Re:When Interfaces Kill: What Happened to John Denver (1999)
by WalterBright on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @01:51PM
(#35631145)
This kind of thing is where experience makes the difference. You're not going to learn these kinds of things in college.
Re:When Interfaces Kill: What Happened to John Denver (1999)
by xenophonf on Thursday April 20, 2023 @08:30AM
(#35638950)
My college engineering curriculum dedicated an entire class to the topic of failure modes, edge cases, testing, SOPs, etc., and it was something professors in multiple departments took pains to teach us (and warn us about)—even in the humanities and arts. Hell, even just putting units on everything was something my teachers drilled into us since grade school. That education has informed every aspect of my professional practice.
Now that I am old, an important part of what I do is teaching others what I've learned, because if experience has taught me anything, it's that people don't just magically figure things out. Formal education and mentorship are as vital to my younger colleagues' success as they were to mine.
Re:When Interfaces Kill: What Happened to John Denver (1999)
by WalterBright on Thursday April 20, 2023 @02:20PM
(#35644030)
Sounds like a good class.
What's the value of a unit-less fuel gauge? Why not a warning light or two per tank and / or a calibrated fuel gauge?
If you want to move the fuel hoses out of the cabin (good plan!) move the fuel hoses out of the cabin but leave the interface in place and make it electrical; put the mechanical switch in the difficult to find place and update the SOP to include "if the remote fuel switch fails use the mechanical switch in this difficult to reach location"
Engineering around edge cases is hard. Which is just simply saying "engineering is hard". Doing things without addressing edge cases is just craft.