: Grey Fox on May 08, 2014, 01:05:13 PM
Cameras I help make are on Mars.
:cool:
Well, that pretty much matches my definition of a cool and neat thing to have done.
:hmm: Damn, reading all these accounts makes me realize that actuarial profession doesn't tend to generate interesting neat stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBttKoetqo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBttKoetqo)
Flown out on USCG SAR missions in H-60 helos, flown with them to Russian-us border when they were conducting law enforcement missions, drove to Arctic Ocean with BBC crew, drank some beers with Johnny Depp on day he was nominated for oscar. Those would be highlights I guess.
Quote from: DGuller on May 08, 2014, 05:11:16 PM
:hmm: Damn, reading all these accounts makes me realize that actuarial profession doesn't tend to generate interesting neat stories.
I'm kind of in the same boat, since I'm an IT guy mostly supporting finance operations.
I guess working with Jane Fonda was pretty neat, but that was more than 10 years ago now.
I also expanded a telephony system from US and Spanish voice prompts to Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Vietnamese (or was it Hmong?) and Haitian Creole once. That was pretty neat.
Recently I modified our accounting and finance ERP to be able to transact in Pounds Sterling. That was kind of neat if you're an accounting and/or FX nerd.
Would've been even neater if it had been around the time Barbarella came out.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 08, 2014, 07:22:28 PM
Would've been even neater if it had been around the time Barbarella came out.
Dude, here's the fucked up thing about Jane Fonda. At the time I worked in Alumni Affairs and Development, which might better be described as 'Sales for Non-profits'... meaning that the profession attracts a lot of hot chicks. We did this event that she came to, and I swear to you that she was STILL the hottest woman in the room and I believe at that time she was 64. :wacko:
I jury rigged a seismic air gun, the kind usually used on large offshore operations to do a seismic land survey on a gas well right in the middle of a dairy farm by digging a 1.5x1.5x1.5 meter trench, filling it with water and then firing the air gun in the ditch with the wrong kind of cable. The wrong kind of cable meant that the signal wasn't strong enough on one wire, I tuned the differing delays on each of the 7 wires of different length the an electronic delay apparatus usually used to fire dynamite charges. The air gun was fire with a 1.5 mile offset from the wellhead to be directly above the downhole seismic tool.
The dairy cows were not disturbed.
Quote from: Caliga on May 08, 2014, 07:18:16 PM
I'm kind of in the same boat, since I'm an IT guy
:yeahright:
I have yet to be fired :sleep:
Last year's summer class I had the students practice and present "High School Musical".
Watching them practice was funny as shit.
I was very proud when two of my students last year made the national English contest in Busan. There were only 20 contestants so it was a big accomplishment.
Quote from: Malthus on May 08, 2014, 12:54:32 PM
I defended a lawsuit in which my client was sued by Jesus Christ (a/k/a The Son of Man).
And no, it wasn't a frivolous suit, or brought by a lunatic - millions of real dollars were at stake. :D
I also participated in defending a lawsuit in which it was determined, as a point of law, that Martians did not have standing to sue in Ontario. That one was more, well, frivolous.
Racist! :mad:
I managed a complete physical inventory and trained the inventory tech in Mexico City. Ate and drank like a king. Worked my ass off, too. Smoked Cuban cigars and bought porn from the hotel lobby. It was incredible.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 08, 2014, 07:57:58 PM
Last year's summer class I had the students practice and present "High School Musical".
Why on earth would you do that? :huh:
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 08, 2014, 07:57:58 PM
I was very proud when two of my students last year made the national English contest in Busan. There were only 20 contestants so it was a big accomplishment.
Сапожник без сапог.
I have yet to be fired :sleep:
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 08, 2014, 08:00:30 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 08, 2014, 07:57:58 PM
Last year's summer class I had the students practice and present "High School Musical".
