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2021-07-10

Everything Changes or Re: Obsolete in the IT crossfire

tags: nosimpleanswer mind

Solene writes:

I'm a bit lost in this crossfire. Should a resistance organize against this?

gemini://perso.pw/blog//articles/obsolete-feeling-in-the-crossfire.gmi

local copy

And yes, this quote is totally out of context, so I suggest to read her post in full. I'll wait, no problem.

Back? Ok then.

I had my first contact with computing devices around 1986 or so. IBM AT and XT machines being all the rage. As a student of physics I was lucky enough to attend an outstanding introduction to computer science (2 semesters). It taught me enough fundamentals to proceed, learn, make a lot of mistakes along the way, and actually be able to do all my dayjobs even to this day. Big thanks to all involved folks!

So, yes I am a member of this "old style" group. I want to understand to a certain degree, what my (computer) system is doing.

From the more mechanical world

So you might ask "What's wrong with $newfangled-item?" Well. I want to be "in control". Now I am a scientist by education, and I do acknowlege that this is not achievable in an absolute sense. Examples:

You see where this is heading?

I do have some expertise with regards to bicycles. But I cannot expect that same level of understanding from anyone else. I do not have that level of expertise regarding cars, especially contemporary ones, or most of the technology that we use routinely.

Now what? Give up and forget all the old fashioned stuff and move on? Well, yes and no. Giving up the expertise on something will not be easy, and I argue, it would not be desirable. There still exists this old fashioned stuff. And I still use ist. Because I can! And why should I give up on something that I understand? Especially if it provides all I need from it?

To add to this bicyle example:

From the World of Nines

There is one more thing I think is worth mentioning. The world of nines, like 99.9999 percent availability. While it sure is nice to be online as often as I wish, I have maybe already lost the ability to organize my life without it. There is some interesting read with respect to grid power at LowTechMagazine:

For example, a calculation for an off-the-grid house in Spain shows that decreasing the reliability from 99.75% to 99.00% produces a 60% cost reduction, ...

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/12/keeping-some-of-the-lights-on-redefining-energy-security.html

It is also my firm believe that making things more unreliable would be good. If we don't do this intentionally, it will happen later with more impact and less understanding. Maybe the preppers have a point here.

Conclusions

Still reading? That's very kind of you, thanks!

Cheers,

Erich

--

[a] A handmade frame from Schubert & Scheffzyk; a box of Campagnolo components --- finest mechanical parts I ever had in my hands! Absolutely marvelous! Plus rims and spokes and cables and what not. There was only one part from Shimano: a lever to handle the dynamo :-) This particular bicycle lasted from 1994 to 2021. Rust had gnawed on it too much, thanks to using salt on the streets in winter (another questionable habit btw). So it went to the nirvana of metal scrape. And I still feel somewhat guilty about that.

[b] In my first dayjob I met K. He was a few years away from retirement. And he unknowingly taught me a valuable lesson. There was the day when we had to roll out a dozen or so new servers. K. would print out a dozen sheets with his checklist, add the details of every machine by hand and go. He'd be done in a week at most. --- At the time I never understood, why K. did not create a tool to automate this tedious task. The answer I have today is this: I would have spend that week to create a tool and finished the servers in an hour on Friday afternoon. K. did the same thing manually and finished before Friday high noon. Today I can acknowledge that K. probably was faster by doing it the old fashioned way. My deepest respect!

[c] There is a paragraph or two in "The Shockwave Rider" about this. The "old and fogey" are able to surf on the shock-wave of $newfangled-items and even enjoy the ride!

[d] Quote from "The Twelve Networking Truths" (RFC 1925)

Some things in life can never be fully appreciated nor understood unless experienced firsthand.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1925

[e] Even if we manage to tap the source of nuclear fusion (not fission!), we will heat the planet, because ultimately all of this generous energy is converted to heat.

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