USS Independence trip
From Lazer
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9/24/2009 Thursday
I came in to a normal day of work not knowing what I was going to get myself into by the end of the day. I got to my desk and saw I had two missed calls and a message from Suzanne. I am not sure what I though she wanted from me. Then when going over to talk to Suzanne, I bumped into Nick (The Global Hawk project manager) and he told me that Suzanne was going to ask if I would take a trip to Mobile, AL to help out a team there. I though oh that might be interesting. I did not give it a second thought and went over to talk to the left side of my brain (Rachel.) She did not see any problem with taking the opportunity. She said to say yes if I wanted to, but to make sure that they knew that I was doing them a favor. So, I want back to my desk to get some Global Hawk work done, until Suzanne got a hold of me. After about an hour she came by and talked to me.
Suzanne explained that Mobile need a person to help debug some Java and Javascript code. She was also wondering if I wanted to transition on to this project, because Global Hawk was starting to de-staff soon. The de-staffing was news to me. I told Suzanne that I would have to know more about the project before I would want to sign up for it, but I would go to next week and help them out. Suzanne said she would send me some documents about the project and we could talk later about joining it. The main thoughts going through my head was if this was going to be a project that the work was out of Alabama and we are doing the work from San Diego, then telecommuting would be a real option. I went to talk to Steve (my functional manager) to see if he had any more information.
Steve said that the project was working on Java code and TCL code pronounced “Tickle”. The TCL language I have never had experience with before. I told Steve about my idea about telecommuting, but he did not sound to supportive, but said it does not hurt to try. Later that day I talked to Nick about the Global Hawk project de-staffing and he said with the current contract it would in November, but there is a 90% chance that a contract will be approved next week that would be funding through mid next year.
So I spent the rest of the day getting travel plans for the trip with Sylvia. We first had problems because I did not fill out information on some BAE travel internal site. Which I did remember seeing the email, but I though I would never need travel. That was the first problem. So, we finial completed the travel plan and after a half hour back at my desk I saw I had windsurfing lessons at the same time I was suppose to depart from San Diego. So, I got Rachel’s help to find a flight that I could do both. We came up with an red eye flight that left at 22:50. So, I went and ask nicely if Sylvia could help me change it. She was really nice and she change the flight with no problems.
9/25/2009 Friday
I was thinking I was not going to come in today (I don’t work Fridays), but I wanted to print direction in Mobile and other travel things. So, I got in at 950 and I decided I should go to the stand up, which start at 945, and tell the team that I would not be in all next week because of the trip to Alabama. So, I went in and it seemed they were already talking about me. Carla told them about the trip and Tom (Software Team lead) was not happy. I told them how far I was on my task I had been working on for the last week and that I should not check it in without me being here if people had problems with it. Tom thought that I should so that the team could test the code for the next week while I was gone. So, now I have an all day task of finishing this task and checking it in. Which later I realize I should have argued some more because the task was not as far as I thought it was.
I got back to my desk and decide that I would first get everything ready for the trip, because I did not feel prepared. So, I print out maps to and from the airport, hotel, and job site. I collected contact information about who I would be talking to when I got to the work site. I read through all my emails that I had gotten about the my tasks on the trip. Then one email caught my eye, it said that anyone that comes on to the shipyard would need the below safety equipment a hard hat, steel toe boots, ear and eye protection. Next to each item it said not provided. I went and talk to Suzanne about this and she said that they would be required to provided me that gear when I got onto the site. I pointed out to her that this email says that they do not provide the equipment. Suzanne decided to call Brad Kornelsen, the lead of the project, who I have never met. He said that I need to come down there now and get all the gear. I went down there and met with him and he brought me over to were I would get the gear required but no one was there. So we went up to his desk and called around looking for someone to get the gear for me. Brad also told me that I need a laptop and some software from Ismael. So, I ran round the whole day trying to collect everything I need for the trip. I would have been really out of luck if I did not come in this day. Then, I also spent the rest of the day finishing the Global Hawk code to check it. After working the entire day, I checked the code in with some major problems on the Euro Hawk branch, but I thought that it might be fine because no one was working of that branch at the time.
9/28/2009 Monday
I started this day the earliest that one could, by being on the airplane from the day before. So my whole trip started the day before at 20:00 we Rachel drove me to the airport. I flew to Atlanta, GA and then to Mobile, AL. I got in to Mobile at 10:00 in the morning. That was a long time. I thought it was a good idea to take the Red-eye because I could be paid to sleep, but I got place in between two people and I found I don’t sleep without a wall anymore.
At 10:00 I am in Mobile and I was tired and felt kind of weird. I got my car keys from some lady (I think so) named Connie. I went out to get in the car and I saw a Toyota hybrid Prix, and I though I knew I should have ask for a hybrid. Then I saw my car a Chevy something G6. I got in and the smell of smoke hit me first and then the interior was cheep plastic. Without saying anything else I did not like the car. I started driving to the shipyard. The directions to the shipyard did not look too hard. I had to get on Airport Road (good done) than it dumps into Government Street (ok that sounds easy.) When looking around when I was driving this place started to remind me of somewhere I have been before. The overcast skies, lots of wild tree growth, and back wood country housing areas. Ohio that’s it. And on the way drive I kept saying in my head “I am in Mobile Alabama” in a deep southern accent.
Back to driving to the shipyard, I got all the way past Government Street, but from there I had conflicting directions. My google direction I could not understand, but my direction from Suzanne said to go under a tunnel. So, where else is a tunnel but at the water so I just kept driving to the water and I went under a tunnel. But what I did not know was that their were two different tunnel right next to each other. So, I read the direction again and it said the Bankhead tunnel. So, I drove around on the other side of the tunnel I accidental went down and I found the Bankhead. So, I drove back though the tunnel just planning on turning around and coming back through and following the direction from there. Once I got back on the other side I got lost again. I don’t remember how but I finally made it to the shipyard.
I walked up to the main building, which I latter found out is called the Palace. I think because it is the nice place comparatively to the rest of the place. It is about 11:00 and my contact is Glenn from BAE Systems. Right when I got though the door I heard the receptionist trying to say BAE Systems (B..E...A, no B..A.E), because she was miss pronouncing it over the phone. As it turns out the man standing next to her was Glenn. Glenn is a black hair about 5' 9 40 year old man. He introduced himself and presented himself as a very nice person. He walked me over to get my badge for working on the site. He was very patient and while we waited he gave me an introduction to the task at hand. In describing the task Glenn told me about how the current software was created from a medium size team about 15 to 20 people. Who all are not currently with the company any longer. The reason the team left was because their project's funding was cut and they found different positions with other companies. So, their is about half a million lines of code and not one person who was involved in creating it to speak for it. The code was not documented, not placed under any source control, and some file were over 12,000 lines.
Then I was introduced to Dan and Bruce, the General Dynamics people currently working the code. Bruce is an 45 to 50 year old software engineer. Bruce is about 5' 8, slightly gray hair, and a slim build. Bruce is kind of the soft spoken and non confrontational person. Also, I believe Bruce is the lead of the team. Dan is about 25 to 30 years old that looks like a track runner. Dan is about 5' 8 also.
I first met the two, and we went to a lunch/ meeting. The two of them wanted to go to lunch and discusses the project. So, we walked over and jumped in my rental car and drove to lunch. I did not know directions so Dan was navigating. While I was drive Dan was giving me directions and describing the project in small detail. Then all the sudden he starts digging around the car. Going though the glove box, looking under the seat, I don’t know what for. And we laughed about what a piece of shit car I got was. Then I found a parking spot downtown and we got out and walk to lunch. We walked through this park with a water fountain and a cop riding a horse. It looked really nice. We sat down out side at this restaurant and ordered food. This whole time Dan was still describing in detain the project. A waiter came over and (she had the dark spots around her teeth) took our order. And then out of the blue Dan says look at those, I'd do it. The whole time we were at the table eating he was picking out women that he would do or commenting on their breast size. “She would fall over easy”, “you could push her right down”. Through out the whole day random comments about women.
Dan and I had a conversation on our way back to the ship from the 2:00 meeting. Dan was telling me about how he only makes salary and works a lot of free over time. He was telling me that he gets his 40 hours in by Wednesday and works the whole rest of the week, including Saturday and Sunday sometimes for free. They work from 7:00 am to 19:00-21:00, so 12 to 14 hours a day sometimes 7 days a week. I asked him why he does it (which I knew right when it came out of my mouth I should not have.) He said he has to or he would be fired. He was telling me that the presidents of both our companies our watching this task and would get ride of anyone who does not do what they ask.
At about 1500 I left for the day and drove back to my hotel at Airport Road and the 65 highway. When I got there I checked in and gave a call to Suzanne to confirm that I was not under the control of the General Dynamics people and that I would work the amount of hour that I deemed enough. Suzanne agreed with me and I felt a lot better. I told Suzanne that I did not want to work this project when I got back and that I would be fine with working 9 to 10 hours a day while I was here. After my conversation with Suzanne I felt a lot better about the situation I was in. Before after talking to mostly Dan I felt trapped like I was back in the Army again. I believe I still have a fear of being under the control of a large group like the Army. For 8 years after I got out of the Army I would have these dreams about being in and how they got me to sign that contract.
