> > Or were you specifically interested in electrical mistakes? :)
>
> I prefer bug-finding mistakes, but of course one sometimes has to debug
> his own mindset.
>

This is a mindset adjustment story...

I sometimes find myself asked to help technicians in the production area of
our plant. I write the embedded controller code, so whenever anything
doesn't work they come find me because they think it's a firmware bug
(nevermind that the previous 3,000 units worked just fine!) One of the
technicians summoned me after he had spent 2 hours attempting to find out
why he could not get the serial link between one of our products and a
printer. The printer isn't printing anything. The device seems to be
operating normally but no printing. He says he has "tried everything". So I
ask about baud rate, parity, blah blah blah. Says he checked all that. I ask
if he has tried a new cable - "No, I used this same cable yesterday and it
worked just fine". So I went into my standard lecture about how things
usually do work just fine right up until the time they quit working. He
listened, but was unimpressed. I asked him to humor me and try a new cable.
He mumbled something not very complimentary about my family heritage, so I
decided to let him solve the problem himself. He tells me later that after
troubleshooting for another hour or so he DID change the cable and presto -
it works.

So the lesson was just because something worked fine yesterday doesn't mean
that it is still ok today. I find it amazing how many people refuse to
believe that something that worked yesterday quit working today.

I'll try to remember some of *my* more interesting mistakes (there are lots
to pick from!)

-- Mark



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