OT: Overly complicated technology that doesn't work

[Netmask]

On 05-May-11 18:30, Sylvia Else wrote:

This is a short rant prompted by the fact that I'll have to wait longer
than I expected for my dinner.

When I was a child, we had a simple gas oven. It had a mechanical
thermostat that controlled the flow of gas. You set the thermostat, lit
the oven, let it warm up, put the food in for the required time, and it
was ready.

Now we have gas ovens with electronics. Temperature is controlled by
turning the gas on and off, which requires that it be repeatedly
reignited. Leaving aside the fact that this means that a gas oven
doesn't work during power cuts, for some reason mine occasionally gets
into a state where it refuses to relight the gas, and essentially turns
itself off without any warning. The first one knows about it is when one
goes to remove the food, and discovers that it's not cooked (though by
how much is anyone's guess).

Ovens worked reliably 40 years ago. Why was it necessary to change the
design to something that doesn't?

Hungry Sylvia.

The same goes for instantaneous gas heaters - good thing the pilot light
has gone but one would think there would be a backup rechargeable
battery to ignite the gas in case of a blackout. Pretty simple
technology really. I modified our power supply that supplies the "wick"
to the bloody thing with a UPS in line.

 

[Ross Vumbaca]

On 14/05/2011 13:14, Brad wrote:

I would say that Most people Don't use those others, when the
Maintenance Manual calls up Hyperterminal and gives the correct
settings, most people don't bugger around wasting time with other
software that may create more problems than they solve.

I meant people that are experienced at regularly using SSH/Telnet/Serial
terminals. Obviously if you have no clue you will use whatever you're
step-by-step instructions tell you too. I used to use Hyperterminal too,
until I got a clue.

Regards,

Ross..