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Terry Pratchett is my favorite author. If you have not read any of his works, you should.
Your quote is from Pyramids, one of the best of his many books. I think the argument between the engineer brother and the accountant brother is a warning to us all.
Engineers get so enamored with their creation they lose site of simple things like the original purpose, the cost and effect problems (I'm thinking of all you guys that design a new Language / Framework), not to mention the training issues, or what the guy paying for the product actually wanted in the first place.
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
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I think I've read every word he ever typed, often several times, and I run the "Clacks Overhead" chrome extension ...
Yes, cost is important, but value is much, much more so - and developers forget that as well in favour of "New" or "Interesting".
And the most valuable things a business needs to have, have no "cost": staff loyalty, customer loyalty, reputation. And are the easiest to throw away to save $5 on a $1000 unit.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yep. It is a delicate balance that needs to be maintained.
Sometimes you need to give the customer/client what they need, instead of what they say they want, but that gets pretty tricky too.
I was never much in favor of "Maurice and his Amazing Rodents". Sam Vimes is the character I identify with the most. (Except I don't have a rich wife.) "Unseen Academicals" is one of my favorites as well.
I also like Gaspode the wonder dog, the Witches, and, of course, Rincewind.
One never know for sure, Do One? -- Fats Waller
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Cohen the Barbarian for me!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Why does that not surprise me...    
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Well the whole world is a scam !!!
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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Correction... the 50% of the world is a scam, the other 50% just dumb  
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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correction II: The world sucks, which is why the people in Australia don't fall off.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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swampwiz wrote: It seems that the provider of the open source product releases it with some embedded bugs that take a while to manifest.
I find this suspiciously similar to the old accusation that antivirus vendors employ virus developers to help promote their products, and I seriously doubt it for the same reason: there's absolutely no point going through the trouble and risk (their reputation would be destroyed if they ever got caught) when there's already so much business to go around.
Software development is hard — surely that's not news for anyone around here. Any sizable project will, regardless of its programmers efforts, have a few dozen bugs. I can totally see the likes of Oracle dragging their feet to address "free" bug reports while being more responsive for their paying customers, but there's absolutely no need for them to create bugs on their products, when we seemingly can't get rid of the damn things no matter how hard we try.
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The ONLY scam with this, as involving Oracle was the lawsuit against Google.
And that explained it all. While we programmers can use/compile/run java code under open source licensing, Oracle wants their license from the various hardware integrators, and JVM ports (potentially). And for using CERTAIN (bootstrap?) APIs, etc.
A better comparison is Netscape giving away the browser, and selling the server software, when thinking about the model. Just that the "split" isn't always clean/clear...
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If you drive into a tree, do you find out how Mercedes Bends?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Bugatti be kidding me!
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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unless you are in a truck then you find out if its ram tough.
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Hey, no making fun of the people who hand over money to my boss to pay my paychecks!
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Fiat ruina!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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does that make it a Big Money Waster?
Message Signature
(Click to edit ->)
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A tree? You got off cheap - try hitting a lamb or genie! You can't a Ford that.
Socialism is the Axe Body Spray of political ideologies: It never does what it claims to do, but people too young to know better keep buying it anyway. (Glenn Reynolds)
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DRHuff wrote: genie
Are there many of those in your neck of the woods? 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I dream of them... with light brown hair.
(and you try and fit that word into a pun )
Socialism is the Axe Body Spray of political ideologies: It never does what it claims to do, but people too young to know better keep buying it anyway. (Glenn Reynolds)
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I WISH you hadn't said that 
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That's one!
Socialism is the Axe Body Spray of political ideologies: It never does what it claims to do, but people too young to know better keep buying it anyway. (Glenn Reynolds)
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Well - you should tesla breaks to avoid cruze'ing into problems. However, once it happens, well Fait accompli.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I just got an electricity bill, and ... they are going to pay money into my bank account!
We've been here for 14 years, and it's the first time that's happened - I guess switching suppliers has it's advantages. Mind you, this new electricity talks with a Scottish accent and zooms around the house in a kilt.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: I just got an electricity bill
When I first read this, I thought that you had free electricity for most of your life, and now the gig is up.
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Do I wish!
We don't have any mains gas here, and it isn't practical to use bottled so the whole house is electric, cooking, heating, water, the lot. Costs plenty - but I saw a thing on Dragons Den earlier in the year who claimed to do all the switching for you and guarantee to switch you every year if you will save £50 or more a year. Have to say it's been pretty painless so far, much easier than manually moving. And £320 a year is not to be sniffed at!
They even split £40 down the middle if someone else signs up on my recommendation.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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