Steve Lancaster wrote:
Is 10 year old temperature data really worth ANYTHING? (Unless you are the
weather forecasters.)?
Yes - see below
Tell me.. do you remember where sensor 10.2C0442000800 was 10 years ago?
I may not, but my scripts definitely do
Or what the configuration of all the machines in all the racks was?
Assuming you're dealing with machines. I don't - my area of interest i HVAC.
Do you even HAVE the same machines you had 10 years ago?
Generally speaking, yes. My relay box is the first computer I've owned -
it's a Pentium 233MMX with 64M RAM. Very useful, and more than enough
for the task - mail relay, POP/IMAP server, Squid cache, Web server, DNS
server, limited edition file server, etc. Made somewhere in 1997. My
main workstation is PIII 550MHz 640M RAM, made in 1999.
The equipment I'm collecting the data on has a usable lifetime of at
least 20, often in excess of 30 years.
There is one ultimate reason to keep the boatload of old data - pattern
analysis. Whereas the operating conditions (and machinery related to it)
change, patterns don't. And at any given moment of time you may or may
not be smart enough to apply yet another pattern analysis algorithm to
the data you have and see critical correlations you didn't see before.
I thought not.
:-)
Think again :)
And, some food for thoughts:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000017.html
Oh, and while I am at it, who needs a computer with more than 640K RAM
in it?
Steve
--vt
PS: Don't take offense, I didn't mean any. You just touched a raw spot :)
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