2022-06-23, 04:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 2022-06-23, 05:34 PM by theskyhound.)
To anyone else having difficulty with the Real Time tool:
I'm in a hotel room and should be preparing for a talk I'm doing at the RMSS tomorrow, so I'll try to be brief, even though this isn't a simple issue.
When someone asks me to enable the column sorting in the Real Time tool it triggers more than you might think. Real Time had some real shortcomings from the beginning, but for whatever reason, people chose to find work arounds rather than explain to me what wasn't working. This goes back to the beta test where a tester actually quit the test rather than explain to me what wasn't working for him. It turned out to be a simple bug and it was a damn shame he didn't stick around. Working around the tool, or disabling it, is not a way forward. That is not on the table.
If you are having similar difficulties please reach out to me so that we can work to improve the tool. Explain your situation like Mark did and include screenshots.
We did a Real Time only beta test last fall, but it was limited to only a few testers. I have put a lot of effort into the Real Time tool and its algorithm over the last year, starting at last years RMSS, where I used it exclusively. I have used it in many different situations and with many different telescopes. I have spent hours simulating various situations. There is a multipart set of tutorials that are almost finished that explain how to best use Real Time, and in the process of creating those, I found more things to improve.
When someone tells me it doesn't work for them there are four possibilities:
1. They have misunderstood something fundamental about how it works and are not using it in a way that leads to success
2. There is a bug in the algorithm that I have not yet caught because I don't get enough useful feedback
3. There is a special circumstance that the algorithm fails to work well for--something I had not anticipated. Again, I can only address this with better feedback.
4. I created a tool that cannot ever work, and should be abandoned by allowing people to disable it.
If you look at it in the light of the above, perhaps you can see why I don't respond well when people go straight to number 4 without giving me a chance to understand the problem first. My job is to make this work, not give you the ability to turn it off.
I'm in a hotel room and should be preparing for a talk I'm doing at the RMSS tomorrow, so I'll try to be brief, even though this isn't a simple issue.
When someone asks me to enable the column sorting in the Real Time tool it triggers more than you might think. Real Time had some real shortcomings from the beginning, but for whatever reason, people chose to find work arounds rather than explain to me what wasn't working. This goes back to the beta test where a tester actually quit the test rather than explain to me what wasn't working for him. It turned out to be a simple bug and it was a damn shame he didn't stick around. Working around the tool, or disabling it, is not a way forward. That is not on the table.
If you are having similar difficulties please reach out to me so that we can work to improve the tool. Explain your situation like Mark did and include screenshots.
We did a Real Time only beta test last fall, but it was limited to only a few testers. I have put a lot of effort into the Real Time tool and its algorithm over the last year, starting at last years RMSS, where I used it exclusively. I have used it in many different situations and with many different telescopes. I have spent hours simulating various situations. There is a multipart set of tutorials that are almost finished that explain how to best use Real Time, and in the process of creating those, I found more things to improve.
When someone tells me it doesn't work for them there are four possibilities:
1. They have misunderstood something fundamental about how it works and are not using it in a way that leads to success
2. There is a bug in the algorithm that I have not yet caught because I don't get enough useful feedback
3. There is a special circumstance that the algorithm fails to work well for--something I had not anticipated. Again, I can only address this with better feedback.
4. I created a tool that cannot ever work, and should be abandoned by allowing people to disable it.
If you look at it in the light of the above, perhaps you can see why I don't respond well when people go straight to number 4 without giving me a chance to understand the problem first. My job is to make this work, not give you the ability to turn it off.
Clear skies,
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound