Winter Sun

 Life, Outdoors, Work  No Responses »
Jan 052012
 

It is winter right?

The traffic reports were pretty horrific today, but the run over the M62 was pretty good, making good time to Lancaster services. Back on the motorway, and off at the next exit, then right before the uni – I guess they are all on holiday still as very few cars parked on the road, and along rural roads to site.

What struck me was how nice it was to be out of town, fields all around, well except for the embankment of the reservoir, and trees, and the buildings, and the cloud hiding the top of the hill opposite.

Still, nice to get out.

Should have taken a photo though.

 Posted by Eddie at 11:25 pm

Is Prince2 the Answer?

 Work  2 Responses »
Oct 242011
 

I spent last week on a Prince2 course, delivered in Leeds by SkillSolve.

That said, the course was not really the learning exercises, it did reinforce the contents of the Prince2 Manual and also gave some really good pointers for the exams. The tutor also helped with recommendations on how to best annotate the manual. This is really useful, as the Practitioner exam is open book, the manual is allowed, along with any notes written in it, but not separate sheets, or any notes stuck in it. You can use lots of Tabs though.

Is Prince really useful though? or is it just an excuse to generate huge amounts of paperwork? Actually I think we do 90% of it already, when I stop and think about it. Maybe I don’t document something, and other things are assumed (like using the company quality system on every project), but overall I was left, and still am, rather excited. And one of the good things about where I work is that I can now start putting some of it in to practise.

That makes me excited, which is good, as it sure helps me get out of bed in the morning!

 Posted by Eddie at 8:54 pm

Colibri

 Computers, GTD, Work  No Responses »
Aug 042009
 

I have been using Colibri for a while to make it easier to open new programmes. Insead of using my mouse to hunt around the start menu, or having 1001 shortcuts on my desktop, I can now hit CTRL+Space and then start typing the name of the program i want to launch.

Today, after a brief look at the Tips&Tricks for Colibri and afetr downloading SQLLite Browser I have added a new shortcuts folder, and now can make links to frequently visited places on the companies different file shares.

Makes my life easier.

 Posted by Eddie at 8:39 am  Tagged with: , ,

Approved.

 Life, Work  No Responses »
Apr 092009
 

I passed my assessment on Tuesday, so I am now approved to deliver the National Water Hygiene scheme. Until April 30th that is. Good job I am also booked in for the trainer briefing that should last another 3 years!

 Posted by Eddie at 8:44 pm

Running Backwards

 Computers, Work  No Responses »
Jun 102008
 

It seems there are still a number of industial systems that do not like Internet Explorer 7. And today I discovered it is possible to get IE8…. oh dear…

Its possible to go back in time and run IE7 as a Virtual Machine from Microsoft however, I am currently giving it a try….

 Posted by Eddie at 6:46 am  Tagged with: , ,

New Job (Title)

 Work  1 Response »
Mar 172008
 

Me, a Project Manager.

Not that it makes a huge difference in how I work day to day, as I’ll still be doing engineering, but now I will actually be responsible for the management of my projects too (I have always tried to get involved with it, and lead myself though)

 Posted by Eddie at 5:05 pm

It’s Grrrrrreat

 Work  No Responses »
Mar 062008
 

I may not work for the best employer in the country, I think I do, but I will accept others might beg to differ….

I do officially work for one of the best companies though.

 Posted by Eddie at 6:35 pm

Trumpton

 Health & Safety, Work  1 Response »
Feb 232008
 

I watched a video on Thursday about using fire extinguishers. I suspect I might be unique in the class, in that I have discharged fire extinguishers in the past – and when doing this with CO2 extinguishers, I am sure we were told to hold the trigger (obviously) NOT THE HORN (obviously) and give support using a hand on the bottom of the fire extinguisher.

The video said not to hold on to the base.

My fellow students of Health and Safety suggested that this was because the extinguisher would get cold, and you don’t want your hand to stick to it but the video said to “support” the extinguisher by placing ones palm against the extinguisher about halfway down the cylinder.

Any ideas what’s going on here anyone?

 Posted by Eddie at 5:24 pm

Managing Information

 Work  1 Response »
Oct 072007
 

The management of information is something that will be forever cropping up in my life. And as my hobbies seem to imitate my career, it seems i cannot escape it.

Whether its understanding what a specific cable languishing in a road box might be required for, or learning how to sail a ship in 18 hours (including sleep) or navigation and camp craft. Or just those niggly little lessons you learn, like the best way to try and make some programming software do what you want.

Hence why this week I have been playing with ubuntu, first in a VM providing me LAMP and then on a PC.

And now I have a knowledge tree to play with.

Now for the sanity check that more technology is really a good thing….

 Posted by Eddie at 5:35 pm

Mmmmmm. Plant rooms.

 Outdoors, people, Work  2 Responses »
Aug 032007
 

So, the other day I was at a Water Treatment Works (a very short visit. induction, a cup of tea and that was it. Well, except for then going to the WTW we were meant to be working on, as opposed to the one with the site office….) and part of the induction mentioned how the company running the site works put notices on the wall in the canteen with updates on health and safety, e.g. from occurrences on other sites, other parts of the company, etc.

And as I was perusing them, waiting for my tea to cool, I noticed a sign which mentioned how some people seemed to like to break into such sites, look round, and put photos on the web.

For some reason, a certain someone muttering “MMMMMmmmmm – Plant Rooms” at college sprang into mind.

Remember, its not big. and its certainly not clever.

Of course I have a job that lead me round these places anyway. Which is cool. As is the amount of Hi-Vis yellow clothing in my boot at the moment. Thinking of boots tho, i must remember to get some new ones, a lace eye came off, which doesn’t help keep my foot in…. just as well i have spare shoes.

Failing that, why not just be a tourist? Or combine the industrial with lighting?

 Posted by Eddie at 9:21 pm
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