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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • I’m also a software engineer (at least in title). I agree with the social skills but a different thing came to mind. The ability to actually watch and understand what people are trying to do. I’m lucky as all my software is internal to my company. I don’t make what we sell, I make what tests the products we sell. And yes I test the tests and also test the test’s tests 😭.

    I’ll give an example. I have an operation where the operator is to scan a number off a paper before testing. That number is for traceability we need to know which test results are for which unit. Previous engineer said since it’s scanned off the unit it will never be incorrect as long on the printed barcode is correct(separately validated) so no need to verify format.

    I ran into an issue where units had an extra zero either before or after the number. So if number was 12345 sometimes it would be 012345 or 123450.

    I went to watch the process. The operator scanned the unit( I watched them work all day, this was 1 unit out of a whole days work) and when they put the scanner down the scanner’s corner was on the 0 button of the keypad.

    We did a 2 phase remiduation. Stage 1. Operator instructed to log in and then place keyboard on shelf away from workplace. Stage 2. Verify the number is in correct format in code. Yes the code update is simple but in our field needs weeks of work to test, validate, and release.

    Actually watching the operator closely identified the problem. The code was not the issue, the code passed all requirements and tests. The issue was the tests and requirements did not match the user’s experience but if I stayed in my cube as for weeks I would not of been able to find the bug.









  • vrek@programming.devto196@lemmy.blahaj.zonejob rule
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    1 month ago

    This a actually worked out for a co-worker. He interviewed for a position and the interview went of like 6 hours. He waited 6 months and never heard anything. He applied for another position at my company. Different team, lower pay and not in his specialized field. He got that job. Another 3 months and the boss for the first job called him and said their initial hire didn’t work out and asked if he was still interested.

    He laughed and said he was already working but would be interested. The boss asked where he was working. He replied “I’m actually down stairs”.

    He got the job, more money then the initial offer and he was happy in the new position. Probably an unlikely event and I wouldn’t recommend trying to duplicate it.


  • Another fun similar idea is drunk chess. Each piece has a value(for example pawns is 1), there are tables you can look up it’s standard in chess. Each piece you take, you take its value in shots(highly recommend shots of beer). There are strategies this brings up. For example your opponent hangs a queen in early game, you can take it but now you would need to 6 shots making you likely to mess up the late game.







  • I work for a medical device manufacturer and you are missing a important reason for that exception. Yes human lives are on the line. In addition WE (meaning my company) are responsible for finding out why it broke and how we will prevent other devices we make from breaking.

    We make a device and say it will last 10 years, 2 years later it stops. We have to replace it, We have to investigate to the best of our ability, We have to report our findings to the government, if several cases happen We need to come up with a prevention for the future dailures(or prevention if severe enough). We have entire departments for this. It is our burden not the consumer and it’s our burden so we have enough evidence to determine root cause and final solution so we can prevent further failures.




  • I’ve done some gcode but moved onto other programming(mostly c# so completely different. One thing I HATED about gcode, I don’t know if it was just my machines or gcode in general(most of mine were based on fanuc cnc controllers typically seen as top of the line) , we were not able to name variables.

    I create a variable and assign it #315. What does #315 do? What does it mean? Who knows… Better have notes or comments to explain or your fucked. I can’t say variable x_offset_tool_15 nope…just #315.