an oil lamp has about five parts and you can see all of them at once: a font of oil, a wick, a knob that raises the wick, a glass chimney, a flame. nothing is hidden. everything is serviceable with your hands and a rag.
failing in the right direction
when it fails, it fails in the direction you would have chosen. it goes dim. it smokes a little. it gives you ten minutes of warning and a smell.1
most of the software i use fails the other way: a thousand parts, none of them mine, all of them going at once, behind one spinner that has no idea either.
not an argument for 1890
i am not arguing for 1890. i am arguing for the spec — few parts, visible parts, and a failure that gets dimmer before it gets dark. i have been handed worse tickets than that.
- the modern equivalent of a smoking wick is a status page, and it is usually green. ↩