I’d like to learn what people in their field think of when they see something good or bad when they’re not working.
I’m a health inspector, so when I am sitting at a table as a customer, I’ll watch people while I’m eating (not purposely staring, but having a look around the place). I recently saw someone swipe their finger under their nose then go to the self serve station to touch about 8 different handles before walking away. Thankfully, I was already done eating.
When I have to walk through the kitchen to the toilets, I take mental notes without meaning to.
As a ex-first responder, unconsciously doing an assessment of someone I’m speaking to (or not) and internally noting how nice and juicy their veins are.
What are some things you come across in your daily life and what do they have you thinking about?
I work in IT, so if I ever walk upon a tablet (or something similar) that is accessible to the general public my first instinct is to check if they did care enough to properly restricted access.
Story time: Me and some friends met in Berlin last year and while walking through a mall we stumbled across a “presentation” from Lego. Basically it was a giant screen with an IPad connected to it and you could type in your name, select an animation and it would then display it on the screen. Nothing fancy and probably quite fun for kids. However, I guess you can imagine what happens when about 7 IT nerds see an unattended IPad in public. We of course tried to check, if we could get access to other programs we were not meant to get access too.l or exploit the programming in any other way (AS example inserting funny things like “null” into the name field). After some experimenting, we found out that if you pressed for a longer time on the field where you could insert your name the option “autofill” and “share” popped up. This meant, that you could theoretically insert and open files through this and you could also share contacts. This meant, that we just discovered the about 200 contacts, that were saved in the iPad. This meant, that if we wanted we could have just write down information like name, phone numbers and E-Mail adresses. There were also separate groups of contacts called “family” and “work”. We of course did not do anything with it and reported it to the person attending everything, but I think that person did not realised, that its bad to expose all of someone’s contacts to the general public saying things like “It was meant for kids” and “no one would do this”. Well, guess who didnt stop a group of adults trying to break the software on that tablet.
Also I think I dont really have to say, that I usually experience physical pain when I see how movies depict programming or hacking like its something you can do in a few minutes. And its usually even worse, when any form of actual code plops up in a movie and you realise, that they are either doing updates on a Linux system or its code that doesn’t even have a correct syntax and matches the corresponding action even less.
Oh wow. That’s a pretty big fall down of Lego. I’m one of the ones who wouldn’t have a clue about any of it… Though I probably wouldn’t have put my email in to it. What are your thoughts about cafes that have a tablet that says “input your email address and get a free coffee”? Same thing? Does what you did with an ipad work with an android tablet as well?
Good on you for letting them know! Whether or not they do anything about it, it would have been out of your control. Thank you for taking privacy seriously. I think it’s something that people don’t realise that “I’ve nothing to hide” isn’t the point.
Haha that’s awesome. Same with me and cooking shows, too. “What, he just touched his face and he’s gone to touch the garnishes… And they’re not going to be cooked either.” Or the timed challenges where “You’ve got 3 hours – Go!” and the handwashing is neglected so badly. I wonder if there’s ever been an illness complaint afterwards from the “surprise” 100 guests.
I think you misunderstood me there. It was literally just “input any name” and that name was then displayed with an animation. They did not collect any information about the people who used this.
The contact information were the contacts from the person who normally uses said iPad
About your question regarding the “free coffee”: Always remember, when you have to input your personal data to receive something for “free” youre not getting it for free, but you become the product. Personal information are quite valuable and you should watch out what information you give out and to who you give it out. In the best case they are just using your information to send you advertisements about e.g. their new super special limited time offer. In the worst case they will outright sell your data to data brokers.
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Mechanical engineering. Whenever I see a big piece of tech — say car, plane or any industrial machinery/piping — I think of all the time and effort that went into creating each part of it, from drawing blueprints, modeling, checking national/international standards, choosing materials, running software for calculations, running through different people for approval, assembly, maintenance, etc.
It’s so much work and even more paperwork. I feel we take what we have for granted.
My brain is not that high level when tech 😂 But I also used to be a food technologist in a previous life, so I love to reverse engineer food items! My partner is a mechanical engineer and doesn’t have a food science mind. We’re definitely opposites in that respect. My eyes glaze over when he starts talking engineering. 😅
I’m a crane technician and love diagnosing peoples cars by the horrible sounds they make when they drive past me
I hope I haven’t driven by you 😂 My dad is a car and heavy machinery mechanic, so I can definitely hear when something is a little off, but as for diagnosing, no chance!
I used to get into my friends car and tell him something sounds wrong and he should look into it.
A month or two later it would fail and it happened so often he asked me to stop pointing things out cause I’m cursing him when I mention it haha
You’re not cursing anything or anyone - tell him you’re from the future! 😂
That’s the go haha, shame I didn’t think of that 10 years ago.
