Live data from Hacker News

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

mcdreeamiemusings.com

181–185 of 185 posts

Re: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but first it has to go horribly wrong. Same for security. After the breach there is plenty of budget.

Many years ago I had a fascination with security and fancied becoming the CISO for the multinational I was working for at the time - my boss at the time, the CIO, said the role would really have no power and would be there as a sacrificial lamb should there actually be a serious security breach. This rather put me off the idea.

I've seen this go from bad to worse. A company had a bad project manager they couldn't get rid of, and required a security person by law, so they promoted him. The idea was he would get kicked out of the company the next time a security boo boo happened.

It went a lot worse. The guy had no idea about security and no common sense, and did genius things like forbidding encryption in the name of security (so the network people would be able to do packet inspection for monitoring security). But he created a morass of paperwork, and made it impossible for any project to make any kind of progress without involving security. End user computers slowed to unusable speed as he threw in more and more snake oil security software. As his rules were vague, dumb, self-conflicting and very very time consuming, nobody followed them, so he could always point to someone not following the rules when a security boo boo happened. He grew his department like a mushroom, wasted huge amounts of money, and entrenched himself completely, all based on sweet talk and complete nonsense. I've learned a lot about office politics watching him.

Re: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

#182
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how the thankless jobs of quality assurance become so critical so quickly. And I mean that ironically of course. To folks out there: do the important work, not the glamorous work, and you'll not only sleep well, but you might actually matter as well.

Like the old saying, the firefighter is a hero but everybody is annoyed by the fire inspector, even though he saves way more lives.

People that have done QA have the best understand of this.

I was doing the QA on a life safety product. Any new hardware would mean pulling the specs for the ICs and verifying that the layout and pin-out where correct on the product designs. You don't need an electrical engineering degree to know that PIN-1 on IC-2 should be connected to PIN-A on IC-4 but deigns having it traced to PIN-C.

Not once was there ever a recall and all early product issues where just a firmware update. After no longer working at the company they stopped doing QA. Heard from a former coworker that they latest product releases have required a compete recall.

QA not only saves lives it also reduces service and support costs. It helps keep a good standing relationship with your clients. Good QA is about trying to brake the solution as a consumer not reading the manual.

Re: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

#183

The main problem is they didn't use reusable rockets, so these couldn't be properly tested before putting a human crew in. This problem seems mostly solved now.

Which parts weren't reusable?

The external fuel tank, whence came the foam that stuck the wing, leading to the loss of Columbia.

Re: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really true. Speaking in a meeting, or delivering a talk in a larger context, often works better with visuals. Delivering information in this way is not "pandering" to people who don't or won't read a detailed paper. They're different contexts with different goals. Before Powerpoint, having any kind of visual aid to a talk was incredibly onerous. You had to print up transparancies, or literally have SLIDES…

Technical papers convey technical information more effectively than PowerPoint presentations, period. The only edge PowerPoint has comes from managers refusing to read technical papers, making the PowerPoint literally better than nothing.

I mean, you can dig in your heels on that, but it's the rhetorical equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears.

I attended a former partner's PhD defense. She used PowerPoint during it for graphs and other visuals as she delivered DEEPLY technical information. Presentation software is valuable when giving presentations, period.

You just have to know how to use it properly.

Re: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THANK YOU. I've seen the velocity of the space shuttle quoted as the speed that the foam had when it hit Columbia's wing so many times, and it bugs the crap out of me.

If that was the actual impact velocity of the foam, there would not be any doubt about whether the shuttle would survive reentry, that is if it even managed to make it all the way into space.

As the crew rose at 28,968 kilometres per hour the piece of foam collided with one of the tiles on the outer edge of the shuttle’s left wing.

This also cannot be correct at approx 82 seconds into flight.

Post reply on HN