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The last scientific programing I did was at a longstanding uk utilities company translating fortran and basic programs written in the 80s into database stored p
by thorin 6y ago
The last scientific programing I did was at a longstanding uk utilities company translating fortran and basic programs written in the 80s into database stored procedures so they could be more easily be exposed a Web services.
I had to refer to a few scientific papers in industry journals etc. Coding was fairly straightforward but the business seemed to have no easy way of validating them as they had multiple ancient versions of the code that all gave different results.
- dhuesca 6y agoThat last part about the business not being able to validate years worth of data sounds heartbreaking to me. I particularly enjoy learning about the different businesses I've worked with (banking, oil, cheeses!...) doing "BI" stuff. Some of the things you see are genuinely interesting, even more so than the actual job that I'm hired to do (programming is also really cool =D)
- thorin 6y agoI should probably add that the calculations measured the amount of "product" flowing through their systems for metering / billing processes, which is even more worrying. This is the cost of deregulation/privatization of industry which has affected the UK heavily in the UK over the last 20-30 years. The focus is more about share price rather than delivering your core product/service.
- 7thaccount 6y agoElectric utility or something else like gas/water?
- thorin 6y agoI don't really want to go into too much more detail, it's still in use!
- the_only_law 6y agoSounds like fun, and I mean that at least partially seriously.