Why on earth would you do that? :huh:
Because we hurt his feelings and he takes it out on his students. Every time you insult Tim, some Korean girl is going to go home crying.
Quote from: DGuller on May 08, 2014, 08:04:41 PM
Сапожник без сапог.
You are supposed to send that to your handler.
In my days on an ambulance, saw some interesting things. Got into a fight that almost turned into a mob scene and the incident was on the local news (won't post this again). Responded to a shooting. Saw some really fascinating injuries with guys crashing motorcycles (a suggestion: if you are going to drive a motorcyle really fast in shorts and a tshirt, you might be better off not investing in a helmet--or at least you may feel that way for a while afterwards).
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 08, 2014, 08:00:30 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 08, 2014, 07:57:58 PM
Last year's summer class I had the students practice and present "High School Musical".
Why on earth would you do that? :huh:
Because
Quote
Watching them practice was funny as shit.
Quote from: alfred russel on May 08, 2014, 08:16:22 PM
In my days on an ambulance, saw some interesting things. Got into a fight that almost turned into a mob scene and the incident was on the local news (won't post this again). Responded to a shooting. Saw some really fascinating injuries with guys crashing motorcycles (a suggestion: if you are going to drive a motorcyle really fast in shorts and a tshirt, you might be better off not investing in a helmet--or at least you may feel that way for a while afterwards).
I saw the after effects of the motorcycle wrecks on the rehab floor of the hospital when I was getting my leg patched up.
Swore to myself to never get on one of those things...EVER.
My "career" has been varied. Much of the really fun stuff (sailing around the Pacific on a 58 foot ketch, building a house on a ridge in Big Sur, among other things) have not been part of my job.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is that I discovered that the company I worked for sold diplomas to Chinese students ($5000 for a PhD, $3000 for an MBA) when I was hired to pretend to help an unaccredited university get accredited, there were also Turks and Kenyans involved. I also got to meet Moldovans who didn't care that the diplomas were crap because of the fact that they were American.
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 08, 2014, 08:30:42 PM
I saw the after effects of the motorcycle wrecks on the rehab floor of the hospital when I was getting my leg patched up.
Swore I myself to never get on one of those things...EVER.
My dad was an ER doctor for decades. That lesson was drilled into us from an early age. He could be quite descriptive at the dinner table about the events.
What I kept hearing from the people with mangled legs:
I NEED A NEW BIKE.
me: :wacko:
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 08, 2014, 08:40:14 PM
What I kept hearing from the people with mangled legs:
I NEED A NEW BIKE.
me: :wacko:
What's so strange about that? If you legs are mangled, then your current bike is probably totaled.
DON'T GET A NEW BIKE.
Quote from: DGuller on May 08, 2014, 05:11:16 PM
:hmm: Damn, reading all these accounts makes me realize that actuarial profession doesn't tend to generate interesting neat stories.
My day to day job is probably as boring as yours. But you can still do some interesting things; I spent a good bit of my workdays as a fake internet personality that was both sane and reasonable. :P
I want a career :(
Coal miner is available in Australia.
Meh, I've done all sorts of neat things, too many neat things to mention because it won't get me laid here.
But I was thinking about it, and for a variety of different work and non-work reasons, I've been a guest on MSNBC (albeit by telephone) in its early days, I've been quoted on ESPN, responsible for an embarrassingly hilarious (non-work related) quote in a front page piece in the Washington Post that I will never tell any of you monkeys about, sat in on a group "technical advisors" session for a two-part episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", was in a Russian-made documentary about US law enforcement, and had a one-line speaking role in a never-distributed minor motion picture that let me fill out SAG paperwork.
Time for my closeup, Mr. Josh DeMille.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 08, 2014, 02:21:51 PM
Quote from: grumbler on May 08, 2014, 01:06:16 PM
Back in the Cold War I developed and proved a method by which US SSBNs could be resupplied for additional patrols using commercial ports rather than their home ports (which would presumably be staked out by Soviet SSNs). This developed into an entire black programs in which we actually carried out the replenishment of US boomers from various ports which had no existing USN presence. There was also a 3-day limit on the replenishment, because that was the window for the Soviets to discover what was happening and redeploy their assets. We had a SEAL team that played the Red Team, so operational and physical security were the two biggest challenges.
