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#2791 05/22/00 07:28 AM
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Some commentaries made about the corrections proposed by the spell checker have made me remind a 'fortune cookie' I read on the net a long time ago that pictures very well the way machines understand human language.


"The meat is rotten, but the booze is holding out."
Computer Translation of "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"



Juan Maria.

#2792 05/22/00 11:27 AM
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Ah, yes--GIGO


#2793 05/22/00 05:49 PM
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GIGO?
I must have lost my brains trying to grauate because I can't get you.


Juan Maria.

#2794 05/22/00 09:15 PM
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Sounds like a typical Barbecue!


#2795 05/23/00 12:25 PM
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Garbage in - Garbage out.

I should explain that my last post was a reply to Juanmaria's first post but it got slapped on the end instead of directly after his message. Apologies for the confusion it created.....


#2796 05/23/00 07:15 PM
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“Never go to bed without learning a new thing”. That’s my motto.
This GIGO reminds me of one more fortune cookie -this one was written when computers were expensive and we were kings-:

Gallois's Revelation:
If you put tomfoolery in a computer nothing comes out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and none dare criticize it.


Juan Maria.

#2797 05/23/00 10:32 PM
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Ah, Juanmaria. This explains why so many slow-learners are insomniacs!

Your anecdote reminds me of a time when my boss categorically stated that I was wrong because the inputted data could not be incorrect. It had gone through the computer, for Christ's sake! Later, he retracted his statement(short of an apology) after it was found that, after thorough rechecking, that the computer (horror of horrors) was wrong!! Or rather, it was incorrectly programmed (but not by me, I hasten to add!!!!),


#2798 05/24/00 08:55 AM
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>>the computer (horror of horrors) was wrong<<

All of which reminds me of a sign I once saw on the wall of a programmer's office. It was so apposite that I wrote it down and filed it:

"We have not succeeded in answering all of your problems. The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but we believe we are confused on a higher level and about more important things."

You just gotta love it! :o)


#2799 05/24/00 10:51 AM
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Great, David!
This thread - and some private messages with Juanmaria - let me ask myself how many of us have a scientific background, because it seems clear that several of us have "something to do " with computers in a professional way (Anu is the first!).
And, it seems rather "strange", because often - as Juanmaria reminded me - people feel that classical and scientific studies are in some sense very different things.
Can I suggest the book
R.Pirsig
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance ?
Ciao
Emanuela


#2800 05/24/00 11:01 AM
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some might suggest that science is one thing and computers quite another! (nescience perhaps? 8-)

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