From: Neon John <johngd_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:27:47 -0500

Sure, why not. Surveillance procedures are not mission critical and are
asynchronous to the plant operation. The worst thing that could happen would
be the Archos goes Tango Uniform and loses the data, requiring a repeat of the
procedure. The Telzons do that on occasion. For that matter, paper
procedures get lost, folded, spindled and mutilated.

All the archos would have to do would be to play a sound track, display some
text and wait for key strokes - YES, NO, a value. Being able to bounds-check
the input value would be nice but absolutely necessary.

It's only been in oh, the last decade that we've grudgingly accepted any sort
of computerized controls on safety-related Class 1A (our term for mission
critical) systems. No chance of any sort of handheld computer getting
anywhere near a Class 1A system. I have faith in 250 volt DC relay logic
where I can see and verify all possible states. Everything else goes downhill
from there :-)

John

On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 15:22:19 -0800 (PST), "Michael O'Quinn"
<michael_at_oquinn.info> wrote:

>Using Archos hardware for mission critical procedures in a Nuclear Power
>Plant.
>
>Now THAT is a genuinely frightening thought!
>
>I realize that you are only presenting that as an example, and not
>necessarily seriously proposing equipping any Nuclear Power Plants with
>Archos' (I hope!)
>
>;-)
>
>Michael
>
>
>
>On Wed, 17 Dec 2003, Neon John wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:00:27 +0100, "Henri" <hdavidlists_at_free.fr> wrote:
>>
>> >And how do you "WPS" a TXT file ?
>> >How is the time lengh of firmware ?
>> >
>> >On top of all what would the use for this ?
>>
>> I can think of several uses for this. Let's suppose you're listening to an
>> audio course such as are available from The Teaching Company and other
>> sources. It would be extraordinarily nice to be able to display a screen of
>> text or graphic displaying, say, an equation while the audio segment is
>> playing.
>>
>> Another application might be to display an info page about a band before or
>> during the music play.
>>
>> If Rockbox is extended a bit more to be able to detect and record responses
>> (YES or NO, for instance), the application could be extended to the industrial
>> arena. As a retired nuclear engineer, my experience is in the power plant
>> setting. Any activity in the plant is governed by a written procedure that
>> requires "verbatim compliance" and in many cases, second party verification.
>> The procedures are very detailed such as "connect the plus lead to cabinet A,
>> terminal strip B, terminal C". Some facilities still use paper procedures but
>> many have gone paperless. Currently very expensive handheld computers such as
>> the Telzon are used, all without audio.
>>
>> A "procedure execution extension" would display the pertinent info (plus lead
>> to cabinet A, terminal strip B, terminal C) on the screen while the audio
>> gives detailed instruction such as where to go, what precautions to take (call
>> the control room, for instance), etc.
>>
>> We could have default behavior settings in the config. Say, scroll, noscroll,
>> scrollspeed, page, nopage, pagedelay, persist, nopersist (to keep the text
>> file on the screen while the next selection(s) play), etc. We could then
>> enable a small set of metatags in the text file to change the default behavior
>> on the fly.
>>
>> Rockbox has broken the "music player" paradigm with the audio book, text
>> display and other extensions. Why not take it further outside the box to
>> other mixed media applications such as self-instruction.
>>
>> Non-music extensions such as the "procedure execution extension" might just be
>> the bludgeon needed to penetrate the skull of the decision-maker of one or
>> more hardware makers, the idea dawning that many more sales could be made to
>> the commercial/industrial market. A consumer box won't be as rugged as a
>> Telzon but on the other hand, at >$2500 for a Telzon, many "throwaway" units
>> can be purchased for each Telzon.
>>
>> Just something to think about.
>> John
>> ---
>> John De Armond
>> johngdDONTYOUDARE_at_bellsouth.net
>> http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
>> Cleveland, Occupied TN
>>

---
John De Armond
johngdDONTYOUDARE_at_bellsouth.net
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
Cleveland, Occupied TN

Received on 2003-12-19