Last night at the conference exhibition, the good folks at Microsoft provided a couple free kegs of beer. You would think that announcing, "FREE BEER" in a room of 850+ people would be worse than shouting fire in a crowded theater, but you'd be wrong. No stampede, hardly any lines at all. By the end of the evening, they couldn't give the stuff away. The poor girl was begging people to take a glass so it wouldn't go to waste. 850+ engineers couldn't finish off two kegs!!
My fellow engineers, I'm disgusted with you!!
Joe Metrisin
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
First day of Conference
Well, it is late at the end of the first day of the conference and I had to say it was an enjoyable day. Jim Cashman started stuff off with a good overview of ANSYS, Inc's vision and direction which was very positive for me because it stressed core technology and productivity improvements. Then the product managers/planning folks gave a real brief look at what is coming down the road, including some tantalizing looks a the new analysis management tools in 12.0. Lots of good stuff for hardcore ANSYS users as well.
After the first session I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the exhibit hall meeting lots of folks, including many XANSYS people. For lunch I had the privilege of sitting at a table with John Swanson and a bunch of users. We talked about APDL and what we would like to see him change or add to it. He is an incredibly intelligent man who is incredibly humble and willing to listen to everyone. That lunch may be the highlight of the trip!
For dinner we had food from around the world served in the exhibit hall. I got to meet more people and talk geek to lots of people. Very enjoyable.
The only down side is our booth is kind of in a dark corner. We are feeling a little neglected. But we have been able to hand out a bunch of XANSYS stickers and all sorts of PADT propoganda and pens.
I'll try and get some pictures on my phone tomorrow.
After the first session I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the exhibit hall meeting lots of folks, including many XANSYS people. For lunch I had the privilege of sitting at a table with John Swanson and a bunch of users. We talked about APDL and what we would like to see him change or add to it. He is an incredibly intelligent man who is incredibly humble and willing to listen to everyone. That lunch may be the highlight of the trip!
For dinner we had food from around the world served in the exhibit hall. I got to meet more people and talk geek to lots of people. Very enjoyable.
The only down side is our booth is kind of in a dark corner. We are feeling a little neglected. But we have been able to hand out a bunch of XANSYS stickers and all sorts of PADT propoganda and pens.
I'll try and get some pictures on my phone tomorrow.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Finite Element Training Classes
In a comment to Paris's post about Abaqus features, Fern noted that, "The ABAQUS training programs were fantastic in that they didn't shy away from theory at all." This brings up a very good point, "How much and what kind of theory should be presented in an FEA training class?".
As I see it, there are 2 branches of theory that can be dealt with in the training class. First are the engineering principles that are represented and how they are implemented/accessed activated within the analysis code. Things like plasticity models, large deflection, thermal radiation, random vibration and piezoelectrics fall into this category.
The second branch of theory which can be dealt with is the computational/programming aspect of the analysis code. This deals with items such as element formulations, matrix solvers and user
programmable features.
There is also significant gray area between these to branches. This touches more on the art of FEA. Things like determining the correct damping to use, Hertzian stresses, choosing the correct turbulence flow models. It soon becomes apparent that developer must pick and choose which topics to cover in the typical limited 2 to 3 day training classes they offer.
From my experience in giving training classes, most students tend to lose focus (that’s code for falling asleep) when a lot of theory is presented. Most students want to know the just the basic
commands to get their analyses running and worry about the quality of their results after the fact. This is where qualities brought by the experienced engineer really shine. It is their upfront thinking about the results they want and knowledge of the theory that they consider BEFORE they start building their models.
Should theory be presented in all classes or should there be follow-up classes in theory made available to those who are interested?
As I see it, there are 2 branches of theory that can be dealt with in the training class. First are the engineering principles that are represented and how they are implemented/accessed activated within the analysis code. Things like plasticity models, large deflection, thermal radiation, random vibration and piezoelectrics fall into this category.
The second branch of theory which can be dealt with is the computational/programming aspect of the analysis code. This deals with items such as element formulations, matrix solvers and user
programmable features.
There is also significant gray area between these to branches. This touches more on the art of FEA. Things like determining the correct damping to use, Hertzian stresses, choosing the correct turbulence flow models. It soon becomes apparent that developer must pick and choose which topics to cover in the typical limited 2 to 3 day training classes they offer.
From my experience in giving training classes, most students tend to lose focus (that’s code for falling asleep) when a lot of theory is presented. Most students want to know the just the basic
commands to get their analyses running and worry about the quality of their results after the fact. This is where qualities brought by the experienced engineer really shine. It is their upfront thinking about the results they want and knowledge of the theory that they consider BEFORE they start building their models.
