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Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)

• To: XML Developers List <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)
• From: Benjamin Franz <snowhare@n...>
• Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 09:23:36 -0800 (PST)
• In-reply-to: <41DD567D.2020205@m...>
• References: <830178CE7378FC40BC6F1DDADCFDD1D10276723C@R...> <30291DBF-590E-11D9-A33A-000393DC762C@m...> <1104439040.16585.131.camel@borgia> <75cb920c041230133376fee8f5@m...> <1104490589.3960.6.camel@marge><f8da4eba04123103398afae33@m...> <Pine.LNX.4.61.0412310627520.17534@h...><p06200703bdfddf7ec33d@[192.168.254.100]> <41DB10C4.4060801@z...><41DBD218.40103@m...> <Pine.LNX.4.61.0501050358450.7218@h...><41DD567D.2020205@m...>

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005, Elliotte Harold wrote:

> Benjamin Franz wrote:
>
>
>> Just because it doesn't have any 'moving parts' doesn't mean it doesn't 
>> wear out: EVERYTHING wears out sooner or later.
>
> Yes, but there's a point at which a quantitative difference becomes a 
> qualitative one; and I think the orders of magnitude difference between a 
> computer wearing out due to cosmic rays and thermal fatigue and a car engine 
> wearing out due to mechanical friction crosses that line.

The difference is only about 1 order of magnitude in my experience. Not 
enough to call it a qualitative difference.

I was an electronics tech with the US Navy for several years in addition 
to having been in the computer field for 25 years: Believe me when I say 
electronics fail. A lot. My _job_ was repairing failed electronics.

Good maintenance and operational practices help a lot, but even when you 
do everything right, electronics break. If we were speaking face-to-face I 
could go on for more than an hour just listing the electronics failures 
I've seen in the last 25 years. Everything from transistor failures to 
having a pair of 25-foot HF antennas literally go up in flames due to an 
electronic component failure (a shorted capacitor).

The most recent was just last week. I plugged a retail 800VA APC UPS (I've 
had it about 8 months, well treated, not abused or overloaded) in and 
turned it on and something (probably a capacitor) literally _blew up_ 
inside with a loud double bang 5 to 10 seconds later. Fortunately I hadn't 
yet turned on the computer attached to it. It was the second UPS I've had 
blow up after being turned on (the first was while I was in the Navy about 
12 years ago).

-- 
Benjamin Franz

"All right, where is the answer? The battle of wits has begun.
It ends when you click and we both serve pages - and find out who is right,
and who is slashdotted." - David Brandt

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)
    • From: Karl Waclawek <karl@w...>

• References:
  • Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: StreamingXML)
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
  • Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)
    • From: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>
  • Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)
    • From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@m...>
  • Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)
    • From: Benjamin Franz <snowhare@n...>
  • Re: The Airplane Example (was Re: Streaming XML)
    • From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@m...>

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