Occupation

highrollar420

Just curious what does everyone do for a living on this page? 

Jamie Hall

Now? Or before I retired 17 years ago? Before I retired, professional (Civil) engineer. A few other things before that. Now? Lay brother of the Order of Saint Benedict.

GroundUp

15 years as a union pipefitter and buying up rental properties while doing residential radiant heating on the side. "Retired" 2 years ago from the pipefitter gig but apparently I have a hard time saying no to the residential work so I work a couple days per week doing boiler installs and a little service to stay occupied. Got my accounting degree a few years ago thinking I wanted to be a CPA but haven't put it to use. My dad is going to retire soon so I'll have someone to hang out with, I'm sure we can get into some sort of trouble.

EdTheHeaterMan

HVAC self employed most of my life. Worked for others for some short times (2 years max) as a salesman for HVAC residential HVAC Contractor(s), and worked at a plumbing supply company. But most of the time I worked hands on with tools. I specialized in oil heat and hydronics. while most of the competitions in South Jersey went with schorched air and central air conditioning. The few Plumbing and Heating guys that installed boilers knew little about steam boilers and nothing about oil burners, so I had lots of referrals from my competition and we worked well together.

EdTheHeaterMan

Jamie Hall said:

Now? Or before I retired 17 years ago? Before I retired, professional (Civil) engineer. A few other things before that. Now? Lay brother of the Order of Saint Benedict.

He also likes to name the boilers he has charge of. Like "Cedric". I hear he gets a little steamed up about it!

old_diy_guy

I'm retired now, but 55 years ago I started working as an oil burner tech. After a few years I decided it wasn't for me and I became an accountant for 45 years.

retiredguy

Me, nothing spectacular, after high school I worked at PPG, then the U S Navy, 6 years in residential HVAC, 35 years commercial and industrial steam and hot water boilers, worked on nat gas, propane, hard and soft coal, #1, #2, #6 fuel oil and a few sewer gas burners. installing and service of almost all the equipment in a boiler room, Retired in 2007. I wish I could go back and do it all over again. Loved the work loved the job and the pay was pretty good.

ratio

I spent a decade or so as a commercial sparktrician before I came over to HVAC. Just starting into my second decade of it, but I just do the fun parts (controls, piping, etc.), not the tinning side of things.

ScottSecor

Wet heat contractor

EdTheHeaterMan

ScottSecor said:

Wet heat contractor

I will send you some towels, You should stay out of the rain. Or perhaps you can repair all those boiler leaks. Then you can stay dry and still work on boilers.

KC_Jones

Designer/Draftsman for BGE power company in Baltimore (7 years) and now a Mechanical Designer of industrial HVAC and Refrigeration equipment (17 years).

ethicalpaul

I was a programmer/IT Director at an aluminum door manufacturer in Michigan for 17 years then I moved to the NYC area to develop iPhone apps (NYTimes Reader and Crossword apps, Meetup, and Priceline you might have used). Now I work at Apple on these apps: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/

I do have mobile repair tech cred as a photocopier technician in 1993. Personal car full of copier parts

Intplm.

Licensed Master Plumber/Heating Licensed Tech.
Now Semi-retired.
-Trade school instructor.
-Specializing in commercial, industrial, and residential installations and services both union and non-union.
Over forty years of experience.
-Numerous repetitive motion injuries, (nothing too serious that my orthopedic surgeon couldn't handle. We are on a first-name basis,) put me in the semi-retired category.
Now I work less. Pick and choose what I will or will not do.

dko

ethicalpaul said:

. Now I work at Apple on these apps: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/

fcp native auto captions???


as for me, I run a supply house. but aim to be informed and knowledgeable about things I sell.

ethicalpaul

fcp native auto captions???

