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From: klshafer on 5 Aug 2008 15:50 On Aug 5, 8:18 am, docdw...(a)panix.com () wrote: > In article <8edcf9f9-cd9e-4712-ab3f-79df57bee...(a)w7g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>, > > klsha...(a)att.net <klsha...(a)att.net> wrote: > >On Aug 1, 11:20 pm, Robert <n...(a)e.mail> wrote: > > My work goes out over my signature. There are times when I disagree with > what I told must be done and I make my disagreements known, at times to > the point of commenting the code with words like 'chuckle-head'... but if > the code is over my signature then it is my work. There is a point where > I have said 'This I Will Not Do'... now, how I determine that such a point > has been reached is another matter, entire, and perhaps a better subject > for consideration as Aesthetics... but some things I will not do. > > There are some things I will not stand by and watch done, either; if He > Who Signs My Timesheet says 'Wait here while I use this loaded pistol as a > hammer' I go away, despite the Direct Order. > > I chose the example of plumber and electrician carefully, Mr Shafer... a > task, to my mind, includes a deadline; it might be difficult to get an > Electrician's Certification Exam re-scheduled in time to get the plumber > to study for it, pass it and then re-wire the generator... not impossible, > just difficult. Likewise, were I told 'You have three days to learn this > particular chip's Assembley language and code this heart-pacemaker warning > notification routine'... no. This I will not do, there's always another > job. > > Years ago I worked with a fellow who had coded some of New York City's > original emergency response telephone system. He said that the gravity of > the situation was such that afterwards he would only work with financial > systems; his explanation was along the lines of: > > 'You screw up on a 911 call, the ambulance goes to the wrong street or the > wrong block of the right street and somebody dies. In finance... it's > only money.' > Well put, Mr. DD. I am glad that you pointed out that in Matters of Public Safety, the bar is raised higher. And I cheerily second your distinction between plumber and electrician. My saintly Father likewise took umbrage at his occupation, that of a pipefitter, being compared to that of a plumber. Fitting pipes running cherry hot at some odd hundred degrees fahrenheit is not quite the same as turning the wrench on the house sewage line. It is a smart fellow who can see the distant horizon in these implications. Like the ex-Marine I worked with on the Dept of Motor Vehicles system, and who insisted on doing his finest work in the auto registration lookup. His rationale: the plate number was the first thing the state's finest called in when stopping a vehicle, and the information returned to him, was indeed, potentially a matter of life and death. > Likewise, an error in rewiring a generator causes a building to go up in > flames and an error in a pacemaker's firmware causes someone to die. I > cannot stop a Corner-Office Idiot from making such orders, I can only make > sure that what I have signed off on does not, to the best of my own > knowledge, cause a catastrophe. > > [snip] > > >Question: What is the average velocity of the winner in each of the > >Indianapolis 500 mile races? > >Answer: Zero. > > Really? I would have said 'that depends on when and how the measurement > was taken.' When the start-point and end-point are co-inciding, and the time elapsed between start and finish be nonzero (though no matter how small, any epsilon will do, as my calculus teacher taught me), the answer is always zero. Or more precisely, the zero vector. (The zero vector is that vector, which when added to any vector, returns said vector unchanged. It is, therefore, the "additive identify" in vector algebra. But that is so long ago, that I could stand to be corrected.) Ken
From: Anonymous on 6 Aug 2008 05:46
In article <32347f83-d9e2-4773-9488-dbf203ae16a2(a)2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com>, klshafer(a)att.net <klshafer(a)att.net> wrote: >On Aug 5, 8:18�am, docdw...(a)panix.com () wrote: >> In article <8edcf9f9-cd9e-4712-ab3f-79df57bee...(a)w7g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>, >> klsha...(a)att.net <klsha...(a)att.net> wrote: >> >> My work goes out over my signature. [snip of my own words and I apologise for my midsentence interruption] >> ... but some things I will not do. >> >> There are some things I will not stand by and watch done, either; if He >> Who Signs My Timesheet says 'Wait here while I use this loaded pistol as a >> hammer' I go away, despite the Direct Order. >> >> I chose the example of plumber and electrician carefully, Mr Shafer... a >> task, to my mind, includes a deadline; it might be difficult to get an >> Electrician's Certification Exam re-scheduled in time to get the plumber >> to study for it, pass it and then re-wire the generator... not impossible, >> just difficult. �Likewise, were I told 'You have three days to learn this >> particular chip's Assembley language and code this heart-pacemaker warning >> notification routine'... no. �This I will not do, there's always another >> job. >> >> Years ago I worked with a fellow who had coded some of New York City's >> original emergency response telephone system. �He said that the gravity of >> the situation was such that afterwards he would only work with financial >> systems; his explanation was along the lines of: >> >> 'You screw up on a 911 call, the ambulance goes to the wrong street or the >> wrong block of the right street and somebody dies. �In finance... it's >> only money.' >> > >Well put, Mr. DD. I am glad that you pointed out that in Matters of >Public Safety, the bar is raised higher. It may sound odd in these Days of Positive Thinking to say 'I refuse to even begin working on this task under these conditions'... but there's always a 'bar' and always a conscious decision to leap over/belly up to it. [snip] >It is a smart fellow who can see the distant horizon in these >implications. Shucks, you'se jes' easily impressed... but if you run across such a smart fellow I'd appreciate an introduction. [snip] >> >Question: What is the average velocity of the winner in each of the >> >Indianapolis 500 mile races? >> >Answer: � Zero. >> >> Really? �I would have said 'that depends on when and how the measurement >> was taken.' > >When the start-point and end-point are co-inciding, and the time >elapsed between start and finish be nonzero (though no matter how >small, any epsilon will do, as my calculus teacher taught me), the >answer is always zero. Now this is going back a few decades for me, as well... but as I recall the definition of velocity is 'rate of change in position over time'. ('over time' may be a redundancy but I also recall something about deriving velocity from the tangent of an acceleration-curve and the point of tangency being called 'instantaneous velocity', the velocity of the instant... but, as I said, it has been a few decades.) That being the case: the race-winner passes the finish-line and her car stops. Her velocity (relative to the surface of the earth... a niggling point, to be sure, but for some it is a post-Einsteinian universe) is zero, certainly. (Let it also be assumed, for simplicity's sake, that the mere act of crossing the finish-line makes her 'the winner' and this status is not dependent on other variables such as The Judges' Announcement.) The winner then opens the car door and strides boldly to the Winner's Circle (or whatever they have). During that transition the winner's position changes at a determinable rate; by definition the winner has a velocity. The winner reaches the Circle and accepts awards and accolades... velocity's back to more-or-less zero. Not to degrade the value of what your teacher taught, of course... it reminds me of A Story, when I was sitting in a lecture-hall in a university in Upper Manhattan and the physics-professor was trying to introduce the concept of 'displacement'. He said 'Assuming that you live in The Grid section of the City and there's nothing like a park or a river that stops you... you exit your apartment building, turn left and walk three blocks. You then turn right and walk four blocks. How many blocks have you gone from your building?' I was younger, in those days, and my responses were a bit sloppier, as those of Youth might be. From the silent, seated ranks of students came my question of 'Which are uptown and which are crosstown?' The professor smile and asked back 'Who's the New Yorker?' DD |