Should theory be presented in all classes or should there be follow-up classes in theory made available to those who are interested?
Friday, August 15, 2008
About doing that homework…
Here's an interesting excerpt from a thread on Ubuntu . with an excellent example of how not to use a mailing list and why not . It's a briefly summarized thread starting with a request by an apparent lamer for help cheating on a job interview.
_________Original Lamer
Calling All Linux Experts
If I could ever so kindly ask the Linux world for some help.
I have applied for a job that is in a heavy Linux environment and I have been sent a questionnaire about my knowledge. I know my way around pretty good and just want double check my answers. Some of the questions and a gim-me, some take some thinking and some are just down right hard. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Here are the questions:
1. Give an example of set of shell commands that will give you the number of files in a directory
2. How do you tell what process has a TCP port open in Linux
3. On a Red Hat Linux Variant how do you control whether a service starts when the system boots
4. How do you tell the amount of free disk space left on a volume
5. Give an example of a set of shell commands to tell how many times “bob” has logged on to the system this month
6. Give an example of a recursively copying a directory from one location to another.
…
(more of the same)
…
20. Given a radius server at 10.0.0.2 and a shared key of ‘abc123’ show the IOS commands necessary to authenticate switch users against the radius server, while still allowing the use of local username / password pairs
THANKS FOR THE HELP!!!!!!!!!!
_________End lamer post
A number of responses appeared in roughly the following vein, telling the original poster to do his homework.
_________Reply #1
Location: Melbourne, Australia
How about you supply the answers so we "experts" can tell you if they are correct or not, because I for one will not be taking the risk of aiding and abetting someone to get a job they may not be qualified for by potentially helping them cheat (and possibly prevent someone that is qualified from succeeding).
If you don't answer then those others on this forum who may not be as cynical as me may have learned a valuable lesson themselves.....
_________End Reply #1
_________Reply #2
Location: NorCal
Perhaps if you don't know the answers to these questions or you're not confident enough in your knowledge of linux systems to know your answers are right, the job is not for you.
_________End Reply #2______
The really interesting response comes from the potential employer who submitted the questions to the recruit:
_________Employer reply
For those who have commented, it is indeed an entry level network administration position with some Linux skills required as most of our network management tools run on Linux. I would also like to say thank you for the very sensible comments you all have made about the call for answers. And "bradcarr" while you haven't broken the rules of my questionnaire you have definitely broken the spirit of the exercise. I did indeed say you could use any resource available to you, but didn't it cross your mind that this might be the wrong thing to do? I want to see the "real world" ability of a potential employee, not what they can recite in an interview but what they can come up with using their normal information sources to solve a problem or research a subject.
This has shown me that you won't take the initiative to research a problem, even when it might land you a job. I "googled" most of these questions before making the list and most of them are very easily discovered. It didn't seem to me that I was asking too much for people to use mailing lists, forums, IRC whatever to compile the answers themselves. I actually expected to see some questions show up on forums but I didn't expect someone to paste the entire thing and expect the forum users to do all the work that would qualify you for an interview. I think at this point you could save us all some time and not turn the answers back in, I already have the information I need on your answers.
As far as the rest of you, if there are any of you reading this thread that live in the Nashville area that want a network administration job with some Linux work feel free to shoot me your resume at paul.tinsley (at) lightningsource.com. Oh, while you are at it, go ahead and send me the answers to the questions
_________end Employer reply
The lessons are apparent:
__When you post to XANSYS, or anywhere on the Internet, you're not as anonymous as you might think. Use your head and don't show the world that you're not above begging strangers to do your work for you. You never know who might be listening in. Not only did this guy lost the chance for a job, everyone on Ubuntu and likely a lot of their friends knows about the lamer who announced for all and sundry that he was looking to dig someone else's potatoes.
__Do your homework. If you think you need help, the first thing to do is try to help yourself. Try not to look like a complete dork.
__If you don't have the skills for a job, don't try to fake it. Better an honest job search than getting sacked for incompetence and having to explain why during your next interview.
_________Original Lamer
Calling All Linux Experts
If I could ever so kindly ask the Linux world for some help.
I have applied for a job that is in a heavy Linux environment and I have been sent a questionnaire about my knowledge. I know my way around pretty good and just want double check my answers. Some of the questions and a gim-me, some take some thinking and some are just down right hard. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Here are the questions:
1. Give an example of set of shell commands that will give you the number of files in a directory
2. How do you tell what process has a TCP port open in Linux
3. On a Red Hat Linux Variant how do you control whether a service starts when the system boots
4. How do you tell the amount of free disk space left on a volume
5. Give an example of a set of shell commands to tell how many times “bob” has logged on to the system this month
6. Give an example of a recursively copying a directory from one location to another.
…
(more of the same)
…
20. Given a radius server at 10.0.0.2 and a shared key of ‘abc123’ show the IOS commands necessary to authenticate switch users against the radius server, while still allowing the use of local username / password pairs
THANKS FOR THE HELP!!!!!!!!!!
