[HN Gopher] A collection of Soviet control rooms
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A collection of Soviet control rooms
Author : irtefa
Score : 173 points
Date : 2022-12-20 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.presentandcorrect.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.presentandcorrect.com)
| yamtaddle wrote:
| Can you even imagine how relaxing it would be to have the same
| interface to your systems, every day, with all the parts in one
| physical location and never moving? Learn it once, then nothing
| changes for years and years, or if it does it's usually adding
| on, not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would
| be nice.
| trap_goes_hot wrote:
| I can see it working for certain industries, but overall we
| need digital systems too. I work in manufacturing (biotech);
| everything we do uses a automated recipe, and there are only a
| handful of systems where we need an operator to directly
| interact with a UI to make stuff happen.
| RedShift1 wrote:
| Use boring software. Software that releases every few months
| instead of weeks or even days. Software that is well documented
| and has an active supportive community.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| Works when you're picking the software. Less so in most
| companies where you spend 75% of your time interacting with
| half-broken, constantly-changing, barely-interoperable
| programs and web-services that someone else chose.
| robofanatic wrote:
| > not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would
| be nice.
|
| I've met some people who miss those phones with "bottom 40%",
| that is pre-iphone era phones with hard coded plastic buttons.
|
| https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/want-new-iphone-blame-steve-j...
| neilv wrote:
| Especially if the interface was designed for high performance
| (unlike most UX today).
|
| One of my favorite was when I spent years starting to learn
| photojournalism on the side: the mechanics of using a camera is
| only a small part of it (it's mostly about understanding and
| conveying a story), but even at my student/amateur level, the
| muscle memory with pro DSLR and lenses was crazy-effective.
|
| I even got a shot that happened only in an instant, unexpected,
| perceived in my peripheral vision, and the right camera body (I
| had 2 hanging from shoulders) was suddenly in my hands,
| viewfinder to my eye, aimed, zoomed in with my 70-200 focal
| length ring, focused (I might've even used the wheel to select
| which AF focus point, before half-pressing the shutter button),
| and snapped-- without consciously intending to do any of those
| things, so it all seemed to be instantaneous, and I got the
| shot of something as it was falling.
|
| Had I only had a touchscreen phone/camera or a bottom-end DSLR
| (on which some brands intentionally cripple the UI, to avoid
| cannibalizing pro gear sales), I would've looked very dumb as I
| didn't get the shot.
| smm11 wrote:
| f8 and be there.
| Acutulus wrote:
| I'm in full agreement with you about the tactility benefits
| with a physical camera versus a smartphone.
|
| I'm in a phase of life where I'm not sure what I'm supposed
| to be doing or even what I'm very good at. But I do have a
| camera and I can write passable amounts of code, so I've been
| preparing a website to host my work while I strongarm friends
| and family into taking pictures with me. Most of them have a
| nice phone with a good camera and so we often end up talking
| about what the benefits are of a dedicated set of camera
| hardware versus using a phone's camera. I like those
| discussions because it makes me think critically about my
| camera and why I'm using it.
|
| The physical inputs and muscle-memory laden experience is
| what I've kept relying on as justification and it's nice to
| hear I'm not the only one. For those of us who have used
| guns, it almost feels like holding a rifle. The entire
| process is subconscious and the more I use it the faster I
| become, as well as the more finely-tuned I can set up the
| camera during that subconscious movement. It equips me to
| image things that, if constrained by time or scene stability,
| I straight up would not be able to do with a phone camera.
|
| There's also the social benefit that comes with it. I've
| found that when I'm using my camera and rapidly fiddling with
| controls and settings, people around me get the sense that I
| am a professional (I'm not) who knows what he is doing (I
| don't). "Everyone" has a phone so those "every" are common to
| see holding up a flat slab to a scene but dedicated camera
| users are increasingly rare. My tools and my physical control
| over them grants me this silly air of authority. And honestly
| that authority presents me with fresh opportunities for
| impromptu shots; just recently I was at a live music event
| and started wandering into places and standing on things to
| get the angles I wanted. Nobody said a word to me, nor did I
| think twice about doing it. We all kind of understood, "that
| guy has a camera and he's using it well. I suppose we should
| let him work". Kind of interesting.
| waynesonfire wrote:
| whatever would the bored 10x'er do! But of course, invent the
| LCD touchscreen. Now, excuse me while I throw up.
| turtledragonfly wrote:
| Agreed. Typing this with Vim (:
| closeparen wrote:
| Boring is best where the risk of nuclear meltdown is concerned,
| but I would expect operating the same system every day for
| years to be pretty boring vs. engineering changes to systems.
