My use of the term "3rd party"

[Alan Robertson]

I just realized that this term has a different meaning to many people than 
it does to me in this context.

I meant that it was an independent of the thing it was monitoring.

That is, that its probability of failure is an independent random variable 
with respect to the thing it is measuring.  In other words, the failure of 
the watchdog timer is uncorrelated to failures of the operating system or 
other user of the watchdog timer.

I did *not* mean that you had to buy it from a 3rd party hardware manufacturer.

My apologies for what was probably a poor choice of terminology.


-- 
     Alan Robertson <alanr at unix.sh>

"Openness is the foundation and preservative of friendship...  Let me claim 
from you at all times your undisguised opinions." - William Wilberforce