_________End lamer post
A number of responses appeared in roughly the following vein, telling the original poster to do his homework.
_________Reply #1
Location: Melbourne, Australia
How about you supply the answers so we "experts" can tell you if they are correct or not, because I for one will not be taking the risk of aiding and abetting someone to get a job they may not be qualified for by potentially helping them cheat (and possibly prevent someone that is qualified from succeeding).
If you don't answer then those others on this forum who may not be as cynical as me may have learned a valuable lesson themselves.....
_________End Reply #1
_________Reply #2
Location: NorCal
Perhaps if you don't know the answers to these questions or you're not confident enough in your knowledge of linux systems to know your answers are right, the job is not for you.
_________End Reply #2______
The really interesting response comes from the potential employer who submitted the questions to the recruit:
_________Employer reply
For those who have commented, it is indeed an entry level network administration position with some Linux skills required as most of our network management tools run on Linux. I would also like to say thank you for the very sensible comments you all have made about the call for answers. And "bradcarr" while you haven't broken the rules of my questionnaire you have definitely broken the spirit of the exercise. I did indeed say you could use any resource available to you, but didn't it cross your mind that this might be the wrong thing to do? I want to see the "real world" ability of a potential employee, not what they can recite in an interview but what they can come up with using their normal information sources to solve a problem or research a subject.
This has shown me that you won't take the initiative to research a problem, even when it might land you a job. I "googled" most of these questions before making the list and most of them are very easily discovered. It didn't seem to me that I was asking too much for people to use mailing lists, forums, IRC whatever to compile the answers themselves. I actually expected to see some questions show up on forums but I didn't expect someone to paste the entire thing and expect the forum users to do all the work that would qualify you for an interview. I think at this point you could save us all some time and not turn the answers back in, I already have the information I need on your answers.
As far as the rest of you, if there are any of you reading this thread that live in the Nashville area that want a network administration job with some Linux work feel free to shoot me your resume at paul.tinsley (at) lightningsource.com. Oh, while you are at it, go ahead and send me the answers to the questions
_________end Employer reply
The lessons are apparent:
__When you post to XANSYS, or anywhere on the Internet, you're not as anonymous as you might think. Use your head and don't show the world that you're not above begging strangers to do your work for you. You never know who might be listening in. Not only did this guy lost the chance for a job, everyone on Ubuntu and likely a lot of their friends knows about the lamer who announced for all and sundry that he was looking to dig someone else's potatoes.
__Do your homework. If you think you need help, the first thing to do is try to help yourself. Try not to look like a complete dork.
__If you don't have the skills for a job, don't try to fake it. Better an honest job search than getting sacked for incompetence and having to explain why during your next interview.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
ANSYS, Inc. Investor Conference Call
For those of us who make our living off of the ecosystem created by ANSYS, Inc., you follow the health of the company as closely as you can. I'm not much of one of "wall street speak" and all the second guessing involved in the whole world of investments. But a few years ago I started listening the quarterly conference calls that Jim Cashman (CEO) and Maria Shields (CFO) do every quarter right after they release their quarterly numbers. If I kind of glaze over the the financial minutia and the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP multi-year distribution of acquisition costs, there is some useful information there.
I just listened to the 2Q call and thought it would be a good blog topic, and I'm running a little CFX model on my machine so about all I have the horsepower for right now is typing in this editing window... Hopefully others listened to it and can add their observations as comments. Let me state: These are my oppinions, not PADT's or ANSYS, Inc.'s.. yada... yada... yada.
The first thing that struck me about this call was that Jim Cashman's normal high level of enthusiasm was at almost the giddy level. For those of you who don't know, Jim is an engineer. He may be the CEO of what is now a major company, but he is still an engineer and he is stoked about features coming in 12, the further integration of FLUENT with other ANSYS products and the ANSOFT acquisition. I think his enthusiasm for the product is fantastic and the fact that he was most enthusiastic about the high-end capabilities is what made me the happiest.
The numbers were good, continued strong growth that beat what the rest of the industry is doing, and growth across geography and product line. They have gotten back to the level of operating efficiency that they had before the FLUENT purchase (FLUENT had a more people and expenses per dollar of revenue than ANSYS, Inc. did before the merger). But what do numbers mean to those of us who count on ANSYS, Inc. technology to make our living? Well basically more money for R&D.
