The Vent and Rant Thread

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Sometimes I think people writing software aren't taken seriously, despite the fact that the world would burn if all software engineers went on strike for a week or so.

I hear you. But try being the technical writer for that same project. EVERYONE thinks they're a writer. And that you can bang out 10 pages on something you haven't ever seen before in a couple of days.

Even worse? The number of people who are sure they could have written the book on it. The only pleasure there is watching those who felt that way find out the hard way just how much WORK is involved in writing said book.

(For the right to rant about this, I submit my resume: more than 3 dozen computer books written and published by major publishers.)

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I hear you. But try being the technical writer for that same project. EVERYONE thinks they're a writer. And that you can bang out 10 pages on something you haven't ever seen before in a couple of days.

I can't even count the times that someone said:

- "Can you just add..."
- "It's only a small change..."
- "This should be easy to do in half an hour..."

NO. We're dealing with multi-threaded programs (mostly embedded), sometimes running 5-10 tasks all at once, all communicating to one another to see if something can start or has to stop (within fractions of a milisecond) or has an error.

In the end, in a multi-threaded environment, the only thing that can follow what is going on is the machine itself. It's almost impossible to reason about it. You can't test all possible combinations of all threads starting, stopping, all possible states, including errors. If you have 5 threads, and all have 6 states (starting, stopping, running, error, idle, resetting, for example), you have 6 to the power of 5 possible combinations or 7,776. Good luck trying to force all 37 errors each thread can have... one by one... during ALL of the 7,776 combinations.... see you in a few millennia, or so.

You have to be 100% SURE that ALL of your conditions, sets, and resets and error tests are in EXACTLY the right spot and that you didn't forget anything anywhere.

It's not 'easy' to "just add something", or "change something", or "do it in half an hour."

It's only easy when you don't have to do it yourself.

[PeterT]

I remember back in the day, our mainframe hardware support (IBM or AMDAHL) would always say the best test for whether or not they had fixed an error would be if we could IPL our regular environment.

[Katsunami]

IPL; Initial Program Load? See if it reboots correctly?

[badgoodDeb]

irrelevant comment insertion: "always mount a test monkey"

Resume your conversation. Yeah, programming.

[Rumpelteazer]

Ah, the joys of living in the city centre in between various restaurants and cafés: mice.

In summer especially I hear them in between the ceilings and walls. But now there was a very cheeky one that I kept hearing in my room. Despite having a (cheap) ultra sonic squeaky thing, that worked wonders last year, I kept hearing rustling underneath my reading chair.

Tonight I found the culprits: a forgotten packet of crackers and the paper from a muffin. Normally I'm diligent with making sure those types of things end up in the bin, but these ended up on the floor in a spot I didn't see them (yes, if I vacuum more often I would have noticed them sooner, but I just can't be arsed to lug the vacuum cleaner up two stairs regularly).

Only some crumbs and small bits of paper are now left, I'll vacuum tomorrow to get rid of those. I'm also now looking for a better ultra sonic squeaky thing. I just can't deal with traps and I'd rather not poison them because there is a chance they end up decomposing in between my walls or ceiling.

[Blossom]

You need a cat. My mom who does not like cats. She is a dog person lives in an old house they had issues till I told her get a cat. Oddly two weeks later someone gave her a cat and a stray cat showed up a few days later. No more mice.

We had a mouse show up one in our townhouse in Tennessee. My two furbabies are indoor only. They just didn't know what to think. My youngest Sweetpea must had a hunter in her somewhere. She caught it and brought it to me as a present. The little thing was stunned or it was playing dead. Hubby scoop it up and took it down the street to the park and released it.

We used humane traps with peanut butter after that. Once the little critter is caught you can take him and release him. The trap is made that you never touch them.

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[Rumpelteazer]

We have a cat, but Lexie is getting old and doesn't come up often. When she does the mouse does stay away from the room itself for a while.

I've read mice don't like peppermint and eucalyptus. Tomorrow I'll get the oil of both to see which works best. I do have a peppermint plant so for tonight I've put that underneath my chair.

Apparently they can get used to the sqeaky thing, so I'm going to switch it off for a while if the oils work.

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[Blossom]

Aww my kitties seldom leave my side. They follow me even to the bathroom. lol

Kitty may find stairs a bit much if she has arthritis. You may have to carry her.

My oldest is 14 she is just starting to have issues. I'm going to get her a little staircase like they make for small dogs so she can climb on the window easier which is her favorite place to sun. She has gone from 13 pounds to 8 in last two years. Tummy issues which I now know is GERD. So finally have found a dry food she can eat and her appetite is returning.

I've never use the sonic method because I didn't trust them not to mess with the cats or me.

My youngest is 9 or 10. Not sure. She was a stray. She is still her sassy self.



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[Rumpelteazer]

It's not arthritis, I think. The last couple of summers she choose my room to summer in. But she's on a bunch of medicines and it isn't practical for her to be in my room most of the day. And if I bring her upstairs with me she doesn't want to stay, it has to be her own idea.

The sonic thing did work last year when there was a nest in between the ceiling, and in the past we've had good experiences with them.

It's a good incentive to give my room a good clear up and a deep clean.

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[Blossom]

Aww poor kitty. I hope she feels better. I'm suppose to try Maisy on Pepcid to help her tummy issues. I don't know how I am going to get her to swallow a pill everyday. When I had to give her one for fleas many years ago due to traveling and hotels. It took many tries and two of us. She screamed bloody murder the whole time.

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[Rumpelteazer]

Lexie gets stressed out when you give her a pill. With our other cats we could put it in a bit of paté or a cheese block (the soft ones kids like), but not with Lexie.

We crush her pills (drug stores and pharmacies sell crushers cheap) and then put it in a bit of yoghurt, liquid cat treat, cat milk or custard.

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[ApK]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

It's only easy when you don't have to do it yourself.

More precisely, it's only easy when you are not responsible for handling the side effects, regressions and down stream data corruptions that may be eventually be discovered...maybe during an audit.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

IPL; Initial Program Load? See if it reboots correctly?

Correct. Assuming there isn't an issue with SYSRES...
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledg..._systemIPL.htm
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Aww poor kitty. I hope she feels better. I'm suppose to try Maisy on Pepcid to help her tummy issues. I don't know how I am going to get her to swallow a pill everyday. When I had to give her one for fleas many years ago due to traveling and hotels. It took many tries and two of us. She screamed bloody murder the whole time.

The last time I had to do that, my SO wound up in the emergency room for several hours as a consequence of the cat's reaction to being pilled. She got a tetanus shot and betadyne rince for the hand, which was SOP.

The vet who prescribed the pills said "I don't know why they do that!" about the tetanus shot. "There are lots of nasty staph infections you can get from cat bites, but not tetanus..." But she complied when I said "Can we get the medication in liquid form that can be squirted down the cat's throat instead of a pill we must force her to swallow?"
______
Dennis