8 Jun
1998
8 Jun
'98
11:18 a.m.
<Related to this, there's a myth that design is difficult, but
design is easy, it's a process. The initial creative thought is hard.
<faultfinding/repair can be done by almost anybody. Well, having done
<both, I personally find them equally difficult. Perhaps that means I'm
<no good at it, but...
Troubleshooting is a very complex process that I've never been able to
teach to anyone but those that naturally could. For me troubleshooting
is something that I find natural and easy. I carry that to design as
just a different problem to solve (cheaper, faster, better; pick any two).
But working with field circus underscored that thinking is not something
you can mandate.
Allison
8 Jun
8 Jun
11:49 a.m.
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12:16 p.m.
On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
The point is, in the UK at least, designers tend to
get much better pay,
and are more highly regarded than repairmen. This I think is wrong, but this
list is not the place for that rant.
Most anyone can look at something after its been designed and say "Oh, how
obvious". But only so many people have the creative ability to initiate
the design. Hence, the discrepancy.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2
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[Last web page update: 05/30/98]
12:21 p.m.
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10 Jun
10 Jun
2:29 p.m.
Sam Ismail wrote:
On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
The English language is such a fun thing and confusing in many ways,
but since it's the only language I know well enough to to more than
order a beer, I try to play with it.
The word "fix" for instance.
(1) Fix the car.
(2) Fix the cat.
(3) Fix the painting.
To some people, the phrase "fix the computer" carries meaning along
the lines of taking a car to a mechanic.
To others, it's more like taking a tomcat to the veterinarian.
To a few, it's like finishing a work of art and protecting it from
further change, as a painter applies a fixative to a picture.
There are other meanings of the word. Designers fix computers one
way (3), servoids fix them another way (1), Microsoft fixes them
another (2).
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
The point is, in the UK at least, designers tend
to get much better pay,
and are more highly regarded than repairmen. This I think is wrong, but this
list is not the place for that rant.
Most anyone can look at something after its been designed and say "Oh, how
obvious". But only so many people have the creative ability to initiate
the design. Hence, the discrepancy. 
8 Jun
8 Jun
12:03 p.m.
New subject: Clueless Field Service
Troubleshooting is a very complex process that
I've never been able to
teach to anyone but those that naturally could. For me troubleshooting
is something that I find natural and easy. I carry that to design as
just a different problem to solve (cheaper, faster, better; pick any two).
But working with field circus underscored that thinking is not something
you can mandate.
Allison
Actually I agree with you. I put the following problem in front of some
techs at TRW who did dos PC's as part of some in-house training.
I wrote a program that did a cold boot. I attached it to the
ANSI.SYS driver. I gave this PC to them to fix.
I watched them swap memory, power supply, motherboard, hard disk controller
and such for an hour.
After they got tired... I closed the floppy door an a write protected
MS-DOS 3.3 floppy and it booted.
They never once looked at a software problem. I guess doing mini systems
taught me something.
Bill
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bill/Carolyn Pechter | 17 Meredith Drive | Tinton Falls, New Jersey 07724 |
| 908-389-3592 | Save computing history, give an old geek old hardware. |
| pechter(a)shell.monmouth.com |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9 Jun
9 Jun
8:49 a.m.
New subject: Clueless Field Service
On Mon, 8 Jun 1998, Bill/Carolyn Pechter wrote:
I wrote a program that did a cold boot. I attached
it to the
ANSI.SYS driver. I gave this PC to them to fix.
With the older head park routines which simply announced themselves and
then parked the heads and halted the machine rather than giving the user
the option to press a key to resume, it was quite amusing to put headpark
in autoexec.bat and see if someone thought of booting from floppy :)
Regards
Pete
9694
days inactive
9696
days old
6 comments
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participants (6)
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allisonp＠world.std.com -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
dastar＠wco.com -
gram＠cnct.com -
pechter＠shell.monmouth.com -
pjoules＠enterprise.net