Now days we both have reliable vehicles so it’s less chance things are failing on a monthly basis.
He did buy a new car last year and said I’m not allowed to mention anything, then politely asked if I do please let him know though haha
I probably wouldn’t have thought of that on the spot either! I think him asking you to let him know if you notice any issues quietly says that all this time, he has trusted you even if he couldn’t admit it, haha!
Among other things I’m an audio editor and producer, and badly-done audio really grates on my brain. When clips have been poorly chopped together, when a character running away from a monster screams the exact same scream twice, when statements are clearly frankenclips made of fuck knows how many different recordings, my brain raises the alarm.
This is especially rough when reality TV competition shows are on. I like Drag Race, for example, but RuPaul is employing some idiots hacking at spools of worn-out tape with rusty knives or something.
“I’m having trouble with this challenge!”
Ouch. I actually haven’t come across it very often, but with clips online, it really throws my brain to see the sound and mouth not making the same movement/sound.
Being trained in behavioral psychology and watching my girlfriend’s sister with her dogs is torture to me.
She’s got a good boi who barks for attention. She gives him attention every fucking time. He’ll be barking away in the corner while we try to talk, and instead of taking him outside or something, she calls him over to her and pets him.
I see this over and over again and think, “It’s no wonder he barks so much, when she reinforces him for it constantly.”
It drives me nuts and honestly makes me not want to go over to her house. I really want to say something, but I don’t want to be that person coming in and giving unsolicited advice to others about how to train their pets. So I just watch it happen over and again and suffer in (bark-filled) silence.
Edit to add: Also, my brother and his kids. This one hurts more for a number of reasons. He complains about how our mom raised us, but then does the same shit with his kids, never connecting the dots. Meanwhile I learned what not to do by watching my mom. Then through education and working in the field, not only have I been vindicated for the way I interact with kids, but I learned lots of new skills that could help the kids learn appropriate behavior while maintaining their self-esteem. But when my brother’s around, he’s all, “I’m their parent and I’ll raise them my way.” Even his own parents-in-law told him, “You listen to Whats_your_reasoning, she knows what she’s talking about.” But no, I’ve got to not do the things I do every day that could help his kids and his life in the long run because he doesn’t want to hear it.
Oh gods. I feel the same when I see people and their kids and dogs. I did a few psychology courses in school years ago, so I have some understanding of behaviour. I feel so bad for the animals and kids because they don’t know any better and they are guided by their owners/parents.
I used to stay at a friend’s house when I first moved to Victoria and stayed in Melbourne for a few weekends. It started to come out that the mum (my friend) was actually bullying her daughter to tears, and the dad would sometimes join in. They said it was “tough love”. I don’t speak with her anymore.
Some people will just do what their parents did to them, but it doesn’t make it right.
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That’s like how Australian houses are like… So many cut corners. I used to live in a house that the sealing wasn’t done properly (or at all) behind the shower. I raised it with the owner who got three plumbers to do assessments (they all had different results…). They ended up doing an entire renovation of the bathroom, and there was so much mould. I was sneezing a lot before they took it all out, and it was nearly unliveable until the dust/mould settled.
I used to drag my building surveyors out on inspections with me, and I learned quite a lot from them. Now the knowledge just becomes part of my inspection (even though I have no powers to order them to do anything about building legislation) and I kindly let owners know that _____ is a hazard and I’d recommend they get it sorted soon if not immediately.
Your knowledge would definitely be an asset when inspecting houses before moving in!
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I definitely hear you on that one!
I can’t drive past a recently felled forest and rate it as a planting site.
I used to plant trees
Same here, and then get really sad when I see the awful sign that says it’s going to be yet another warehouse.
I grow trees
That’s so sad. I love trees and they’re so important. It’s disappointing that money seems to always be such a driver in decision-making. 😢
“Ew gross… Glad I don’t have to clean that shit up.”
I loved music growing up, so I got a degree in Music and went into the record biz. I loved it, but it changed music for me, from something that was fun, to something that was work.
Eventually the record biz collapsed, and we all lost our jobs, and I moved on from music.
Years later, during the pandemic quarantine, I picked up the guitar again, after having dropped it as a college student. Without having to rely on music for a living, I can just enjoy it. There is nothing more satisfying that sitting on the front porch at sunset, looking out over the pond across from my house, watching the birds settle for the evening, and fingerpicking through my favorite songs, in my own arrangements.
Music has become fun again, and has improved my health. By picking up the guitar instead of going to the fridge, my playing improved, and I’ve lost 100 pounds. It has also been amazing for my mental health, giving me sense of pride and confidence for having learned to do something very difficult.
