Re:NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on t...
by ravel-bar-foo on Thursday June 24, 2021 @09:16PM
(#27626052)
I discovered this in my PhD. I spent 3 months trying to automate a process (running a finite element model atop very fragile software platform). I couldn't figure out how to automate my way around the errors the system would give me, every run was unpredictable in duration due to the errors, and I ended up spending a lot of time holding the system's hand.
Eventually gave up on the automation and resolved to spend a few weeks clicking every 15 minutes to complete the simulations. It was very hard to stay motivated, but I got two papers out of it.
The disadvantage is now my CV says I'm an expert at an FEM framework which I never want anything to do with ever again.
Re:NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on t...
by xwolfi on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:23AM
(#27627130)
Normally if your eyes and hands are synchronized to do an operation, it can be automated.
Sometimes problems come from trying to automate at the lowest level, when maybe screenshotting a vm and sending a click at a specific position if the pixel colors change to the error condition could be done a bit faster.
Re:NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on t...
by rebuilder on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:44AM
(#27627227)
The real engineers spend weeks analyzing the pros and cons of a manual, one-time fix vs. building an automated solution.
And the even realer ones will spend years coming up with a universal solution to figuring out which is more optimal.
Re:NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on t...
by DangitBobby on Thursday June 24, 2021 @11:05PM
(#27626723)
At least automating it can be kind of fun and educational.
I love this "spend hours figuring out the API" then giving up.
Maybe it's just me but I have noticed that a lot (and it mean a lot) of devs will overestimate greatly on anything manual they need to do that they don't like. And spend hours if not days trying to automate it. Which is fine if it's gonna be needed again soon or over and over. But really, what is so bad in spending literally 5 minutes doing the above manually with a Jira filter and bulk edit? And by extension sometimes there's not even a bulk edit and you need to do something by clicking the same 5 steps 50 times to acgieve something. Again 5 minutes of actual work. Just put on a nice fast song from whatever music genre you happen to love and do it. Done.
Is it just me?