Things you have recently learnt

Wheelspinner

keef66 wrote:

That's one of the reasons I'm so happy to be leaving my present workplace. Historically I was always the quickest to learn how to use new software / systems, and people would always come to me to help them out. They still do TBH.
But at 62 I just don't have the interest, aptitude, or mental resilience to grapple with the 3 or 4 new, badly customised / implemented, counter-intuitive proprietary systems I've been lumbered with. F*ck em, I'm taking the money and I'm off!

This, basically.

I’m a very highly qualified and experienced functional expert in SAP supply chain software, been doing it for 25 years. They’ve fundamentally changed how it works in the last couple years, to the point my technical skillset is almost redundant.

I could go back to school and learn how to make it do what a client needs, but screw that. Degree qualified graduates are everywhere now, charging half what I ask or less.

I was recently hired in to help a client review the solution design they’d been given for integration with a third party warehouse, using the new version. My first thing was to go walk through the new warehouse, with the “Solution Functional Architect” who’d drafted the design. She had terrific technical skill in the new software, but when we arrived on the day and she turned up wearing open-toed high heel sandals, I was more than a little bemused. After borrowing a pair of boots to wear, she quietly admitted this was the *first ever* visit to an actual warehouse she’d done, and hadn’t been aware of the OH&S requirements. :roll: :roll:

The client had hired me for 6 weeks, and after 2 they asked me to stay for a further 8 months to “help”. I politely declined and wished them the best of luck with their chosen implementation partner.

Pross

rjsterry wrote:

Pross wrote:

I had an ex-colleague who was like that. Refused to learn to use Autocad when those around him did as drawing work wasn't part of his job. I wonder if he regretted it later when he got made redundant in the recession as his skills weren't as adaptable as those in the same role.

I'm starting to de-skill on some software now as my role no longer gives me the opportunity to use it regularly enough which frustrates me as there are times where my team are too busy and I could do with just getting stuck in myself.

Was the 'not part of my job description' attitude part of the reason why he's an ex-colleague? Everyone in our office needs to be able to pitch in if needed.

Pretty much, when it came to making cuts it was a no brainer to keep those at the same grade with a wider skill set even if you ignore the attitude. Where I work now all our grads are keen to soak up any new skills and experience they can get and my own team is small so I do a lot of stuff that even fairly junior people in other companies would turn their noses up at (I prefer to give the more interesting jobs to others in the team to avoid them getting bored).

mr_goo

Many of the engines under bonnets of those cars from Munich and Stuttgart are made by Renault. So much for German engineering.

Pross

That people are unable to understand the difference between production and engineering.

thistle_

HaydenM wrote:

I suspect part of the reason one of the guys refuses is because he wants to be seen as more senior because he's arrogant.

I refused to learn in my own free time to how to use some new software that was imposed on us and is widely regarded as crap and was seen as arrogant for asking for a training course to be put on or at least be able to do it in work time.

HR agreed with me, and so did the MD when he found out but it was still 18 months before anything came of it. I think one of the problems was the developers "didn't do" training or support :roll:

elbowloh

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

I suspect part of the reason one of the guys refuses is because he wants to be seen as more senior because he's arrogant.

I refused to learn in my own free time to how to use some new software that was imposed on us and is widely regarded as crap and was seen as arrogant for asking for a training course to be put on or at least be able to do it in work time.

HR agreed with me, and so did the MD when he found out but it was still 18 months before anything came of it. I think one of the problems was the developers "didn't do" training or support :roll:

We recently rolled out some new software. Virtually everyone was assigned to do 3 online training modules for 3 specific parts of the system/process.
a) the training was terrible, it just didn't make sense and loads of people failed because the test did not relate to the training
b) so we learned about the 3 bits of the process, but not the bits that linked the 3 bits together. So you do one bit and don't know how to progress from that to the next part of the process.
c) when the system went live, only an handful of people have the required access to do one of the 3 bits of the process (and that's not changing). So why were we all required to do that training?
d) none of the terminology used in the new system is what we used previously and the training did not address this e.g. that x=y etc so everyone is just generally confused.
e) the system is shite.

haydenm

rjsterry wrote:

GIS?

Yeah, we use Arc like everyone else and this guy is using a 2013 version of mapmaker as far as I can tell...

I don't learn this stuff at home which makes my work time a bit less productive for a while until you get it. Now it's essentially vital to what I do

rjsterry

HaydenM wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

GIS?

Yeah, we use Arc like everyone else and this guy is using a 2013 version of mapmaker as far as I can tell...

I don't learn this stuff at home which makes my work time a bit less productive for a while until you get it. Now it's essentially vital to what I do

Don't know much about it myself, but my brother - an archaeologist - has got pretty heavily involved with it through various projects looking at the Sahara.

haydenm

rjsterry wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

GIS?

Yeah, we use Arc like everyone else and this guy is using a 2013 version of mapmaker as far as I can tell...

I don't learn this stuff at home which makes my work time a bit less productive for a while until you get it. Now it's essentially vital to what I do

Don't know much about it myself, but my brother - an archaeologist - has got pretty heavily involved with it through various projects looking at the Sahara.

