Author: c_good

Cattle or Pets? Hardware Maybe, Social Media Probably.

I sometimes see references to the question of “Cattle or Pets” when it comes to computer hardware. I first saw this in discussions about how server farms were administrated.

Hardware

“Pets” was the older practice: each server had its own purpose, some were unique, administrators often gave the servers names. They were cared for like pets, meaning they were treated with care and allowed to die of old age. So, there might be several different types and vintages of servers in the same location.

“Cattle” was the new hot idea. Cows don’t get named, their own personal quirks aren’t catered to. Cows don’t get babied, especially when a cow has clearly gone lame or outlived its purpose. It gets sold or put down and a new cow is brought in.* There’s a schedule and it’s better to clean out everything old and replace with new, on a schedule.

The Cattle mentality depends on a lot of assumptions. One of those assumptions is that whatever is brought in on the schedule will be at least as capable and reliable as the thing it replaces. Another assumption is computer hardware will be relatively cheap compared to the labor to administer that hardware. If labor is cheap than hardware, then it makes sense to keep whatever is still working and train people on how to work with different systems of different types.

I am not certain the “Cattle” viewpoint is as effiicient as it was portrayed. At least, it’s not as efficient when it comes to hardware and software that a business or household might depend on. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” is a rule most large software companies no longer follow, and some hardware manufacturers ignore it too.

Social Media

I think social media is in a mirror position. The social media companies want their users to see them as “Pets”: very individual, irreplaceable, dearly loved Pets.

Yet, the arc of most social media platforms seems to be the same. There’s an initial growth phase where the social media company is trying to find something which differentiates it. Growing users is more important than how the users are grown. There’s an intermediate phase, where the social media company starts trying to make some money off of their platform. If they don’t charge users a subscription fee, then it becomes trickier. Usually ads and the information harvesting for targeted ads are somewhere in the mix.

It’s also during this intermediate phase, if the social media company gets there, that “regular” users start showing up. After that there’s a long slow managed decline. Enough “regular” users are showing up that some of the quirkier things get a lot more scrutiny. Maybe the quirkier things get some legal and regulatory scrutiny too. Meanwhile, advertisers are paying more, but also expecting more responsiveness to their complaints. And the social media company will start copying rivals’ ideas.

At which point, a new social media company or two will show up with their own quirky thing which differentiates them. The die hard fans of the old social media company aren’t as loyal. Why be loyal when the old platform is no longer what it once was? The newer members of the old social media company are there because it’s useful. They will leave when it’s not; the large established social media companies all have similar features.

Conclusion: It’s All Backwards

So, social media companies are the “Cattle,” even though they are trying desperately not to be. And the hardware and programs which work and work well are the “Pets,” even though hardware and software companies desperately want them to be seen as Cattle which get replaced regularly and provide a revenue stream regularly.

The world runs on irony.

*Never mind that in the age-old tradition of the world running on irony, most of the people applying “Cattle” to various server management practices had never been on commercial ranches themselves. There are ways in which cattle are all treated the same, but there are also ways in which cattle have their own definite personalities. I’ve yet to meet a person who works with cows professionally who doesn’t acknowledge this, but I don’t think the computer programmers thought to ask.

Time For Me To Get To Work

I write in this blog about different aspects of technology and different ways of looking at how to use technology. I post links to other sites, about technology, which interest me.

Honestly, I could have done that in a diary and skipped the whole process of setting up a website. Using pencil and paper to record thoughts is pretty old technology. It’s definitely stood the test of time.

I started a blog, which has multiple steps, to learn more about how to set up websites in the current year. I’ve decided it’s time to remember that and get back to work.

There’s lots of sources, I think it’s more important to pick one and get started. So I’m going to try Khan Academy. I took a look at their basic courses on websites the other day. It’s under the heading “Computer Programming,” which I didn’t expect. They advocate learning JS before learning HTML and CSS. I didn’t expect that. I’ll start there, and see how it goes.

Technology Won’t Get Someone To A Goal They Haven’t Defined

I created this blog to be about how a person can make their technology work for them. Personally, I like technology, gadgets, and tools.

However, I often talk to friends who want help with some piece of technology. “I just want it to work” is a common statement. In my opinion, they are working for their technology more than it is working for them.

Some of the biggest difficulties I’ve seen people have with technology is they haven’t decided what they’re aiming for. They don’t know how their steps today will get them to a place they want to be in the future.

