Tweet
Id like to get people opinions on using a PC as a Haunted house control system, I know there are a lot of haunted house operators who would rather be buried alive than use a PC, and Id like to understand if this opinion is based upon hard experience or anecdotal evidence.
My interest in this matter is as a professional controls engineer I have been developing PC based control systems for on and off 20 years, and I'm actually very familiar with many of the arguments, and have often successfully proven many of them to be unfounded, out of context or easily solved.
The case for the PC is very strong, today even baseline machines are inordinately powerful, and in recent years the prices have crashed to a level where you can buy a perfectly serviceable laptop computer for $400, compare this to a number of stand alone haunt and animatronics controllers and it represents an incredible value..... however, given an option of using PC or not then most people will still prefer the 'not' option.
When you factor in the fact that a single PC with the right combination of hardware and software could do the job of many stand alone controllers, and give you a singe central point of control then I feel its well worth examining the case against the PC.
The haunted industry is not alone in this preference either, there is a whole world out there who would much prefer non PC solutions, I work in the industrial automation industry and have known clients want to spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars on redeveloping a non PC solution.
However, much of the anti PC rhetoric is often based on a number of misconceptions, and evidence that is anecdotal, out of date, out of context and in several cases based upon scare stories whipped up by manufacturers protecting non PC products.
Reliability is probably the PCs most damning criticism. EVERYONE complains about a failed PC at some point and we all have personal experiences and stories about the frustration of being unable to get one to do the simplest tasks, however how often have you sat back and asked why, after all, under the skin the hardware of a PC is solid state, the only moving part in a PC is the hard disk drive, and indeed its the only part thats liable to mechanical failure.
On top of this hardware we have the software.... and this is where the arguing normally starts Microsoft/Micro$oft/Microshaft Windows/Windoze, call it what you will everyone hates the "evil money grabbing giant" that is Microsoft and the "unreliable junk" they peddle.... and often these accusations have been well justified, they completely underestimated the development of computers from day 1 and the windows 95/98/ME product line was absolute garbage.
But, probably the biggest fault of the PC, its biggest weakness is its accessibility, just about any would be geek thinks he can buy a disparate collection of parts and build a PC, just about any Taiwanese electronics shop can build a motherboard/card/widget that plugs into a PC, and just about any kid in a darkened bedroom can write some junk software, and just about any user over a period of time will load up his computer with the most bizarre range of junk and 'cool gadgets' that its no wonder the thing operates at the speed of pouring cold tar.
My interest in this matter is as a professional controls engineer I have been developing PC based control systems for on and off 20 years, and I'm actually very familiar with many of the arguments, and have often successfully proven many of them to be unfounded, out of context or easily solved.
The case for the PC is very strong, today even baseline machines are inordinately powerful, and in recent years the prices have crashed to a level where you can buy a perfectly serviceable laptop computer for $400, compare this to a number of stand alone haunt and animatronics controllers and it represents an incredible value..... however, given an option of using PC or not then most people will still prefer the 'not' option.
When you factor in the fact that a single PC with the right combination of hardware and software could do the job of many stand alone controllers, and give you a singe central point of control then I feel its well worth examining the case against the PC.
The haunted industry is not alone in this preference either, there is a whole world out there who would much prefer non PC solutions, I work in the industrial automation industry and have known clients want to spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars on redeveloping a non PC solution.
However, much of the anti PC rhetoric is often based on a number of misconceptions, and evidence that is anecdotal, out of date, out of context and in several cases based upon scare stories whipped up by manufacturers protecting non PC products.
Reliability is probably the PCs most damning criticism. EVERYONE complains about a failed PC at some point and we all have personal experiences and stories about the frustration of being unable to get one to do the simplest tasks, however how often have you sat back and asked why, after all, under the skin the hardware of a PC is solid state, the only moving part in a PC is the hard disk drive, and indeed its the only part thats liable to mechanical failure.
On top of this hardware we have the software.... and this is where the arguing normally starts Microsoft/Micro$oft/Microshaft Windows/Windoze, call it what you will everyone hates the "evil money grabbing giant" that is Microsoft and the "unreliable junk" they peddle.... and often these accusations have been well justified, they completely underestimated the development of computers from day 1 and the windows 95/98/ME product line was absolute garbage.
But, probably the biggest fault of the PC, its biggest weakness is its accessibility, just about any would be geek thinks he can buy a disparate collection of parts and build a PC, just about any Taiwanese electronics shop can build a motherboard/card/widget that plugs into a PC, and just about any kid in a darkened bedroom can write some junk software, and just about any user over a period of time will load up his computer with the most bizarre range of junk and 'cool gadgets' that its no wonder the thing operates at the speed of pouring cold tar.
Comment