Slite Site Modification

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

Moderator
Staff member
I was prompted by a member here to look into changing the default text size to make reading easier. This should help those who use reading glasses those that view the site with their mobile devices. If this creates any issues let me know.

Eric
 
Thanks very much, Eric~


As it turns out, I saw no difference with the upgrade. Must be my browser.



So, I went into my Firefox browser - Options - and changed the Zoom - for text only - to 150 %. (I had first tried changing Font Size but it had no effect).


All the best,


SJS

 

Thanks Eric.

Way out of my area of know how. Mary Lee may help.

When I mess with "puters" bad things can happen.


Case in point.

After the steel mill closed, some of us were sent to business school. So we could re enter the job market, with "Skills".

"Puter" class had a group of rough, foul mouthed, and out of place guys and gals.

I asked what would happen if we messed up (puter fear)?

Instructor said. "Don't worry, not a problem".

While my steel mill class mates were playing poker, and games on their puters.

I began to mess around, clueless as to what I was doing.


Long story short.

System crashed. Instructor saw my puter and yelled. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO??!!!

"I dunno..."

No more puter class the rest of the week.

The school had to get people from Pittsburgh to come up, and get things going.

Was pretty interesting, but I passed the course.


Vince
 
Vince

I'll be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with computers. I hate when companies like Microsoft have a product and after years of familiarity they completely change the interface and bury features 5 layers down in some damn hidden place, like they did with Outlook, Excel, and Word. I've never recovered from what they did with Excel. I learned it using it everyday, then used it less over time but still could because I knew my way around. Then BAM, the whole damn thing changed and it hurts to use now. Things that I could crank out in minutes take forever because I'm trying to figure out where they put some feature. I'm just fed up with it.

I'm pretty much like that on all corporate s/w. Sick of change for the sake of change. But I have to live with it in my industry. My other hate is networking. I avoid it as much as I can. Never had a class in it, never want to learn it. I want things to just work or I ask an SA to make it work for me. As for software I prefer to write my own whenever times allows. I'd rather build my own than use someone else's. At work a lot of times I can crank out a perl script to do a task much easier than I can use the prime contractor's tool delivered to our lab. They may be rudimentary but they work and I can make changes whenever I want, and it is mentally challenging.

Where I work I lead a small team for software testing. I love it because I get paid to find bugs in software and then notify the prime, show them what is wrong, and then verify they correct it. So I have some amount of say-so over how a product works. That is satisfying, especially knowing the warfighter gets a better weapon system. Outside of work we really have little say-so and I get frustrated talking to tech support knowing they don't give a damn what my opinion is of their buggy product or how they can make it better.

One day when I retire I will walk away from it and only touch a computer for activities I enjoy. I want to get back to my background in Statistics and Operations Research and spend time studying stochastic processes that to me are fun to try and get a handle on. For example, when I was in college I used to go to the dog tracks. I've got this belief that in peri mutuel betting the guy with the best info can win some money from the guys that don't know what they are doing, in spite of the house take. I plan to dig into track data using analytical tools, think sabermetrics in baseball, but in the simpler game of dogs chasing a rabbit around a track. I really have no interest in gambling. I just want to see if I can, with pretend money, gain an edge.

Boy, this got windy..

Eric
 
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WOW!!!!

Eric,

I read it ALL, and it was in small type... [;)]

Much of which I have NO *UCKING idea what you were writing about.


Man, now I Really have a "puter" complex.

We are still grappling with Windows 10.

If a high tech guy like you has serious, and well founded issues. I am TOAST.


We do agree on the love-hate relationship with puters.

I love books, magazines, paper maps, stuff like that, and I can recall how to dig a ditch for Blast Furnace slag, and iron...

I'm familiar with dog racing, gambling, etc. (long story) but they don't interest me at all.


Funny you mention retirement.

After I retired, almost ten years ago, was the first time I owned a puter.

Good for info (real & fake), entertainment, keeping in touch, and if not careful bankruptcy, and more from shopping.

The most time I spend on a puter is on this site, and if one gotta be indoors, and not creating art, it's time well spent.

There are many good folks here, and I'm still learning.


Hopefully after you retire, you will get joy from these machines, not high blood pressure.


Ya this Shut In/ Cabin Fever stuff can really get ya, if ya don't watch out.

Gets folks to thinkin' more than doin', and things can get dicey.

