[ale] uptime?

Thompson Freeman tfreeman at intel.digichem.net
Sun Feb 25 12:07:30 EST 2001




On Sun, 25 Feb 2001, Wandered Inn wrote:

> --- Gary Maltzen <maltzen at MM.COM> wrote:
> >  I'm sorry you find support for that suggestion offensive. Sometimes
> > there are more pressing issues at hand and an "acceptable" solution
> > beats no solution.

Have you noticed the ads for MS which offer, due to better stability, a
fake BSOD to put on the monitor for those who miss the sight? Can you
imagine another service company doing something similar? (The new add for
MS Airlines: "Come enjoy your next trip with us. Our new fleet crashes
less often!" Background picture of a smoking wreckage with belongings and
body parts lying about.) Note that I've confounded a large number of
values in this. A 1:10e6 chance of death during an activity is pretty
close to acceptable, but a 1:10e2 chance of death is acceptable only if
the alternative is worse (cancer treatment??).


> 
> This is the problem with many companies.  They're too busy bailing the
> water out of the boat to fix the hole.  Thing is, if they'd fix the
> hole, they would save themselves a lot of time on down the road.  And,
> they also might be surprised that the customers might be acceptable to a
> short term inconvenience for a long term gain.

Ugly of me, but some of this trouble can depend on who is stuck with the
bailing. If the captain is water skiing behind behind the galley (the
oared warship of years ago), the captain usually doesn't much _care_ about
the challenges onboard. As long as the slaves deliver...and flogging
slaves is so much more fun than figuring out _why_ delivery fell short.

> 
> >
> >  Note: I work in a real company that depends on it's revenue stream
> > for it's livelihood.
> 
> I would assume that many others on this list do as well.  
> Unfortunately, corporate America is in a 'patch the symptoms' rather
> than 'fix the problem' mode.  I can't help but blame a lot of this on
> Microsoft, because of the combination of their omnipresence and there
> lousy software.

Actually, I suspect that 'patch the symptoms' is a rather human problem
"solving" approach. Rather like the ancient story of the country man's
home which leaked buckets in the rain. Asked by a visitor why he didn't
fix the roof, the old man responded "Its raining". Asked then why not fix
the roof during nice weather, the old man responded "Roof doesn't leak
then."

Some years ago I had a friend whose electric bill was in excess of
$800/month for a 1400 sq. ft. house. The heat pump ran almost constantly,
and from the sound of it, needed freon &/or some parts (replacement?). I
asked "why not replace the unit?" The response was "We cann't afford it,
because we are spending so much on electricity." This, BTW, was a
bookkeeper by profession. They _should_ have understood the concept of
investment to save money.

> 
> Many folks have made comparisons of applying software fixes to other
> products in the world.  Why people continue to accept 'reboot, if it
> goes away, don't worry about it' solutions is beyond me.
> 
> True life story.  The first brand new car I bought was a Ford Pinto
> (quit laughing).  I took it home and after about a week use, I got in
> one day, shut the door and the back window popped out.  Fortunately it
> didn't fall completely out and break.  To make a long story shorter, I
<<snip>>

Well, my first was a Vega. I was getting body work done under factory
guarentee almost three times longer than the guarentee permitted because
both the factory and the body shop couldn't find a missing weld in the
roof. It was easier for both to grind, prime, and paint over the rust than
address the real problem. (And the engine on that car - don't know _who_
to blame for those challenges. I know that it wasn't designed to run the
speeds I ran for the number of hours I ran, but the damn thing all but
disintegrated on me in the first 40k miles.)

Will you join me for a hearty belly laugh for my choice of first cars?

> 
> Think about 'reboot and forget about the problem' for any other product,
> what would people do?
<<snip>> 
> I really can't think of any other product where:
> 
> 1. this is an acceptable solution
> 2. people put up with such a solution
> 3. the product isn't recalled/replaced/modified to correct the problem.
<<snip>>

You may want to think longer. I think the basic approach gets applied in
most conditions where customer loyalty is questionable, or where there
really isn't much alternative.

 -- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iacocca
===========================================
Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net

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