[Novalug] car computer, errr.....

Walt Smith waltechmail@yahoo.com
Fri Mar 19 10:12:15 EDT 2010



List,
I think Alan and Bryan both have good points.
Whats missing though, is how to get what you need.

Sometimes tailoring an OS to get what you want can require 
a tremendous amount of work, and to do that too much education.
( time is money ).

There's everything from a full featured desktop ( Fedora )
( uhhh, except for the codecs )
to a semibuild ( slackware, maybe gentoo )  to science 
instrumentation and controlling ( "realtime" linux ).

I think Alan needs to pick the right one.
In todays lingo, Alan really wants to have a box that was designed
for a desktop to be a minimalistic system which approaches 
todays embedded systems.  Fixed configuration you might say.
I see nothing wrong with that. 

Maybe some distro will choose to allow the "installer" to
select his device - static or dynamic, and perhaps select
their own device names?  I don't think it'll happen, but it's
a scenario.
 

Oh,  I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, but my old
95 Dodge K car Cruise control would occassionally decide
to gradually pick up speed when going up and hill, and then 
keep on increasing..   my RPM meter in my crappy Nissan
is a software meter.  I know becasue I can pick a spot and 
slightly increase/decrease the rpms, and the gauge won't change.
And no, it ain't "stuck".
If I modulate the brake and accelerator, ( pressing both off/on
slightly at the same time ), I can screw up the transmission.
It'll go out of gear and BANG back in.  This is the 2nd transmission.
Same problem in first.  I no longer modulate.

And some people think a software glitch in a Toyota 
engine can be duplicated in action ?   yeah, right.
Their automated test setup should be prepared for 100 million cycles.
If they want it fixed, they probably need to open source
it because it's gonna take a "super softie" or "lots of eyes"
to fix it. 

Stating differently, if the comp/comms stuff doesn't work right,
then merely instrumenting a "black box" ain't worth squat !!
Monitoring has to be INSIDE the actual controller.

Walt.....


Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> It's like buying a new car, opening the hood and throwing out the
> computer, saying that electronic valve timing is wrong, and the
> pre-computer is better, and then the car won't start.

Reality check:

Isn't the *ENTIRE* point of the open source movement that *EVERY* user
can have *EXACTLY* the software he wants on his machine?

You sound exactly like Bill Gates proclaiming from his high throne why
everyone should use and love Windows Vista, because it's more advanced see.


      



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