I can't speak about any non-existing features

hot_rod

Seems like an odd first question?
What does  a highrollar do for a living?😉

ethicalpaul

Especially a high roller 420

Probably looking for password phishing clues LOL

hot_rod

ethicalpaul said:

Especially a high roller 420

Probably looking for password phishing clues LOL

rollar with an a

dko

surprised it's not actually in the English dictionary

CLamb

I'm retired as a developer of computer graphics systems although I still take on jobs here and there and am still a member of one standards committee.

bburd

I'm a retired project manager for a large architecture and engineering firm, where I specialized in energy efficiency and renovations of existing mechanical and electrical systems.

I am ASHRAE certified in HVAC design and have been fascinated by oil and gas burners, furnaces and especially boilers for as long as I can remember. Especially the older ones.

EdTheHeaterMan

ethicalpaul said:

I was a programmer/IT Director at an aluminum door manufacturer in Michigan for 17 years then I moved to the NYC area to develop iPhone apps (NYTimes Reader and Crossword apps, Meetup, and Priceline you might have used). Now I work at Apple on these apps: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/

I do have mobile repair tech cred as a photocopier technician in 1993. Personal car full of copier parts

No wonder you are so good at Steam Heat Videos

EBEBRATT-Ed

Community College for 2 years,

Then worked at an oil company for13 years mostly commercial burner/boiler service and some residential. 2,4 &6 oil and gas burners up to about 15mbh.

In my heart I am probably an oil guy although I haven't touched any in a while.

There is nothing like a start up on a 100gph oil burner and watching it burn!!!

Got my electricians license and wired some houses (part time) for a relative who was a builder.

Then 5 years in my own business got out with my head above water when the recession hit.

Worked for a large mechanical contractor for 9 years did Mostly HVAC service and install. Learned sheet metal and AC service along the way.

Went back and forth between the office estimating and running jobs as well as install and service.

Then got into the Plumbers & Pipefitters union for the last 18 years estimating, project management and pipefitting. Still did some service and installs until I retired. Worked for two mechanical contractors during the last 18 years. Had 14 state licenses at one time dropped all but 4 now. Taught at the Union Hall for a few years. 46 years total.

If I could still work I probably would still be working.
Miss being out on jobs and working with the guys.

I just dabble on "side jobs" occasionally for relatives.

Can you call it work when it is mostly for free?? It's really more like a hobby the little that I do. LOL

SlamDunk

Special agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cyber Action Team.

Hi!

Jamie Hall

Before someone wonders... I do also have a couple of university degrees... and served my country many years ago... but i got my PE license the old fashioned hard way, starting as a labourer... Not much heavy equipment, except cranes, I haven't operated at one time or another. Building inspector... some surveying... some computer programing... but that's all behind me now.

ChrisJ

Jamie Hall said:

Before someone wonders... I do also have a couple of university degrees... and served my country many years ago... but i got my PE license the old fashioned hard way, starting as a labourer... Not much heavy equipment, except cranes, I haven't operated at one time or another. Building inspector... some surveying... some computer programing... but that's all behind me now.

Was that with punch cards or patch cables?  

pedmec

Master plumber/HVAC. Master plumber who doesn't really like plumbing so much. spend 99% percent of my time working on all kinds of steam. hot water, and air. Mostly commercial now but used to do mostly residential when the gas company was giving away free boilers as part of their oil to gas conversion program. Now most servicing and installing one million and up condensing boilers.

PeteA

Just finished 35 years various duties- helper, Mechanic A, splicer then supervisor working in electrical construction for utility in NYC

Jamie Hall

Punch cards mostly, @ChrisJ , though I did have access to a line printer for outputs from the general circulation (climate) model I wrote. Also punched paper tape. Banks of big tape drives... I did have in later work a program I wrote for a Commodore 64 which allowed me to type in programs to the CDC 6600 control computer I was using at the time, though, and the CDC in turn controlled the Crays out in Colorado... all programming was in Fortran.

ratio

I remember punch cards, but my first foray into programming at a higher education institute was thankfully on terminals. Still frustrating, because the FORTRAN compiler was buggy.

