Teaching

They booked the four day basics plus a one day cram for DO-178B Level A certification. After three days, their tails are draggin'.

That means I have to be up at 4:00AM local (Phoenix AZ) time for the class schedule:

Day 2 of 4 done. We’re an hour ahead on the schedule so I’m not stressed about finishing on time. Should get good evals from just about everyone.

My job is to help customers use my employer’s product to build ultra-high reliability computer software such as that used to autonomously fly drones or to automate much of a real pilot’s interaction with, for example, the Boeing 787 over which he/she is in the left-hand cockpit seat.

In the movie, THX-1138, Robert Duvall’s character escapes the underground society because the cost of his pursuit goes over-budget. The robot Police are withdrawn. He’s become too expensive to keep. He escapes.

Classroom: Hotel meeting room as arranged by “the customer”. I’m staying there.

I learned this lesson in the training, or Customer Education, department of high tech companies. For example, at my current employer (not the one whose “product” is visible in the computer display), when a customer buys our software, they automatically get a certain number of “training credits”. Spend more dollars on product and you get more training credits. Those credits can then used, and are valued, exactly like dollars except they can only be used for training. They expire in one year and, if not used, they’re gone.

Switched him from Chrome to IE. Had him configure his corporate proxy details. Everything works.

The trip is on!

This week had both. The free upgrade from Hertz was decidedly nice but the customer’s insistence on writing his ISR handler in C++ wasn’t.