Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Working with nerds.

First of all, I am a nerd and DAMN PROUD OF IT!!! However, being in the profession I'm in, I'm often confronted with people who are far more nerdy. This time around in Bremen, I had the opportunity to measure a sample on an R&D version of a machine that I'm using. 

Upon visiting their offices/labs...I was instructed that I had to suppress my Asianness as photography of the R&D machines was strictly forbidden. I really wish this was not the case because once I passed through the laser safety curtain...god I wish I was allowed to take photos.
It was far more hardcore than this.

The walls were lined with racks filled with plastic boxes filled with various bits of wiring and god knows what else. Arranged around the room were various machines, stripped of their protective exteriors designed to make a lab looks streamlined, exposing the wiring and in some cases, with adaptations. In the centre of the room, standing like a beast, was a Frankenstein version of the machine I've been using. Looking at him, Michael made the comment, "hmmm, looks like they've got four lasers mounted..." Being a clumsy sort, I had to be especially careful not to bump into anything!

But the real joy came when they were explaining to me how they'd altered the machines to alter various measurement parameters and the line, "Yeah, we had to hack the (company's commercially available) software to get it to do that..." and pointing out the modifications on the machine. Seriously, it was putting my nerd declarations to shame. Respect to the true nerds. Respect.

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