7 ms·

So fun to read. In my early career I used to think that replacing memory in servers used for production was risky. What if I could not get it done in time? Ch

So fun to read. In my early career I used to think that replacing memory in servers used for production was risky. What if I could not get it done in time? Chaos! Later I worked in a refinery when replacing mission critical items could seriously mean injury or death if mishandled. What if I made a mistake? Chaos! Now, I realize what I was doing was child's play!

MS90 7y ago
Do it wrong and the life support systems for you and your friends up there go out and you all die. Also, this entire $150,000,000,000 international investment may lose guidance and altitude control and burn up in the atmosphere, or maybe even rain down debris on some unlucky city. No pressure!
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Iirc, mission critical aerospace computers have triple redundancy since like ... forever. So I can't believe the ISS computer doesn't have some sort of redundancy in place to prevent a catastrophe when there's so much money and lives at stake. But I liked your joke.
  - hvidgaard 7y ago
    Did you read the article? If you did you'd know that they run two computers. If one fail, a third automatically activates and the faulty is disabled. They also keep a fourth to swap out the failed one. But it still doesn't change the fact that swapping out with a completely new specification can have unintended consequences. They waited until a computer failed to swap, so if it did not work, they'd run at reduced redundancy.
    - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
      Did you read the article? From the HN guidelines: Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."
      - barkingcat 7y ago
        Nobody reads anything on HN, guidelines included.
  - reportgunner 7y ago
    Yeah the point of this article is to say that they had no spare parts anymore since the machine is 20 years old. Someone got an idea that they could manufacture the old missing parts (using new manufacturing process) and now they did and it works.
jniedrauer 7y ago
I've worked on financial platforms for most of my career. It's a strange feeling to know that a mistake will delete someone else's money. I always thought I had it hard. But that the end of the day, it's not "real". Certainly not life-critical. Working on something like this has got to be on a whole other level.
- dmd 7y ago
  It can absolutely be life-critical, for people living paycheck to paycheck.

MS90 7y ago

Do it wrong and the life support systems for you and your friends up there go out and you all die. Also, this entire $150,000,000,000 international investment may lose guidance and altitude control and burn up in the atmosphere, or maybe even rain down debris on some unlucky city. No pressure!

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
Iirc, mission critical aerospace computers have triple redundancy since like ... forever. So I can't believe the ISS computer doesn't have some sort of redundancy in place to prevent a catastrophe when there's so much money and lives at stake. But I liked your joke.
- hvidgaard 7y ago
  Did you read the article? If you did you'd know that they run two computers. If one fail, a third automatically activates and the faulty is disabled. They also keep a fourth to swap out the failed one. But it still doesn't change the fact that swapping out with a completely new specification can have unintended consequences. They waited until a computer failed to swap, so if it did not work, they'd run at reduced redundancy.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    Did you read the article? From the HN guidelines: Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."
    - barkingcat 7y ago
      Nobody reads anything on HN, guidelines included.
- reportgunner 7y ago
  Yeah the point of this article is to say that they had no spare parts anymore since the machine is 20 years old. Someone got an idea that they could manufacture the old missing parts (using new manufacturing process) and now they did and it works.

jniedrauer 7y ago

I've worked on financial platforms for most of my career. It's a strange feeling to know that a mistake will delete someone else's money. I always thought I had it hard. But that the end of the day, it's not "real". Certainly not life-critical. Working on something like this has got to be on a whole other level.

dmd 7y ago
It can absolutely be life-critical, for people living paycheck to paycheck.