micromux

Second Class First Class Passenger

While airports continue to augment security in the wake of September 11th, it has been disconcerting to watch the venerable first class service become so maligned and generally misrepresented. In fact for a brief period it was downright embarrassing to even sit in first class.

Fortunately, things are getting better. On a recent trip they even served food, so it is now possible to eat something when you’re in the midst of the 8 hour trip that use to take 4 hours. The provisions were fairly good with one connecting flight providing real turkey sandwiches and another a chicken dinner saut�ed in a
swanky garlic sauce.

One thing that was still missing, however, and will probably remain missing for quite some time, was a knife. Actually it was not absent entirely, a plastic knife was furnished to provide minimal cutting capability. For those familiar with first class they will immediately recognize something is awry. Generally a first class meal includes real stainless steel flatware wrapped in a cloth napkin. Today you still get the cloth napkin, and both the fork and the spoon are at least 18% chromium, but the perilous knife is made from a paltry plastic.

Is a stainless steel dinner knife truly that dangerous? Could I not inflict the same amount of injury using the fork? What about a spoon? In fact I imagine it might even be possible to subdue victims using the plastic meal tray or suffocate an unsuspecting stewardess using my seat cushion.

These kinds of security precautions are ineffective, it will always be possible for a terrorist to find an implement of terror. The problem is clearly psychological, these kinds of people have already decided to cause harm and are merely waiting for the moment to happen.

The problem is how these kinds of people think, so the solution is to discover what a passenger is thinking before letting them on the plane. Since mind reading is an inexact science, the solution is to ask some probing questions.

Things like “did you pack your own luggage” or “has anyone else carried your bags” are frivolous nonsense, it is too easy to anticipate this kind of question. We need to be asking more probing questions, such as “what is the nature of your trip?”. A terrorist is not going to have a good answer to this kind of question, since they are not planning to really make a trip anyway.

Some people might argue this infringes on our personal freedoms. On the other hand, one might also argue you know more about a hitchhiker than any passenger on a Boeing 747. Why do you think one of the first things you do is talk to a neighbor on each flight? You’re probing those around you to determine if the environment is safe for you. Should the airline not have the same privilege? After all, these are the companies that own the planes. If I had a plane I wouldn’t want to let anyone onboard without first finding out where they’re from and where they’re going.

By all means, let’s keep our skies friendly; but plastic knives are pure silliness. There are mechanisms of weaponry everywhere, even the human body can be used to perform deadly acts. The real solution is to prevent those who intend to commit harm from boarding aircraft.

Planned Obsolence

A few months ago a Sony MiniDisc player ceased functioning for me. This component was designed for a home stereo system, and was therefore easy to disassemble and look inside.

In fact, there was very little to look at. This device was the paradigm of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) with a consortium of circuit boards and silicon wafers managing all aspects of function. Internally most of the space was devoted to nothingness, a transformer handled the power supply and in the very middle was a chassis about the size of a small walkman. The diminutive nature of the electrical and mechanical components made it unlikely that anyone could ever fix this device.

After a few hours of tinkering, it was clearly a hopeless endeavor and shortly thereafter the machine ended up in a nearby dumpster.

More recently my turntable lost a signal in the left channel. At first I thought it might just be my needle or perhaps the cartridge, but experimentation revealed that something was failing intermittently internally.

Unlike the MiniDisc player, which was only 2 years old, the Philips turntable was built in Holland more than 30 year ago. It seemed rather unlikely that it would be possible to fix this device, but I proceeded to my workbench and took a look inside. Much to my relief, the circuit boards were all quite legible, and in fact it was possible to trace everything using a digital multimeter.
From some simple tests it became quite clear why the turntable had stopped working. With a little bit of solder and some ingenuity my record collection has never sounded better.

While the microchip has revolutionized consumer electronics, it has also made it impractical to maintain legacy equipment. When a modern component fails, it is quite likely that all the internal pieces except for the power supply will need to be replaced. With the lifetime of most consumer-grade equipment hovering at around 5 years, within 5-7 years of obsolesce it will almost be impossible to find a device to play your legacy digital media.

Traditionally, only failed music formats have become virtually extinct. An example would be the 8-Track as there are very few devices today capable of playing an 8-Track tape. Successful formats like the LP or the microcassette tape are still readily available and if you have media compatible with these devices it is likely you can hear them if you choose.

When Sony stops manufacturing the MiniDisc, the demise of this format will be absolute within a relatively short period of time. It will be nearly impossible to maintain legacy MiniDisc hardware, and consumers will be be coerced to a new format.

There is something ephemeral about the inherent obsolecense of modern digital media. Changes in consumer electronics are measured in months and not years or even decades. This is partly a result of a society moving at the speed of change, but we accelerate this by producing hardware that must be replaced when it is broken.

Thinking about your next system upgrade is meaningless because it is quite likely you will be replacing it in 3-5 years anyway. This is when your newfangled stereo component is relegated to the trashpile with the other VLSI brethren, and you are forced to revisit your media collection for the next upgrade.

For now, I think I will keep enjoying my record collection.

Certification Envy

At a recent job fair, one booth seemed to be geared towards avenues of higher learning. The booth coordinator was a very animated course instructor, and at first glance one might even imagine this lady was capable of teaching a class on operating systems design or perhaps simple circuit theory.

After a few minutes of discourse, she made it quite clear that her mission was to ensure the permeation of technology certification to every pore of applied computer science. When questioned if a computer science degree might be sufficient to obtain work in a computer-related field, her immediate answer was that while college degrees are a good first step this is not the kind of thing employers are looking for.

If you take some time to obtain certification you will most likely get that next job.

This kind of learning demonstrates an ability to memorize a few key aspects of a limited set of software technologies for a discrete period of time. This is analogous to the difference between an electrician and an electrical engineer. While the electrician has a unique set of skills that allows them to manage the wiring of our homes and businesses, the electrical engineer has the capacity to design our power infrastructures.

The IT professional who seeks certification with a particular technology is not the same professional who designs a next generation Mach Kernel. I wonder how many members of the Microsoft kernel team are actually certified by Microsoft? For that matter, is Bill Gates an MCSP or does Paul Allen wonder if he should get on the latest MCSE track?

Even more importantly, the distinction between electrical engineer and electrician can be imagined as Euclid to his inquisitive student. Electricians have been taught to perform a certain series of steps to accomplish a given task. The engineer has learned to be self-taught in matters of applied electronic engineering, and is therefore able to take an understanding of electrical circuits and build new systems. While there are some electricians that are capable of doing this, the general rule is that electrical engineers are most capable.

This is because the electrical engineer is familiar with a wide variety of designs while the electrician might only understand a specific implementation of electronic design.
So should you hire a CNE to manage your Novell network? Perhaps, but it is rather unlikely that your network will remain stagnate therefore it is beneficial to also hire someone with a traditional computer science background. A CNE will have an understanding of how to perform various tasks related specifically to Netware, but that may not translate into HP/UX, IRIX, Solaris, Linux or even NT.

For software development, it is perhaps even more crucial to hire programmers with at least some computer science background. A developer already familiar with object oriented design principals will be able to take those skills and apply them to Smalltalk, Java, Perl or even Python. For that matter, learning new programming principals such as Design By Contract (DBC) will come relatively easily to anyone familiar with compiler design.

Every job requires a different set of skills, and these cannot be taught in any certification class. A certificate can be a stepping stone to an Information Technology career, but it should not be misconstrued as the primary barrier for entry into technology positions.