Q: What does a kernel need before it gets to work?
.BURG :A
Q: How did the Gnome application get to work?
.suB-D koot tI :A
Q: What did the IDS bring to his family reunion?
.seotamot detsaor-(llaw)erif htiw stekcap deffutS :A
Q: How does Nmap decorate for Christmas?
!tekcap eert-samtsirhC a htiW :A
Q: What do you call sluggish JavaScript?
.detanieffaceD :A
I once worked at a shop that managed digital signs for several concession stands. The displays were small-form-factor PCs booting a USB "thumb drive" loaded with Ubuntu Desktop configured to launch Chromium pointed at a display-specific URL on a webapp my predecessors had written. The page each display showed showed a slideshow of menu images that had been scheduled for that display and periodically refreshed itself. Concessions salesmen went to the webapp to upload and schedule images. The system had several obvious flaws, and those flaws all caused regular problems.
The JavaScript application was buggy and would sometimes get stuck, usually because of a momentary network failure. Sometimes, Chromium itself would fail. For these, we could usually SSH in and restart Chromium. Worse was that the USB disks frequently failed, especially in buildings that were only cooled when they were used for events.[1]
Shortly before I left, I checked the notes on a ticket for a disk replacement on a display in a large barn used for livestock exhibitions, and I found this:
let me tell you a story: I waltzed on into that poop smelling building thinking that I would only have to deal with it for maybe a half hour. No. I was in there for an hour and a half, standing on top of the counter struggling to reach the digital signs- because whoever set up those things DID NOT think about the logistics of future troubleshooting. I had to replace both of the USBs and OH MY GOD I spent a half hour alone just trying to pull the old ones out! Who designs USBs that small?? I had a choice, drive back to the shop to get pliers and waste a bunch of time(I had already tried using the screw driver to try and leverage it out), OR open up the can of worms that is the cable management on those TVs to unplug the DS and use my teeth to pull out the USB. I chose the latter.
The first replacement USB I happened to pick out of the provided bag of supposedly crisp, fresh new USBs, was already displaying for the Union, so I threw it on the ground and took a hammer to it. The next one worked! And I was able to get both signs working with the replacements.
Moral of the story is, if you spend an hour and a half in the pavilion on top of the concessions counter, trying to fix digital signs, while it's 80 degrees outside, and a SAUNA in the concessions room; you WILL sweat through your shirt and your hair WILL get so frizzy you look like the Back to the Future scientist.
Fin.
1. I am ashamed to say that I didn't correct the system. Using network booting; building a minimal, static image with Buildroot; replacing Chromium with a minimal Web browser (like the Suckless project's Surf) or noninteractive Web renderer; and rewriting the slideshow's JavaScript would have done wonders. Instead, I addressed the smaller flaws, hacked out crude things like periodically SSHing into each machine to restart the browser, and left it to my successor.