Is a computer actually necessary?

[BigJetDriver]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


Thinking that a computer knows what you should do with any precision just doesn't fit what we know) or don't know about decompression.

Go read Ross Hemmingway's site. Divers send him data on the dives they did and the results. One guy says "I did this and felt good" another says "I did this and didn't feel so good" Then Ross says well maybe I'll make an adjustment to the code a little.

As to the first paragraph above, I would submit to you, gentle readers, that the exact opposite is true. If loaded with the proper model, such as Bruce Wienke's RGBM in the HS Explorer, the micro-processor can, through its sensor inputs, track your exact position in the water column extremely accurately. It can then do calculations based upon that information MUCH faster than any human can, thereby offering real-time decompression computation that no human can duplicate. (If there is such a person with that kind of arithmetical speed, he or she should immediately apply to Dr. Xavier's Academy!)

As for the second paragraph above, the RGB model, for instance, has already gone through that "crash test dummy" phase. The good folks at NAUI have done literally thousands of dives in order to provide the kind of anecdotal responses needed to refine the system and provide verification for it.

I would submit that most of us do not wish to be in the position of experimenting upon ourselves and coming up from a dive saying: "Aiee, doc, that one really hurt! Can you...gasp...tweak it some more!":wacko:

 

[jviehe]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


In the phrase you question...



The point, I think, is this is the oposit of what we want. Several of us have already pointed out that from table to table and computer to computer NDL's are widely different. That's because they don't really exist. If we get compressed, by golly we will get decompressed. You can do it easy or you can do it hard. The more time you spend on the bottom the more you get compressed. That means that you wan a slower ascent. The folks who are doing as described are pushing it on both ends. They put faith in the fact that they're within a real NDL and then try to prove it by ascending at the maximum computer allowed speed.

No, I think we're missing the point that computers just display information, what is happening, and a reccomendation as to what to do with this information. You can then make a decision as to what to do. The ascent indicator simple monitors how fast you are ascending and blinks it thinks you are ascending to fast. This does not mean you have to follow it. As always, unless you know better, you should do what your training says. Computers are simply a tool for accomplishing your diving goals.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Actually, I have to apologize, gentle readers. My post above should have been headed: CDRYB/LOUD.

Computers Don't Rot Your Brain / Lack Of Use Does!!!

 

[oxleyje]

Saw that this post is 52 months old. Just wait, someday we will look back on the post and realize that not embracing computer technology was just plane dangerous. Use the tables all you want but having a computer is just safer. I know that in the Maldives it is a law that you have one and my experience is that it is a great law. I also note that if you ever do get bent, having used a computer will help the doctor to determine how best to help you because it records your profile.

Guys we have got to get out of the Stone Age. Just go through diving history and see how technology has made our sport. Computers are going to be in our diving future increasingly and the faster a diver starts working with one the better off they will be. Reality check, remember the day you retired your typewriter for a laptop or realized that you could not do complex calculations more accurately with a slide rule than a calculator.

 

[fisherdvm]

She said that people who use depth gauges are "stupid" and she insinuated that computers are "safer" okay so i respectfully told her that was her opinion, and she arrogantly said that that wasn't her opinion.
I didn't like her attitude (she had been pretty awful to me a few days before this) so i just got up and left.

If a stupid person can not figure out how to ascend at a safe rate, they should own a computer to tell them their ascend rate.

If a person can ascend at a safe rate with a time piece and depth gauge, and they dive conservative square profile with a table, or a step profile with a wheel, they are "safer" than a computer. Simply is, the table and wheel makes conservative assumptions, while the computer uses your exact profile.

I think the woman doesn't understand the programming of computer. As using either the table or the wheel would be safer than using a computer. As you make more conservative estimates on your depth.

GEEz, and responding to this post 5 years later, you really got to be really STUPID!

 

[matts1w]

Wrong read of a wrong read....

 

[fisherdvm]

Nice attitude. Be proud of how you just represented scubaboard to brand new member. Way to be hardcore.

NO, I WAS LAUGHING AT MYSELF!!! ME, THE STUPID ONE!!! Not him. I mean ME.....

I was simply laughing at myself..... I didn't even read his post... Then I realized.... Ha, ha, ha... stupid me.

At least this new member noted that it was 52 months old. I didn't... The joke was on me...

 

[matts1w]

NO, I WAS LAUGHING AT MYSELF!!! ME, THE STUPID ONE!!! Not him. I mean ME.....

I was simply laughing at myself..... I didn't even read his post... Then I realized.... Ha, ha, ha... stupid me.

At least this new member noted that it was 52 months old. I didn't... The joke was on me...

Then I apologize.

 

[Blind]

They make diving lazier and less stressfully(till something goes wrong with it) so i like them.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Saw that this post is 52 months old. Just wait, someday we will look back on the post and realize that not embracing computer technology was just plane dangerous. Use the tables all you want but having a computer is just safer. I know that in the Maldives it is a law that you have one and my experience is that it is a great law. I also note that if you ever do get bent, having used a computer will help the doctor to determine how best to help you because it records your profile.

Guys we have got to get out of the Stone Age. Just go through diving history and see how technology has made our sport. Computers are going to be in our diving future increasingly and the faster a diver starts working with one the better off they will be. Reality check, remember the day you retired your typewriter for a laptop or realized that you could not do complex calculations more accurately with a slide rule than a calculator.

...done any scientific, peer-reviewed research to back up your claims?