For what the other guy is doing it was initially a bit like using full photoshop when he really wants to use some basic photo editor but now we use it for fund management it would really help if he could link into it, I think he realises that now. People who don't use Arcgis often don't realise that any maps you produce are essentially a byproduct of the information database you create, you can use that data to forward project and come up with all sorts of things which make you look very clever at the click of a button

rjsterry

HaydenM wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

GIS?

Yeah, we use Arc like everyone else and this guy is using a 2013 version of mapmaker as far as I can tell...

I don't learn this stuff at home which makes my work time a bit less productive for a while until you get it. Now it's essentially vital to what I do

Don't know much about it myself, but my brother - an archaeologist - has got pretty heavily involved with it through various projects looking at the Sahara.

For what the other guy is doing it was initially a bit like using full photoshop when he really wants to use some basic photo editor but now we use it for fund management it would really help if he could link into it, I think he realises that now. People who don't use Arcgis often don't realise that any maps you produce are essentially a byproduct of the information database you create, you can use that data to forward project and come up with all sorts of things which make you look very clever at the click of a button

Certainly I've always understood it as a database where records are attached to a geographical location, rather than a map with extras. My brother was using it to analyse patterns of settlement to take a macro view of all the individual bits and pieces they had surveyed and excavated.

pblakeney

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

haydenm

Sounds interesting, there are people who are absolutely amazing with it but it becomes a full time job. The benefit of it from my point of view is that it uses formats which are the same for lots of open source or paid for data so I can get map layers for all sorts of climate and soil science stuff to do wider portfolio analysis and things. Or use my own data to calibrate models which we think aren't accurate. All very useful stuff

keef66

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

Shows how long ago I started listing the things I planned to do one day when I have time. A quick Google suggests GIMP might be a better bet now.

darkhairedlord

keef66 wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

Shows how long ago I started listing the things I planned to do one day when I have time. A quick Google suggests GIMP might be a better bet now.

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

haydenm

darkhairedlord wrote:

keef66 wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

Shows how long ago I started listing the things I planned to do one day when I have time. A quick Google suggests GIMP might be a better bet now.

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

Aside from almost all professional photographer's photos you mean...?

keef66

I'd say about 1 in 200 of my photos are perfectly composed, lit, exposed etc. The rest need all the help I can give them

step83

darkhairedlord wrote:

keef66 wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

Shows how long ago I started listing the things I planned to do one day when I have time. A quick Google suggests GIMP might be a better bet now.

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

I had this argument with someone, we both took photos on a day out, often of the same thing mainly to settle an argument, I was flicking between preset modes and usually had a CPL filter on, they were just shooting raw adamant they could fix the issues post pro.
They then spent the next few days whinging how long the post pro took, I had a few duffs that needed work but far less faffing with colours, levels etc.
Both sets looked decent enough when presented, main difference was colours on mine being more muted, as I didn't whack up the saturation to fake levels

darkhairedlord

Step83 wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

keef66 wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

Shows how long ago I started listing the things I planned to do one day when I have time. A quick Google suggests GIMP might be a better bet now.

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

I had this argument with someone, we both took photos on a day out, often of the same thing mainly to settle an argument, I was ******* between preset modes and usually had a CPL filter on, they were just shooting raw adamant they could fix the issues post pro.
They then spent the next few days whinging how long the post pro took, I had a few duffs that needed work but far less faffing with colours, levels etc.
Both sets looked decent enough when presented, main difference was colours on mine being more muted, as I didn't whack up the saturation to fake levels

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

briantrumpet

darkhairedlord wrote:

Step83 wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

keef66 wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

keef66 wrote:

Spending time with digital photography and learning how to properly use Irfanview are on the list of things to fill my retirement when it finally arrives.

Wow! Irfanview is still around. I just learned that.
I used that for digitally scanning slides 25 years ago. Not one I'd consider today.

Shows how long ago I started listing the things I planned to do one day when I have time. A quick Google suggests GIMP might be a better bet now.

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

I had this argument with someone, we both took photos on a day out, often of the same thing mainly to settle an argument, I was ******* between preset modes and usually had a CPL filter on, they were just shooting raw adamant they could fix the issues post pro.
They then spent the next few days whinging how long the post pro took, I had a few duffs that needed work but far less faffing with colours, levels etc.
Both sets looked decent enough when presented, main difference was colours on mine being more muted, as I didn't whack up the saturation to fake levels

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

Takes me seconds: resample, check gamma and contrast, maybe a touch of sharpen, and colour balance. I only ended up using it as most of the other apps are either execrable (Windows Photos) and/or enormous and slow to load (GIMP). I'm also a lazy photographer, so only ever use auto settings, so sometimes have to adjust stuff to get back to what I think I saw.

But yes, you can soon see the photos/photographers where the saturation has been more than tweaked.

pblakeney

darkhairedlord wrote:

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

People saying that tend to think of post processing as a new thing. Try having a read up on how much post processing Ansel Adams did. It is simply digital instead of dark room these days.

darkhairedlord

PBlakeney wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

If you take a decent photo you shouldn't need to edit it.

