[ale] Time for this Grey Beard to stir up some stuff

[Steve Litt]

And when the user's stuff breaks, as complex stuff always does, he or
she begins the desperate search for somebody with the knowledge to fix
the entangled monolith. Meanwhile, the Geek uses something simple and
easy to fix.

I've owned and driven cars with carburetors and points. Recent models
reasonably cared for "just worked". For the person not willing to gap
plugs or adjust timing, professional help was fairly inexpensive. 

I'll admit that in today's era of 32 to 60 MPG, computers are a must for
gas mileage and minimal pollution. But they're misused: Almost every
system goes through computers. I remember my father in law's computer
equipped van's alarm went off at nights. I figured "heck, I'll just cut
the power to the alarm". Ummm, no, a microprocessor decided when the
alarm system needed to blare the horn. And don't get me started on speed
sensitive steering and suspension. What could *possibly* go wrong?

SteveT
-- 
Steve Litt 
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques

Dow Hurst via Ale said on Wed, 21 Jul 2021 17:31:17 -0400

>Solomon,
>You have defined the essential difference between a geek and a user.
>Dow
>
>On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 9:21 AM Solomon Peachy via Ale <ale at ale.org>
>wrote:
>
>> On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 08:52:51AM -0400, Jerald Sheets via Ale
>> wrote:  
>> > What exactly is happening to the discipline, and how can we “do
>> > better” as a discipline?  
>>
>> The "solution" is make things crappier.  Seriously.
>>
>> You know as much as you do because you spent decades working on/with
>> stuff that would break if you looked at it sideways, and that's after
>> sacrificing untold quantities guatamelan poultry to get it going to
>> begin with.
>>
>> Today, thanks in part to the efforts of folks like you and I, the
>> base stuff generally JustWorks(tm)... so KidsTheseDays(tm) spend
>> their time working on (and thus, building expertise on) other things.
>>
>> ObAnalogy: Do you miss carburated cars?  Having to check and adjust
>> ignition points?  Hard starts in particularly hot, cold, humid,
>> and/or dry days?  A pinhole leak in half a mile of vacuum hoses
>> causning stumbling under load, the inability to hold idle, or simply
>> not being able to start at all?
>>
>> Or do you prefer to get in the car, turn the key, and expect it to
>> JustWork(tm) every time, regardless of environmental condtitions or
>> where you live, so you can spend your time and energy on something
>> you actually care about?
>>
>>  - Solomon
>> --
>> Solomon Peachy                        pizza at shaftnet dot org
>> (email&xmpp)
>>                                       @pizza:shaftnet dot org
>> (matrix) High Springs, FL                      speachy (freenode)
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