3 ms·

Same, is aviation technology really this primitive?

H8crilA 3y ago
It is mostly quite primitive, but it also works amazingly well. For example ILS or VOR or ATC audio comms can all be received and read correctly using hardware built from entry level ham radio knowledge. Altimeters still require a manual input of pressure. Fuel levels can be checked with sticks. Kinda the opposite of a modern web/mobile app, complicated, massively bloated and breaks rather often :).
rozap 3y ago
shhh, nobody tell xvector that unleaded avgas finally happened in 2022 :)
brianpan 3y ago
You might find it interesting that the SF subway runs on floppy disks. Not the fancy new 3.5" ones, either. https://sfstandard.com/2023/02/02/sfs-market-street-subway-runs-on-reagan-era-floppy-disks/ https://sfstandard.com/2023/02/02/sfs-market-street-subway-r...
tjohns 3y ago
It's worse than you know. Ancient computer systems, non-ASCII character encodings, analog phone lines, and ticker-tape weather. You'll also be surprised to learn there's still parts of the US where there's no radar or radio coverage with ATC, if flying at lower altitudes. (Heck, there's still a part of the Pacific Ocean that doesn't have ATC service at any altitude.) Aviation drove a lot of the early developments in networked computing, which also means there's some really old tech in the stack. The globally decentralized nature of it all and it being a life-critical system means it's expensive and complicated to upgrade. (And to be clear, it does get upgraded - but it in a backwards compatible way.) Today's ATC systems need to work with planes built in the 1950s, and talk to ATC units in small countries that still use ancient teletype systems and fax machines. But yet it's all still incredibly safe, because the technology is there to augment human processes - not replace them. Even if all the technology fails, everything can still be done manually using pen and paper.
bsder 3y ago
And what non-primitive software do we have that is reliable? None that I know of.
eep_social 3y ago
Airline messaging is wild, this blog from 2010 knows what’s what: https://cos.livejournal.com/79455.html https://cos.livejournal.com/79455.html

It is mostly quite primitive, but it also works amazingly well. For example ILS or VOR or ATC audio comms can all be received and read correctly using hardware built from entry level ham radio knowledge. Altimeters still require a manual input of pressure. Fuel levels can be checked with sticks. Kinda the opposite of a modern web/mobile app, complicated, massively bloated and breaks rather often :).

rozap 3y ago

shhh, nobody tell xvector that unleaded avgas finally happened in 2022 :)

brianpan 3y ago

You might find it interesting that the SF subway runs on floppy disks. Not the fancy new 3.5" ones, either. https://sfstandard.com/2023/02/02/sfs-market-street-subway-runs-on-reagan-era-floppy-disks/ https://sfstandard.com/2023/02/02/sfs-market-street-subway-r...

tjohns 3y ago

It's worse than you know. Ancient computer systems, non-ASCII character encodings, analog phone lines, and ticker-tape weather. You'll also be surprised to learn there's still parts of the US where there's no radar or radio coverage with ATC, if flying at lower altitudes. (Heck, there's still a part of the Pacific Ocean that doesn't have ATC service at any altitude.) Aviation drove a lot of the early developments in networked computing, which also means there's some really old tech in the stack. The globally decentralized nature of it all and it being a life-critical system means it's expensive and complicated to upgrade. (And to be clear, it does get upgraded - but it in a backwards compatible way.) Today's ATC systems need to work with planes built in the 1950s, and talk to ATC units in small countries that still use ancient teletype systems and fax machines. But yet it's all still incredibly safe, because the technology is there to augment human processes - not replace them. Even if all the technology fails, everything can still be done manually using pen and paper.

bsder 3y ago

And what non-primitive software do we have that is reliable? None that I know of.

eep_social 3y ago

Airline messaging is wild, this blog from 2010 knows what’s what: https://cos.livejournal.com/79455.html https://cos.livejournal.com/79455.html