| Wistar wrote:
| I used to be an editor in an online digital video suite. All
| real time and all dedicated controls. GVG Kadenza, Abekas and
| Accom digital disk recorders, D1 and digi-beta, GVG 141 edit
| controller. Rarely even looked at the controls, could adjust
| two or more parameters simultaneously--super important,
| especially when the parameters affected each other as they were
| adjusted. Muscle memory ruled--like playing a piano. Plus the
| physical motion, flying through the settings, looked impressive
| to the clients and, at those rates which could reach several
| hundred dollars an hour, that performance, the show, was
| important.
| rthnbgrredf wrote:
| Learn vi/vim/nvim. Interface hasn't changed much since 1976
| (first version of vi).
| bmitc wrote:
| I think a modal editor is somewhat at odds with an HMI
| consisting of dedicated, physical controls.
| bmitc wrote:
| I worked at a fusion company and would have loved to be involved
| in the control room design. People generally aren't interested in
| designing rooms like this. People are happy with just big
| monitors at desks likely displaying hard to interact with
| interfaces that are ever changing. One engineer even wanted to
| install physical barriers to keep people away from stations.
| jamestimmins wrote:
| I keep wondering if there's a market to build things in this
| style. Either smart-home/Raspberry Pi controls or something
| similar.
| rpmw wrote:
| Reminds me of the Homer Simpson's control room, #5 especially so
| Aardwolf wrote:
| I agree it's really aesthetic (I love the circle arrangements
| with indicator lights occurring in several in them, I assume it's
| something reactor related). Are such control rooms still made
| today, or is it all digital screens?
| sizzle wrote:
| Remind me of Homer Simpson working at the Springfield nuclear
| site
| folmar wrote:
| Digital screens, but they mimic the mimics shown here.
| tabtab wrote:
| What's the sun-shaped thing in photo #2?
| themanmaran wrote:
| I think it's a graphical representation of the RBMK control
| rods [1].
|
| It's also in the last two images. These are replaceable control
| rods that were laid out in a circular pattern in the RBMK class
| reactors.
|
| 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK
| wkat4242 wrote:
| It's not nearly enough rods for an RBMK. Those were huge. And
| they had nothing outside the circle. Probably another type of
| nuclear facility. Maybe a medical isotope reactor?
|
| The second last photo looks like an RBMK or at least
| something that size.
| vilhelm_s wrote:
| If you click on the picture it says it's the Kola nuclear
| power plant, which is a VVER-440 reactor. Searching for
| other VVER pictures, e.g.[1], confirms that they match.
|
| [1] http://www.nucleartourist.com/areas/vver440a.htm
| SoftTalker wrote:
| They had channel-type reactors before the RBMK (essentially
| earlier generations of the design) that were smaller. Could
| be what these are.
| pugworthy wrote:
| Status of nuclear control rods I imagine?
| hydrogen7800 wrote:
| There are a few pictures with this arrangement. My guess is
| these are nuclear reactor control rooms, and those representthe
| control rod arrays.
| mdcds wrote:
| #2 links to atomic-energy.ru
|
| So it's probably nuclear plant control console and I'm guessing
| nuclear fuel rods are represented by a dot inside the "sun" and
| rods themselves are suspended in some sort of a circular
| enclosure
| dale_glass wrote:
| This one? https://www.atomic-energy.ru/news/2012/05/21/33562
|
| That's Kol'skaia AES,
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Nuclear_Power_Plant
|
| This is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VVER
| smm11 wrote:
| My mind sees a very small green control panel with a Soviet
| knock-off iPhone beneath it.
| elzbardico wrote:
| The biggest problem with the Soviet Union was Brezhnev not being
| able to keep with his economic reforms after 1974. Seeing Russia
| nowadays it is sometimes hard to believe that once they were the
| second economy in the world, before being removed from this post
| by Japan. Had they enacted Chinese style reforms they could have
| avoided the whole disastrous 90s
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| Even with market reforms, I think they would have fallen victim
| to the addiction to energy revenues that's poisoned so many
| energy exporting economies. Breeds corruption, croneyism, and
| discourages investment in other industries.
|
| Maybe Norway is the only exception.
| xattt wrote:
| The most visually appealing part is the use of colours that you
| wouldn't expect on an industrial control panel.
|
| The first picture shows a shade of blue, as well as red and
| yellow symbols for whatever they might mean.
|
| Also, approximately fifteen images down shows a switch control
| panel for a two-platform, triple-track Moscow Metro station
| (Polezhaevskaia) that was intended to have a branch line, but
| mothballed due to future ridership projections.
| chemeng wrote:
| Always felt bad when replacing these old control rooms, there
| is a certain beauty and elegance to their design that is
| missing in modern HMIs.
|
| This sort of color coding is common in industrial settings and
| definitely was on panelboards of the era. It would be really
| interesting if the color coding seen here in any way aligns
| with ANSI/ASME A13.1.
