There are things that simply cannot be amended or fixed.[snip]
Ed
And I think "we" are doing a very "good" job of exascerbating them instead of ameliorating them for now and the future.
This is obvious, but nonetheless true. While one cannot turn an aircraft carrier going 30 knots around in half a mile, it doesn't help to raise the speed to 32 knots and keep straight on course.
--
Something curious happened at my programming workplace today. The programmers can now split up their huge jobs into 2 to 4 smaller pieces that can run concurrently (the computers are 4-CPU systems). So if one programmer is running his or her job, they can get it done in 2 instead of 8 hours. But, of course, if 4 programmers each try to do the same thing, the system gets bogged down in resource shortages. *Furthermore*, if one person notices the overload and runs his or her job as one thread, this person will come out the worst, since the computer tends to give the same amount of resources to each thread. (The hogs get rewarded for their greediness, while virtue remains its own reward.)
Now, here's the interesting part: The person who sent out an email about the problem actually said it was another example of "the tragedy of the commons"! This person is the most educated person in the whole company, so I'm not hoping for anything to top this soon, but it may be the first time in 30 years of programming that I've seen an idea from the world of the "Geisteswissenschaften" used by a programmer in a programming context.
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
