Posts by Will Godfrey 6511 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Sep 2007
... unless you are doing complex real-time audio synthesis. On the small project I work with, the real nitty-gritty is above my 'pay grade', but fortunately there are a couple of other devs who know what they are doing, so I leave that to them and concentrate on the more mundane UI stuff.
Reminds me of a professional technical writer I saw on one occasion. He rocked up with his stuff and sat down at the kit he was supposed to write a manual for, and the first thing he did was put a large notice on the bench. I can't remember the exact wording but it was something like :
"Do not offer help or suggestions unless I ask. Only answer that specific question."
Set up a system where the equipment is only capable of sending simple wireless canary messages, and always sends these on a regular basis - even if it's just "All OK".
Have a fairly local key holder who can go to sort out minor issues, and call backup if it's more serious. If the messages stop coming assume the worst and send a full swat team. If it really needs real-time control then there simply must be warm bodies on site.
Yes, I know that will cut the investors profits (by some minimal fraction).
My email program doesn't apply any limits. The only deciding factor is the size of the SSD. It also a has a reasonable search feature, so what do I need an archive for. It has programmable expiry and an effective spam filter so I can selectively hold emails. The computer is 10 years old, and I transferred everything from the previous one. I've never had a problem.
P.S.
These are proper emails, not multi-part shit pretending to be emails.
I've used them frequently, sometimes to replace failed obsolete small control systems, and on one occasion a group of them to behave like a sort of RS485 distributed PLC. This didn't have to be fast, but it had to be very reliable. It ran for 8 years only stopping for two days each Christmas - oh and the only reason it stopped was because the factory was bought out and almost immediately shut down.
I was a field service engineer working for a small but very efficient firm. My working day officially started at 8:30 and the office was just under an hour away. If there was an urgent job already waiting I'd go straight there. Sometimes it was to release another engineer who'd picked it up on a night call-out. Other times, if doing software development I'd stay at home. I probably ended up going into the office about twice a week - mostly to pick up supplies. Every 2 months there was a general meeting including a free breakfast at a local hostelry to keep everyone up-to-date.
As I said to the boss, I'll stop work when it's no longer fun - I worked 5 years beyond official retirement age. I still drop in to the office if I'm in the area. It's nice to stay in touch with people who became friends.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
