I am mechanical engineer by trade. I definitely miss the times going to the workshop and watching a part I designed being built and being able to touch it. Definitely miss that in software. When I did mobile and desktop you could at least use the app but with server stuff you have nothing tangible. Often it’s nice to be able to work without any equipment but sometimes I really being able to touch my work.
I used to do software for large fruit sorting machines. Nothing quite like standing in a huge multi multi million dollar buildings built to house a number of these machines all working together through your software and for the many many many thousands of concurrent actions working in perfect harmony at speed. Especially when you give those machines "smarts" and you see it adapt to changes in the environment / deal with problems. It was fun setting it all up testing, all hands on with the electronics/mechanicals
Also, nothing quite like the terror of when it all goes horribly wrong and you end up helping clear a mountain of fruit turned into unplanned jam(jelly) and everyone turns and looks at you....
I spoke with some robotics engineers based in Brisbane, Australia who work on the machines that load bulk carriers (ships that carry coal, iron ore, grain etc.)
Though essentially just a conveyor belt, these things are simply enormous, as are the chains of operations that bring trains of ore and empty ships to port.
The largest of these is a coal loader that, through which one percent of the nation's GDP is flowing.
When it breaks down the pressure to get it going is intense.
It also gives some insight into why as bushfires rage across the country fuelled by the highest ever recorded temperatures, it's somehow controversial to discuss climate change.
It does look simple, but I spent many years in the bulk materials handling industry and there are also rail receival stations, electromagnets to remove contaminants, belt weighing equipment (real time volume calculation), samplers, surge bins (with vibratory hoppers under them), stackers, reclaimers, yard machine anti-collision systems, stockpile impact detection systems and a vast array of PLCs, front end processors, and application-level logic to manage it all.
> When it breaks down the pressure to get it going is intense.
Yeah. When you get calls at 2 am as lightning struck a microwave which stopped a network connect which stopped a database replication which stopped a stockpile calculation which caused a yard machine boom collision you really know how much fun it is.
On the bright side this industry is safety obsessed and quality engineering focused, so cutting corners is neither expected nor tolerated.
> It also gives some insight into why as bushfires rage across the country fuelled by the highest ever recorded temperatures, it's somehow controversial to discuss climate change.
Agreed. Although there are plenty of other factors which can improve bushfire outcomes as illustrated by the national Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (of which most national fire agencies are members) research: https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/utilisation/overview.
yes, some places were 2k+ a minute with a knock on effect for any serious delay, like when dealing with pomegranates, that when it rains they tend to split (to release the seeds) so everything is designed to put large volumes through as fast as possible during harvest
