DISH network tip.

[Don Y]

The folks on the phone aren't typically "at liberty" to *waive* the LEGAL TERMS of your contractual agreement.

Should the terms say: "The equipment is ours. Attempting to disassemble, modify or repair it voids the warranty -- except for the remote control (which you can do with as you please; we will replace them indefinitely so make sure you call and request a new one any time yours gets dirty or your kids smash it with a hammer!)"

If you are capable of disassembling/repairing a snap-together/solvent-welded plastic remote with conductive *rubber* buttons, shouldn't you *also* be capable of replacing the power plug when the strain relief fails and it develops an intermittent connection? *Shirley* you'll know how to strip wire insulation, twist the stranded conductors together before

*correctly* orienting them under the screw heads, taping any exposed conductors, etc.! Look at all the money you'll save us -- not having to ship out a new unit for a frayed cord!

And, heck, you've probably ALSO got experience replacing disk drives in computers! So, if you're willing to use one of your *own* disk drives, we should be thrilled to let you disassemble the unit (DVR) and install it! Our stock price will soar now that we've cut out all these (warranty) repair costs!

Imagine them letting you do these things. Perhaps, over time, even ENCOURAGING people to do them -- to keep their warranty costs low. Then, one day, little Timmy gets electrocuted cuz his Dad didn't properly connect a wire. Or, their house burns down cuz a short in the unit (a result of a slipshod repair his Dad made) started a blaze. THEY want to sue the manufacturer for damages. The manufacturer ENCOURAGED these repairs (at the very least, didn't PROHIBIT them!!).

Always have to be careful with what you say to a "company representative".

Mid 80's, I was developing an electronic KWHr meter (the gizmo on the side of your house that tells the power company how much electricity you've used this month). My prototype had the ability to "talk" to a PC -- so I could collect data, control its operation, calibration, etc.

As it was just a prototype (quantity ONE), I cut some corners in the implementation of the interface. Specifically, I did NOT electrically isolate the interface from the power line (that the meter was monitoring!). This was fine as the PC "floats" wrt the AC line.

But, when I plugged in a *printer* to get some hard-copy output, there was an explosive *pop* as something gave up its magic blue smoke.

You can *bet* that when I called the PC manufacturer to complain about my brand new $8,000 PC "going bang", I didn't tell them the details of my unusual "system configuration" that CAUSED the problem! :>

[Muggles]

LOL

yeah, that's for sure. I used to train people to do specific tasks. Many people could learn the tasks, but more often then not I had to alter the material being used to teach them and re-present it to them in a more dumbed down fashion. Everyone was different and it always required me to find out how they learned before they'd understand the tasks they were learning. There was only 1 person who couldn't learn the material no matter how I presented it to him.

LOL not nice!

In school I was always asked to show my work on how I solved a particular problem. I used to love to diagram sentences!

[Don Y]

It depends on whether you are looking for "limited domain" recognition or completely unconstrained recognition. Also, the amount of "smarts" you put into the vocabulary qualifier in each system.

For example, words like almond and salmon are often mispronounced. Regional dialects can make BIG changes in how even simple things are said (some places say "mash", others say "maysh"; the 'r' sound differs from Boston to NYC to damn near everywhere else; "oil" --> "earl", etc.) Some words defy pronunciation rules (Worcester --> wooster, Billerica --> billricka, Berlin --> BURlin or burLIN). Some subcultures alter the pronunciation of words (INsurance vs. inSURance, POlice vs. poLICE).

But, if you *integrate* the application with the speech recognizer, you can get significantly improved performance. E.g., a driver might command "Radio ON" or "Radio OFF" or "CD On" etc. But, you wouldn't expect him to say "Radio own" or "Radio fluff". So, don't consider words other than those you *expect* to encounter when you do the analysis/recognition. If a user genuinely says "Radio own", it's sort of OK for you to MISrecognize that as "Radio on"! :>

[Don Y]

In general, your process should tolerate folks doing things in whatever order suits them -- or the circumstances under which they are operating. You can *choose* to train them to do things in a particular order. But, it is rarely a good idea to *force* that order on them *in* the product.

E.g., when I fill out my income taxes, I don't start at line 1 and proceed through all lines in sequential order. I *rarely* fill in my name and address until the return is complete (why bother filling it in if I might end up having to start over on a fresh form?) So, forcing me to do A then B then C is wasteful and regarded as an unnecessary constraint. What if I can't recall my SSN? Does that mean I can't fill out the form until I've recovered it??

I went to an engineering school. This was almost expected behavior. If you weren't probing to see how things worked (or didn't) you probably should have been an accountant, not an engineer!

