Re: Mini-ITX PC's a the future of HA

["Dean Roddey" <droddey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6plq9252uema36fh3iq3kkbsdnos7idldm@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:34:38 -0400, "Robert Green"
> <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> <eN2dnUguUO_oDwnZnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@xxxxxxx>:
>
>>Where's our resident zookeeper?  Surely you *can't* be allowed to design
>>HOME automation software if you don't HAVE one!!??  (Sorry, just kidding -
>>I couldn't resist after some of the replies I've read.)
>
> Here he be ;-) But I don't recall saying anything about qualifications for
> designing HA SW. Correcting the record so that those not blinded by Cupid
> are not mislead is a different matter. (Read on.)

Just for the record...

One big reason our product is so good is because we are software people and
not automation people. In many cases the best products come from people are
really into something and then implement a great product based on their own
knowledge as a user of such things. But when you are talking about software
on the scale required for this type of product, if you don't have the hard
core software engineering skills, no amount of knowledge of the problem
domain will help.

You obviously do need someone who knows the problem domain, but your
customers are of those types of people and they can tell you what needs to
be done. What you need as the implementer is very strong software
engineering skills in order to make it so. OTOH, if you already know a lot
about the problem domain and less about software engineering, your customers
cannot tell you how to write the software.

I guess it also has the benefit of us never telling our customers, no that's
wrong and we know more about automation than you do and know we are right.
We don't know more about automation than our customers and we know that and
therefore we have no ego tied up in doing it this way or that. We are happy
to do what can be done within the practical limitations of what we can
accomplish, if that's what our customers need.

OTOH, we know very well what we can and cannot do (or should not do for
strategic software reasons), and we know that the software is the only
reason we are here and won't risk its long term stability and robustness for
a quick buck, and end up with a piece of junk in the long term. I think that
this is too often the case when the people running the company just know the
problem domain, or business, and consider the actual product something to be
jerked around as required to make money as fast as possible.) They seem to
forget that the only reason people are coming to them is for the product and
that it must remain high quality.

-------------------------------------
Dean Roddey
Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems
www.charmedquark.com