4 ms·

What exactly do you do? Could I have some context?

• fuzzfactor 6y ago
  Cargo measurement & testing, with particular emphasis on developing new & improved laboratory techniques for international use. Although I did plan & deploy the first little batery-powered TRS-80 suitcase computer for measurement use at the docks and on board the vessels, but it was before IBM PC's appeared and way before the actual PC-compatible laptop. But it did look like what would later be known as a laptop as you carried it up the gangway. The measurement is a very traditional business, and the independent testing only seriously became a major component starting about 50 years ago. My first employer in this port had been doing it since the sailing ships, and I was trained by operators who did it during World War II. An incredible bureaucracy with core essential elements that can never be eliminated since we are actual commercial bureaucrats and our primary deliverables are paperwork. But I sure have invented a lot of apparatus while waiting for my ships to come in, and had proven performance beforehand so the clients get their money's worth. Interestingly, when I was in private laboratory practice for over 20 years it could almost be considered a small-scale Theranos-style business. I know it's scary but I have to admit it. Except my technology really works because I validate it for as many years as necessary before deployment. But these can be some toxic cargoes so it's best to keep a low profile, and industrially I'm about the furthest thing from consumer-facing retail operators. Plus these are kind of big ships, and for insurance companies there's a lot more at stake from a cargo sample than for a single sample of blood for instance, so there is that.