It was really neat to see an idea I came up with in a brainstorming session turn into an entire program with a budget and a cast of thousands. Probably the thing that surprised me most was how readily all of the bureaucratic stakeholders changed all of their assumptions when presented with the logic of the program.
Wow!
That is not just neat. We need a super cool thread for this. I am impressed Grumbler.
And it led to this.... :P
http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/2nd-man-pleads-guilty-in-navy-bribery-scandal-1.273441
Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 08, 2014, 09:02:20 PM
Meh, I've done all sorts of neat things, too many neat things to mention because it won't get me laid here.
But I was thinking about it, and for a variety of different work and non-work reasons, I've been a guest on MSNBC (albeit by telephone) in its early days, I've been quoted on ESPN, responsible for an embarrassingly hilarious (non-work related) quote in a front page piece in the Washington Post that I will never tell any of you monkeys about, sat in on a group "technical advisors" session for a two-part episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", was in a Russian-made documentary about US law enforcement, and had a one-line speaking role in a never-distributed minor motion picture that let me fill out SAG paperwork.
Time for my closeup, Mr. Josh DeMille.
And danced in a rabbit suit.
My greatest role.
It was glorious.
I once hit a guy with a broom.
Quote from: Razgovory on May 08, 2014, 09:17:10 PM
I once hit a guy with a broom.
You thought he was a witch?
I argued and won a wrongful death summary judgment in a case where the decedent allegedly contracted pulmonary disease due to exposure to chemicals. That was pretty cool because its 1) hard to get those kind of opportunities as a second year lawyer and 2) its basically impossible to win summary judgment in personal injury cases in state court, at least in Florida.
Quote from: alfred russel on May 08, 2014, 08:46:49 PM
Quote from: DGuller on May 08, 2014, 05:11:16 PM
:hmm: Damn, reading all these accounts makes me realize that actuarial profession doesn't tend to generate interesting neat stories.
My day to day job is probably as boring as yours. But you can still do some interesting things; I spent a good bit of my workdays as a fake internet personality that was both sane and reasonable. :P
My day to day job is not boring at all, my days go by very quickly. However, it's not that exciting to recount the story of how I implemented a very clever algorithm to quickly do some complex calculation.
No Dguller, I've checked, your job is boring.
Quote from: grumbler on May 08, 2014, 01:06:16 PM
Back in the Cold War I developed and proved a method by which US SSBNs could be resupplied for additional patrols using commercial ports rather than their home ports (which would presumably be staked out by Soviet SSNs). This developed into an entire black programs in which we actually carried out the replenishment of US boomers from various ports which had no existing USN presence. There was also a 3-day limit on the replenishment, because that was the window for the Soviets to discover what was happening and redeploy their assets. We had a SEAL team that played the Red Team, so operational and physical security were the two biggest challenges.
It was really neat to see an idea I came up with in a brainstorming session turn into an entire program with a budget and a cast of thousands. Probably the thing that surprised me most was how readily all of the bureaucratic stakeholders changed all of their assumptions when presented with the logic of the program.
:w00t:
Quote from: Malthus on May 08, 2014, 12:54:32 PM
I defended a lawsuit in which my client was sued by Jesus Christ (a/k/a The Son of Man).
And no, it wasn't a frivolous suit, or brought by a lunatic - millions of real dollars were at stake. :D
I know you've told us this story, but I forget. How was this possibly not frivolous or brought by a lunatic?
I am just trying to survive; so far successful.
Having worked low profile back office jobs all my "career" I have no neat stories to report.
I've done a lot of thing that I would class as neat personally but others probably wouldn't (like designing my own SCADA software).
