Comment on OceanGate’s ill-fated Titan sub relied on a hand-typed Excel spreadsheet

TommySoda@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Korkki@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I really do wonder why they ended up in this. It can’ be that hard to make even a hacky DIY system to do it automatically. The navigation system just had to have some digital or even analog output, then it would be just the problem of interpreting the signal with some script and writing it into a file.

  When Wilby recommended the company use standard software to process ping data and plot the sub’s telemetry automatically, the response was that the company wanted to develop an in-house system, but didn’t have enough time.

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  • superkret@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    To write a script, you need someone who can write scripts.
    If all you have is someone who can write VLOOKUPs in Excel, and the CEO is too cheap to hire someone, then that’s what you use.

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    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      So basically it’s a project done by MBA geniuses, entrepreneurs and visionaries who optimized by cutting on those mundane and boring nautical engineers and software developers?

      God, do I like how evolution works.

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      • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Image

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    • DogEatWaffle@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      someone who can write VLOOKUPs

      I think you’re overestimating the competence on display here…

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    • lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Sounds like they did the lookups by hand actually

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  • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I really do wonder why they ended up in this. It can’ be that hard to make even a hacky DIY system to do it automatically.

    All-manager team, no devs?

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    • elvith@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s why they use, what they know: Excel. I wonder if the UI was done in PowerPoint?

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      • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Nah, FrontPage.

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    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s exactly like Fallout lol

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  • T156@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I like how the company didn’t consider using standard software to do it, and then switch to the in-house system that they made later, instead of just having it done by hand instead.

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• Madrigal@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  There are better ways to do that even in Excel!

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  • doctortran@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Right? I work with plenty of users in non-technical roles who have at best rudimentary Excel skills, and even they could figure out a better way to manage this. The whole thing with Excel is to make basic data work accessible even to a rube, and let them do an incredible amount of things otherwise outside their skillet.

    Using Excel like this is like giving someone a pressure cooker and they only use it to boil water.

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• leftzero@lemmynsfw.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  What’s worse is that half the coordinates probably ended up as dates…

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  • invno1@lemmy.one ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Or comma separated values…F, that,

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• CptEnder@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Man if it wasn’t for that kid that was probably dragged into this, I’d be fucking rolling rn. How fucking stupid do you have to be to not see the sea of red flags???

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