A Simple Example

As a very simple example, one restaurant I frequent has a loyalty program. The loyalty program requires installing an app on a smartphone. I sympathize with why the restaurant wants their customers to install an app. There’s customer profiles, direct to customer messages, tracking trend with regular customers, detailed data on what dishes are doing well. But why would I, the customer, want to download the app?

There are some rewards for the loyalty program, discounts on dishes or next visit or something-or-other. I read through the apps list of what information it tracks, and honestly it was more than I wanted to share with a restaurant app.

Data harvesting aside, each app on my smartphone and each program on my computer is a place for trouble to start. It’s a place for a conflict with other programs or with the operating system to arise. It’s something to potentially eat up my computer’s or smartphone’s processor cycles or memory space.

Is there anything so important about a restaurant loyalty app that it’s worth all that hassle? No, not for me.

The Existence of Something Does Not Obligate Me To Buy It.

Too often when my friends ask me about helping them with some piece of technology, they never stopped to wonder why they got it in the first place. Yes, there might have been an end goal of more money, less worry, more time, a task being easier to accomplish. This piece of technology was presented to them, and there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of thought about “Will this thing in front of me get me to the goals I want to achieve?”

Many times, there wasn’t a goal set at all. Someone told them it was a good idea or a recommended idea for something-or-other, and now there’s this piece of technology that they are working for.

Cutting Edge Technology, Back In The Day: Slide Rules

I’ve been busy enough the last couple of weeks I’m off my writing schedule. I try to put up one post a week with an interesting technology link.

Today, I’m writing about technology which was revolutionary and cutting edge, but is now seen as obsolete. And that is slide rules.

Slide rules are based on logarithmic scales. They turn multiplication and division into addition and subtraction.

That was the simplest slide rule scales, there were other scales on slide rules too, for different mathematical functions.

The Oughtred Society is a group devoted to slide rules. If you’re interested in slide rules, that site is a good place to start.

(Nope, I still haven’t looked up correct citation rules for online links in an online post.)

Perspective: The Last 20% Which Is 50% of the Entire Project, Part II — Ongoing Projects

Last week I wrote about the last 20% of a project which usually takes 50% or more of a project.

What if it’s a situation like this blog? This blog doesn’t have a set end date or a defined end goal. What then?

My experience is it will be entirely too easy to get caught up in details. I’ve thought about it, read about it, listened to podcasts about it. After all that, I’ve come to the conclusion an ongoing project can’t be treated as an ongoing project. It has to be treated as a succession of a number of set goals with set timelines.

The purpose of the goals and timelines isn’t to create an impossible amount of work, and to then beat myself or someone else over the head with failure to meet that impossible standard. Rather, the purpose of the goals and timelines is to have a strategic plan. This is the only way I can see to avoid being caught in endless rounds of minutiae that is the end details of any project.

Useful Links: Rugged Radios, description of uses of GMRS v BB

I was looking for places to buy portable handheld radios the other day, and stumbled across Rugged Radios.

In addition to their product pages, they have a lot of good information on their site. Here are some useful links I’ve been reading through:

Perspective: The Last 20% Which Is 50% of the Entire Project, Part I

How Most Projects Start and Progress

Almost every project has a final portion which feels — not planned out or calculated, but rough ballpark estimate — like “about” 20% of the project. It’s the small details at the end.

A big idea was conceived, prototypes were tried, a plan was made. The plan was followed, somewhat. There were mistakes and do-overs. Unexpected obstacles came up and were dealt with. The end is in sight! Most of what remains is small fiddly stuff.

That Last Fiddly 20%

That small fiddly stuff, in most projects, solo and group, hobby and professional, “feels” like “about” 20% of the project. That’s the same impression and discussion I hear from almost everyone else I’ve talked to about this phenomena. It’s not even a quarter of the project, not even 25%. It’s probably only 20%.

And that 20% — the quilting and binding on a quilt, the editing and spell checking and format checking and fact checking on a document, the sanding and finishing and possibly staining on woodwork, the documentation and environmental testing and agency approvals on an electronic device, and a million other examples — will actually take about 50% of the time and energy of the entire project.

That last detailed portion will take about 50% because it is so detailed. Some parts can be automated, a bit. I can use spellcheck on a document, but I shouldn’t rely on it, I’ll still need to check again. There are powered sanders for wood, but I see most woodworkers use touch or sight for one last check. I know of no ways to automate weaving in yarn ends at the end of a crochet project.