9/29/2009 Tuesday
I got to the ship at 8:30. When I got to the ship Bruce was sitting alone and Dan a guess was in the lab. Bruce and I talked some he got a new mouse and let me brow is old one. Bruce was telling me about a hotel that they are staying in and how close it is. I should get their hotels information.
At 10:00 I finally got the code to build in NetBeans.
I was able to run the GUI section from the laptop. Which Dan and Bruce said that could not be done.
At 15:00 I figured out how to fix the problem with my first PR.
I talked to Bruce about me not coming back next week or being on the project. It came up when we were eating lunch out by the water and he asked me directly. What I told him was that when I agree to come out, I was under the intention of only being here for one week and then going back to my project after that. After lunch was over and we were walking back to the ship, Bruce said that he would have to rat on me, I guess that means telling upper management that I was not permanent. Bruce later asked me if I would be willing to stay on to the project and I told him no. Bruce is a really nice guy and looks stress out from this project though. I have already heard him saying that he will leave this project if he has to stay out here to long.
9/30/2009 Wednesday
I got in at 7:40 am. When I got in nobody was here and I though I was going to be late. Dan came in about 7:55 am and was saying to he work for a while last night and got a lot done.
I found out today that they did not have the code building from scratch. They could only build if they had already build class files in their build directory. I stumbled on to this when I accidentally selected clean instead of compile in Netbeans. I fixed the build by moving the Dialog directory from the “Unwanted-pulled” directory and placing it under src->ilc->beans->LCS->CA. Then after doing this I compiled and there were 4 errors and I corrected them. Now, we have the code building from scratch.
Other things completed are that I have got the java code to run through the Netbeans IDE, to allow the developer to step through the code. This run through is not the same has on the real system because it is missing MaxView. The way that this is working is by stubbing out a lot of the code including the database, DeviceStatus from MaxView, and CMRSNodeAbstract the tree node.
I left at about 6:30 pm and Dan and Bruce were leaving for diner and coming back for some more work. I went and checked in to my hotel right across the tunnel at Renaissance Riverview plaza. The hotel is really nice, but they charge extra for everything. The Internet is pure wireless, no cables, and it cost $10 per day. Parking is $12 per day. I don’t believe they have any kind of breakfast that comes with the room. The room is really nice, I would try for the highest room which over looks the river, and mine is overlooking the city.
10/1/09 Thursday
I got in at 7:40 am exactly again. I think I might be in a routine. Neither Dan nor Bruce was in yet. Here is the list of items one needs to work here.
- steel toe boots
- hard hat
- ear protection
- eye protection
- thumb drive
- laptop with mouse (this will be our main working computer)
- Internet card that uses the cell network or at least a wireless card to use at the hotel
- Backpack to carry everything in every day
- Water bottle
- Sweater or over coat (for working in the bridge, because it gets really code in there)
Dan came in at 8:00 without Bruce. Dan said they worked at the ship until about 23:00 and then went back to the hotel and did some more work. About 10 minutes after Dan got to the ship he got a call that he would have to work on Saturday back home in Pittsfield, MA.
Bruce got in at 8:17
Bruce had another longer than 2 hours talk on the phone. Dan figured out how to talk to the 17… radio, he was very excited. I fixed the refresh problem on some the panels. I did not fix the “Narrow” or “Normal” from not showing up in the text box.
