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Comment by ano-ther | Hacker News Reader

I love that “internet reset” button

We laugh as IT experts.

But think about it from the end user perspective. Literally the most simple instruction; near fault proof. On an airplane that is thousands of feet from remote IT support (plus "costs").

The instruction to staff; problem with "the Internet"? - press the "Interest Reset" button.

Far better than "router restart", "renew DHCP leases" or "reboot IT"

Explicit, non ambiguous and without technobabble.

Brilliant.

What's interesting is that the button need not actually reset the Internet right away. It's actually a user signal that "customers are complaining the Internet does not work". The button could initiate a whole series of diagnostics and target a fix.

That sounds mainly like yet another thing that could malfunction.

Honestly, that should be the mindset of IT experts in general. Any reset/reset should fix everything and bring the system to a known functional state before doing any work.

Obviously you don't want to have to restart to fix issues, but having that as a fallback (especially for issues you didn't predict during development) is great UX.

Isn’t this the fundamental point of the push for impotency in configuration management tools?

You just need the state set to “good”, regardless of which bits need to change and current state. Hit the button and it makes it “good”.

> Isn’t this the fundamental point of the push for impotency in configuration management tools?

FYI, The word you're looking for is idempotence (EYE-dem-poh-tense).

Thank you. I thought this was some reference to giving people config options that don’t actually do anything.

No, just phone autocorrect, and too late to edit it.

Typing too fast and not paying attention.

Although I do like your interpretation. Maybe I’ll call poorly implemented or useless functions impotent from now on.

Yes, autocorrect.

Hence Erlang. When in doubt, restart the part of your application with bad data.

I refuse.

I stand my ground on using quotes.

"Reset" "Internet".

If that's your attitude, you may as well rename the button "Appease Machine Spirit" and attach a few purity seals to it.

That's a bad name for the button because now the staff have to remembered what it's for.

agreed. It’s a great solution for a flight crew that is most likely unable/unwilling to troubleshoot stale DHCP leases or bouncing ifaces. The only disadvantage is that if the Internet reset button doesn’t work for whatever reason, the FAs will mark the entire system INOP for your entire six hour cross country flight that you planned to work on...

Immutable OS FTW!

I'm a priest who was a software engineer for twenty years. This morning during the service in a small semi-rural church, the bluetooth speaker broke. I paused the service briefly, joked that I knew what to do, and turned it off and on. The IT Crowd got that part of the industry right!

Wow why the career change?

it's a complicated answer: faith is at the heart of it, of course. In Christianity there's the idea of vocation, which applies to all, not just the clergy. A simple way to think about it is to consider the things you're good at, the things you can do that will serve others, and what you enjoy: imagine that as a Venn diagram, and try to discern what lies in the middle for you.

My software skills still play a part in what I do. But seven or eight years ago now I felt drawn to explore a vocation in ordained ministry – after study, a formation programme, completing a Masters degree in Divinity, and a lot of thought and prayer, here I am. It's the happiest I've ever been. Which isn't to say that it hasn't been difficult: being a cleric is not easy work.

Intentional discernment about vocation really has made my life a lot happier, and it's something I talk about a little because it's of value to other people as well.

(I'm in the Anglican [in the states, Episcopalian] tradition, but the process of ministerial formation is very broadly similar between the various mainline protestant denominations and Roman Catholicism.)

Paying penance for using Angular 2.0 (had to insert some random technology to make my silly joke work)

Software engineer turned priest, perfect story for HN on Christmas Day, do tell!

Yes, don't leave us hanging (on Christmas, no less!).

I don’t remember seeing a button on the internet when watching a documentary about an IT team that gave their manager the box that controls the internet. Only had a red led. This must be a new version of the internet.

Are you sure you’re not thinking of The IT Crowd? https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg

That’s it! That’s the documentary! Weird choice for a documentary to have the laugh track though.

it's because truth is funnier than fiction

After it was dropped they had to do a v2

I believe the “Button for the Internet” is the Browser - Internet Explorer.

I don’t have a browser on my computer. Can you help me install it?

Sure, just Google for Firefox and install that.

This must be something language/culture dependent. To a native Finnish speaker, labeling the button that resets the internet connection as "internet reset" makes perfect sense. Just like the power button only switches the power on/off for that particular device but not for the rest of the world.

The entire commercial aviation industry operates using the english language. All pilots communicate with all airports via english. I'm sure FAs are most proficient in english too. Its the lingua franca of the biz.

I meant that I would label the button that resets the internet connection "internet reset", and there would be nothing weird or amusing about that. Because my native language is Finnish, English words often have subtly different meanings to me than to a native English speaker, even when we agree on the literal meaning of the word.

I think we’re ready for ‘Lingua Anglica’.

Actually reset is kinda weird term.

Internet is not working Solution: Set it again to working condition, thus reset Internet.

Sometimes it is pointless to go to technical details. I was on flight with issues with infotainment systems, they fixed it by restarting them. Or reset.

This is a very confusing message.

The "internet reset" message makes sense in all languages that I know. Same with the power button.

What do you think they mean in other languages?

https://www.southparkstudios.com/video-clips/hq0tek/south-pa...

Don't press it too often, or you'll hear cursing from the cockpit.

Should be labeled "Turn Internet off and on again".

From an end user perspective the better label would be "Fix internet"

No. That would mean the button needs to stay pressed indefinitely.

Technically the button breaks the internet then fixes it.

Maybe it should be "press when in trouble".

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