I really think this is true for two reasons: 1) in the past they have always kept a high level of spending on R&D, often around the 20% range, and 2) what seems to be selling and giving the ANSYS, inc. product line its advantage is the breadth and depth of capability that is offered. We see this in our sales here in the Southwest as well. People want a tool that works and has no dead ends or limitations. FLUENT, CFX, ANSYS all deliver on that and the Board of Directors and senior management seem to be stressign high-end capability and integration of high-end tools more and more.
So, the little lines on my convergence graph have flattened out, which is as close to "finished" as a CFD run can get... so in conclusion take a listen to the confernece calls. I think they give some great insight into why ANSYS, Inc. makes the decisiosn they make and even gives some pointers to what their technical direction is. Just don't listen when you are tired - the numbers can get a bit booring.
The older calls are archived on the ANSYS, Inc. investor relations site:
phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=118715&p=irol-presentations
And you can get the latest from any of the standard portals like iGoogle, myYahoo, etc...
I use the "Events" section of the Google Finance page for ANSYS:
finance.google.com/finance?client=ig&q=ANSS
The Q2 call can be found at:
web.servicebureau.net/conf/meta?i=1113059403&c=2343&m=was&u=/w_ccbn.xsl&date_ticker=ANSS
I just listened to the 2Q call and thought it would be a good blog topic, and I'm running a little CFX model on my machine so about all I have the horsepower for right now is typing in this editing window... Hopefully others listened to it and can add their observations as comments. Let me state: These are my oppinions, not PADT's or ANSYS, Inc.'s.. yada... yada... yada.
The first thing that struck me about this call was that Jim Cashman's normal high level of enthusiasm was at almost the giddy level. For those of you who don't know, Jim is an engineer. He may be the CEO of what is now a major company, but he is still an engineer and he is stoked about features coming in 12, the further integration of FLUENT with other ANSYS products and the ANSOFT acquisition. I think his enthusiasm for the product is fantastic and the fact that he was most enthusiastic about the high-end capabilities is what made me the happiest.
The numbers were good, continued strong growth that beat what the rest of the industry is doing, and growth across geography and product line. They have gotten back to the level of operating efficiency that they had before the FLUENT purchase (FLUENT had a more people and expenses per dollar of revenue than ANSYS, Inc. did before the merger). But what do numbers mean to those of us who count on ANSYS, Inc. technology to make our living? Well basically more money for R&D.
I really think this is true for two reasons: 1) in the past they have always kept a high level of spending on R&D, often around the 20% range, and 2) what seems to be selling and giving the ANSYS, inc. product line its advantage is the breadth and depth of capability that is offered. We see this in our sales here in the Southwest as well. People want a tool that works and has no dead ends or limitations. FLUENT, CFX, ANSYS all deliver on that and the Board of Directors and senior management seem to be stressign high-end capability and integration of high-end tools more and more.
So, the little lines on my convergence graph have flattened out, which is as close to "finished" as a CFD run can get... so in conclusion take a listen to the confernece calls. I think they give some great insight into why ANSYS, Inc. makes the decisiosn they make and even gives some pointers to what their technical direction is. Just don't listen when you are tired - the numbers can get a bit booring.
The older calls are archived on the ANSYS, Inc. investor relations site:
phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=118715&p=irol-presentations
And you can get the latest from any of the standard portals like iGoogle, myYahoo, etc...
I use the "Events" section of the Google Finance page for ANSYS:
finance.google.com/finance?client=ig&q=ANSS
The Q2 call can be found at:
web.servicebureau.net/conf/meta?i=1113059403&c=2343&m=was&u=/w_ccbn.xsl&date_ticker=ANSS
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Feature matching in Abaqus & Ansys
On occasion I run into features of ABAQUS that would like to see on the ANSYS side. Case in point, my recent post on XANSYS regarding the modal transient dynamic analysis. The problem arises from ANSYS' inability to apply base motion (acceleration in my case) on structures w/ non zero boundary conditions when the modal superposition method is used. Why modal supeposition you'd ask if the the FULL (default) method (TRNOPT) is fully capable of doing what I need ?? Simple, MSUP is the only option that will allow me to save modal coordinates in jobname.jcf that in turn can be used for further number crunching (fatigue or other postprocessing).
My only recourse is to go back to ABAQUS or Use NASTRAN. Ansys seems to be a fully capable program with an arsenal of capabilities spanning many disciplines.
