Re: Stay-Open Script Apps vs Cron
Re: Stay-Open Script Apps vs Cron
- Subject: Re: Stay-Open Script Apps vs Cron
- From: "S. J. Cunningham" <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 12:14:11 -0400
Gary,
Thanks for your advice but, given my circumstances, I believe the system I am building is more reliable, functional, and flexible than any I can buy. If my wife had the ability to dial a phone, push a button, or even speak loudly enough to be heard it would be a different story. The system I am building will passively monitor _my_ activities and alert a list of alternate responders (who are stakeholders) to investigate if I am inactive for more than two hours. A heartbeat monitor, for example, would not sound the alarm if I were merely unconscious. A button that I had to push periodically would work but would be a pain in the ass and be no more reliable than the motion detector... and the motion detector doesn't forget. I run my computers on a UPS so I am not worried about power outages. I also have multiple computers so I can provide redundancy. The chief failure modes are gross coding errors which I can minimize with extensive testing and an internet outage. These happen occasionally but the system will monitor them and resume when it comes back up. No system is fail-proof but one reaches the point of diminishing returns :) Besides, I can code better than those guys :)
Steve
On Jun 5, 2014, at 11:39 AM, G Wood wrote:
> Steve wrote...
>
>> I am the sole caregiver for my wife is totally paralyzed with MS and I am worried that if I became incapacitated she could die of dehydration before someone found us. I am building a system to send out an escalating series of alarms if it hasn't detected me entering her room at least every two hours. (...)
>
> and then
>
>>>> The Applescript option gives me more flexibility but I am leery of it's reliability. If the app dies, so may the person I am monitoring :(
>>>
>>> If I wanted to use AppleScript in a very stable fashion I'd think carefully about using Smile (free for non-commercial use).
>>
>>
>> From the way you phrased it, I'm not sure if you are recommending it or recommending against it :)
>
> Ha. Yes, in common English usage that's an unclear affirmative suggestion at best. But I think it's meant to say that Smile is an industrial systems engine and it's stable and has lots of extensions to AS. More below.
>
>> I used to have Smile installed but it filled up the log with warnings from the system. I forget the details but it's mere presence triggered the messages and the developer said he had no plans to fix it. In any event I don't recall any functions it had which would increase stability. I used it mostly for it's string matching functions and the standard applescript string functions work fine for this application.
>
> I toyed with doing some of this same kind of scrapped-together monitoring for my mother, but I reached the point where, like you, I realized that (as you said) "If the app dies so does the person I'm monitoring."
>
> Which makes me ask, seriously, why would you not just purchase the tools you really need, like monitoring systems or other IoT-based tools? Why even chance a hobby system like this, if you feel this way? I don't think you can really have it both ways -- fail-proof system and your own hobby system.
>
> Seriously. Get the right equipment and tools and then spend your time coding things that you can around those professional tools; things that aren't part of the life/death aspects of the system.
>
> As for Smile, the chief evangelist is here (on this list) so Emmanuel can speak to whatever he wants, but Smile is an engine that for a solid 15 years or more has been built to run industrial systems manufacturing and such. Smile is robust and tested. That is why I believe it was recommended to you. That's what smile is built for.
>
> Now, having said that, on Mavericks it does give me some terrible pains with with new windows hanging after every line of cmd-R executed code. Once I save the window, it's usually okay.
>
> But really, the "mere presence" of Smile can not, I think, make your system go crazy. There's something else going on. Smile doesn't do anything to the system (aside from installing OSAX). But smiles timers could help if you want to persist with a homemade life monitoring system (which I think is a terribly risky idea for the amateur hobbyist.)
>
> Good luck with your systems to give you more peace of mind. It's a great thing that we have these technologies to enhance and protect life. This makes me realize how even this very list and its question are, as they say, "first world problems".
>
> -- Gary
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