Having been able to try something new that I’d had no experience with whatsoever in an area where I had no contacts was a daunting experience at first; but the realization that one could do quite well simply by doing the right thing and treating people decorously was another real-time reinforcement of a closely held belief system.

The company in which I had developed many good relationships here has since changed hands and no longer exists, but fortunately some of those relationships continue to grow.

The actual layout may or may not be a bit off depending on your program and/or version, but here’s a sample of a couple of those newsletters:

Volume 03 Issue 01

Volume 03 Issue 03

We all know that .001 inch isn’t “all that” in the machine industry. The three motors were intended for a gantry table for cutting and welding, but unfortunately, the machine side of that project was never completed due to our unplanned transition to Colorado life almost 8 years ago; but it’s no accident that we’re in the perfect environment to employ that same capacity in our current vocation on a much larger scale.

It’s easily conceivable that certain triggers can be placed into a digital process for specific equipment, taking multiple – seemingly simultaneous – corrective actions quicker than any human individual could process & then physically react. It has become a common practice, whether in aerospace, aviation, your automobile, or processing plants.

I was talking with someone the other day and a statement was made to the effect of,

Whatever the process, computers don’t care what they’re controlling.

That couldn’t be more true. Sending little packets of one’s and zero’s from this server for your computer’s browser to interpret into ciphers and images is the same to a computer as sending them to a valve controller or conveyor belt servo-motor. The end result is different, but the process isn’t.

All that being said, I still enjoy hammering out the code necessary to do these pages. If you don’t already know, this entire site is a database backed – not static html. Your browser interprets what it retrieves and you get the html markup, but it’s all retrieved on my end from a series of databases.

On my end for example, the beginning of this page looks like:

<?php get_header(); ?>

<div id=”content_box”>

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/l_sidebar.php’); ?>

<div id=”content”>

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

and so on. I don’t see the actual layout unless I want to. Even without knowing PHP, you can pretty-much interpret it by reading through it. It’s easier than French, “Laissez le bon temps rouler!”

<?php get_header(); ?>
Get the Page Header

<div id=”content_box”>
Everything in the following division of the page should use the criteria listed under the “content box” I.D. section of my separate (and unseen by you) style sheet.

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/l_sidebar.php’); ?>
Then include the left sidebar using the selected template (or “theme”).

<div id=”content”>
Now use the “Content” section of the style sheet for anything from font size and color, to image alignment, etc.

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
“IF” there’s a post, do the following – later on there’s an “Else” in case “If” criteria is not met. Since we obviously “have posts”, we continue through in this loop with:

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
While we have posts: Post them!

and so on down the page to the “get footer” php statement. All in milliseconds from me to wherever you are… and the server doesn’t know or care what we do with it and whether someone else sees the back end or not, its there. It’s the foundation and like anything else, should be done to the best of ones ability whether anyone is looking or not. Poorly written code wastes resources in the same way as does you’re inefficient hot-water heater or poorly tuned automobile.

For the human mind is seldom at stay: If you do not grow better, you will most undoubtedly grow worse.
~Samuel Richardson

Regarding the Template/Theme:

The “header” will come from whatever “template” is being used and can be changed accordingly, but the “content” will remain the same throughout. I had taken the Theme Switcher out for a while because it was causing some issues with other aspects I’d been working on.

If the layout I’ve been using in the interim has been acting funky with your particular browser or you just like one of the previous ones better, you’ll find that you can again choose one that might suit you better in the sidebar.

Thanks for visiting.

Enjoy!

Keeping in touch with some of my old firefighter brothers and now actively involved in the Power Generation Industry, we are learning – unfortunately through passed major industrial explosions involving the accumulation of combustible powder – that accidents have mainly occurred when operators underestimate, or dismiss entirely, the devastating potential of combustible particulate solids.

A mechanical failure within the conveyor system can cause enough heat buildup to start a coal fire. Inadequate lubrication in the bearing of a roller or the friction between a seized roller and the conveyor belt can buildup heat sufficient to ignite a coal laiden belt.

Although many such incipient fires may not have been as widely advertised as Russia’s recent Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro-electric castastrophy, they have occurred. (John Cowdrey will also point out that even this devistating catastrophy hasn’t hit the main-stream U.S. media.) Plant Operators throughout our industry speculate that the frequency of incidents may be rising with small contained fires occurring regularly at many plants.

To be explosive, coal dust must have a large enough volatile ratio (determined by laboratory analysis), a small enough particle size, and sufficient quantity. Coals with a volatile ratio greater than 0.12 are considered a dust explosion hazard. This category includes PRB and bituminous coals but not anthracite coals. Bituminous and anthracite coals burn, but only bituminous coals explode.

The National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 654 standard (Standard for the Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solids) warns that only 1/32 of an inch of dust over 5% of a room’s surface area presents a significant explosion hazard and makes the following recommendations:

• Minimize the escape of dust from process equipment and ventilation systems.

• Use dust collection systems and filters.

• Prefer surfaces that minimize dust accumulation and facilitate cleaning.

• Provide access to all hidden areas for inspection purposes.

• Inspect for dust residues in open and hidden areas at regular intervals.

• Clean dust residues at regular intervals.

• Use cleaning methods that do not generate dust clouds, if ignition sources are present.

• Only use vacuum cleaners approved for dust collection.

• Locate relief valves away from dust hazard areas.

• Develop and implement a formal program for performing hazardous dust inspections, testing, housekeeping, and dust control using defined methods at defined intervals.

Having recently transferred to Remote Energy Plants, I’m now part of a team that is responsible for taking care of hydro-electric generators amongst other varied responsibilities. Although hydros are more politically acceptable, the odd thing about these units (at least in our application) is that the load generated is based off the citizens’ water usage – more water needed means we open-’er-up so people get more water, the electricity being a by-product of that flow increase (or decrease, depending on the need). So if we as a people want to have electricity but we’re not using as much water and it’s calm & nighttime or cloudy, we will burn fossil fuels or run nukes to meet the base-load demand.

We have a few hydros at strategic locations and I wrote a little about Manitou Hydro earlier. The image in this post is of another hydro we’re responsible for in the mountains. (You can see why the department I’m in now is referred to as "Remotes"  )

The water runs from the upper reservoir and the flow is throttled through the use of the hydro plant. It then gets treated for consumption as it leaves the lower reservoir. It’s absolutely beautiful up here and if you had asked me 8 years ago if I thought I’d be enjoying working at places like these in Colorado and having a better quality of life than I could’ve had I stayed in NJ; I don’t know that I would have believed it possible – especially since I’ve been blessed with such a wonderful family on top of it all.

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
- Michelangelo