Forbidden Planet --> Voyage to See What's at the Bottom --> Star Trek --> 2001 --> submarine nuke --> Fermilab main control room crew chief. ymmv.

"Had the bomb been armed with its fissile capsule, the immediate death toll may have reached six figures." Says it all. Fail. Technologically illiterate dreck bereft of so much as a wisp of credibility to anyone even passingly familiar with the field. Shame.

I run an atom smasher! I make antiprotons! I shoot a neutrino cannon at Minnesota! you bet my job is awesome!

It is indeed gross, but it works. You need to remember that this room has been operational, online and manned 24/7/365 for the last 40 years. Those big yellow racks? Been there since 1970. You should also understand that we don't get the money to gussy it up. We'd like nice fancy wide screen displays but it's not a budget priority. Those displays on top? Yes, are, in fact, for room-wide monitoring, esp for that guy at the empty desk in the middle, which is probably self evident by the size of the graphics displayed. Notice the sound deadening material. Notice the straight lines. Notice that there is no storage at the workspaces. We have a pretty good grasp on the details of the ergonomics. This control room is a poster child for function over aesthetics. If you would like to see it up close, just ask, i'd be happy to give you a personal tour. Like i said, i'm in the picture.

These are just my experience. I've worked in SSN maneuvering (reactor plant control) rooms, and at Fermilab, the Experimental Areas, D0, CDF control rooms and now days, the Main Control Room.

Keep the racks sealed, front and back as much as possible, to keep dust in the room from getting into the electronics. You might (or not) be amazed at how much dust a control room can collect over a year.

Include a fair amount of sound deadening foam. again, it's remarkable how loud pcs can get, way moreso if you have to add fan cooled crates and such.

Stay away from trackballs unless you can get *really* *awesome* trackballs, they tend to collect crap inside and are usu. kinda a PITA to clean.

Beware of the temptation to put in q00l tracklights, as they have a tendency to cause a lot of glare. Keep bookshelvs away from the consoles as much as possible.

Have your operators face AWAY from the hallway. Consider keycard access to keep distractions down. Spend the money on comfy high-backed chairs. Kitchen immediately adjacent to the control room. Bathroom nearby. Consoles should go UP, not out; it's easier to look up than turn your head and it _will_ make a difference.

I would not curve your workstations; skooching from one point to the next in a curved layout requires a unique trajectory for each endpoint; straight layouts are easier to run your chair along.

Here's mine http://www-visualmedia.fnal.gov/VMS_Site/gallery/stillphotos/2006/0000/06-0022-30D.hr.jpg kinda big, and i'm in the picture! Looks old and clunky but we manage.

HTH

God Squad has been in use by (mostly, i think) Christian churches since about 100 milliseconds after the debut of the Mod Squad pilot. Since 1968. I think there's a Rabbi in NYC who has something antecedently similar going on, too.

The idea i offered wasn't meant to destroy any data, since it won't, just to incapacitate the system long enough for someone to get the adults in the loop. Restart the system? "Oh, sorry, [insert excuse here]".

If this happens to YOU in the future, pull the fire alarm or dump the UPS or whatever magic button your data center has to shut down the works. My computer center has a (five actually) Big Red Button to crash the whole system. Might have been a reasonable and prudent action in this instance.

i dunno... that bald chick on Farscape was pretty hott.

I would prefer to be called The Blue Max than ... matt.

FTA: "In Texas, the problem lies in getting power from the proposed site in the Panhandle to a distribution system, Pickens said in an interview with The Associated Press in New York. He'd hoped to build his own transmission lines but he said there were technical problems." If he could put together an order for 687 gigantor windmills, he goddamned-well knew _exactly_ where they were going to go and exactly, to the foot, how many feet/miles away the nearest 345kV line was. (substitute appropiate buzzaords). Or whatever. Engineering power distrubition is complicated and painstaking, but it's also fairly cut and dried. What "technical" issue could there possibly be here? was he planning to build a giant Tesla coil?? Sounds like bullshit to me, and i think bullshit like this does enormous damage to the credibility and viability of alt. energy. Political, environmental or financial problems i would accept at face value, but not technical power distribution problems.

find one. pay for a membership (it's polite). Reserve a room and spend the weekend there. mingle, to to some panels, visit the con suite and room parties. debate the relative merits of Captain Piccard vs. Captain Kirk or is Six hotter than 7 of 9 or whatever is the custom these days. lotsa fun.

I work at a National Lab called um ... "furby" lab..... and by golly and by gosh ALL the safety rules apply to EVERYONE. We (the lab Furbions) pay particular attention to summerstudents/ undergrads/ postdocs/ new people to make sure they're following the rules. Every Single Person Who Sets Foot On Site Is Responsible For Their And Everyone Else's Safety. Corner cutting is very bad juju. Maybe it's different in the jello-mold sciences, but not here, not even a little bit. Violate the safety rules = get "yelled at" and maybe (if bad enough or repeated) get canned/ banned from the site.

If there's a problem elsewhere, it's a cultural problem in that sector or institution.