Had my first ever migraine today. Well, when I say migraine it wasn’t one of those monstrous blindingly agonizing bastards that unfortunate people get struck down with but I did have the band of pain running from temple to temple across my eyes and while it was relatively mild I had a taste of what a migraine can be. Only a taste mind.
The funny thing is, it was a repetitive strain injury. I got an RSI headache.
This job I’ve been doing for what seems like months but is really only for days last week and three this week looks like lasting many more weeks, which is quite depressing as, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s the dullest. Pick up thing, look at thing, put thing back. 160 things in a tray, three trays in a box, 32 boxes on a pallet, a little over one pallet processed a day, seven pallets to go.
What we’re looking for is bad soldering. If you rip open your computer (not right now) and look at the larger things that are stuck on the circuit board, particularly those which are cylindrical, you’ll see they’re attached by two or more metal prongs. Where these prongs meet the cylinder there’s a blob of solder. People like me make sure that solder is there. Aren’t we great?
So I’m picking these things up and holding them close enough to check the solder. This involves focusing on the tray, then pulling into macro mode for the solder, and back to the tray again. And this happens, let’s see now… 15,360 things per pallet with four of us working… I reckon about 4000 times a day. After the second day I noticed it was taking a little while for my depth of field to recover. Today I started getting the pain.
So I went home a little early (the pain was only there while I was doing the close-ups so cyling wasn’t a problem) and called the agency to let them know that I might not be there tomorrow. To be honest I’ll probably be fine but a day of rest would probably be a good idea. Plus I do have some things I need to do…
Here’s a solution that really works. Every hour take a break and look out the window for at least minute, focusing on a distant object. No window? Call Brussels and tell them about it. No, seriously, you need to adjust your eyes’ focus regularly. I have noticed over the years that just about every geophysicist colleague wears glasses, brought on by the fact that they spend hours a day staring at squiggly lines. The simplest remedy is to take a minute and stare out the window. I know, management thinks that’s jerking off in the workplace but we all know about management. . . . (well, I do, I used to be one)
Trust me, I was doing that. The advantage of being a smoker is you have an inbuilt system for getting up and going to the smoking room for five minutes, and the more tedious the job the more often it tends to happen.
And to be honest, the boss is cool about all this. She knows what an arse of a job it is. We can pretty much do what we want break-wise. It’s all being billed to the supplier of the things so there’s no rushrushrush.
migraine? Nah, it’s all in your head, mate.
any more podcasts planned? I keep hitting my gofetch button but zip from Pete Radio. I enjoyed the last one (the only one?). you asked for feedback – so there you are.
Hey, Dad! Great site (focalplane) – I shall have a longer, leisurely read later, when time permits.
erm, sorry to disturb the flow of your comments thread…:-/
Podcast: Yeah, it’s a little overdue. I might get one done this weekend. Glad you’re liking it, Mr Leaf!
Thing about readjusting your focal length is a good plan but if it isn’t working, it’s cos it’s not just about eyestrain, is it? And that kind of repetitive behavior is a good precursor to a migraine, iirc. So hey, not much comfort there, sorry, but I do sympathise.
Tell the buggers to get a proper test system. There must be a dozen different ways to check how good a solder joint is – all of them more reliable than just looking at the thing.
That’s no migraine. It’s eye-strain. Which can be a trigger, but so can lots of things …
It sounds like it’s the zooms doing the damage, so see if you can figure out a way of doing this which doesn’t involve focussing on the tray — if nothing else, trying to figure out different ways of doing a mindnumbingly tedious task gives your head something to chew on.
I came up with a whole series of different ways to run the voucher-feeder on the bank computers. Including the optimal no-strain technique.
Rog: Your so right, but the economics of these sorts of jobs mean it’s usually cheaper to get some temps in for a few weeks that actually buy a piece of equipment. I’ve done numberous jobs like this, that should be automated but it’s not worth it in the long term. In this case it’ll cost too much to return the whole consignment back to the other side of the world so the supplier is paying for us to sort out the bads first. It’s doubtful the exercise will every be repeated again.
It was eyestrain and I know it wasn’t a real migrain or anything, but I’ve also had a bit of a minor, low-level flu this last couple of days too, which might have had something to do with it. Back again next week so I will look into some new way of avoiding the focus issue. Maybe lining them all up on the desk for inspection before putting them all back in the tray again.