风雨之夜
风雨之夜
作者： 华西车城
昨晚， 漆黑的夜空， 被连续不停的雷雨狠狠地抽打， 闪电划破夜空如同白昼。
这种天气， 人们最担心的事情， 莫过於停电。
我， 想到了女儿的小狗， 维尔伯。 每次雷雨天气， 它都惊魂失措， 四处躲藏。 即使抱在怀里， 仍然不得安宁。 它总是胆怯地钻到床底， 直到雷电结束。 女儿去维加斯玩了， 我照看维尔伯的一个夜晚， 就是这么过来的。
我曾经在维尔伯生日， 给它买的礼物， 就是一件雷电卡克（Thunder Jacket)。 独自与维尔伯相守一夜，是因为领导外出， 奋战风雨。
我也像维尔伯那样， 惊魂失措， 不得安宁。 耽心的， 却是风雨中， 领导的安全。
“你们的系统， 怎么跟豆腐和屁做的似的。”
每次雷雨， 领导加班， 我总要抱怨领导的电力公司这么一句。 抱怨归抱怨， 其实自己和领导都是电力专业出身的内行。 对于输电线路的知识是不缺乏的， 知道系统故障和牵连着千万家人的安全与安宁。 多少年来， 大部分同学都已经离开电力行业， 尤其在美国的同学， 除了领导， 几乎没有人还干电力这一行。
电力公司是传统的老行业， 公司在全球化进程中受到的冲击不小， 但传统的敬业精神和责任感永远强过“埃踢”行业。
这不， 一遇风浪， 全公司倾巢而出。 资深工程师与一线工人们一样， 在风中雨中抢险救援。 为了用户尽快恢复供电， 为了公司荣誉， 他们置身的危险， 不是人人都知道和理解的。
工程师们现场察看险情， 布置临时警戒， 与警察和消防队员们共同保护着事故现场的生命财产。 之外， 还要以自己的专业知识分析险情， 填写报告， 调度不同应急维修人员和工种尽快赶来现场。 一切按计划进入安全抢修之后， 他们又冲向另一处险境， 总是最先置身於危险境地的专业人士。 也有警察先到等他们的时候， 但警察是非专业， 只能闪着警灯， 一旁干瞪眼的份。 处理应急， 还得领导们。
这种工作是实打实的应急响应， 考验技术和技能的最前线。 与坐办公室的工程师或者码农们的日常， 相差甚远。 很多时候， 虚拟世界和程序堆里的大拿， 要是遇到这样的挑战， 只会手脚无措。
由此， 想到曾经的一段笑话。 说的是通用汽车公司与微软对话：
At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”
In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left-turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to reinstall the engine.
4. When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought “Car95” or “Car NT”, and then added more seats.
6. Apple would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five per cent of the roads.
7. Oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single “general car default” warning light.
8. New seats would force every-one to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag would say “Are you sure?” before going off.
10. Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of road maps from Rand-McNally (a subsidiary of GM), even though they neither need them nor want them. Trying to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 per cent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You would press the “start” button to shut off the engine.
玩笑是玩笑， 我独自躺在床上， 睁眼望着窗外。 雨还在下， 雷声仍然不断。 今晚没有维尔伯， 心里只有领导的安危， 昏昏沉沉， 竟然睡着了……