That was the thing with me and cooking. I have had so many people tell me I should start a business, and I have firmly said no every time. I didn’t want a hobby to become a chore, and I may not enjoy doing it anymore. But if I were to bake bread every single day for a few hours a day, the forearm gains, though. 💪
I’m happy to hear that you’ve found your love for music again. I think it is such a huge part of everyone’s lives, whether they like it or not. Even if it’s not singing, language is song it itself. Imagine a language without intonations (I suppose the old computer voice would be this!). How boring would life be.
Yeah, it’s one thing to enjoy something when you are inspired, another when you HAVE to do it for money to pay the bills. It can make work life more tolerable, but it can also suck the fun out of something you love.
“Get a room, you two.”
I’m not sure I can guess what your field of work is!
I make love. I lack only clients.
I’m lost, lol.
Excluding the IT aspect of my job, I am unable to walk past a ship without thoroughly examining its mast to see which antennae it has and determine the capabilities.
Some tidbits I’ve noticed:
- A HF radio is popular, despite the ship otherwise not being rated for areas where HF radios are required.
- Older EPIRBs are indestructible provided that the battery and the hydrostatic release units are changed on schedule. I still see models around that are decades old.
- Starlink is seeing more and more offshore use, but nobody is getting rid of their VSAT.
- Iridium is starting to make a dent in the amount of Inmarsat-C installations after Iridium became approved for GMDDS.
- Fleet77 is gone. Haven’t seen it in ages.
I understood about 10% of that! But that’s what also makes it so interesting because I’ve not yet come across this before. I love it. Thank you for sharing!
I don’t know if this is anything of any interest to you, but for some reason, I thought of the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland when I was reading what you wrote. Maybe I made a roundabout connection with my engineering partner and water and then bridges. We didn’t pay to go on, but he specifically wanted to stop here just to see this bridge. Even my non-tech brain thought it was pretty cool.
I think I saw a Tom Scott video o the Falkirk Wheel
I work in EMS. I’m also constantly checking out people’s veins (veins are beautiful!)
Any house I go into I’m mentally determining if a stretcher would get into the home, how easy it would be to get it around, and how I could get someone out if the stretcher didn’t fit. Basically everywhere I go I’m like “how easy would it be to get you out if you dropped unconscious?” I’m also judging how well the home is set up for maneuverability if the person living there has a sudden loss of mobility - even young people can break a bone and end up on crutches or temporarily in a wheelchair and you want more room to move than you may think. My apartment is up several flights of steps with no elevator, but if I could scoot myself up the stairs and get inside my apartment I’d be ok. I have everything set up in such a way that if I was injured I could get around very well inside for a few months, it would just be the coming in and out that would be a problem.
I also always back my car into parking spots, because we always back the ambulance in. When we aren’t on calls the ambulance is always backed in so that if we get a call we can leave quickly, and if we are on a call the ambulance is backed in so we can leave quickly if the scene becomes unsafe.
They are! But when I can’t see them, I cringe a little inside. I already hate needles, but I HATE fishing. Shudder
Oh, I’ve never thought so much about stretcher manoeuvrability in a house. I was trained in occupational first aid level 3 (I think it might just be a British Columbia thing, but essentially I could work out in the mining camps and really remote areas where EMS is at least 30 minutes away if they were to drive without slowing), so I only really thought about it in a workplace setting. Also used to work in a stadium, so plenty of space. The hardest part was getting the patient out of the stands…
However, I have had times where I’ve woken up sweating with my heart jumping out of my chest and thinking I was going to die. From there, it was thoughts of how fast my heart was, was I going to pass out, “where’s my phone”, “Will my eyes focus long enough and can my fingers press the buttons,” “can I make it down the stairs and at least unlock the door”.
I also always back in to spots as well! Picked that up from just being a woman (quick escape if being chased), from driving the ambulance (again, safety thing). Attended a house once (as a health inspection) and walked by a machete just casually laying on the grass. Had my car pointed down the road, doors unlocked.
I’m a data analyst/software engineer in rocket engine testing.
I get super excited when I see rocket launches in the news or on the Internet.
“Woah that’s so cool!”
“Holy shit! Hardware I touched is on that!”
“Yooooo. Those engines I tested are on the Moon!”
Sic!
Do you often interface directly with the actual hardware on the rocket, or do you rather work with emulators and then pass the software on to some other person that in turn uploads it to the hardware?
This topic is to freaking fascinating to me! 😆
We make engines for other people to attach onto their satellites or rockets. All I typically do is test if the engines are functional. I help build the test programs and go through the resulting data. Our customers do the GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) programming, so I have no idea how that typically works.
“Whoops, hope that wasn’t mine”
My partner is an engineer and is fascinated with that stuff, too! Me… Not so much. 😂 But that is super cool when you know that you contributed to something.
