computers & tables: split from ow vs aow

[boomx5]

You guys need to quit arguing and go diving. Brian

There it is...well said Brian!

 

[pilot fish]

You guys need to quit arguing and go diving. I once went diving with a guy who never used tables, a watch or computer. I asked him how he knew when it was time to come up to which he replied, "When my air runs low." You could imagine my alarm. He said, "I have been diving this way for over 25 years and I aint got bent yet, so whats the difference?" I was rather nervous at this point so I said that I will call the dive when we get close to deco. He said "Fine, whatever you want to do." So we do the dive and I am just getting settled in to it when 16 minutes later on a 50 foot dive he comes up to me and says its time to go up. He was at 500 psi, I on the other hand was at 2300 psi. We surfaced and I asked if he had a leak or something in his equipment. He says, "Nope, that was actually a pretty long dive for me." :11: So there you go, this fella never needed to use tables or computers because the longest dive he ever had was less than 20 minutes on a 60 foot dive. No watches, no tables, no computers, no nothing. I have yet to dive with him again.

Brian

Not only is that guy a danger to himself but is to every poor diver that gets stuck with him. He should have his C card revoked! This guy had been diving 25 years and had that kind of air consumption? Newbies do better than that. sheeeeeeeeeeesh!!!

 

[ZenDiver]

Not only is that guy a danger to himself but is to every poor diver that gets stuck with him. He should have his C card revoked! This guy had been diving 25 years and had that kind of air consumption? Newbies do better than that. sheeeeeeeeeeesh!!!

Funny thing is that he is a Golf Ball retrieval diver and probably has more bottom time than most commercial divers. This guy has been diving in ponds for 19 years now. You can imagine my surprise at his consumption rate but he was a really good diver.

In my opinion...consumption rate doesnt have anything to do with skill. It is mostly the case that if you dive alot it naturally comes down with comfort and improved technique but not always. Not to hijack the thread but do you believe that consumption rate and skill as a diver are so intertwined? I have met brand new divers with better consumption rate than me and deep tech divers with a ton more dives than I that have worse consumption.

Brian

 

[pilot fish]

Funny thing is that he is a Golf Ball retrieval diver and probably has more bottom time than most commercial divers. This guy has been diving in ponds for 19 years now. You can imagine my surprise at his consumption rate but he was a really good diver.

In my opinion...consumption rate doesnt have anything to do with skill. It is mostly the case that if you dive alot it naturally comes down with comfort and improved technique but not always. Not to hijack the thread but do you believe that consumption rate and skill as a diver are so intertwined? I have met brand new divers with better consumption rate than me and deep tech divers with a ton more dives than I that have worse consumption.

Brian

Real bad air consumption is usually a mark of a diver that is not very used to being UW, but not always. Most women have better air consumption than me, although I'm getting better. I think it has to do with your physical shape, body style, etc.

Ohhhh, that guy is a golf ball retreiver? Why didn't you say that first? He's got pond fever. Seriously, a guy that retreivews golf balls will probably not know any of the rules of diving. Just a guess. It's like getting on a 747 being flown by a crop-duster pilot.

 

[lamont]

Lamont-
You trust your life to computers EVERY DAY. From the ABS in your car, to the air traffic control center to your doctor's office, computers control or at least play a part in your life on a constant basis. I disagree that you need to understand the math to use it. A musician does not need to mathmatically understand sound to play a symphony, a man need not be an automotive engineer to drive a car and the vast majority of divers don't need to be able to design a dive table to use a dive computer.

I'm pretty sure you're responding to this sentence of mine:

"I guess I just can't understand anyone who would unthinkingly trust a computer with their life if they had another choice."

I worded that sentence extremely carefully. The words "unthinkingly" and "if they had another choice" were selected precisely because I am very aware of the widespread of use of computers in our society. I've been reading comp.risks probably since before you'd ever heard of the Internet.

I still don't understand how someone can dive a computer and just get out when the number gets close to zero...

 

[pilot fish]

I'm pretty sure you're responding to this sentence of mine:

"I guess I just can't understand anyone who would unthinkingly trust a computer with their life if they had another choice."

I worded that sentence extremely carefully. The words "unthinkingly" and "if they had another choice" were selected precisely because I am very aware of the widespread of use of computers in our society. I've been reading comp.risks probably since before you'd ever heard of the Internet.

I still don't understand how someone can dive a computer and just get out when the number gets close to zero...

When what number gets to zero? Most divers now, I just did recently, get a backup puter. I think that should reduce those error possibilites to a managable number? it's like everything else, computerized. You can't hold back time. That is now the face of diving.

 

[lamont]

When what number gets to zero? Most divers now, I just did recently, get a backup puter. I think that should reduce those error possibilites to a managable number? it's like everything else, computerized. You can't hold back time. That is now the face of diving.

You guys just really, really don't get my point at all. I regularly push systems code that i write to 10,000 production linux machines. I've been on the internet since 1990 and BBSes long before that. I wrote my first computer program in the 2nd grade. I'm really not a technophobe or a computer illiterate. I still think that divers would be best served by understanding what is actually going on. And that goes both for using computers *and* for tables. I see way too many people arguing against computers and in favor of tables, who I don't think understand tables any better than they do computers. And just using two digital computers still isn't using your head at all. The meatfilter can still provide a lot of value.

 

[pilot fish]

You guys just really, really don't get my point at all. I regularly push systems code that i write to 10,000 production linux machines. I've been on the internet since 1990 and BBSes long before that. I wrote my first computer program in the 2nd grade. I'm really not a technophobe or a computer illiterate. I still think that divers would be best served by understanding what is actually going on. And that goes both for using computers *and* for tables. I see way too many people arguing against computers and in favor of tables, who I don't think understand tables any better than they do computers. And just using two digital computers still isn't using your head at all. The meatfilter can still provide a lot of value.

Lamont, if I use my head at depth kapuddling the tables, I'd be in a lot of trouble. I understand the theory, and do a bit of the tables, but I just think punching in the number on my DataMax is so much easier, and more reliable that my narc'd head