Jun 22, 2003
Summertime at last.
Summertime at last.
Getcher' Harry Potter books here! Getcher' Harry... Oh, I'm sorry. Looks like I'm all out of Harry Potter books. Could I interest you in a cello instead?
How about a magic wand? Yes, I know. But they only look like drumsticks. I assure you they're magic. Here. Put ten dollars on the counter. I'll make it vanish before your eyes.
My spies report that a couple of music stores in the San Jose area have vanished sometime in the last year. It's all hitting pretty close to home.
Was standing on the avenue, my back to the store checking to see if there was any pulse out there. Girl and her boyfriend walk by behind me. She says to him - if you ever need music stuff, go there. The guy's really nice. But he doesn't make a lot of money. Hmmm. Always interesting hearing somebody talk about you behind your back. At least it wasn't like real bad stuff.
A life-long customer stops by. Had a stroke recently and his daughter is helping him get around. Says he came by to see how I was doing. But in his eye the story was different. He came by to say good-bye. He's gonna' die.
Not quite gone in sixty seconds... Watched the tow guy break into a car whose owner left the keys in the ignition. Took him almost five minutes. Obviously an amateur.
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TechnoratiIt is a very humbling experience to make a multimillion-dollar mistake, but it
is also very memorable. I vividly recall the night we decided how to organize
the actual writing of external specifications for OS/360. The manager of
architecture, the manager of control program implementation, and I were
threshing out the plan, schedule, and division of responsibilities.
The architecture manager had 10 good men. He asserted that they could write
the specifications and do it right. It would take ten months, three more
than the schedule allowed.
The control program manager had 150 men. He asserted that they could prepare
the specifications, with the architecture team coordinating; it would be
well-done and practical, and he could do it on schedule. Futhermore, if
the architecture team did it, his 150 men would sit twiddling their thumbs
for ten months.
To this the architecture manager responded that if I gave the control program
team the responsibility, the result would not in fact be on time, but would
also be three months late, and of much lower quality. I did, and it was. He
was right on both counts. Moreover, the lack of conceptual integrity made
the system far more costly to build and change, and I would estimate that it
added a year to debugging time.
- Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
is also very memorable. I vividly recall the night we decided how to organize
the actual writing of external specifications for OS/360. The manager of
architecture, the manager of control program implementation, and I were
threshing out the plan, schedule, and division of responsibilities.
The architecture manager had 10 good men. He asserted that they could write
the specifications and do it right. It would take ten months, three more
than the schedule allowed.
The control program manager had 150 men. He asserted that they could prepare
the specifications, with the architecture team coordinating; it would be
well-done and practical, and he could do it on schedule. Futhermore, if
the architecture team did it, his 150 men would sit twiddling their thumbs
for ten months.
To this the architecture manager responded that if I gave the control program
team the responsibility, the result would not in fact be on time, but would
also be three months late, and of much lower quality. I did, and it was. He
was right on both counts. Moreover, the lack of conceptual integrity made
the system far more costly to build and change, and I would estimate that it
added a year to debugging time.
- Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
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