People saying that tend to think of post processing as a new thing. Try having a read up on how much post processing Ansel Adams did. It is simply digital instead of dark room these days.

Renaissance art put the artist inside the camera, photography put them outside, and digital has put them back in. Something like that.

chris_bass

darkhairedlord wrote:

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

That's the case with most stuff though isn't it?

filming a movie/watching a movie
cooking food / eating food (depending on the meal)
writing on a bike forum compared to riding a bike
making this f**king powerpoint presentation compared to actually presenting it!

etc

darkhairedlord

Chris Bass wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

That's the case with most stuff though isn't it?

filming a movie/watching a movie
cooking food / eating food (depending on the meal)
writing on a bike forum compared to riding a bike
making this f**king powerpoint presentation compared to actually presenting it!

etc

That's why I don't use PowerPoint at uni anymore. Whiteboard, students can photograph it for notes, they get the context as the idea builds. If still don't understand I'll take 10 or 20 mins in the office to knock up a video. I try to do it in 1 take to save buggering about.

chris_bass

darkhairedlord wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

That's the case with most stuff though isn't it?

filming a movie/watching a movie
cooking food / eating food (depending on the meal)
writing on a bike forum compared to riding a bike
making this f**king powerpoint presentation compared to actually presenting it!

etc

That's why I don't use PowerPoint at uni anymore. Whiteboard, students can photograph it for notes, they get the context as the idea builds. If still don't understand I'll take 10 or 20 mins in the office to knock up a video. I try to do it in 1 take to save buggering about.

Not sure our Customer Service Director would be OK with that approach!

Stevo_666

darkhairedlord wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

That's the case with most stuff though isn't it?

filming a movie/watching a movie
cooking food / eating food (depending on the meal)
writing on a bike forum compared to riding a bike
making this f**king powerpoint presentation compared to actually presenting it!

etc

That's why I don't use PowerPoint at uni anymore. Whiteboard, students can photograph it for notes, they get the context as the idea builds. If still don't understand I'll take 10 or 20 mins in the office to knock up a video. I try to do it in 1 take to save buggering about.

You can get interactive electronic whiteboards these days that allow you to save what you wrote/drew and send the file out by email. And do the presentation remotely to anyone else who has one. I guess they're a tad more expensive than the traditional versions though.

rjsterry

Stevo 666 wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

That's the case with most stuff though isn't it?

filming a movie/watching a movie
cooking food / eating food (depending on the meal)
writing on a bike forum compared to riding a bike
making this f**king powerpoint presentation compared to actually presenting it!

etc

That's why I don't use PowerPoint at uni anymore. Whiteboard, students can photograph it for notes, they get the context as the idea builds. If still don't understand I'll take 10 or 20 mins in the office to knock up a video. I try to do it in 1 take to save buggering about.

You can get interactive electronic whiteboards these days that allow you to save what you wrote/drew and send the file out by email. And do the presentation remotely to anyone else who has one. I guess they're a tad more expensive than the traditional versions though.

Local infant school has them so would assume that they are not that expensive in the scheme of things.

darkhairedlord

rjsterry wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

People usually spend more time editing a photo than they ever do looking at the finished image.

That's the case with most stuff though isn't it?

filming a movie/watching a movie
cooking food / eating food (depending on the meal)
writing on a bike forum compared to riding a bike
making this f**king powerpoint presentation compared to actually presenting it!

etc

That's why I don't use PowerPoint at uni anymore. Whiteboard, students can photograph it for notes, they get the context as the idea builds. If still don't understand I'll take 10 or 20 mins in the office to knock up a video. I try to do it in 1 take to save buggering about.

You can get interactive electronic whiteboards these days that allow you to save what you wrote/drew and send the file out by email. And do the presentation remotely to anyone else who has one. I guess they're a tad more expensive than the traditional versions though.

Local infant school has them so would assume that they are not that expensive in the scheme of things.

We have them in some rooms but not all. Last time I checked they didn't work after upgrading to windows10.

pinno

Mr Goo wrote:

Many of the engines under bonnets of those cars from Munich and Stuttgart are made by Renault. So much for German engineering.

For a while Renault engines were fitted to Volvo's and the SAAB Griffin had a modified (to petrol) wet liner Isuzu engine.
However, Renault engines were amongst the best during the time their engines were dominating F!.

pblakeney

Pinno wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

However, Renault engines were amongst the best during the time their engines were dominating F!.

Not so recently learned, but a documentary at the time revealed that the optimum engine was the one that would fail 10m past the finish line. Explains a lot of F1 car failures.

pinno

PBlakeney wrote:

Pinno wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

However, Renault engines were amongst the best during the time their engines were dominating F!.

Not so recently learned, but a documentary at the time revealed that the optimum engine was the one that would fail 10m past the finish line. Explains a lot of F1 car failures.

That's right; they were built for each race until F1 was sanitised, err... I mean, da rools changed.
In Moto GP, tyres are made to last the 26 or whatever laps and no more. Any surplus longevity compromises grip.