From phil@servcom.com Sat Aug 15 05:48:05 1998 From: phil@servcom.com To: users@lists.opensuse.org Subject: [SuSE Linux] engineering and hubris Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 21:48:05 -0800 Message-ID: <35D52115.5395D74F@servcom.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============6056872698983315309==" --===============6056872698983315309== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit OK, a Saturday off-topic post... I've spent most of my 42 years working with machines, hardware and software, from automobiles (1960s to early 70s) to computers (late 60s on and off to date). From my limited perspective, I've learned that there are certain rituals that one does well to observe; almost certain failure seems to follow statements like "everything is working well", and one can almost count on complications following a statement like "reconfiguration should be straightforward..." On a more somber note, I'm told that Christa McAuliffe (the schoolteacher on the unfortunate shuttle mission) had answered a question about safety with comments similar to "It's not like it's going to blow up or anything..." Do any of y'all follow rituals of this nature? For example, I will not attempt to try anything new with a working system (or to "make something better") after 1pm on Friday (unless it's spurting smoke) because doing so seems to guarantee that I'll be spending the rest of the weekend just making it work again. I try to avoid comments about a system's stability because saying that "such and such as system has been remarkably stable today/this week/this month," seems to be enough to drive an otherwise working system into severe oscillation-leading-to-crash. No reason to clog the SuSE list with off-topic stuff; send comments and stories to me at "mailto:phil@servcom.com" phil -- "The engineers saw that thick green run-off as sludge and were throwing out out; I saw it as filling and made "key lime-style" pies." - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e --===============6056872698983315309==-- From Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Sat Aug 15 10:27:22 1998 From: Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk To: users@lists.opensuse.org Subject: RE: [SuSE Linux] engineering and hubris Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1998 11:27:22 +0100 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <35D52115.5395D74F@servcom.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============3004436770254331762==" --===============3004436770254331762== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 15-Aug-98 phillip mannie wrote: > > OK, a Saturday off-topic post... > > I've learned that > there are certain rituals that one does well to observe; almost certain > failure seems to follow statements like "everything is working well", > and one can almost count on complications following a statement like > "reconfiguration should be straightforward..." > > Do any of y'all follow rituals of this nature? My advice is to remain as tight-lipped as Bill Clinton. Anything you say may be used to your disadvantage by Murphy's lawyers. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Date: 15-Aug-98 Time: 11:27:22 -------------------------------------------------------------------- - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e --===============3004436770254331762==--