Jamie Hall

Some of the early compilers for Fortran were buggy. The first one I used, for an IBM 7094, had some glitches in it I remember (vaguely!). The last one I played with, a Vector Fortran 7V compiler for the big Crays at NOAA, though, was almost incredible. But all that was 40 to 60 years ago. My old programs which used to take half a day to run on a Cray have, I've been told, been recompiled to run on some of the new graphics chips -- and can do in 10 minutes what used to take 10 hours, or the input can be redone for finer detail (very desirable!) without literally taking all day to run.

Fortran remains the language of choice for really gnarly number crunching -- but input and output has always been difficult, at least until you get the hang of it -- and "WYSIWYG" or graphics interfaces for the consumer are certainly not its thing!

ChrisJ

Jamie Hall said:

Some of the early compilers for Fortran were buggy. The first one I used, for an IBM 7094, had some glitches in it I remember (vaguely!). The last one I played with, a Vector Fortran 7V compiler for the big Crays at NOAA, though, was almost incredible. But all that was 40 to 60 years ago. My old programs which used to take half a day to run on a Cray have, I've been told, been recompiled to run on some of the new graphics chips -- and can do in 10 minutes what used to take 10 hours, or the input can be redone for finer detail (very desirable!) without literally taking all day to run.

Fortran remains the language of choice for really gnarly number crunching -- but input and output has always been difficult, at least until you get the hang of it -- and "WYSIWYG" or graphics interfaces for the consumer are certainly not its thing!

Since this thread seems hokey anyway......


What about magnetic core memory? Any experience?

Grallert

Now I operate two big low pressure steam boilers and their connected load for a small private school in the Berkshires. Plus all the mechanical things that keep an institution like this functioning. Prior to this, 30 years as a service mechanic installer and technician of oil fired appliances, mostly boilers.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Hydronicist from beginning to end. The end is coming soon.

JUGHNE

Just to throw some variety in the mix:

Movie projectionist...does anyone know what "Dots" are and what they are for?

USAF Security Service intercept operator....we were listening.

But eventually self employed for over 40 years.

State licensed electrical contractor.

Also boilers, steam, HVAC and some commercial refrigeration.

Hydronic interests from doing my own house 30 years ago.

I got the "steam bug" from Dan's writings, have about 10 of the books.

Semi retired and pick and choose jobs, mostly service what I installed over 40 years.

Read Heating Help.com

ChrisJ

JUGHNE said:

Just to throw some variety in the mix:

Movie projectionist...does anyone know what "Dots" are and what they are for?

USAF Security Service intercept operator....we were listening.

But eventually self employed for over 40 years.

State licensed electrical contractor.

Also boilers, steam, HVAC and some commercial refrigeration.

Hydronic interests from doing my own house 30 years ago.

I got the "steam bug" from Dan's writings, have about 10 of the books.

Semi retired and pick and choose jobs, mostly service what I installed over 40 years.

Read Heating Help.com

You mean the blips to tell you when it's about to run out?

JUGHNE

You win the prize!

Yes, upper right hand corner. They are on 4 frames of the film that runs at 24 frames per second, so 1/6 of a second. Few people would notice them until it was pointed out. My brothers also had this job in high school and would see the dots.

The first dot was to start the next projector rolling and the 2nd dot was to switch the light shutters and sound. The second "change over" dot usually coincided with a scene change on the screen.

I still see them in older movies.

CLamb

JUGHNE said:

You win the prize!
They are on 4 frames of the film that runs at 24 frames per second, so 1/6 of a second. Few people would notice them until it was pointed out.

It's amazing what folks can learn to see once they study it. I worked on motion picture restoration and film scanning. There was one fellow I worked with who could watch a scene and tell you the flaws and the numbers of the frames they were on. One time he tried to show me a water stain on a print. He had to stop the film and run his finger around the stain on the screen before I was able to see it.

JUGHNE

Now thinking about the 1/6 second dot and seldom missing seeing one for 5 years or so, I wonder what the speed of an eye blink is. I don't recall holding back on blinking while watching for them.

Intplm.

And to think that I only learned about this by watching the movie Fight Club.

bburd

We don't *talk* about fight club…😳