Gotta vent, or hope the safety valve is still in working order.


Vince
 
Eric Patterson said:
Vince

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, they completely change the interface and bury features 5 layers down in some damn hidden place,,,,,, I learned it using it everyday,,,,,,,, I knew my way around. Then BAM, the whole damn thing changed and it hurts to use now. Things that I could crank out in minutes take forever because I'm trying to figure out where they put some feature. I'm just fed up with it.

Sick of change for the sake of change.

I get frustrated talking to tech support knowing they don't give a damn what my opinion is of their buggy product or how they can make it better.

Boy, this got windy..

Eric
Click to expand...

Eric,
At least I can console myself with the thought that others share my same frustrations. Not only was the current software constantly being "upgraded" but we went thru 3 different brands of machine programming software, over a 5 year period. One would just get to the point of thinking like the software and becoming efficient with it when management would get sold on some other brand.

My (former) employer did not want to spend any time or money when a new programming software was introduced to the shop floor. One was expected to learn the new software by trial and error? all the while cranking out a finished quality product on the machine. Management seemingly failed to grasp the concept that the old and the new software was NOT as easy as sliding from one chair to the next. It was more like switching from English to a foreign language where not only are the words different, the whole sentence structure is different as well.

I stopped in at the machine shop just the other day. Had a short chat with the new guy running my machine now. He too is still facing the same issues of zero training, learn by osmosis's.

Guess I got just as wordy. Time to go fishing. [;)]
 
Dave

What would happen in your old shop if workers quit meeting deadlines or made costly mistakes with raw materials? Would management become proactive in letting the users have a say? If not I would be frustrated and raced to retirement.

Eric
 
Eric Patterson said:
Dave

What would happen in your old shop if workers quit meeting deadlines or made costly mistakes with raw materials? Would management become proactive in letting the users have a say? If not I would be frustrated and raced to retirement.

Eric
Click to expand...

Oh that happens, part of the "cost of doing business". MOST of the time errors are caught in time but not always. I remember one particular job we did for the mining industry. The job was a holding fixture for a part which had to machined in a lathe. The fixture was quite intricate and very precise. It also had nine interchangeable pieces which all had to fit into the core structure, exactly and repeatable. I was tasked with machining all the components of this project.

The day came for final inspection and customer approval of the project. I hear my name over the intercom directing me to the inspection room. Inspector says, right in front of the customer, "Dave, your fixture is off by .030 inch." Now in my world, on this particular project, this is like a cruise ship docking not at the wrong slip, but at the wrong port of entry.

I ask him (the inspector) just exactly what dimension(s) were machined incorrectly? He says "I don't know, I just know this isn't right, you're off by over .030" as he points to a particular callout on a print, with a real smug look on his face. All this in front of our customer, mind you.

I told him I did not doubt his inspection but this print he is showing me was not provided to me. I need to know, on the dimensions provided to me, for each individual detail part, what detail part, is out of spec so we can determine if that detail part can be re-machined of if we need to build a new part or parts.

Come to find out, everything I had machined was correct to print. The error was in the design end of the project, resulting in bogus numbers on the detail print. I can't begin to calculate the expense in raw materials, labor and indirect costs generated by that error. I'm reasonably certain the customer ended up taking the project, and future business, to a different machine shop. I'm guessing that project alone was in the neighborhood of 100,000 dollars, about 15 years ago.

Now this particular example does stray from on the floor "software" related errors, inefficiencies and other "hidden" costs. And that there is how management justifies new software, because the SALESMAN says it's better. Paying for training is a cost, all the other associated costs are just hidden in the cost of doing business.
 
Eric~


I have no computer training, but have used one steadily since the mid-90s. Lots of frustrations with unwanted changes and especially bells and whistles for which I have no use.


Viz. Microsoft. They sued New York State so we had to give up WordPerfect and learn to live with the MUCH inferior Word....


Modern life.....


In my current situation, I am freer to embrace or reject much of what comes our way. We love our new high-speed internet here at the farm - but my smartphone lives turned OFF - awakened perhaps once per month (or less). Cell phones are for emergencies only, in my view.


(I'll save my feelings about printers for another time....)



All the best,


SJS


 
Eric,

I work as a Applications Administrator, so I understood what you are saying. I used to work in QA testing software.

I too thought I did something wrong the first time I opened the site after the change.

Rick
 
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