Rental computers and newer divers

[Valeriy_Kulaha]

"Keep away from strange water, and do not drink from strange springs, so that you may live a long time and have more years of life"
King Solomon

 

[34109411]

You can't patent an algorithm, including mathematical operations. They could trademark the term "SurfGF" if they created it. I did a quick USPTO search and it doesn't look like they have. But even if they did, someone else could implement the same thing under a different name.

Edit: FWIW, Shearwater does have several patents, but they are all related to using heads-up displays in underwater applications.

 

[Rbolton6]

all I can say is he was damn lucky !

 

[Nick_Radov]

Unfortunately, the situation @boulderjohn described on rental computer use on dive boats is not unusual. SB members generally know what should happen when given a rental computer, but that knowledge is not common among most divers I see on recreational dive boats populated with vacation divers. The last time I was on a dive boat that required computers to meet their own/insurance policy for computer use, they handed out the computers about 5 minutes before splash, with no instructions how to set or use them. I had my own matching computers, but had no idea how to set or operate the wrist models being used, so I was not able to provide any help, and the DMs were too busy trying to get everyone in the water. I don't think any of the divers had a clue as to settings or use, and the computers were just window dressing. Sad!

How bizarre. In all my travels I've never seen a dive boat that required a particular computer. I certainly wouldn't patronize such a screwed up operation.

 

[lowwall]

How bizarre. In all my travels I've never seen a dive boat that required a particular computer. I certainly wouldn't patronize such a screwed up operation.

The way I read it, the requirement was just to have a computer. The boat gave out computers only to those who didn't have their own.

 

[dmaziuk]

The way I read it, the requirement was just to have a computer. The boat gave out computers only to those who didn't have their own.

Knowing how to use one, however, is not a requirement listed in shop's insurance policy, so they Did Everything Right.

 

[Altamira]

How bizarre. In all my travels I've never seen a dive boat that required a particular computer. I certainly wouldn't patronize such a screwed up operation.

@Nick_Radov. Did you actually read my comment? I was talking about wrist mounted computers that a particular dive op handed out (free of charge) to divers that did not have their own computers. No where did I say the dive op required a specific computer or even a specific compute brand. That would have been absurd, and I too have never seen a dive op do it. I don’t know where you came up with that idea. My concern was only that computers were handed out with little/no info given to the users as to how to set or understand the computer prior to splashing. That is what was screwed up.

 

[Eric802]

Having had a long scuba hiatus that spanned the tables-to-computers era, my first experience with a computer was in Maui, using rental equipment that included some puck-type computer in a console - it was so scratched and worn that I don’t even know what it was. Suunto, maybe. But I’d bought a watch before the trip so I’d at least have a timer, and the computer turned out to be useless for a 40-minute dive with a max depth of about 30 feet. I suspect that most rental computer scenarios are similar - you really don’t even need one.