WorldWide Drilling Resource

Knowledge and Understanding by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC Electronics product development is the result of many disciplines coming together, as well as the human element. There is hardware...what one can see and touch...the printed circuit board, resistors, capacitors, and semiconduc- tors that “make it all happen”. Often, there is software...the instructions stored in a memory which tell the product what it is to do and when. Then there is the human element...making the prod- uct useful to the humans who will be using it. It is very important the human oper- ators not only know what it is the prod- uct does, but fully understand what it does. It is possible to know something, but not fully understand something. The Asiana Flight 214 that crashed into the seawall short of the runway in San Francisco, California, last year is a good example of this knowledge and understanding mix. I am not an aviator, do not have access to the information contained in the investigation of this crash, and am not qualified to comment on this issue one way or the other. I’m just using this incident to illustrate how important the concept of knowledge vs. understanding is. An article on ajc.com (a part of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ) dated April 2, 2014, details the events which led up to the crash and chronicles various comments from both the airline and the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing Aircraft. What we know is the plane came in too slow and too low for a safe land- WorldWide Drilling Resource ® No other drilling magazine covers events like WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . PLANNING AHEAD 2014 July 26-28 (Thurs.-Sat.) South Atlantic JUBILEE Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Ctr. Myrtle Beach, SC (USA) Phone: 855-987-7469 www.jubileewatershow.com July 22-24 (Tues.-Thurs.) Queensland Mining & Engineering Exh. Mackay Showground Mackay, QLD (AUSTRALIA) Phone: +61-2-9211-7544 queenslandminingexpo.com.au WWDR will be attending! See the July 29-30 (Tues.-Wed.) NO-DIG SOUTH AFRICA CSIR Convention Centre Pretoria (SOUTH AFRICA) Phone: +44 (0) 845-094-8066 www.nodigsouthafrica.com July 9-11 (Wed.-Fri.) ISARC (Int’l Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction) 2014 Aerial Function Centre Sydney, NSW (AUSTRALIA) www.isarc2014.org July 13-15 (Sun.-Tues.) NCCI (North Carolina Coal Institute) 2014 Summer Trade Seminar Embassy Suites - Kingston Plantation Myrtle Beach, SC (USA) www.thecoalinstitute.org July 16-18 (Wed.-Fri.) Life-of-Mine 2014 Conference Pullman Brisbane King George Square Brisbane, QLD (AUSTRALIA) Phone: +61-3-9658-6131 www.lifeofmine2014.ausimm.com.au July 18-19 (Fri.-Sat.) ESWWDA (Empire State Water Well Drillers Assoc.) Summer Meeting Bonnie Castle Resort and Marina Alexandria Bay, NY (USA) Phone: 315-339-8960 www.nywelldriller.org July 27- August 1 (Sun.-Fri.) Grand Renewable Energy 2014 International Conference and Exhibition Tokyo Big Sight Tokyo (JAPAN) Phone: +81-03-3502-6871 www.grand-re2014.org July 22-23 (Tues.-Wed.) PIOGA (Pennsylvania Indep. Oil & Gas Association) Pig Roast, Equipment Show, and Conference Seven Springs Mountain Resort Champion, PA (USA) Phone: 724-933-7306 www.pioga.org July 9-10 (Wed.-Thurs.) IOGA (Indep. Oil & Gas Assoc.) of New York Annual Summer Meeting Peek’n Peak Resort & Conf. Center Findley Lake, NY (USA) Phone: 716-202-4688 www.iogany.org July 21-23 (Sat.-Mon.) ASCE (American Soc. of Civil Engineers) Shale Energy Engineering Conference Pittsburgh, PA (USA) Phone: 800-548-2723 www.asce.org For more education opportunities, see Education Connection in this magazine. July 9-10 (Wed.-Thurs.) 7 th Annual West Virginia Oil and Gas Equipment Show West Virginia Wesleyan College Buckhannon, WV (USA) Phone: 304-344-9867 www.iogawv.com 67 JUNE 2014 Storkson cont’d on page 70.