| akoster wrote:
| Great find! Reminds me of this 2020 post:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23334339
|
| https://designyoutrust.com/2018/01/vintage-beauty-soviet-con...
| pugworthy wrote:
| There is a Star Trek bridge vibe to those circular control rooms.
|
| I wonder if there's a tradeoff point where if you have less than
| some number of people, the circular design is more optimal to
| enable communications between people and access to data.
|
| At some point with more people (and more data) it becomes
| untenable to keep the circular design and you go more linear,
| such as the NASA mission control room.
| kjellsbells wrote:
| Id love to know what Edward Tufte thinks of this sort of design.
| I get very strong small-multiples vibes from seeing all those
| needle-style meters, and I assume, given the stakes, that the
| Soviets applied some psychology and human information design
| principles to them. Or maybe they just hacked it together, who
| knows.
| canadianfella wrote:
| alexellisuk wrote:
| Who spotted the GitHub commit graph towards the end of the page?
| Looks like they were busy.
| Humphrey wrote:
| We still have control rooms like this (I think in use) in
| Tasmania Australia. They sometimes have open days for our Hydro
| Power Plants, and they are some of the most interesting tours
| around. The one I visited was like using a time machine to travel
| back to the age of Art Deco. Obviously some more modern control
| systems have been added, but the Art Deco vibe is still there!
| Arrath wrote:
| I was lucky enough to tour a lot of hydroelectric dams around
| the western US as a child, thanks to frequent roadtrips and a
| dad who could talk his way into nearly any place, and a more
| permissive security culture[1]. As you say, a lot of the
| control rooms are beautiful in a certain functional way.
|
| [1]Another thing ruined by 9/11.
| bloomingeek wrote:
| I've operated in boiler room offices at large plants for almost
| 40 years, the mimic panel is a very valuable tool. With miles of
| piping carrying water and steam for various reasons, the panels
| help keep it all straight in your mind.
|
| These panels are in hospitals, chemical plants, data centers,
| Navy ships and subs and many other places similar to where I
| work. I can't imagine what it feels like to work in a nuke
| facility. I do work with some men who worked on subs, their
| training was astounding.
| nonrandomstring wrote:
| The recreation of the control room in HBO's Chernobyl drama was
| impressive. Presumably it was fairly accurate/authentic - but
| also it's simplicity and explicit use during shots in the drama
| as a filmic device to explain the quite technically complex
| plot was amazing. From the dials, meters and warning lights
| made it all come alive.
| sizzle wrote:
| Working with some SCADA control unit in a factory right now.
| It's all digital and keeps changing configuration. Wish there
| were physical buttons.
| zhrvoj wrote:
| I was maintaining instrumentation is similar control rooms. The
| man behind panel. Petrochemical industry, recorders,
| indicators, alarms, tranducers, pneum. controllers. Mix of
| pneumatic and electronic technology (thermionic valves mostly).
| US technology from 50's/60's and it looked the same like this.
| Remember Taylor 700T chopper stabilized thermocouple
| transducer, Honeywell, Fisher instrumentation...
| i_am_proteus wrote:
| After working with mimic panels for years on steam plants, I
| got exposed to an older, pre-mimic-panel design.
|
| I appreciated the mimic panel's beauty for the first time on
| that day.
| allanrbo wrote:
| Was just watching the Andor Star Wars series last week. Probably
| the artists took some inspiration from the soviet control rooms.
| MonkeyMalarky wrote:
| I have to say, the control room of the ship crashed on Kenari
| was stunning.
| sharkjacobs wrote:
| good zoom backgrounds
| wkat4242 wrote:
| I wonder why the operators are always wearing lab coats and
| butcher's hats. Are they afraid they'll get hair in the switches?
| tjohns wrote:
| Nuclear power plant. Workers would wear those uniforms while on
| site so that they don't track any stray radioactive particles
| home on their street clothes.
| papito wrote:
| Probably because nuclear plant workers were thought of as lab
| workers, and those wore these uniforms as well. Not sure if it
| was also a precaution against hair and threads falling into
| critical equipment.
| rumdonut wrote:
| I'm not sure what these rooms control, but it's possible the
| control room is simply part of a greater facility that has a
| mandate for this. Which makes sense, since there's something to
| control here that may be more sensitive / dangerous than the
| control room itself.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| A lot of them are nuclear plants. The ones with the big
| circular display panels on the wall are: that's the reactor
| core.
|
| They require lab/clean room type of dress so that it's easier
| to tell if you have any foreign material on your clothes.
| alfiedotwtf wrote:
| Soviet control rooms and CRAY-1 aesthetics is what's missing in
| my life
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(page generated 2022-12-20 23:00 UTC)