This 'deficiency' made me think that ABAQUS has features that most likely will not make it on the ANSYS side especially now that the development dynamics within ANSYS Inc are pro-Fluent and more or less neutral-ANSYS. Version 12 is not out yet to make the latter argument stonger or weaker so I'm little reserve as far as what goodies are in our stockings fron Santa-Ansys....
I'd like to know what other features of ABAQUS (if an ABAQUS & ANSYS user) you miss when working on the ANSYS side. By the same token, ANSYS has some real big guns like APDL that Abaqus users would like to have instead of learning python for their scripting. {{python is a very powerful language but not as intuitive as APDL in my opinion - Expect flaming about this from hardcore & seasoned python users}}
Sure, the luxury of having dual super number crunchers like ANSYS & Abaqus doesn't put you in the position of thinking 'Hmm, ANSYS/ ABAQUS doesn't have this or that. What if ... "
Well, not everyone is that lucky and has to make do with one code {{what a life !!!}}.
Your thoughts ???
Paris Altidis
My only recourse is to go back to ABAQUS or Use NASTRAN. Ansys seems to be a fully capable program with an arsenal of capabilities spanning many disciplines.
This 'deficiency' made me think that ABAQUS has features that most likely will not make it on the ANSYS side especially now that the development dynamics within ANSYS Inc are pro-Fluent and more or less neutral-ANSYS. Version 12 is not out yet to make the latter argument stonger or weaker so I'm little reserve as far as what goodies are in our stockings fron Santa-Ansys....
I'd like to know what other features of ABAQUS (if an ABAQUS & ANSYS user) you miss when working on the ANSYS side. By the same token, ANSYS has some real big guns like APDL that Abaqus users would like to have instead of learning python for their scripting. {{python is a very powerful language but not as intuitive as APDL in my opinion - Expect flaming about this from hardcore & seasoned python users}}
Sure, the luxury of having dual super number crunchers like ANSYS & Abaqus doesn't put you in the position of thinking 'Hmm, ANSYS/ ABAQUS doesn't have this or that. What if ... "
Well, not everyone is that lucky and has to make do with one code {{what a life !!!}}.
Your thoughts ???
Paris Altidis
Friday, August 8, 2008
Hiring a Receptionist
OK, maybe not the correct forum but I have to share this. We posted an opening for a receptionist here at PADT. We got 551 responses (the recession hit Arizona a while back). We did our typical thing of sorting and choosing. When I had picked the people we wanted to interview, I thought it would be nice to send out a bulk e-mail to all those that responded via e-mail, letting them know they would not be interviewed. I got two responses that made all of us here laugh and cry at the same time. First, here is my bulk response to the applicants:
Dear Applicant,
I want to thank you very much for applying for the Receptionist position with PADT, Inc. We received over 400 resumes in 7 days for that position! As you can imagine, it was a bit of an effort to sort through all of those and decide who we wanted to interview. Unfortunately you were amongst those that we decided not to interview.
I wish we could give feedback on each applicant, but we just don’t have the time. We also apologize for sending you this rather impersonal bulk e-mail, but we can’t send 400+ individual responses.
Please do not call or e-mail us asking for a second chance or for feedback. We understand that many people are currently in a bad place and could really use a job, but in order to keep our profits and pay our employees, we have to focus on our long-term needs.
Thank you for your interest in the company and we wish you the best of luck in your job search.
Sincerely,
Eric Miller
Director, HR (Acting)
I got a reply from one of the 6 Tiffany's that applied (I have not altered any punctuation or spacing):
I really do think you might be upset with not trying out an effort with me because I have over 5yrs experience as a receptionist and I am a mother so I have alot of patients and undergarment with anything and everything. So if u are not satisfied with anyone you are interviewing,please let me know
Then I heard from another person who did not like my form letter:
Dear Mr. Eric Miller(Acting) Hr Director,
I am so sorry that you did not pick my resume. BUT, after reading this very RUDE letter that you have sent out to all who did not get picked. I must let you know that I would have rather not heard any feedback from your company then to have received this horrible letter. I would never lower myself to email you to give me a second chance, or come asking for any feedback, as far as Iam concerned you are the one who just lost out not me. You are suppose to be professional and this is what you send out to applicants! OH MY GOD you and your company are very impersonal and I myself would never work for a company that would even consider sending out this horrible response. So in the future I would suggest you not respond to any applicants.
Thank You
Insert your favorite "people today" "texting and myspace are ruining the English language" "the school system is broken" rant here.
The good news is the 5 people we picked to interview are intelligent, well poised, well spoken and used something approaching proper spelling, grammar and punctuation when in their e-mails. It will be hard to choose amongst them. So there is hope for humanity.
- Eric
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