Show And Tell (At the office)

Like RJ of Chookminder’s Quill, I’d also like to share with you something about me, what I do to be exact. I’m a computer programmer, and like some profession with broad field; I also have my line of expertise. Most programmers you probable know operate on numbers and databases, like those working in banks and business establishments. Others design web sites and web pages like the one you’re looking at now. Still others specialized on making games, animation and other graphics. Although I know a thing or two about the areas I mentioned, my specialization is programming the computer itself. While most deals with numeric numbers, I count hexadecimal or octal and binary digits. When most software extract, manipulates and then save files, mine “pokes” interrupts or hardware addresses.

My place around the corner

This is my office where I spend most of my 8 working hours. I got two computers, one for creating Windows application at the same time my means of connection to the outside world, the other for programming in DOS. Yes Watson, we still use that vintage operating system because we still have hardwares that only run in that environment.

My mini lab

Beside my cubicle is my “testing area”. This is where I diagnose programs for bugs. I got a small LAN (local area network) compose of a “server” sandwich between two “clients”. What I’m doing here is testing a program that allows the left client to talk to the right client, similar to “chatting” in the internet.

Using IP addresses, one can send a command from the left computer to tell the right computer to set-up those measuring instruments. This is how “zombies” work. And yes again, Watson, I have a few “incantations” hidden up my sleeve which are dangerous if in the hands of programmers who succumbed to the dark side of the force, our anti-thesis, the “hackers”.

There are two departments which use the system we develop, namely, Calibration Laboratory and the Monitoring Department.

Cal lab

This is where all our equipment under went inspection to guarantee it always gives the right reading. Our software helps determine if instruments’ tolerances are still within factory specification. Without it, what technicians could do in hours might take a day or two to finish.

Monitoring

This is the heart of the project. Its main job is to seek illegal or unlicensed users and regulate the air-waves. With the help of those huge, ugly antennas on the roof top, it can “eavesdrop” on any communication device that uses the atmosphere as signal conduit. Its antennas are very powerful that, on a clear day, it can receive radio signal from a passing ship in the Gulf, a distance of more than 600 km from us. With the help of our software, a push of a button and the computer will automatically conduct an orchestra of instruments to read, measure and report a target frequency.

Interesting or exciting perhaps? Not really, if you’ve been doing it for the last 18 years. How about you? What it’s like a day at your office?