I almost wrote about changing formatting in a document, but that would take a whole post in itself because Microsoft Word is so ubiquitous and so unhelpful. It’s unhelpful when I’ve tried to change document-wide formatting after a document is done. It’s unhelpful when I’m trying to tell it whether a list should be treated as a formal ordered or unordered list. Fighting with overly helpful word processors often takes an amazing amount of time.

Avoiding This (Maybe)

It’s better to budget the time for the end of the project, at the start. Saying “oh, it’s probably about 20% of the project” and then finding out it’s 50% is stressful for everyone involved.

Why Is This “Part I?”

Avoiding this is difficult enough when the project has a definite end in sight.

But when it’s a blog, like this, which is ongoing? Does the tendency to mentally assign 20% to details still occur? Even for someone like me, who tends to be more focused and tolerant of the fiddly details for most? I’m finding that yes, it does. I’ll write about that more in Part II.

Done for You: Stitch Kitty from Wild Ginger Software

This is an interesting concept, and I hope they do well.

There are several small independent companies making and selling sewing patterns. But a sewing pattern takes more than just templates to use when cutting fabric. There are sewing instructions, sewing diagrams or photos, lists of recommended fabrics, recommended notions, instructions on assembly order, instructions on seam allowances and whether seam allowances are included on the pattern pieces, needle and thread recommendations, stitch setting recommendations, and more.

Stitch Kitty is a (new? relatively new?) program from Wild Ginger software, which helps with all of that. It’s called a “professional guide sheet generator.” I have not heard this term before, not in sewing, and not in any other craft where patterns are sold.

I haven’t bought Stitch Kitty myself and I haven’t tried it. I’ve used sewing patterns in the past, but I’ve never tried to create one myself. I think their sample sheets look nice. I read through the software description. It sounds like Wind Ginger worked very hard to think of every variation a customer creating a sewing pattern might want, but I don’t have enough experience to judge.

I’m back where I started: this is a really interesting concept. I hope they do well.

Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast

Computers and Software

I’ve had computers where I could hit six key combinations in quick succession. And then I could watch it all be executed smoothly — and correctly! — over the next twenty seconds.

I’ve also had computers where I had to watch the monitor after every single key press. I wouldn’t like the results if I got too far ahead of what the computer was doing,

Hardware devices with lots of buttons tend to fall into the second category: get too far ahead and it will take me longer than if I’d gone the device’s speed to start with. Most remotely hosted services seems to fall into this second category too. And most smart phones are in this second category.

Business Practices

Then there are other mental processes where rushing makes things slower in the end. The classic phrase “I’m writing you a long letter because I didn’t have time to write a short one” is an example of this. There are legions of corporate memos sent in haste, legal documents filed in haste, emails addressed and sent in haste, where time-consuming mistakes were made which probably could have been avoided if there had been less haste.

Hand Crafts

My last set of examples today is hands-on processes like sewing, welding, woodworking, and dozens of other hand crafts. “Measure twice, cut once” is a common statement in almost all of them for the same reasons I wrote about above. Measuring twice takes much less time than buying more fabric or wood or metal or whatever else I was using.

Why Am I Writing This?

Mostly, I write this blog for myself, but I write about the problems I see people have with technology. I write about the recurring themes I hear in what people say and in what they ask me for help with. I write this blog for everyone who says “I just want it to work.” Part of making it work, and this goes for all types of its, is knowing the speed of the technology and respecting that. Fixing something broken is almost always slower than slowing down enough to not mess up in the first place.

Useful Sites: Cyclone and Dust Collection Research, courtesy of Bill Pentz

The site: Cyclone and Dust Collection Research. The home page says it was created in 2000 and was last updated in August 2022. That’s an impressive amount of dedication.

I found this through a link from The Wood Database.

Yes, he is advocating for products that he helped design. I’m fine with that, profit is part of what makes the world go round.

Obviously, it’s about dust collection. I’ve only just started reading through the site, but I already found this bit of interesting information: it’s dangerous for a person to vent their dust collection system inside their shop. Very fine dust is what causes a lot of the physical damage and venting a dust collector system inside the shop lets particles too fine for dust filter continue to circulate in the shop. Much better is venting the dust collection system outside.

Mr. Pentz’s biography is quite interesting. At the end he says that his health has finally required him to retire and slow down. I hope his health gets better.