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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Math Junkie who wrote (57071)	12/6/2001 6:38:37 PM
From: mitch-c	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

OT - Technology indistinguishable from magic Speaking from inside the server room, you're not far wrong. (Networking - it's my day job.) I've been known to refer to "voodoo" and compare our jobs to shamans - we don't know how to make it rain, but we get revered when it does and become scapegoats when it doesn't. My favorite reference, though, is a "Murphy field." There are times I simply walk close to misbehaving equipment - take no action, give no advice - and it suddenly, inexplicably, works. I suppose every good technician or mechanic develops "entropy repellent" properties. (The days when everything I touch breaks further confirm my suspicions - those are when I "ground out" my accumulated "Murphy potential.") More often, though, there are details upon details of choices, timing, software, and settings involved in connecting computers together. Each new one that someone invents stirs the mix, and MAY bring the whole thing to a halt. It's a scary house of cards. At that point, you need to check EVERYTHING, which is time consuming (and more than likely, outside your skill set). I've found fluctuations in AC power (10% is enough) that filter through to the network cable. +/- 12 Volts may not seem like much - but when a network signal depends on a FIVE Volt differential, it's enough. (That one took me four months ... of trying EVERYTHING else first.) Installing a modem and dial-up support in the Finnish edition of Windows was another example. It finally worked - but getting there was painful. Unfortunately, once you demonstrate such unconscious tendencies, they become expected, on demand and on schedule, even though they're more art than science. An honest answer of "I don't know" becomes unacceptable, because others NEED to believe you DO know. Contingency planning becomes neglected as unnecessary, and THAT is the surest way to invite Murphy to bite you in sensitive places. Thus, in summary, the ATTBI scramble. "Compatibility testing? Naah. We don't need that ... It's supposed to work, so it will." Ooops. - Mitch