Sammy, you involed with this?

[flipper35]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/a-lost-maxis-sim-game-has-been-discovered-by-an-ars-reader-uploaded-for-all/

Oil refineries are really, really complicated. That’s why Chevron wanted Maxis to make them a game like SimCity, to teach the employees at their oil refinery in Richmond, California how it all worked.

To be clear, they didn’t want a game that was supposed to accurately train people how to run an oil refinery or replace an education in chemical engineering. That would’ve been incredibly dangerous. What they wanted instead was something that showed you how the dynamics of the refinery worked, how all the different pieces invisibly fit together, like SimCity did for cities.

[stevej37]

[sammyg2]

First I've heard of it,

but back bout 20 years ago I taught a class called the fundamentals of refining for the non-technical person to newbies and non-operator types. Developed straight out of the book by the same name, which I had a copy of and no one else I knew did. I kept it locked up.

3 day course, all technical in nature, it could have been called a bit ..dry.
Some video games and animation would have been nice to keep the eyes open in the audience.

BTW chevron is considered the leader in the refining industry, whatever they do becomes a trend in like 5 days.

I used to have a book printed by chevron that was a compilation of every single bit on information a person could ever need in the mechanical field.
I bet they paid their training department $$$ millions to develop that book.
Only problem was, a good part of it was obsolete by the time I got my hands on it.
Fer instance it had procedures for aligning machines to each other using rim and face method, which was replaced in the early 80's by double-reverse alignment, which was replaced in the 90s with lasers.

It was still a good training tool and reference manual until some rat bastage walked off with it.
I used to have lots of technical books. Good ones, and my name was written inside the cover of every one of em. I loved my books.

People would ask to borrow one of my books and I'd always say leave a credit card. They'd laugh until I told em I wasn't joking.

Nowadays you can find almost everything in the interwebs, except the good old stuff that we never taught the whippersnappers. Secrets.
Lost art stuff like metal-stitching and running in packing.

I remember this one time ......

[sammyg2]

This was the book, one of the first of hundreds of technical resource types I collected in dern near 40 odd years.
I got it in the early 80s, can' remember from where. Sure didn't pay for it, money was tight back then.

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

This was the book, one of the first of hundreds of technical resource types I collected in dern near 40 odd years.
I got it in the early 80s, can' remember from where. Sure didn't pay for it, money was tight back then.

Looks as interesting to read as this one.....

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

This was the book, one of the first of hundreds of technical resource types I collected in dern near 40 odd years.
I got it in the early 80s, can' remember from where. Sure didn't pay for it, money was tight back then.

I'm waiting fer the movies

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by craigster59

Looks as interesting to read as this one.....

I'm going to tell Lubemaster on you! I've got him on speed dial!

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

3 day course, all technical in nature, it could have been called a bit ..dry.

I wish I could have taken that course.

What amazed me from what I picked up asking unrelated questions during refinery audits and beers after work with refinery peeps was the amount of heat and pressure employed.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by craigster59

Looks as interesting to read as this one.....

I got to meet Mike through proctoring one of his exams over in Pittsburgh. Miss him here.

[sammyg2]

Some people loved that course, others associated it with fire and brimstone.

The ones who really got into it seemed to end up more successful.
Prolly not because of the course, but because of their thirst for knowledge.

[flipper35]

I imagine you are correct. Those that were truly interested were probably well versed in most of the business.

I read the article an first thing I thought was if you were involved. I can imagine making things interactive would help considerably for some of the topics.

[sammyg2]

I've worked in that Richmond refinery but it was a really long time ago. Decades.

Besides I'm and ole fart and rarely leave the house anymore
I'll leave that new-fangled computer stuff to the kids.

[flipper35]

Well that was developed in 1992. I should say, mostly developed.

[sammyg2]

Interesting.
I may hafta make some phone calls

[sammyg2]

Talked to a buddy who retired from the chevron El Segundo refinery, he wasn't familiar with that 'puter based training.

Maybe it was a test-deal that was isolated to the Richmond refinery, maybe it didn't catch on, maybe he just missed out on it. More digging.

Seems like a pretty darn good idea tho as long as the $$$$s don't get too big.