Cracks with meaning

There have been only a few posts here the past few years. Of late, reports in the news almost motivated a post or two (say, about the cracks, a few weeks ago). But, not, for various reasons. Next year, perhaps. We shall see.

Today, The Atlantic put out an article that I could agree with. "How Boeing lost its bearings" is a look at how an anti-engineering culture developed. Say, like Carson who blabbed more than he understood.

Oh yes, that Indian subcontractor. Heard from them after I retired. Didn't take the lure.

Remarks: Modified: 11/21/2019

11/21/2019 --

Test by tragedy

Have we come to that? Testing with people at risk. I am not kidding. I have been noticing declining quality for the past decade and one half. Some of this is due to computing. A lot of it is greed. Some of it is just immaturity augmented by SciFi's hold on the imagination. Lots to discuss.

The other day, I saw, in the biological context, some argument that sensor and simulation were equivalent. So, why spend the money for the former? Got that? No, just play the thing on a computer and use it as truth. That, people, is not a good sign. But, biology is loose. Don't believe me? Consider the strictness of trying to meet nature's hold on its material that is not from a life form.

Well, there are several reasons that people have let their love of abstraction go awry, one of which deals with metrics and what is measured. But, no abstraction, however much it might be enhanced by computing, approaches the 'beingness' of whatever that model might be trying to represent. SciFi has really warped things, too much. And, AI to the rescue? Not in the senses that I perceive to be thought of as a promise by some worldviews.

I know glossing over a whole lot of issues; however, we have gone too far in several directions leaving the natural result of befuddlement which comes from confounding without limit.

So, we'll just list a few particulars.

• Recently, read where Boeing had not left the test pilots in the loop. Ah, human in the loop is a key issue (see discussions on truth engineering). 
• We started by looking at engineering and the complexity brought by computing. There was sufficient reason for this due to the marketing thrust that was driving things. At some point, an engineer was put in charge; things quieted since laconic is not a bad trait for an engineer; and the thing flew (what? yes, the 787). 
• Since the 777 started this trend and was quite good at it, there have been choices made that have not had a good effect. Some of those were reversed. Many were not. Again, just recently, I was noting that suppliers were complaining that they could not keep up the pace being set by the Company and its computers (run by people without proper acumen, it seems). Ah so, I thought. Then, the first of the tragedies. 
• After that, there was a focus on software correcting what might be a design issue. What? But, then, given the complexity of the approach, who is to know? Well, that was the role, formerly, of experts who spent years honing their decision making talents. People in the loop is a notion to be discussed. Why this is so is obvious from the proper viewpoint. 
• In this blog, we were gone, we said. Several times, with a brief look to see that the engineers were doing their marvels. You see, business and finance had a major failing. Idiots. That whole issue is still pending another take down by the world of nature. Never learn.
• Hence, we started the Fedaerated blog. Of late, we have been on Quora (the motivation for this post). 

Technology in and of itself is a blind alley. When will we learn this?

Remarks: Modified: 05/09/2019

05/09/2019 --

Modern ways

Progress seems to go with complexity. Too, costs rise. Yet, people make oodles of money. Some, that is. The majority pick up the lean remains. So goes the economy under the ca-pital-sino which is abetted with computational assists.

We started this blog looking at engineering and its output which are products. That was a long while ago, namely 31 August 2007. That first month had only two posts. The other one was a 'seed' post with a list of topics. We will not go into the motivation, but an event that occurred on 07/08/07, with wide press coverage, was of precipitating influence. The tone of the blog dealt with the reality behind engineering and with the importance of that view, say, versus marketing.

Guess what happened? The engineers took over so the problems were righted in the one arena. On the other hand, Silicon Valley began to take a marketing focus. As in? Zuck's later testimony, smirking, to Congress where he said, we sell ads. I about puked, quite frankly. An enabler was Jobs' showing the world the possibilities of a mobile platform. From that, we got to where zombies went around with their noses tethered. To what? One ought to ask. We see more discussion now. In fact, we see less of those with a hand held high as if signaling some virtue by the mere fact of having the thing.

Myself? Have none (as in, nada). Never took a selfie. Claim myself to be 1G/2G and impervious to whatever is the addiction that afflicts computing. In fact, still looking to bring truth engineering to the table.

Incidentally, it was in 2007 that the financial industry looked to be more errant than was that of the industry of the original focus. Yes, we all suffered. This from December of 2007: Tranche or not. Remember, this was early. Cracks were being seen. I first noticed after I started to pay attention after retiring in 2005. By 2007, it was obviously going to be more than Ben knew. Lots happened there.

Oh yes, a saying was around and about in the early 2000. With regard to a particular program, it was this: this is not your father's plane. Today, President Trump grounded a fleet. Again, it's modern. What went wrong? I have heard lots of discussions. But, one thing has been on my mind the past decade and one-half, constantly. And, due to the appearances of everything being right, and we know that they are not, I never really took a deeper look. Ought I?

A billionaire is noted to be exploitative in this sense. Vendors are pushed to cut. They are expected to eat costs. This is so the higher-order capitalists (we'll describe those cats) can get a larger payout. There have been so many cases of this, some I have mentioned - leveraged buyouts, for example. Some of these cases were seen up close.

There was scuttlebutt of late (few months duration) that some vendors were saying, we cannot perform at that rate. In one ear and out the other, while observing one contractor just gleefully celebrating their good fortune. Yet, they complained, too. And, bragged on how they could ramp up.

Facebook has been down today. That outage might twist the drawers of the advertisers. In the context of this blog's original focus? Very dire, the consequences. Hence, Trump's grounding.

Computing is a mess due to factors that we can identify and discuss. This thing will be resolved, too, as engineers do that sort of thing. But, the underlying issue? Yes, we just might look further, in our own time. This is merely a milestone being put out there as a marker for future reference.

Remarks: Modified: 03/13/2019

03/13/2019 --