Posted by JRM on February 09, 2001 at 10:46:19:
In Reply to: Listen..... posted by Dimitrios on February 08, 2001 at 20:23:10:
Who ever said Cisco router configs and Linux were complex? Heck, Cisco stuff is the most straightforward of the bunch. And it even works. Linux is the same way. I'd be really impressed if you managed to learn how to get Windows to run properly over the Internet! :-) As a pro geek in an "all Linux/Cisco environment (switchest too), I appreciate a fellow diver who puts aside convention!
I must bash the "geek buddy system" I'll define it to be this: "Hey, you're my buddy and you know more about computers than I do, will you solve all my problems for free please?". Here's one place I definitely solo!
As far as trusting a computer goes, I'll trust it about as far as I can throw it. Or more precisely, as far as I can throw the programmer, engineer, and marketing department!
(begin tongue-in-cheek)
OK, as far as being able to compute sawtooth NDLs properly here's a little story. In the little hamlet I grew up in, we had a street classified as an expressway, that had a ton of lights over about a ten mile stretch. I often had to drive this stretch to return from school. However, the traffic lights were not syncronized, so there was much starting and stopping and waiting and gnashing of teeth. Well, one night I was lamenting this situation, when my father informed me the problem wasn't the lights, it was my driving. Well, being 17 knowing all (amazing how perceived intellegence seems inversely proportional to age and experience), I knew I drove fine. In fact, he wagered me that he could drive from one end of the gauntlet to the other, hitting all the lights green. Preposterous!!! I knew it couldn't be done. So I agreed to the wager. We got in his car, and drove an average of five miles an hour down the entire stretch, only speeding up when needed to pass through a light. Lesson learned.
So, I don't doubt that even I, feeble and inexperienced, could end every dive within the NDLs. I could compute it on the fly using nothing more than a depth guage, stopwatch, and my evil PADI dive tables. In fact, I don't need any of that crap. Just go down and come back up! Perfectly within the NDLs (depending on depth, but since this is a sport dive of less than 130', I should be OK.
I'd take that challenge. My dad would be proud. Of course, I doubt you would be foolish enough to wager what I did! My therapist says I should be over it in a couple hundred additional sessions (just kidding)!
(end tongue-in-cheek).
Seriously though, I don't doubt that MHK can keep track of his loading. People did lots of amazing things before computers ever existed. Look around at some older buildings and bridges sometimes. Or airplanes, subs, boats, cars, factories, etc. The human brain is a pretty cool toy. But I doubt seriously that I could do it. I have a computer, and I rely on it. However, I also keep a copy of the tables with me, and after each dive run the numbers to see where I am, and to check my computer.
Actually, I'm not sure why I wrote this. Must be because I didn't sleep last night, owing to a problem with the above non-complex computer systems...
JRM