At about 17:00 I started to feel that the ship’s bow was coming out of the water and soon enough we heard that the ship was taking on water. Dan went back to investigate and he called Bruce on the phone to tell us to come to the stern of the ship to watch what was going on. Dan gets really excited about anything that goes on on the ship. So, we started to go back. When I got to the flight deck the first thing I saw was that the scaflling stairs’s ramp was slopped a lot further down than I have ever seen it. Then looking at the deck, I could see that the boat’s stern was dipped down a lot. Dan was standing on the starboard side almost all the way to the back watch over the side. Bruce and I walk over to see what was going on. When we got there we saw that a group of about 25 people were working on pumps, running on and off the ship, and moving things around on the ground. The were also about 7 people behind the dock upper management types on phone walking in circirles. To the left part of the dock was a diver boat with one guy suiting up and another helping with his gear. The diver had different gear than I have ever seen. He was not wearing a wet suit, it look more like a thick flight suit. The diver did not have a tank on his back. He had a hose that the other man was unrathers on the boats deck. Then the man helping handed the dive a flat what looked like a square board and the dive walked to the bow of the boat and jumped in. After about 10 more minutes of watching the commotion, Bruce and I decided to go back to the bridge and work. Dan wanted to stay and watch. When we were about to walk back into the bridge door, a man, I believe was a GD employee told Bruce that they are evacuating the ship. We went inside the bridge and gathered up our things. Dan and Bruce decided not to take their stuff for the night, because they were came back after going to Happy Hour at their hotel. I did pack all my stuff up and then we left the ship. On the way out Dan decided he want to go the way through the Mission Bay (the below deck entrance.) So, we snaked are way though the ship’s stairs until we got to the lowest deck and then Bruce told us we were not to exit out of the Mission Bay exit. Bruce on the whole way down was on the phone talking to what I assume was the man in charge on the outside. So, we snaked our way back up the ship to the flight deck. Then looking at the scafling stairs I notice that they were taking on an increasing steep incline. We walk out onto the scafling and got off the ship. Once off the ship we were talking to some of the people watching who were also evacuated. We found out that the ship started sinking after a load of fuel was loaded on. So, what they believe happened was after the fuel was loaded the ship sunk lower in the water and then started to take on water. From there it did not stop. After a while of talking to people about what was going on Bruce found out that they were not going to be able to come back to the ship and work to night. Also that they believe that the situation was not going to get any better only worse, so if they needed there gear tonight to get back on the ship now before it got to bad. Dan and Bruce started walking back to the ship and I told them that I was going to call it a night and head back to the hotel.
10/02/2009 Friday
On the whole drive to the ship I was wondering what the ship would look like when I got there. Would the nose of the ship be out of the water and the stern under water up to at least the mission bay opening. I thought it would be exciting for the ship to be sunk, but suck a waste of money. Well, as it turned out the ship was back to normal. I got in to the bridge at 7:23 and nobody was here yet. At about 8:00 Bruce came on to the bridge. Then about 20 minutes later Dan came on. Bruce said the ship got to about a 5 degree tilt during the night. Bruce later told me that what happened was that when the fuel was loaded a hatch was open that was above water and then when the fuel came on the hatch was under water. This was in a section of the ship that did not have a lot of expensive gear, but all the gear touch by the water would have to be replaced. This was a hush hush discussion. Dan had to tell Bruce not to say any more from the bridge, because there was a big wig there.
During the day I finished my task on fixing the hidden text for the LOS mode and getting all the data to bring back to San Diego. At the end I was ensuring that all my changes were given to Bruce and Dan and I noticed that some changes I made to one file I for got to give them. This file was change to allow the developer to pass in object in the constructor so that they can be stub out. This is a common procedure for opening up the code for unit testing and other system. When I try to tell Dan that I wanted him to take the code and put it with the current source he said that he did not want it. I did not even say a reason why just walked a way into the lab. I was later explaining to Bruce why this code should be check in to the current source and I don’t think I convince him. He came under the impression that this kind of code should not be place onto the work system. I believe that at least Bruce has not had any object Orientated or test driven development training. I think this was my first disagreement with Bruce and Dan in that case, but Dan did not say around long enough to hear the argument.
I left for the airport at about 13:15. I was working on something that would take a least a full day, so I walk in the lab and told them that I could not complete the task before I left so I was going to pack up and take an early start. Dan shook my hand and said that I did a good job and that for my sake he hopes he does not see me again. Bruce said that he hopes Ismael can take my place. I felt like I should give Ismael a good comment like “Oh Ismael is a good work and can get the job done.” But I felt it was better just to stay quite. I left the ship and started my journey back home.
I am glade I did the trip overall, only if I do not have to go back again. I enjoyed the experience of being on a large navy ship while it was being built. I did not feel that I was really useful in what I did while I was there. I did get some surface GUI interactions fixed, but nothing that did not have a workaround. The one real task that I was given was a drive problem that Dan had to fix. I do not feel that I would want to be on this project. The project is modifying not well written GUI code that I see management will not let us overhal. I can not see really testing this system without the real equipment connected, because the main problems are the connection to the radios. I do not see a need for a developer to go back to the ship. I can not see someone helping out with Dan setting up camp in the lab. Also, a developer with limited knowledge of radios can not do a lot of things without Dan being right by their side. My recomdation would be to give Dan some kind of incentive to keep doing what he is doing and let him go at it. If Dan does run into some GUI or java internal problems he could ask Ismael to look at it. I still do not know what Dan main propose in working those kind of hours and wanting to work from the ship are.