Yes. As a kid, it was *stressed* -- you'd often receive a fair portion of the "credit" for an answer if you showed your work and the teacher could see where your mistake crept in. By contrast, if you just write down your "answer", then the teacher is left with a simple go/nogo decision. (If the answer is 37, then 25 is wrong; not 46% wrong!)

[Muggles]

That all makes total sense to me.

[...]

hmmm maybe I should have been an engineer!

[...]

[songbird]

i really don't know what they were thinking other than "Everyone must have an HDMI tv by now, or a iPad, or ..." none of which we have here...

that would be a major flaw for sure, but easily fixed, however, the lack of noticing that to begin with would make me wonder what other holes they missed with their design...

my first PC keyboard was an IBM-PC model M and i wasn't able to wear those keys off so i'm pretty sure they were built properly. i regretted giving it away 15 years later. the keyboard i have now is of similar design. i have no plans on replacing it and i doubt there will be desktop computers made without USB ports. as to how long they'll still be making desktop computers i can't predict...

i've never replaced a computer after 3 years. i usually get about 9 years out of mine. this one is a recycled hand-me-down but since i've replaced the motherboard it is on borrowed time and i'll eventually have to find another.

songbird

[Don Y]

Exactly. I have an uncanny ability to make snap decisions at the sorts of things folks are likely to have taken for granted. As a result, it is not uncommon for me to walk up to someone who THINKS they are just about finished with a project -- and find a glaring hole in their design!

One fellow got mad at me for typing something "unexpected" and causing his system to crash spectacularly: "You're not supposed to DO that!" "Well, then DON'T LET ME!!"

I long ago stopped buying computers. I'm more than happy to fix other folks' discards and use them. Or, "rescue" a server-class machine and use it as a "desktop" workstation. Friends who are "gamers" are great sources of reasonably capable/fast machines that are just "too slow for the latest version of Halo, etc."

I don't use computers as "entertainment systems" but, rather, use them as tools (to write software, manuals and design hardware). As such, they are invariably waiting for *me* to decide what key to press next. So, it's silly to buy The Latest and Greatest so it can do even more while waiting for me to press the next key!

[Don Y]

Naw, you probably wouldn't like the company you'd have to keep! ;-)

[gfretwell]

Ah ... SLT cards (Solid Logic Technology). The chips were made in Fishkill New York and the cards may have been assembled in a number of plants. That was fairly low intensity integration. Those chips were analogous to a TTL chip. (one or 2 gates on a chip depending on complexity)

They kept increasing the density until we got to a CPU on a chip and the whole computer on a card. At that point, they didn't need me.

[gfretwell]

It was simply a room of of script monkeys, following the rules. I almost understand it until I step back and apply a little logic. I did think it was funny that when I said, "OK I have two OTHER bad remotes and I never touched them" that it just sailed through. If people are not allowed to think, you just have to lower yourself to their level. I am sure they are laughing about this in a bar in Bangladesh too, I don't think the people are stupid, only the rules they operate under.

[gfretwell]

Maybe you missed the part where I said the LAST time I called, the guy on the phone TOLD me to try to clean it and explained where to pry to pop it open. They are NOT welded together and it is easy to open one. I understand the guy on the phone was probably a US tech and the guys on the chat line are in the 3d world somewhere. I just did not know they operate under different rules.

It is still silly that if I just SAY I have a bad remote and go through their 4-5 step script, I get a new one, no questions asked but if I say I tried to fix in, "no remote for you". They do not want the old one back so I really could have just given my remote to a neighbor or even sold it on Ebay.

That was very common on the Replay TV units and I never heard of anyone getting in trouble getting support after they put a bigger drive in one. Maybe Sonic Blue was more enlightened. They got sued out of business tho.

You keep ignoring the fact that this is a direct replacement item with no return. They have no way of knowing what I did.

So you are saying "do as I say, not as I do" ;-)

I am not surprised that your machine blew up if you did not float the printer too. Better would have been to isolate the PC from the power line with the right kind of coupling device (balun or whatever) On old computers a DDA coupler was a good way to isolate the serial port. If it was good enough for Ma Bell it was good enough for me.

[gfretwell]

I usually get cast off corporate machines, either as givaways or for I don't use computers as "entertainment systems" but, rather,

You are missing an opportunity if you do not have an old XP machine hooked to your TV. It makes any TV much smarter than a "smart TV". That opens up a whole world of streaming content on the internet. It also gives you a great music player or just a huge monitor if you are doing CAD work. I like it for photo editing. Set the video card to the highest resolution possible.