Perhaps the most notable thing is to modify the code of a big assembly line while work is being done. It's a weird sensation, knowing that it is you that enables hundreds of people to do their jobs and even a tiny fuckup can bring the whole thing crashing down. Many people can't deal with the stress.
Dunno, I once had an interview with WB to write the film adaptation of The Twilight Zone - alas, they finally chose somebody else. But *that* would've been the neatest thing I'd ever done. I actually think it's one of the best projects I have ever written.
Besides that... dunno... most stuff I think of neat it's probably silly to most people here. I worked in a very popular children show once, where I did all sorts of weird stuff (like writing an entire episode based around a Flaming Lips song), yet kids seemed to love it. That was very fulfilling.
I could list a bunch of celebs I met/had beers with but none of them will actually remember who I am so it's quite pointless :lol:
Quote from: Phillip V on May 09, 2014, 12:48:33 AM
I am just trying to survive; so far successful.
But I suspect you are just setting up for long term failure.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 08, 2014, 02:21:51 PM
Wow!
That is not just neat. We need a super cool thread for this. I am impressed Grumbler.
It was a fascinating program, because we had to do things like swap out the whole crew, in a port neither crew had ever been to before, but without tipping off in advance that this was happening in this port (because the red Team was looking for indicators of where and when the op would take place). Where does the oncoming crew sleep for the two nights of the turnover? How do you get spare and replacement parts to the replenishment port without anyone being able to track their movements (since they are specialized enough that they'd only be moved to a boomer replenishment port).
Hell, I was amazed that COMSUBPAC and COMSUBLANT even agreed to run the program; they were sending a CO out for a 70-day patrol after only 3 of the 30 days he normally had to get his sub and crew ready for patrol.
It was also very hard. It took several tries before we had a successful (i.e. not detected in advance or attacked while occurring) replenishment.
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2014, 01:59:03 PM
I sure didn't get a full day worth of safety training though. :unsure: I guess they value lawyers more than junior mineralogists. :(
I'm surprised they let you into an active mine without safety training. One of the projects that I'm working on now is a mining company in Australia. In order to just get onto the land the mining company owns you have to go through several inductions.
Quote from: Iormlund on May 09, 2014, 01:15:35 AM
I've done a lot of thing that I would class as neat personally but others probably wouldn't (like designing my own SCADA software).
There's someone at my company who has a license plate which reads "SCADA." (Someone else has a bumper sticker that reads "Repeal the 17th"; (the constitutional amendment which mandates direct popular election of senators.) Florida is a strange place.)
I've written some of my own tools to analyze traffic and interference. Personally I think that's a neat thing to do; but I doubt anyone but a radio or telecommunications engineer would think so. That's one of the reasons that I posed the question; to discover what different professionals found neat in their profession.
Quote from: PDH on May 08, 2014, 08:34:53 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 08, 2014, 08:30:42 PM
I saw the after effects of the motorcycle wrecks on the rehab floor of the hospital when I was getting my leg patched up.
Swore I myself to never get on one of those things...EVER.
My dad was an ER doctor for decades. That lesson was drilled into us from an early age. He could be quite descriptive at the dinner table about the events.
Well that's another sort of uber-cool for me, little better than fixing broken people. :cool:
I can half-see what attracts those people to repeat attend/hang out at emergency departments, though I cannot understand their selfishness in consuming valuable resources.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 08, 2014, 09:02:20 PM
Meh, I've done all sorts of neat things, too many neat things to mention because it won't get me laid here.
But I was thinking about it, and for a variety of different work and non-work reasons, I've been a guest on MSNBC (albeit by telephone) in its early days, I've been quoted on ESPN, responsible for an embarrassingly hilarious (non-work related) quote in a front page piece in the Washington Post that I will never tell any of you monkeys about, sat in on a group "technical advisors" session for a two-part episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", was in a Russian-made documentary about US law enforcement, and had a one-line speaking role in a never-distributed minor motion picture that let me fill out SAG paperwork.
