jeff findley wrote:
(Derek Lyons) writes:

Running full tilt in circles looking for something when you don't know
what it is wastes time and energy that could be better spent
elsewhere. If you don't have an ongoing indication of a problem, you
can't fix it, and you probably can't even find it.

I had this problem with one of my old cars. It would occasionally
die, but then come back to life several minutes later. While this was
a Problem (as opposed to a problem or a PROBLEM), you simply couldn't
debug the issue until you could reproduce it on demand.

That's the part that hal keeps missing. If you can't reproduce the
problem, and there are no traces of the problem in your telemetry,
there is simply nothing you can do. The first step on the path of
operational wisdom is realizing this.

If you are going to do long duration missions, you simply must plan
on redundancy and on sometimes living with problems (as opposed to
Problems or PROBLEMS) for months on end. If your ship isn't robust
enough to do this, you have no business venturing beyond LEO.

Eventually, I found that rapping on the computer case with my fist
would cause the running car to stumble and die. A $40 junk yard
computer fixed the problem.

We had a few little 'p' problems on the boat exactly like that, so did
every boat in the Fleet. It's the nature of ongoing operations.

I'm guessing that ISS astronauts feel the same way about the Elektron
oxygen generator that I felt about my 88 Olds Calais. ;-)

I felt that way about some of the equipment I worked on. I learned to
never frown at it lest it's mood detector function.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.