Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#191

Post by dragostudor » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:16 PM UTC

eldavido wrote: post #170

mediaman wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a partner in a factory and I believe this is an incredibly important area, and the requirements are fairly different than normal "just put it on Confluence" workplaces, in a way that most tech people don't understand and usually completely miss the mark when they're doing product dev. - Your team is out on the floor. Their hands have grease on them. Using tablets sounds great until you're trying to use it with a…

Predictive/preventive maintenance is actually a big thrust behind my current company, Dials. HOAs, which we serve, are run by busy volunteers, yet expected to perform almost insane financial gymnastics, planning 30 years of major component replacement, e.g. common area roofs, piping, asphalt resurfacing. This involves (a) estimating each component's lifetime (total and remaining), (b) getting a cost estimate, and (c)…

Tracking stuff is hard. I wonder why QR codes won't work in this case, or something similar, or super basic otherwise / stickers or codes at first. Might be more annoying to generate and maintain them initially. CV could work really well to keep track of inspection steps as well, or to recommend what you should do next, and how to do it

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#192

Post by Delk » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:16 PM UTC

TheCapn wrote: post #168

bee_rider wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it is just a nice feeling, every time you use something you've repaired. I'm not very handy, but every time I open the door that doesn't squeak anymore it cheers me up a little.

>Also it is just a nice feeling, every time you use something you've repaired. I feel it's my personality, but as soon as I fix anything I am overcome with anxiety every time I'm near it for fear the issue will return or that my repair was faulty and inevitably prone to cause further damage. I don't know why I get this way. In spite of all my worries I've yet to truly fuck up an appliance I've repaired (furnace, micr…

I'm totally guessing here, but apart from just being able to trust professional design and manufacturing more, could there be some kind of a "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" effect there?

If it were socially normal and expected to try and repair things, and you did happen to blunder, that would be a normal blunder that everybody makes. But if you go against the grain and try to fix things yourself when it's becoming less and less expected to do that, that could make a mistake feel worse.

Of course one might quite naturally just feel more responsible for a possible mistake when doing things oneself hands-on rather than when delegating things to someone else in any case. Not saying you should, but it'd be quite natural to.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#193

Post by groby_b » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:16 PM UTC

jckahn wrote: post #116

samwillis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, architecture and design is an art form, the medium in which you work influences the design process and the output you create. I’m not saying all architects and designers should return to the drafting table, but it is a shame that the knowledge of how to work like that is disappearing from the workplace. Also, not everything always needs to be “efficient”, what’s wrong with working slowly if you can then create a…

How does the slower process lead to a superior result, exactly? Are there designs that modern CAD systems can't achieve that the older process could? If so, perhaps it would be more practical to focus on closing that gap by improving our modern tooling.

Modern CAD systems tend to produce reproducible, very similar systems. Drafting produces individualized solutions. "Superior" depends on what you want.

(For housing, I want individualized so badly. If I see one more SillyValley SWE storehouse - excuse me, "luxury housing" - I'm going to vomit. They're all exactly the same. I'm fairly certain the firms involved have traded macros or something)

I'm not sure you can close that gap. I've done both drafting and CAD design (amateur level), and... you approach the space differently. Drafting almost forces you to have a plan, while CAD very much is "as you go".

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#194

Post by zvr » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:16 PM UTC

thewebcount wrote: post #108

I would say learning about any form of computing not related to Unix. Many of us old-timers grew up using systems (both home and corporate) that weren't variations of Unix, and I feel like CS education is turning into a Unix mono-culture these days. User interfaces from things like VAX, Apple ][, IBM Mainframes, etc. The file system on macOS 8/9 which didn't use paths and has always allowed spaces in names because it…

Nitpick: VAX was the hardware, VMS was the operating system. (having worked on VAXen with BSD Unix)

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#195

Post by rudyj03 » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:17 PM UTC

chaps wrote: post #174

IceMetalPunk wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "regardless of structure" -- if it's a relational database, that inherently implies a set structure. Or did you mean the information is consistent enough to be represented in one relational structure, but is presented in the PDFs in different formats?

