The newsletter / since April 2025
Notes from inside the plant.
Control systems, data diodes, legacy that still works, and what AI is allowed to do. Most articles first appeared in the Beyond Purdue newsletter on LinkedIn. Each one is kept here as a page of its own, with the wording as published.
Latest
The five newest articles. The full archive follows.
I asked for to fill missing miles ....
I did not fill in a single missing-mile claim form. I opened the airline's web page, made sure I was logged in, and asked my AI assistant to handle it.
Four Things Every RCA Taught Us to Check at Recommissioning
Time, grounding, DC supplies and the UPS. Unimportant to many, Important to run system reliably.
The Day Software Became a Language
For fifty years the answer was simple. A program was something only programmers could make. You needed years of training, a team, a budget and a company willing to carry the risk. Everyone else...
Why "Free Proofs of Concept" is a way to destroy best specialised companies on market
A large industrial company recently asked us to look at a group of ageing control systems in packaged equipment such as compressors.
The most powerful tools we ever built, and never learned to use
Unix gave us sed, awk, grep, find, xargs and later git. Between them they can restructure a million-line export, reconcile two data sets, or reconstruct the history of a change in a single line of...
Archive
Every article on this site, newest first. 53 so far.
- No. 06731 October 2026I asked for to fill missing miles ....AI
- No. 06624 October 2026Four Things Every RCA Taught Us to Check at RecommissioningOperations
- No. 06512 October 2026The Day Software Became a LanguageAI
- No. 0643 October 2026Why "Free Proofs of Concept" is a way to destroy best specialised companies on marketSupply chain
- No. 0636 September 2026The most powerful tools we ever built, and never learned to useAI
- No. 0623 September 2026Fibre Optic Connector TypesData diodes
- No. 06017 July 20265 questions board should askCybersecurity
- No. 0581 July 2026COBOL? Close to Source. Meaning Tags. Why Everyone Should Be Able to Work With Plant Data — Without ProgrammingArchitecture
- No. 05729 June 2026Your AI Analytics Platform Is Built on a Chain of Broken RulersAI
- No. 05617 May 2026One question beats 200 pagesPeople
- No. 05527 April 2026Beyond Purdue: When the Supplier Marks Its Own Cybersecurity HomeworkCybersecurity
- No. 05419 March 2026Firewall. Remote Access. CVE 10. Stop Calling It Cybersecurity.Cybersecurity
- No. 05213 February 2026Stop Calling your proven DCS System Obsolete – think again!Legacy systems
- 27 January 2026Statistics & Probabilities – Mistakes to AvoidOperations
- 25 January 2026Powerplant Tariff Meters UpgradeOperations
- No. 04825 January 2026RCA Made SimpleOperations
- No. 04925 January 2026Stop Calling Proven Control Systems ObsoleteLegacy systems
- No. 0426 December 202525 Minutes of total chaosResilience
- No. 0411 December 202510 x price increase in six months – Broken Supply ChainSupply chain
- 21 November 2025Token – AI Tokens as a new currencyAI
- No. 03810 November 2025Solar 506x more wasteful than nuclearEnergy
- No. 0359 November 2025Different Industries, Same Data Struggles – Three Scenarios, One SolutionOperations
- No. 0338 November 2025Fixing the Flow: Educating Industrial Leaders on Data IntegrityOperations
- No. 0328 November 2025When Every Minute Counts: A Day in Industrial OperationsOperations
- No. 0317 November 2025Bureaucracy vs. Real SecurityCybersecurity
- No. 03028 October 2025AI Doesn’t Think, AI don’t “understand”. It Remixes.AI
- 24 October 2025Network Devices Demystified – Data DiodeData diodes
- No. 02915 October 2025Beating the Dead Horse or Riding It Wisely?AI
- No. 0289 October 202518 000 USD Would Have Saved a Nation — The South Korean Data Center DisasterResilience
- No. 02727 September 2025Network Devices Demystified: Hub, Switch, Router, Firewall, and Data DiodeData diodes
- No. 02627 September 2025When Maintenance Feels Like RansomLegacy systems
- No. 02516 September 2025What is a data diode?Data diodes
- No. 02415 September 2025Why Older Hardware Is Often More Secure: The Case for Time-Proven Systems and IsolationLegacy systems
- No. 02313 September 2025Supply chain attackSupply chain
- No. 0226 September 2025Context Is Everything – From AI Agents to Power PlantsAI
- No. 02130 August 2025We Can’t Detect What We Don’t Know — But We Can IsolateData diodes
- 21 July 2025.AI Bubble: When the Hype Fails, Will Your Plant Still Be Online?AI
- 7 July 2025Goodbye layers. Hello channelsArchitecture
- 30 June 2025A $5 Cable. 12,000 Controllers. One Black Swan.Resilience
- No. 01727 June 2025Tied to the Mast: Why Subscription Control Models Make You FragileLegacy systems
- No. 01626 June 2025The Next Black Swan Won’t Be on Anyone’s ChecklistResilience
- 25 June 2025The Hidden Limits of Automation: When the Numbers LieOperations
- 18 June 2025Notarizing Garbage Won’t Make It SecureCybersecurity
- 1 June 2025Why Intelligent Edge Matters — And Why So Many AI Platforms Fail Before They StartAI
- 24 May 2025Forget the Firewall Fantasy: Real ICS Security Starts Inside the PlantCybersecurity
- 14 May 2025When Automation Ages: Why Control Isn’t About New Features — It’s About Business ContinuityLegacy systems
- No. 0087 May 2025Goodbye Layers, Welcome Channels: Why Logics and Functional Diagrams Must Be Treated as Real AssetsLogic as an asset
- 5 May 2025What Five Offers and 180 Days Taught Us About Modern ProcurementSupply chain
- 30 April 2025Welcome in 2025 - The Blackout Wasn't Random. It Was Designed That Way.Resilience
- No. 00323 April 2025When 6 Vendors and 1 EPC Collide – and Operators Lose MillionsOperations
- No. 00216 April 2025The 3-Channel Architecture That Replaces PurdueArchitecture
- 10 April 2025Purdue Was Great — 30 Years Ago. It’s Time to Move OnArchitecture
- No. 0188 February 2024Why Cybersecurity Inaction Costs More Than You Think.Cybersecurity