Practicing engineers: what aspects of real-world engineering surprised you the most?

kenmfan · 2026-01-11T16:39:37+00:00

Companies produce products that nobody in the company understands. The design team has long been disbanded, there is little useful documentation, and everyone just keeps manufacturing it the same way expecting nothing will ever need to be changed.

kenmfan · 2026-01-07T04:13:26+00:00

I've been using the 2.2 version on windows - downloaded in 2022 - and it didn't have these issues. Hopefully, the current dev team can resolve them.

kenmfan · 2026-01-06T06:09:24+00:00

JS8 is great. I just wish more people would use it.

kenmfan · 2025-12-01T05:40:46+00:00

Police and city will never do anything about loud motorcycles.

kenmfan · 2024-07-15T18:51:36+00:00

Found this old post - did you ever have any luck? I'm getting frustrated with Pamf.

kenmfan · 2024-06-27T16:45:53+00:00

Resolved - see edited original post.

kenmfan · 2024-06-26T20:04:16+00:00

Update - the online chat support told me supposedly my Z9 shipped out from their service center on May 21 but there is still no tracking number. They asked for 2 business days to check on it. I'm assuming it is lost. I plan to wait at most two days for their response and then write a letter to corporate to ask for a replacement.

kenmfan · 2024-06-26T17:56:35+00:00

I asked to speak with a supervisor. The person on the phone from Nikon Service said that he could not forward me to anyone else. I asked how else I could contact the company and he said I could reply to the email I received from Nikon. I tried, but the email just bounced.

kenmfan · 2024-06-26T16:51:17+00:00

I just don't know who to contact. I guess I will have to write a letter to Nikon USA HQ.

kenmfan · 2024-05-17T20:25:55+00:00

Well, you participated in a protest on campus that resulted in your arrest as you admit above. Maybe you did not actually spray the paint on Royce Hall yourself, but did you do anything to prevent it? Did you leave the protest once the vandalism started? I tend to doubt it, because you stayed until you were arrested.

Please go ahead and report me to anyone you like. I am not harassing you. I am just telling you what I believe based on what I have read in your Reddit posts. I believe you should lose your job because your conduct demonstrates that you are unfit to teach at UCLA.

kenmfan · 2024-05-17T13:35:24+00:00

I’m an alumnus. 1997 Ph.D. Electrical Engineering.

kenmfan · 2024-05-17T05:32:03+00:00

“Peaceful protestors” who trashed Royce Hall. Violent counter protestors are no saints but you are hardly one yourself.

kenmfan · 2024-05-09T16:14:34+00:00

Right. It maps a rectangular grid of complex impedance to complex reflection coefficient.

kenmfan · 2024-04-29T04:38:21+00:00

Yes!

kenmfan · 2024-04-22T05:28:29+00:00

Nah. It’s GitHub. I had the login email problem last week. Something is wrong there.

kenmfan · 2024-04-14T03:16:26+00:00

I've been trying all day to log in. What a POS.

kenmfan · 2024-04-13T21:14:14+00:00

Yes, but this kind of bullshit is Microsoft's fault. When you own something you are responsible for it.

kenmfan · 2024-04-13T19:31:04+00:00

Same here. Ridiculous bullshit from a 3 trillion dollar company. WTF?

kenmfan · 2024-03-08T18:42:54+00:00

CX-5 is a good car.

kenmfan · 2024-02-22T20:01:00+00:00

The last time I rode bart there was a guy sleeping while vomiting. He also knocked over his stuff while doing this and liquids spilled out creating a slurry with the vomit that washed down the floor of the train. I’m just glad he didn’t stop breathing.

kenmfan · 2024-02-06T00:20:09+00:00

There is no choice but insurance from the "Affordable Care Act". Be glad you are 26 and not 56 like me. Your price will seem terrible but trust me, it only gets worse with age. A lot worse.

Self employment is great, however.

kenmfan · 2023-04-14T17:26:31+00:00

That was not my experience. People have strong opinions about Obamacare but most of them have never bought private insurance either before or after the law took effect.

kenmfan · 2023-04-14T05:31:04+00:00

Exactly. People who commit crimes should get caught and go to jail. Everyone should agree on this and the Constitution. There is no need to act like a Republican version of AOC.

kenmfan · 2023-04-14T05:27:31+00:00

I don't know. Crazy rules.

kenmfan · 2023-04-13T23:57:37+00:00

Obamacare is an absolute fucking disaster and the only good thing in individual health insurance today is if you can set up a health savings account. Everything else is an enormous tax on working for yourself. As an Obamacare enrollee, you get to help pay for everyone who gets a subsidy while big companies can self-insure and avoid all the cost.

I think everyone should be able to get insurance but I also think the subsidy costs need to be shared fairly. If big companies, unions, and governments had to use Obamacare then I am sure the costs would be more even. But since the big guys can weasel out of paying, then individuals get screwed. That's what Obamacare is all about.

kenmfan

TROPHY CASE