5 Dec
2011
5 Dec
'11
4:05 a.m.
I am sure many on the list will painfully recognise this scenario:
http://wrttn.in/04af1a
"I had naively hoped digitization would solve our problems forever. My
manager was reading a dense book about it that I picked up out of
curiosity. It had seemed persuasive.
But, the old-fashioned phone and email tree worked a bit better. The
old research division is still mostly intact, and their physical library
exists. ... The paper documents tauntingly sport IDs announcing that
they had been digitized by Big Digitization Corp at some point in the
past. Who knows what happened to that archive."
--Toby
5 Dec
5 Dec
4:39 a.m.
You're right. I painfully recognise this scenario. It's really no fun.
But this happens even in the "best" companies...
--
Wolfgang Eichberger - OE5EWL
Operating System Collector
Blog: 5ewl.blogspot.com
Homepage: www.eichberger.org
2011/12/5 Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au>
I am sure many on the list will painfully recognise
this scenario:
http://wrttn.in/04af1a
"I had naively hoped digitization would solve our problems forever. My
manager was reading a dense book about it that I picked up out of
curiosity. It had seemed persuasive.
But, the old-fashioned phone and email tree worked a bit better. The old
research division is still mostly intact, and their physical library
exists. ... The paper documents tauntingly sport IDs announcing that they
had been digitized by Big Digitization Corp at some point in the past. Who
knows what happened to that archive."
--Toby
8:36 a.m.
On Dec 5, 2011, at 4:05 AM, Toby Thain wrote:
I am sure many on the list will painfully recognise
this scenario:
http://wrttn.in/04af1a
Some of us remember it profitably. :-) We had a steel mill as a client a year or two ago
that needed to move from a Multibus system for which they could no longer easily obtain
replacement parts. We went with a cPCI system running a Core2 from National Instruments
(I wasn't on this project, but they seemed pretty pleased with it aside from an odd
race condition bug in an Ethernet driver which would bring the whole things to a
screeching halt, which is a bad thing for a steel mill stand controller).
They had some documentation, but we had to reverse engineer some of it as well... it ended
up being a very long process, but we produced several physical binders worth of
information that we made sure they stashed next to the racks so they didn't get lost.
Interestingly enough, our machines were pressed into service before we had completely
finished testing them because one of the Multibus machines died in a rather permanent way
while we were testing its replacement. It worked, though!
- Dave
6:47 p.m.
On 06/12/11 12:36 AM, David Riley wrote:
On Dec 5, 2011, at 4:05 AM, Toby Thain wrote:
a year or two ago that needed to move from a Multibus system for which
they could no longer easily obtain replacement parts. We went with a
cPCI system running a Core2 from National Instruments (I wasn't on this
project, but they seemed pretty pleased with it aside from an odd race
condition bug in an Ethernet driver which would bring the whole things
to a screeching halt, which is a bad thing for a steel mill stand
controller).
Did they know about comparable bugs in the older system? Can you
describe the older system a bit more? What did it run? (I have three
80386 Multibus systems, Australian Labtam brand).
--T
I am sure many on the list will painfully
recognise this scenario:
http://wrttn.in/04af1a
Some of us remember it profitably. :-) We had a steel mill as a
client
They had some documentation, but we had to reverse engineer some of
it
as well... it ended up being a very long process, but we produced
several physical binders worth of information that we made sure they
stashed next to the racks so they didn't get lost.
Interestingly enough, our machines were pressed into service before
we
had completely finished testing them because one of the Multibus
machines died in a rather permanent way while we were testing its
replacement. It worked, though!
- Dave
6 Dec
6 Dec
8:29 a.m.
On Dec 5, 2011, at 6:47 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
Did they know about comparable bugs in the older
system? Can you describe the older system a bit more? What did it run? (I have three 80386
Multibus systems, Australian Labtam brand).
I could describe it more if I were on the project... all I know is that it was an older
Multibus system that was just powerful enough to handle the load. The NI system was
completely new and unrelated to the old system (including the OS), so I don't think it
would be a matter of "comparable bugs". Our team ended up finally tracing the
problem down enough that NI could find it and fix it.
- Dave
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fraveydank＠gmail.com -
oe5ewl＠gmail.com -
toby＠telegraphics.com.au