EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Why am I such an idiot!

Grrr - I have designed a template for procurement that lists all offerings, ranks them according to strengths and weaknesses and details each. I spent a day producing it last year in a graphical design program and have used it several times - Its CAPEX time again and, having my quotes, went to load it again - only to find that the program has the capacity to save the thing as a PDF (How I present the summaries) and big D**** here last time saved the bloody PDF instead of the source document - argggh - where's me deckchair and Pina Colada I'm going to sulk!

We feel your pain!

Anyone who has spent any time at all working on (with) computers (and surely that's most folk these days - most tech folk, anyway) has experienced that sort of thing.

Over the years I myself have spent many thousands of hours hacking away at the keyboard(s), and for some years now have used two old machines linked together, "developing" on one, whilst trying to preserve the other in pristine condition.

And then, when all is well (hopefully), tested etc. ... then I copy it all across.

But when you're tired, or in a rush (up against a deadline, whatever), or when someone is belly-aching at you, it's dead easy to screw up. A moment's inattention is all it takes. Stuff like that is another reason why I prefer to work alone, hidden quietly away somewhere ... and often at night!

I know what you mean Geoff, I think my problem is distractions of the long haired dusky skinned maiden type so I cannot be too upset!

I may post pics of some of my work locations - I know its cooling down in the UK so its not probably a good thing but I have had such a wonderful and amazing career in this industry that I have thoroughly enjoyed every day of and now the job has given me the opportunity to work in these gorgeous and romantic locations and be paid very well to be here to boot - If any young biomed's do look at the pics then this is where this wonderful vocation of ours can lead to.

Funny enough I do the same as you in my computers and link them but my development computer is starting to get really clunky and I need to change it - I have a 2 year old high spec. Toshiba but am not happy with its performance for what I do - I program a lot of training and simulation programs in Opus Pro for Clinical and Biomed. staff and even though its a 1024 graphics card it just seems not able to handle it.

I have to stay with Windows as all government systems in the islands are windows based and Opus Pro doesn't work under mac.

Anyone got a laptop that they are really happy with - price is not a consideration as I work in a remote area and have found cheap doesn't cut it.

Sounds like the exact opposite of the typical biomed situation, then.

It's easy to be jolly when things are going well. But it takes real strength of character to "keep the faith" and prevail (endure) when dragging on year after year in (what I usually refer to as) "less than ideal conditions"!

Regarding laptops ... just get the best you can afford. Or two, if you're really in clover! Although, having said that, even the best kit in the world isn't a whole lot of good when it gets misplaced, lost (or whatever the preferred word out there is for "stolen")!

Ahh, don't be such an old grump Geoff look at the wonderful people you meet on here!

And the word for lost here is "borrowed" - they don't seem to understand that borrowing something usually has an obligation to return it!

Ah yes ... "borrowed", that's the one.

Old Grump? Can I take it that you've lived a charmed life, then?

I'll spare you the stories ... but I guess you and I have worked in rather different locations (including England, I might add).

I look forward to seeing your cheerful posts on here in twenty years time!

I wouldn't say charmed but certainly I have taken advantage of the opportunities that came my way - but we both have worked in a job that has given us the opportunities to work all over the world, see some different cultures and different ways of life. And I have never woken up and thought "I can't bear going into work today!" Its always exciting to go in and see what is happening. When I started out I couldn't even pay the registration for my old bomb of a car - used to take back streets to avoid the police - now I drive a Rolls. Not all of will have the opportunities I have had but we can make the most of what we have and Biomedical is not too bad a place to do that is my point.
I obviously don't know the situation in the UK and would not dare to open my mouth wide enough to put my foot in it perhaps that's why so many of the biomed's I meet in Australia are from the UK. If so that's sad as I really do believe we are in an amazing profession.

For the caring, compassionate, engineering technician who is content to quietly beaver away behind the scenes ... for the "hands-on fixit techie" who doesn't want to set the world on fire, but is happy to crack on with real work that needs to be done ... then there is no better place to be.

It's a way of life, not merely a job just to pay the bills.

No doubt I shall be mocked on here once more, come Monday morning!

Andy,

You can run windows on a mac, they have a dual boot mode which lets you install windows on a 2nd partition. Runs really well to.

thanks Nick I will look into that I really need a machine with good graphics performance