4 ms·

Consider driver support. What do you do when the company that makes the driver is out of buisness and the engineers are dead. At work we have an 300,000 USD sp

Consider driver support. What do you do when the company that makes the driver is out of buisness and the engineers are dead. At work we have an 300,000 USD spectrum anlyzer driven by Win2k.

dsr_ 11y ago
I'd think that for $300K you could have demanded an API. Perhaps on the next one?
- tonyedgecombe 11y ago
  Or terms that said the operating system should keep pace with update availability.
  - ams6110 11y ago
    Terms won't necessarily help if the vendor guess out of business
- cnvogel 11y ago
  I'm speculating here, but from my experience with Windows powered oscilloscopes: Windows is on the measurement device, it's not a networked or USB controlled peripheral with a documented network protocol connected to a standalone PC. When you open up "Device Manager" you'll see a bunch of specialized USB and PCI/PCIe peripherals that make up the actual measurement function and user-interface. So the company selling the spectrum analyzer would have to publish quite a lot of their internal documentation regarding hardware registers for the data acquisition boards, and they'll be reluctant to do this: Much of a modern measurement equipment's functionality is inside the data processing, and by documenting the interfaces it would make it possible/easier to reverse-engineer or extent (without paying for options) the functionality.
  - minot 11y ago
    If the buyers were to stick together and only buy from suppliers who allow access to modify and redistribute the source code of these devices, perhaps they could create incentives for the devices to function with newer software. Why would the navy pay for support if the computers on xp were airgapped? The only reasonable conclusion is that these computers are on the network accessible from outside.
    - 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
      Consider that the US was able to attack air-gapped computers in Iran and destroy industrial equipment. Air gaps can be breached, it's just a little harder.
- fancyketchup 11y ago
  > I'd think that for $300K you could have demanded an API. Perhaps on the next one? "Why certainly, sir! We can provide that for only $EQUIPMENT_COST * 10. Do you prefer floppies or a CDROM?" I wish I was joking.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

Consider driver support. What do you do when the company that makes the driver is out of buisness and the engineers are dead. At work we have an 300,000 USD spectrum anlyzer driven by Win2k.

dsr_ 11y ago

I'd think that for $300K you could have demanded an API. Perhaps on the next one?

tonyedgecombe 11y ago
Or terms that said the operating system should keep pace with update availability.
- ams6110 11y ago
  Terms won't necessarily help if the vendor guess out of business
cnvogel 11y ago
I'm speculating here, but from my experience with Windows powered oscilloscopes: Windows is on the measurement device, it's not a networked or USB controlled peripheral with a documented network protocol connected to a standalone PC. When you open up "Device Manager" you'll see a bunch of specialized USB and PCI/PCIe peripherals that make up the actual measurement function and user-interface. So the company selling the spectrum analyzer would have to publish quite a lot of their internal documentation regarding hardware registers for the data acquisition boards, and they'll be reluctant to do this: Much of a modern measurement equipment's functionality is inside the data processing, and by documenting the interfaces it would make it possible/easier to reverse-engineer or extent (without paying for options) the functionality.
- minot 11y ago
  If the buyers were to stick together and only buy from suppliers who allow access to modify and redistribute the source code of these devices, perhaps they could create incentives for the devices to function with newer software. Why would the navy pay for support if the computers on xp were airgapped? The only reasonable conclusion is that these computers are on the network accessible from outside.
  - 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
    Consider that the US was able to attack air-gapped computers in Iran and destroy industrial equipment. Air gaps can be breached, it's just a little harder.
fancyketchup 11y ago
> I'd think that for $300K you could have demanded an API. Perhaps on the next one? "Why certainly, sir! We can provide that for only $EQUIPMENT_COST * 10. Do you prefer floppies or a CDROM?" I wish I was joking.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]