Time for my closeup, Mr. Josh DeMille.
:cool:
You should be using those resources to get laid more often, change of country for a while to sow some wild oats ? :bowler:
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 08, 2014, 11:57:23 PM
Quote from: Malthus on May 08, 2014, 12:54:32 PM
I defended a lawsuit in which my client was sued by Jesus Christ (a/k/a The Son of Man).
And no, it wasn't a frivolous suit, or brought by a lunatic - millions of real dollars were at stake. :D
I know you've told us this story, but I forget. How was this possibly not frivolous or brought by a lunatic?
The plaintiff was a scamming "priest" who made a lot of money with a religious-themed ponzi scheme.
The defendant was his Canadian investment agent/advisor.
The plaintiff collected all his scammed money in the name of his church - a legally registered entity. He then handed it over to his investment advisor to invest. The advisor invested it - on behalf of the "Church".
Later, the feds caught on to the priest, and he (eventually) ended up in prision. In order to avoid the feds bringing proceedings to take all his money back, he dissolved his religious corporation and did a few asset transfers, with the assets eventually supposedly ending up in the hands of a trust - himself (through some intermediaries) being a trustee, and the beneficiary of the trust being "Jesus Christ, the Son of Man". Obviously, this was all bullshit, the sole point of which was to make life harder for the feds chasing his cash.
However, the guy succeeded mainly in outsmarting himself. At one point he asked for some of "his" money back from his Canadian advisor. "Who the fuck are you?" said the advisor. "I am holding money in the name of [Church], not you".
So the guy attempted to sue in name of [church]. Only problem: in Ontario, you have to sue in the name of an
existing corporation. He had dissolved his corporation a year ago. In Ontario, you can always re-constitute a corporation to sue; in his state of incorporation, you can't. So he was fucked, by what we in the trade call "a true conflict of laws".
You can probably see the next step comming ... he then sued in the name of the trust that supposedly held the assets now. In his home state, if you sue in the name of a trust, you sue in the name of the beneficiary, which in this case was "Jesus Christ, the Son of Man". The Ontario court ruled: the transfer was bullshit and the trust was an obvious fraudulent device, so no valid lawsuit. He was fucked again.
Then the feds got involved, seeking restitution for the fraud victims, and we were conflicted out (the partner I worked for did a lot of work in Canada for the US feds). Not entirely sure what happened after that - I think the feds and the client came to a deal, in which the client handed over some portion of the money and kept some for himself.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 08, 2014, 07:59:15 PM
Quote from: Malthus on May 08, 2014, 12:54:32 PM
I also participated in defending a lawsuit in which it was determined, as a point of law, that Martians did not have standing to sue in Ontario. That one was more, well, frivolous.
Racist! :mad:
Heh - that was when summary judgment motions could not succeed if there were "facts in dispute". The guy alleged he was being persecuted (by his dentist!) because he was a "Martian". Whether the guy was, really, a "Martian" was a "fact in dispute", albeit a really stupid one.
So the court ruled that only humans and corporations had standing to sue in Ontario. Ergo, even if he was a "Martian", he could not sue; and if he wasn't, his case had no basis. :D
Quote from: Malthus on May 09, 2014, 09:26:46 AM
Then the feds got involved, seeking restitution for the fraud victims, and we were conflicted out (the partner I worked for did a lot of work in Canada for the US feds). Not entirely sure what happened after that - I think the feds and the client came to a deal, in which the client handed over some portion of the money and kept some for himself.
I'm reading this, "it was complicated, lots of lawyers jumped in, what a feeding frenzy, but then with all fees the money started to run out, most of us lost interest at that point, and I don't know what happened to the scraps that were left." :P
Hmm, not sure. My current job allows me to do business trips to lots of countries (10 different countries on 4 continents in the last two years). That's kinda neat and even Languish-related: I met Tim in Seoul last year.
