Priority Interrupt by Steve Ciarcia The Personal Touch

I guess being prophetic doesn’t have the mileage these days that it used to. When I write an editorial expounding the societal implications associated with the misuse of RFID devices, nobody reacts. My inbox isn’t filled with e-mails from counterculture enthusiasts praising my intuition or engineers criticizing my overly simplistic “the sky is falling” innuendo. Basically, I get to say my piece and life goes on. Of course, when I’m less prophetic and talk about ridiculous personal adventures like almost falling through the attic ceiling while stringing camera wires, I get a dozen e-mails describing similar situations along with nice stories about having read Circuit Cellar for years.

I don’t have a clue what this means other than perhaps too much of what you read elsewhere is prophetic, and a little personal touch now and then is a relief. Like you, I look at all the trade journals, PC magazines, and popular technical web sites. All the fervor about a particular subject in these other publications gives me the incentive to discuss the same thing in my editorial. But perhaps after hearing a dozen opinions on the value (or not) of dual-core processors in embedded applications, you may not feel the need to discuss it further. However, when I talk about how the obsessive-compulsive, anal co-worker in the next cubicle should get a life rather than frown about your slovenly looking (only to them) horizontal filing system like I did last month, I’m likely to get a whole bunch of e-mails.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I talk about technology and things that I see affecting your professional career because Circuit Cellar strives to be a technical resource. At the same time, Circuit Cellar is more than just a source of technical information. Most of you don’t leave it on the pile with the rest of the trade magazines at the office. It’s at home where you read it and keep it for enjoyment.

I can only surmise that when you read an editorial about profoundly technical subject matter, you subconsciously leave it on the desk at the office. When I throw in an editorial about my latest adventures in home control or discuss how ridiculous it is to put 38 circulator fans in a car seat, I get a bunch of e-mails from readers sharing opinions and views because that’s part of Circuit Cellar’s enjoyment value for them.

In truth, I enjoy telling you about my own uses of technology more. For example, after hearing how a friend had $200,000 in water damage to his house (it’s a nice house ;-) from a failed oil burner pump, I thought I’d better improve the monitoring system on my home’s five-zone heating system before going to my “cottage” this winter. While I already extensively monitor room temperatures, it might not tell me that one of the circulator pumps has failed, or that a thermostat is stuck, or that the oil tank is just plain empty until it’s too late.

OK, add a few solid state relays to monitor the power applied to the blowers and pumps, add a bunch of thermistors on the outlet pipes, add a 6² bundle of wiring back to the HCS, and we’re good to go. Well, even I think doing all that would be nuts. My ultimate solution was much simpler. Rather than involve the HCS at all, I found this really neat four-channel video web server (www.arucaelectronics.com) and simply installed a few video cameras. From the cottage, I can now see the full System 2000 boiler control panel with its two-dozen status lights, the physical oil gage, and the oil pump pressure gage. Problem solved.

I could go on about the other two four-channel video servers I added along with this one, but that’s a story for another time. The issue here is how much naive discovery and personal adventure I get away with before we have to go back to the mundane world of professional credibility. Like many students we frequently meet these days who haven’t a clue how to do math by hand because they’ve used calculators their whole lives, there are many readers who don’t have the benefit of being with Circuit Cellar for some part or all of the last 25 years. Long-time readers know that humor and discovery are essential ingredients in this very personal magazine. I don’t like having to espouse on dry technology issues every month, but I don’t want the new guys thinking I’m some whack-job who only likes to play in the cellar either.

It’s a fine line keeping all these interests in check. I just need you to bear with me when I seem to occasionally switch horses in midstream.