TechnoLust's Journal: Job stuff... and an earthquake

I had a call this morning from the Cincy job. They said that a large bank in the area wanted to do a phone interview. So they called and asked a lot of questions. The only thing he asked about that I was unfamiliar with was JUnit. I said, "It's a testing tool, correct?" He said yes, and I said I hadn't used it. He asked how I tested my components, and I told him I had written a testing servlet that I used to call components and display what they were doing on the screen, without them actually manipulating data on the live servers. So I think it went well. I hope so, because I'm going to go crazy if I don't start working soon.

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=3967851&nav=0RYv That's the news story reporting the earthquake we had 2 nights ago. I was in my room talking to Debora and there were people in the living room listening to music and people in the black room playing ping pong. All of a sudden, the house shuddered and some things fell off a shelf. I thought someone had ran a car into the house. If the music hadn't been so loud, I would have heard that there wasn't a crashing noise, but they had it cranked up pretty loud. Deb and I walked out and started asking everyone what had happened. No one knew. Then a friend about 15 miles away called and asked if we felt that. I said yes. Then some college girls I know called and asked what it was. I told them it must be an earthquake. They wanted me to come stay with them, but I had drank a few LITs, so I told them I didn't feel I should be driving, plus there were about 15 people at my house.

Later another girl called from some friends house and asked if we knew what happened. I told her it was an earthquake. She said she'd heard that nuclear plant had exploded after a core meltdown. I told if that were the case, the EMP blast would have knocked out the phones and we'd all be dead of radiation exposure, so it was probably just an earthquake. I talked to my mother yesterday... she slept right through it.

you're too kind

[nocomment]

I don't think I could have resisted running with the core meltdown thing. :-)

Re:you're too kind

[lab16]

I don't think I could have resisted running with the core meltdown thing. :-)

That was my first thought too. The resulting phone conversation would go something like this.

girl: The nuclear plant exploded!
TL: Really? We probably only have a few hours to live until the radiation kills us all. Hey, I have an idea! Lets spend the last hours of our life making out!
girl: okay!

Girls will do anything when they think its the end of the world. :)

3.3 and you get scared?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Out here on the west coast, we usually ignore anything less than a 4. Back 13 years ago now, I was in two 6+ earthquakes in the same year in Oregon (was going to school in Klamath Falls, was home in Salem for the Spring Break Quake, and was back in Klamath Falls for fall term when the *big* 6.8 hit).

Re:3.3 and you get scared?

[TechnoLust]

Not scared, confused. I've never been in an earthquake before. I live in the part of the country that isn't trying to sink into the Pacific. :-)

Re:3.3 and you get scared?

[ces]

6.8 you wimp ;-)

The Nisqually quake in 2001 was bigger.

There are STILL buildings in Seattle beinging repaired from that one (not to mention the much harder hit Olympia took).

But yea ... the dish rattlers aren't anything to get excited over.

Re:3.3 and you get scared?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

When was the quake in Seattle? I seem to remember a 7 or an 8 up there.

I only know of one building left in Portland still being worked on after the Spring Break Quake- Pioneer Courthouse. It's taking so long because (a) it was never designed to withstand a quake, (b) it's a historical landmark, and (c) the county judges took an oportunity to try to get a secure parking garage out of the work, since they're completely redoing the foundations anyway.

Ever see a city block sized stone building up on jacks?

Re:3.3 and you get scared?

[ces]

I believe you are probably thinking of the 2001 Nisqually quake which was thought to be over 7 when it first hit but has been corrected to a 6.8.

There were some large quakes up here in 1949 (7.1 Olympia) and 1965 (6.5 Seattle). The 1964 Alaska quake caused some damage here as well. I believe the 1949 quake is the largest quake in the last 100 years in the Puget Sound Area.

While they didn't put any buildings up on jacks, several buildings in Seattle and Olympia needed major reconstruction/retrofitting after

Nuke plants

[ces]

Later another girl called from some friends house and asked if we knew what happened. I told her it was an earthquake. She said she'd heard that nuclear plant had exploded after a core meltdown. I told if that were the case, the EMP blast would have knocked out the phones and we'd all be dead of radiation exposure, so it was probably just an earthquake. I talked to my mother yesterday... she slept right through it.

Sorry but a nuclear plant accident won't produce EMP, or leathal radiation anywhere outside the containment building.

The potential for explosion in a nuclear accident comes from steam. This is what happened at Chernobyl. Even then the radiation was only leathal in the immidiate area around the reactor. Note that this is highly unlikely in any US reactor due to a totally different reactor design and the use of containment buildings.

Re:Nuke plants

[TechnoLust]

You think if it EXPLODED it wouldn't send out radiation? If it melted down slowly, you're correct, but nuclear bombs produce EMP and radiation, so if the plant were to somehow explode like a bomb, I'd think the results would be the same.

Re:Nuke plants

[Abm0raz]

As ces said, it wouldn't explode, it would melt down. Even if you put dynamite or hit it with a conventional missile, there still wouldn't be an EMP or much radiation.

To realize why, one must understand what an 'explosion' really is. It's nothing more than a rapid expansion in volume over a very small time period, usually on the scale of 50,000%/second of more. Usually this is accomplished by either adding massive amounts of heat (phase change explosions, such as water out of a microwave), pressure (ball

Re:Nuke plants

[ces]

In fact, one of the ways to stop a run-away reaction that is leading to a melt down is to seperate the rods. Here at penn state, the uranium rods number between 35 and 60 arranged in a honeycomb formation. There are *4* carbon control rods that fit in strategic spots in the honeycomb. That's all that is needed because nuclear fission is DIFFICULT to maintain. Should the control rods fail, an explosion that disupted the uranium rods' positions would actually reduce and stop all fission, thereby stopping all

Junit

[FroMan]

If you have not used Junit before and do java development, I'd suggest it. It is a very easy to use tool, especially when you automate it with ant. Also, I have not used it personally, as I do the backend programming, but httpunit is also useful for abusing code for testing servlets and such. The fellow that works the frontend code says he started with it a couple days ago and is quite happy with it.

"No, that's just my stomach"

[Tomble]

When I was about 12 or so, we had one when we were in an RE lesson. There was just suddenly a (WTF? Why is Firehamster taking my typing so erratically? I blame stinky flash adverts *mutter*) weird rumbling feeling in the floor (this is really pissing me off actually, don't get this shit on LJ...), and we all just looked at each other in bafflement like "did you feel that too?", and it went on for maybe 5 or 10 seconds. (IIRC there was a brief bit of tremor a little before the main one too).

Then it stopped.