Got shot at/shot and blew stuff up overseas. We'll see if I'll be doing really cool stuff here in about two years. :ph34r:
You're not the first to plan to shoot up Languish.
Quote from: Alcibiades on May 09, 2014, 10:02:18 AM
Got shot at/shot and blew stuff up overseas. We'll see if I'll be doing really cool stuff here in about two years. :ph34r:
Hopefully, you pissed on a jihadi corpse.
Quote from: alfred russel on May 09, 2014, 09:47:04 AM
Quote from: Malthus on May 09, 2014, 09:26:46 AM
Then the feds got involved, seeking restitution for the fraud victims, and we were conflicted out (the partner I worked for did a lot of work in Canada for the US feds). Not entirely sure what happened after that - I think the feds and the client came to a deal, in which the client handed over some portion of the money and kept some for himself.
I'm reading this, "it was complicated, lots of lawyers jumped in, what a feeding frenzy, but then with all fees the money started to run out, most of us lost interest at that point, and I don't know what happened to the scraps that were left." :P
Bleak House, right? :D
In fact, there was pots of cash left over, even after all the lawyers got paid ... ;)
Quote from: Alcibiades on May 09, 2014, 10:02:18 AM
Got shot at/shot and blew stuff up overseas. We'll see if I'll be doing really cool stuff here in about two years. :ph34r:
Shit, you didn't have to go overseas to get shot at; you could've been with me on Harford Road when that asshole Reid exploded my light bar.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 09, 2014, 07:03:12 PM
Quote from: Alcibiades on May 09, 2014, 10:02:18 AM
Got shot at/shot and blew stuff up overseas. We'll see if I'll be doing really cool stuff here in about two years. :ph34r:
Shit, you didn't have to go overseas to get shot at; you could've been with me on Harford Road when that asshole Reid exploded my light bar.
Harry Reid exploded your light bar?
Cool story, bro.
Kept a bunch of people out of jail, got a bunch of people out of jail.
Nancy never gave the shoot order. :(
Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 08, 2014, 09:02:20 PM
Meh, I've done all sorts of neat things, too many neat things to mention because it won't get me laid here.
But I was thinking about it, and for a variety of different work and non-work reasons, I've been a guest on MSNBC (albeit by telephone) in its early days, I've been quoted on ESPN, responsible for an embarrassingly hilarious (non-work related) quote in a front page piece in the Washington Post that I will never tell any of you monkeys about, sat in on a group "technical advisors" session for a two-part episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", was in a Russian-made documentary about US law enforcement, and had a one-line speaking role in a never-distributed minor motion picture that let me fill out SAG paperwork.
Time for my closeup, Mr. Josh DeMille.
You're forgetting bunny suit. :contract:
EDIT: Ed beat me. :glare:
Ed did not. <_<
:whistle:
I sent a really killer email once.
CHAIR FORCE!
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on May 09, 2014, 07:26:20 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 08, 2014, 09:02:20 PM
Meh, I've done all sorts of neat things, too many neat things to mention because it won't get me laid here.
But I was thinking about it, and for a variety of different work and non-work reasons, I've been a guest on MSNBC (albeit by telephone) in its early days, I've been quoted on ESPN, responsible for an embarrassingly hilarious (non-work related) quote in a front page piece in the Washington Post that I will never tell any of you monkeys about, sat in on a group "technical advisors" session for a two-part episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", was in a Russian-made documentary about US law enforcement, and had a one-line speaking role in a never-distributed minor motion picture that let me fill out SAG paperwork.
Time for my closeup, Mr. Josh DeMille.
You're forgetting bunny suit. :contract:
EDIT: Ed beat me. :glare:
The bunny suit? I heard legends of a bunny suit cop way back when I was taking law enforcement classes. You aren't going to tell me that was Seedy?
You missed the vid clip last year?