WorldWide Drilling Resource

29 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® AUGUST 2016 The Price of Reliability is Simplicity by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC When I f rst started mak ng computer contro s, I thought customers woud be m- pressed w th a of the “be s and wh st es” I gave them. Not on y were they not m- pressed, they were repu sed. Peope reject compex ty not because they are “dumb” and cannot earn new thngs, because they smpy do not want to spend the tme and “ nte ectua cap ta ” t takes to earn a new product or concept. Most peope, es- pec a y very product ve peope, have many thngs a ready “on the r pate” and must dec de wh ch ssues deserve the r tme and attent on, and wh ch do not, as t s not poss be to dea w th every ssue sat sfactor y. Often, thngs are bu t far more compex than they need to be; compex ty s not a true nd cator of the bu ders sk or nte gence. It s hard to make somethng smpe, but t s worth the effort. Severa years ago, I made a p newood derby car race t mer. P newood derby s a compet t on where ch dren carve tt e cars out of a bock of wood wh ch must wegh a certan amount, and are f tted w th the same whee s so the cars are un form to make the race as fa r as poss be. These cars are paced on a track that has anes and barr ers to keep each car n ts ane as t trave s down the track. The track s s oped, so grav ty s the on y propu s on. There s a gate at the begnnng wh ch hods the cars back; when the gate drops down, the cars go down the track. The race tmer un t I made had four ndependent tmers correspondng w th each ane (numbered 1-4). Each ane was tr ggered “on” by a sw tch pressed when the gate opened to et the cars ro down the ramp. Four “ ght beams” were nsta ed at the end of each ane at the f n sh ne. When the cars “broke” the ght beam at the end of the ane, the tmer stopped and th s was the r eapsed tme (ET) down to 1/1000 of a second. There were rare y any t es because of th s very f ne resout on. The tmes were a recorded, and a pr nter was attached; so when a button on the tmer was pressed, t pr nted out a “recept” for the ch d. If the ch d knew the race number and the ane number, he/she woud have a record (or recept) of the r race ET. Th s was a smpe sout on requ r ng on y two cabes (one for the start ng gate and another for the “ ght beams” at the end of the track) wh ch had d fferent s zed ends so they coud not be hooked up wrong. Everythng was contaned n a box about the s ze of a sma shoe box and coud be qu ck y and eas y set up and taken down. Th s tmer fu y sat sf ed the need to tme the races and was smpe, nexpens ve, and easy to use. Awh e ater, a programmer made a sm ar contro . It dd basca y the same thng, but used three computers - separate persona computers - and a myr ad of cabes and d spays. Wh e t was mpress ve to ook at, t was constant y break ng down as a poor connect on on one of the many cabeswoud shut everythng down. It was a so d ff cu t and tme-consumng to set up.Wh e th swas a vounteer effort, f the organ zat on were to pay for somethng ke th s, the cost woud be astronomca - not to ment on pay ng someone to f x t every tme t broke down, wh ch was qu te often. Aso, what f the programmer eft the area? One poor connect on nobody knew about coud stop everythng nstant y. I am not condemnng the fe ow who dd th s, as t was a great system when everythng worked, but t dd not serve the needs of th s group n other ways, as t was far too compex, unre abe, and coud not be eas y rep cated. The same goes for ndustr a contro s. If you need water eve detect on, why buy a compex water detect on system when a coupe of w res and a res stor w do? By a means, f you need the compex ty, buy t. And of course test everythng thorough y to make certan t w do what you need t to do. The smpe sout on s aways the better sout on. Britt michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Ouch! Jellyfish Sting Adapted from Information by American Association of Retired Persons In the mov e "F nd ng Nemo," f sh bounce off the be -shaped tops of the je yf sh to move through them safe y; humans are not so ucky, we usua y co de w th je yf sh, suffer ng pa nfu st ngs. If those pa nfu tentac es are st ck ng to your sk n, r nse w th sa t water and scrape off the barbs w th someth ng handy, such as a pops c e st ck or a cred t card. Depend ng on the type of je yf sh, v negar can stop the st ngers from cont nu ng to g ve off that pa nfu sensat on. Any o d myths you have heard may not a ways work, for examp e ur ne re ev ng the pa n. Exerc se extra caut on wh e n the water. Just ke you, the je yf sh are a so en- joy ng the coo water.