{ "attachments": [ "b9c6e95a86d6.jpg" ], "title": "How webdev is like space exploration", "author": "lmorchard", "layout": "post", "permalink": "/2012/07/10/webdev-in-spac", "dsq_thread_id": [ 1136633645 ], "categories": [ "Uncategorized" ], "tags": [ "mozilla", "space", "webdev" ], "year": "2012", "month": "07", "day": "10", "isDir": true, "slug": "webdev-in-spac", "type": "entry", "date": "2012-07-10T19:00:00.000Z", "postName": "2012-07-10-webdev-in-spac", "html": "

This isn’t so much a complaint as a set of observations: Sometimes, as a webdev, diagnosing and fixing issues on a live site in production gives me sympathy for NASA scientists dealing with remote space probes. And, that’s because I generally don’t have direct access to the servers. Instead, my access is mediated through sysadmins whose primary communication channel is trouble tickets. (Occasionally, I’ll be lucky enough to have someone I can pester more directly, but that’s a privilege that I try really hard not to abuse.)

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So, I build my own replicas of production sites, as best as I can. I deploy exploratory rovers into those environments, and try to account for what could happen based on everything I know up to this point. Once I’ve done all I can to prepare, I fire up the comms dish and beam out a request to the distant probe. This takes time because I have to wait until the receiver is in alignment, and there’s a transmission & reply delay due to distance. (In other words, I file a bug and wait for someone to pick it up. That takes awhile, because we’re all busy people, and I’m a telecommuter who can’t just go tap someone on the shoulder.)

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I cross my fingers and hope I’ve built up a good-enough model of the remote environment, and maybe I’ll find that my hypothesis will be validated. If not, well, then I at least hope I haven’t broken anything, and hope that there’s new information in the reply that I can assimilate into my replica environment here back at home for an improved next attempt.

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But, I’m not entirely sure how to improve this situation. If I had direct access to production servers, I’d be able to do more. However, if I had that access, I’d be expected to do more. You know, like wear a pager and wake up at 4am to fix an alarm condition. I’ve done that job in the past, and I don’t envy anyone who has it now.

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There are also, I imagine, trust and confidentiality issues: even though I write the code, I’m not necessarily qualified to be in contact with certain kinds of sensitive data on a daily basis. (And by not qualified, I mean not bound by a certain class of contractual or legal obligations and not subject to certain kinds of training. I’ll say you can trust me, but trust is sometimes a formalized thing.)

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Still, some days I like to imagine that what I’m doing is trying to debug the behavior of a robot in orbit around Mars. It keeps me from putting too many dents into my desk with my forehead.

\n", "body": "This isn’t so much a complaint as a set of observations: Sometimes, as a webdev, diagnosing and fixing issues on a live site in production gives me sympathy for NASA scientists dealing with remote space probes. And, that’s because I generally don’t have direct access to the servers. Instead, my access is mediated through sysadmins whose primary communication channel is trouble tickets. (Occasionally, I’ll be lucky enough to have someone I can pester more directly, but that’s a privilege that I try really hard not to abuse.)\r\n\r\n[][1] So, I build my own replicas of production sites, as best as I can. I deploy exploratory rovers into those environments, and try to account for what could happen based on everything I know up to this point. Once I’ve done all I can to prepare, I fire up the comms dish and beam out a request to the distant probe. This takes time because I have to wait until the receiver is in alignment, and there’s a transmission & reply delay due to distance. (*In other words, I file a bug and wait for someone to pick it up. That takes awhile, because we’re all busy people, and I’m a telecommuter who can’t just go tap someone on the shoulder.*)\r\n\r\nI cross my fingers and hope I’ve built up a good-enough model of the remote environment, and maybe I’ll find that my hypothesis will be validated. If not, well, then I at least hope I haven’t broken anything, and hope that there’s new information in the reply that I can assimilate into my replica environment here back at home for an improved next attempt.\r\n\r\nBut, I’m not entirely sure how to improve this situation. If I had direct access to production servers, I’d be able to do more. However, if I had that access, I’d be *expected* to do more. You know, like wear a pager and wake up at 4am to fix an alarm condition. I’ve done that job in the past, and I don’t envy anyone who has it now.\r\n\r\nThere are also, I imagine, trust and confidentiality issues: even though I write the code, I’m not necessarily qualified to be in contact with certain kinds of sensitive data on a daily basis. (And by not qualified, I mean not bound by a certain class of contractual or legal obligations and not subject to certain kinds of training. I’ll say you can trust me, but trust is sometimes a formalized thing.)\r\n\r\nStill, some days I like to imagine that what I’m doing is trying to debug the behavior of a robot in orbit around Mars. It keeps me from putting too many dents into my desk with my forehead.\r\n\r\n [1]: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html", "parentPath": "./content/posts/archives/2012/2012-07-10-webdev-in-spac", "path": "2012/07/10/webdev-in-spac", "thumbnail": "/2012/07/10/webdev-in-spac/b9c6e95a86d6.jpg", "needsBuild": true, "prevPostPath": "2012/07/10/webdev-more-better", "prevPostTitle": "How webdev has been getting better", "nextPostPath": "2012/07/10/note-to-self-file-a-bug-to-get", "nextPostTitle": "Note to self File a bug to get…" }