Techy twerp

[Blaketon]

I have just sent the following in to Radio 4. It's brief and self explanatory. Did anyone else hear it? I confess I had to look up Tesla.

Radio 4 was on in my kitchen between 6 & 7am this morning. At around 6.20, the subject of Internet banking came up and what sounded like a slightly smug “Techy” type was rubbishing bank I.T. systems and comparing them to a 1960 Morris Minor, with heated seats. I use Internet banking and most of the time it does what I want. I also own a Morris Minor and that too does what I want, though I would have no need for heated seats. Apparently the likes of Google, Amazon (I expressed a disparaging opinion, concerning both, which our moderators might not wish me to repeat here) and Apple, all have I.T. systems akin to a Tesla (And Internet banking will soon be telling people that they have been buying too much junk food). My answer, to techy type, is come back in fifty years, with your Tesla still in working order (Chances are that in five or so years, once the gadgets start to fail, it will be written off, making a mockery out of it’s so called environmental credentials). Further, if someone needs to be told that they are buying too much junk food or they need a Google App, to boil the kettle, it doesn’t say much for them!!

[alanworland]

The world is getting too 'clever' for it's own good.

Alan

[Mark Wilson]

I look after building projects for a living. Recent!y I had to fly to Belfast for completion of a small project, a component of which was a very simple heating and ventilation installation. The controls were in a very impressive wall cabinet with an iPad style touchpad screen. My flight back was delayed because the specialist controls engineer couldn't get it to work. It transpired that the system was using the internet to link the screen and the control module, which are two inches apart and could have been replaced by an old fashioned thermostat and a short length of cable. No remote control or othér internet functionality was involved.

It's this sort of overcomplexity which results in rust free cars becoming uneconomic to repair and getting scrapped at not much more than ten years.

If I had the cash I'd quite like a Tesla, though......

Mark

[TDV102]

As an IT engineer, my golden rule is always multiple redundancy. Never rely on a single point of failure. You should always plan for failure! Sadly senior management always begrudge the few extra pennies. And then blame the staff on the front line when the failure we warned them about bites them on their managerial 'back bumpers'.

[olderisbetter]

Having just looked at a VW Beetle made in 2004 that has so many faults it is now not worth fixing i can agree the Tesle type cars will not be around in 50 years, Tech is needed but so many times it can fail and cost more to fix than it saved on energy, and the carbon foot print of replacing and recycling makes old tech seem better, I was offered a device to turn my lights on and off while i am out a few weeks ago, the salesman seemed stunned when i explained i turn them on and off using a switch when i need to.

[Mark Wilson]

I dream of the days of on/off swiches! One of the buildings I am responsible for has a micrprocessor controlled lighting system, which are compulsory for energy saving in large buildings. When it needed resetting a specialist technician had to make a 300 mile round trip by car, at a cost of over £600.

[amgrave]

Mark.
That saving in energy has well and truly gone out the window with the specialist technician and then some
His travelling alone has wiped out the saving in one hit, madness.

[Blaketon]

Someone told me that some modern cars have to be plugged in to release the bonnet . Mind you, if you can lift it, what can you do?

[SteveClem]

I like simple. What is this 'IT' thing?

[Childnurse]

I am not a techy type or engineer of any description (my username here will give you a clue) but even my profession isn't immune from IT interference. For example, electronic patient records take much longer to manage (though I admit are less bulky!), but my concern is around their integrity and longevity. As legal documents they need to last a very long time. Digital storage of such senistive patient data is in its infancy and there is plenty of evidence around to suggest that such systems are vulnerable to attack.

I am not sure that doing something using a tech 'solution' just because we can is necessarily a good thing. Apparently, we're all going to be replaced by robots eventually. Well, good luck to the 'droid that can pass a feeding tube on a screaming toddler. Poor old Florence will be doing slow rolls in her grave.

[firedrake1942]

My sister is a nurse / midwife / paedatric type person and from what I hear, Florence is not turning slowly at all, she is spinning like a newly restored dynamo. I am a retired plod and love the new Met Commissioner tho I do , her predecessor was right when he said 'you cannot throw laptops at mobs....' You get what the others voted for tho !

[Childnurse]

My sister is a nurse / midwife / paedatric type person and from what I hear, Florence is not turning slowly at all, she is spinning like a newly restored dynamo. I am a retired plod and love the new Met Commissioner tho I do , her predecessor was right when he said 'you cannot throw laptops at mobs....' You get what the others voted for tho !

I sometimes think this forum needs a 'Like' button!

[Blaketon]

I have gained an impression, that some of the Techy Twerps would (40 years ago, before there were computers) have been the village idiots, who would never have found work. Recently our computer packed up and the engineer had to fit a new hard drive. He is 60 if he is a day and has grown with computers. I mentioned to him, how a lot of it seems rather immature and he explained that a lot of Microsoft personnel are ex computer game playing youngsters. They don't tend to stay long and they dismiss anything pre existing. I understand that Windows 10 has given a lot of trouble and this would tend to bear out what he said. Of the ten people, who have been involved with my online business, only two were able to produce a functioning website (Even though they were running IT businesses), so that's a ratio of 8:2 "Village idiots". The sad thing is that the bad ones, by weight of numbers, tarnish the reputation of the capable ones. I sometimes think that the way computer science is taught may be at fault and that an apprenticeship based system might be better in many cases.

I remarked this morning, that if driverless cars ever catch on, if the computers I have seen were driving, they'ed all be banned within a few days, for things like dangerous driving or due care.