Infrastructure vs. the Environment: What Needs to Change?: Things Which Hurt, Instruct

This week was undoubtedly the least eventful week I've had so far. Alan had a big project for the Boeing plant in Renton that he had to finish by the end of the week, so as a result I ended up going in to the office only twice. On the first day I was there, Alan showed me more arc-flash analysis, as well as his work with the power distribution of a local King County municipal water pipeline facility (I will mention more about this in a later post, as the power distribution part ties in to what I will be seeing in the municipal department). On the second day that week, Alan sat me down with Jason, who works in the IT department. Naturally I was quite apprehensive, as while I am able to operate a computer just fine I have next to no experience when it comes to computer programming (fortunately he did not show me much code, which was completely fine by me to say the least). What Jason's section of the department does is system integration, which is basically the process of bringing together component subsystems into one system and ensuring that they function together as a system, by linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or in function, to act in coordination with one another. They design data centers (shown below), which are facilities used to house computer systems and such components, like telecommunications or storage systems.

They generally include redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (such as air conditioning and fire suppression) and various security devices (large data centers are industrial scale operations that can use as much electricity as a small town). They also remotely troubleshoot for data centers, using technology given to them by clients. For example, Jason received a complaint (also known as a "ticket") sent in by Microsoft while I was there with him. In order to gain access into the system, he had to use a computer sent to the company by Microsoft specifically for the purpose of troubleshooting, and had to make sure to contact Microsoft before he entered their system and after he left, for security reasons. Despite the fact that I was showed, and learned, a lot of the smaller technical details involved in this process, this experience has more than anything taught me about systems integration in general, as even though in this particular case the work is oriented towards creating and smoothing the connections between computer subsystems, it shows a lot about how larger, physical systems must be similarly designed and managed, especially since our technological systems are so much more advanced and interconnected than our municipal ones.

Random happenings:

Because of the fact that this week I did not have much to do, I decided to go to the Seattle Central Library to do some research and see if I could find a few reference books. Even though I have been to this library before, the last time I visited it was years ago, and I don't think I remembered how large it was.

Seattle Central Library Exterior

It has 11 stories -even though it has a lot more stories than that ;)- and is absolutely massive. In addition to having three whole floors dedicated to just reference books, it also has a reading "room" (it's actually an entire floor), children's floor, a public performance space, and a bunch more specialized areas. In addition to finding early 20th century newspaper archives (which kept me occupied for hours), I found two music practice rooms and (my favorite) an entire section devoted to music scores. There was sooooooooooo much music there...