[Muggles]

Really? I like details and figuring things out that other people say "can't be done". :)

[Don Y]

I have a MythTV box set up in the living room. No network connection. It serves up DVD images for SWMBO's exercise videos and gives me a cheap way of replacing the DVD player (without having to purchase yet another $100+ DVD player designed for direct connection to a TV).

I have two or three 22-27" monitors on each of my workstations. I had considered using a "big TV" but it is not practical: in order to "take in" the entire screen without suffering whiplash (having to turn your head far to the left, or right), you have to set the TV back pretty far. This makes the images smaller (i.e., the increased resolution is lost because your (my) eyes can't resolve those fine details at those distances). It also means I'd have to wear eyeglasses to see/read the screen -- which would mean bifocals (bottom just clear glass) if I wanted to also be able to read the paperwork sitting on my desk guiding my activities.

[gfretwell]

By the mid 70s most of the SLT (S/360) stuff was long gone although there were a few boxes still floating around out there. The newer technologies used the same basic can but there was a lot more on the chip. By the mid 70s logic on the big machines was water cooled and a whole lot of circuitry on the wafer.

[Don Y]

Engineers (and engineering environments) are an odd lot. Youthful, energetic, adventurous engineers often but heads with stodgy old, uninspired engineers (and, many managers are stodgy old engineers who couldn't "remain current" in their field and ended up shuffling into management -- long forgetting what engineering is really like!)

I am very selective about the folks I'll work with and for -- simply because I want to be able to continually explore new ideas and approaches. Some colleagues can be counterproductive when you have such goals. Some employers/clients can be too fixated on "getting it done" and ignore the consequences of HOW it gets done.

More than once (in my early career) I came up with very clever solutions to problems that were dismissed as too "threatening". Instead, being directed to choose a more mundane (less "inspired") approach to the problem -- even if it was more costly, less robust, etc.

In other environments, there was a healthy "friendly competition" to arrive at the BEST solution to a given problem. Who *thought* of the solution wasn't important: everyone enjoyed the challenge of trying to *improve* on it, feeding off each others' contributions.

I've met "old timers" who were visibly envious of the excitement I would express in my work. Or, the technologies that I was exploring. They'd long since traded away that sense of adventure for "job security"... and, now, were reduced to more mundane sorts of work: the equivalent of ditch diggers. (very well paid ditch diggers!)

[Ralph Mowery]

I had been running XP for a long time. Decided to get a computer off ebay that had win 7 pro on it and when I got it, looked at it for about an hour and then upgraded to Win 10 for free. Only paid about $ 150 for a 3.3 ghz machine with 8 gb of memory. It looked almost new and had a win 7 disc with it.

Sofar have not played too much with it, but an old game of Doom 2 that I use just to check out how well a computer will run. It tells me it will not run. Then I have some simple old .exe programs that are only about 100 K and they will not run. I have a TV dongle that the video works but not the audio. Some of the other programs I have run ok on it but they were made sometime after Win 7 came out.

[sms]

Ah, the 2741 terminal. A blazingly fast 134.5 baud interface.

[Don Y]

Well, I wouldn't be too upset if I couldn't get Doom to run :> Far more annoyed that Brief isn't usable on anything made in the last 20+ years (looks to be some timing loops that are hard-coded in the program; run a machine that's 100 times faster and the loops are 100 times *shorter*! :< )

My fear is always with the hardware devices/peripherals. I have:

- digitizing tablets (summasketch A & B size -- serial!)

- motion controllers (spaceball, nuLOOQ)

- pointing devices (gyromouse)

- barcode/RFID scanners

- mag stripe readers (for credit cards)

- MICR readers (for "checks")

- document scanners (A-size w/ADF, B-size, 35mm and "film")

- whiteboard interfaces

- specialty printers (wide format, color postcard, pen plotter, etc.)

- PROM programmer (Unisite -- serial, 3" boot/system floppies) etc. It's annoying to NOT be able to use these simply because their drivers haven't been "ported forward".

"Buy new" -- I don't think so!

I already have to maintain several "legacy" machines (going back to 5" floppies, ISA bus, etc.) for certain bits of kit that are long since unsupported... I'm not keen on having to set aside even *more* machines for those sorts of reasons!

[Don Y]

Allegedly, the bit rate was set to be "the fastest that the mechanism could support"! :>

I had one salvaged from a Trendata terminal. i still have the manuals and typeballs (but gave up the Selectric as it was heavy to cart around with me each time I moved). Also had another specialty "small selectric" that was part of the Edityper "word processor" (70's vintage) -- paper tape based.

And, I still have an ASR33 collecting dust! I should eBay it...