Pellsons Perceivings

[Pellson]

Other than the room, what's Helsinki like?

Right now, very rainy indeed.

More in general - very beautiful. It's situated right by the sea, with several small islands interrupting the sea horizon to the south. It's an old town, with both Swedish and Russian influences very present, highlighting the interesting history of the place.

But one would be better off visiting during the summer when weather can be very nice indeed. Then one can, among other things, visit the old Suomenlinna Fortress, or Sveaborg, as we say in Swedish. It's the place where treason lost us half of then Sweden back in 1809.

[NARSES2]

But one would be better off visiting during the summer when weather can be very nice indeed. Then one can, among other things, visit the old Suomenlinna Fortress, or Sveaborg, as we say in Swedish. It's the place where treason lost us half of then Sweden back in 1809.

Interesting    I wasn't aware of the details until you prompted me to look it up. Thank you 

[PR19_Kit]

The only time I went to Helsinki was in the middle of the winter around 1995, and it was so cold that the sea inlet next to my hotel had frozen so solid that they ran a road over it! I'm not kidding, I could see the cars crossing the ice every morning! 

[zenrat]

Thanks mate.   
One day i'll get over there.  And to Sweden and Norway.

[Pellson]

Interesting    I wasn't aware of the details until you prompted me to look it up. Thank you 

My pleasure indeed. 

************

Just hit the bed after yet another long day in the world of power transmission and frequency converter technology. God, it's complicated, and while I (mostly) is at least reasonably successful in wrapping my head around the issue at hand, my general technical understanding doesn't quite suffice when your average somewhat sloppy, most often German university professor slaps you in the face with an equation or two, just to make properly clear that you know who's got the upper hand. Well - I got back at one of them today, a chap that complete stonefaced claimed his computer model, based on a laboratory set up, to be the perfect behavioural copy of an 83 turbine wind farm. He wasn't that pleased when I suggested that his single "equivalent voltage generator" barely would represent even one single turbine, as even that turbine will face irregularities and imperfections in its mechanical power supply due to the inherent nonlinear behaviour of any wind. Let alone 83 turbines.. 

I wasn't very popular then, in particular as there was a 200 person audience, half of which were angry competing professors..

But that's what you get for being a man trained by reality. And my colleagues at the venue, at least three of them being technical doctors, had a proper laugh, and promptly decided to pay my dinner. 

And tomorrow's the final day here, and then off home in the evening. That'll be really nice, and while I suspect I won't have much energy left for any modelling tomorrow, at least I can fiddle about a bit, planning my next move.

Oh - and by the way - I had a watchful eye on that 2^nd Revell Draken, but someone else payed £25 for it, freight excluded, which is more than twice what I'm prepared to shell out for that old dog of a kit anyway. So good riddance, and the hunt for other solutions will commence.

[NARSES2]

But that's what you get for being a man trained by reality. And my colleagues at the venue, at least three of them being technical doctors, had a proper laugh, and promptly decided to pay my dinner. 

      

[Rick Lowe]

But that's what you get for being a man trained by reality. And my colleagues at the venue, at least three of them being technical doctors, had a proper laugh, and promptly decided to pay my dinner. 

      

Yeah, reality will always trump theoretical models.

And good result on the dinner! 

[zenrat]

What language was everyone speaking at this shindig?
You've got Finns, Swedes and Germans and that's just the ones you've mentioned.  Was there an agreed common tongue?

[NARSES2]

Admitedly I retired 17 years ago now, but all the EU meetings I attended were in English and most of the low/medium level ones I knew of were. Our French comrades on one hilarious occasion did try to introduce simultanious translation but that lasted all of 5 minutes and I thought my Dutch colleagues were going to start WW III 

I must admit I was staggered at just how good our Central & Eastern European members English was when they joined Eurofer. 

It may well have changed however now the UK has left the EU.

[Pellson]

What language was everyone speaking at this shindig?
You've got Finns, Swedes and Germans and that's just the ones you've mentioned.  Was there an agreed common tongue?

Broken English, generally. More or less at least, as there were Spaniards, Danes, Turks, Colombians, Brazilians, Pakistanians, your odd Iranian in exile and one very nice Oz chap with the most fearful tales of huge 400kV powerline blowing over by downdrafts. Amazing.

Still tired today, though. And as it's raining outside, it seems I'm not getting much energy from there either.
Maybe one should go for (another) shopping spree at Evilbay just to juggle the mojo a bit?

[Gondor]

But that's what you get for being a man trained by reality. And my colleagues at the venue, at least three of them being technical doctors, had a proper laugh, and promptly decided to pay my dinner. 

The head of the Development Department in the company I work for believes that everything should be "plug and play", of course, reality is rather different especially when dealing with optics.

Gondor

[Nick]

But that's what you get for being a man trained by reality. And my colleagues at the venue, at least three of them being technical doctors, had a proper laugh, and promptly decided to pay my dinner. 

The head of the Development Department in the company I work for believes that everything should be "plug and play", of course, reality is rather different especially when dealing with optics.

Gondor

How much of your equipment still uses SCSI connectors, serial or parallel ports, and needs bespoke software written by a one-man business 30+ years ago?

[Gondor]

But that's what you get for being a man trained by reality. And my colleagues at the venue, at least three of them being technical doctors, had a proper laugh, and promptly decided to pay my dinner. 

The head of the Development Department in the company I work for believes that everything should be "plug and play", of course, reality is rather different especially when dealing with optics.

Gondor

How much of your equipment still uses SCSI connectors, serial or parallel ports, and needs bespoke software written by a one-man business 30+ years ago?

Nothing to do with connectors, however, the PCBs we use have no one current on them as the person who designed them left several years ago and it's a similar thing with the software although that is being addressed.

Gondor

[kerick]

Since you are in the power transmission field maybe you could answer a serious question for me. How efficient is it to transmit electricity for long distance? I just read about how a hydroelectric dam in Yosemite NP delivers power 136 miles to San Francisco. How much energy is lost in the process? I just want to be able to speak intelligently about the subject.

[Rick Lowe]

On the other hand, you still need competent maintenance crews...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350321433/cause-transpower-pylon-collapse-revealed