Honestly, I don't know what it would look like, but being able to query would be deeply important. But what I can say is that a lot of the PDFs I work with are auto-generated as PDF forms using queries, after the information was likely inserted into a relational database during some esoteric transcription step. Meaning, the information that formed the PDFs very likely come from a relational database and an inversion…

If querying is the main goal, ingesting the pdf directly into something like elasticsearch or splunk would be much simpler. This of course doesn't meet the checkbox of being open source though.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#196

Post by desmondw » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:17 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #157

sowbug wrote: post #138

Less a specific technology and more a mindset. Repairing things around the house. Today, it's almost always rational to throw out the broken thing and buy a new one. There are a bunch of reasons why that's true: cost of one's own labor, lack of discrete replacement parts, lack of repair documentation, improvements in technology since original purchase, risk of further breakage, risk of injury to self, etc. But the re…

Also it is just a nice feeling, every time you use something you've repaired. I'm not very handy, but every time I open the door that doesn't squeak anymore it cheers me up a little.

FYI if your doors make other noises when they open it could be the paint on the inside edge sticking against the frame. In that case, apply paraffin wax to prevent a seal.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#197

Post by bee_rider » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:18 PM UTC

TheCapn wrote: post #168

bee_rider wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it is just a nice feeling, every time you use something you've repaired. I'm not very handy, but every time I open the door that doesn't squeak anymore it cheers me up a little.

>Also it is just a nice feeling, every time you use something you've repaired. I feel it's my personality, but as soon as I fix anything I am overcome with anxiety every time I'm near it for fear the issue will return or that my repair was faulty and inevitably prone to cause further damage. I don't know why I get this way. In spite of all my worries I've yet to truly fuck up an appliance I've repaired (furnace, micr…

I think it is not totally unreasonable. Like I said, I'm not super handy, so when I do amateur fixes I stick to things incapable of catching fire mostly.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#198

Post by dragostudor » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:18 PM UTC

dcow wrote: post #190

mediaman wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a partner in a factory and I believe this is an incredibly important area, and the requirements are fairly different than normal "just put it on Confluence" workplaces, in a way that most tech people don't understand and usually completely miss the mark when they're doing product dev. - Your team is out on the floor. Their hands have grease on them. Using tablets sounds great until you're trying to use it with a…

It sounds really interesting to work in a manufacturing plant for a year or two in order to empathize with the industry and learn how to blend in software in a way that actually solves problems like you describe. Or, generally, to penetrate areas where technology solutions don't apply obviously. I wonder how you'd set that kind of arrangement up. If you could design a company around displacing a few cofounders for a…

On-site visits, or contract work on the shop floor should be a good way in. Alternatively pro-bono work, part time or longer.

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#199

Post by samwillis » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:18 PM UTC

xpe wrote: post #185

samwillis wrote: post #55

Traditional draftsmanship (not really tech is it?), as in with a pen/pencil on a draftsman table, has completely disappeared. My father is a (relatively) recently retired Architect, he ran a small but specialist firm of about 20 people. By the time he retired about 5 years ago there was no one in the office that had ever been trained in traditional draftsmanship, only himself. It’s a lost art. There are now almost tw…

Try Shapr3D on macOS and iOS and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised -- maybe even shocked -- at how amazing CAD software can be. Should be. The UX quality is exceptional and inspiring. P.S. I have no connection to the product or company (based in Budapest I think).

Oh now that looks interesting, I haven’t come across that. Being based on Parasolid should make it a rock solid cad tool. Will have to give it a go!

Re: Ask HN: Boring but important tech no one is working on?

#200

Post by motohagiography » Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 9:19 PM UTC

api wrote: post #12

Improving the core of the power grid to prepare for the near-doubling of power demand that will occur when everyone drives EVs, and also making the grid more maintainable, more robust, and easier to fix if damaged by anything from mundane causes to EMPs. Some thoughts: * Equipment to allow existing runs to be upgraded to higher voltages or even HVDC while being compatible on the other side with existing equipment and…

Related question: this issue of power bill costs skyrocketing in europe and elsewhere, to where there is real risk of mass non-payment. Do we know what percentage of households being shut off would cause grid instability because of having to dump load from nuclear and other plants that can't easily be shut down?