On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:33:14 -0500, Rodney Myrvaagnes
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Whereas if you _deisgn_ your own boat, you should burn it at the
_start of the sailing season, having spent your time out of season, on
your own, trying it out....
You do have to start somewhere. Maybe you can take inspiration from
supercomputer pioneer Seymore Cray. For many hears he built a new boat
every winter, and burned it at the end of the Minnesota sailing
season.

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:17:52 +0800, OldNick
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:33:14 -0500, Rodney Myrvaagnes
vaguely proposed a theory
......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Whereas if you _deisgn_ your own boat, you should burn it at the
_start of the sailing season, having spent your time out of season, on
your own, trying it out....
You do have to start somewhere. Maybe you can take inspiration from
supercomputer pioneer Seymore Cray. For many hears he built a new boat
every winter, and burned it at the end of the Minnesota sailing
season.

I should have said "designed and built." Since it was for his own
amusement, he could do what he liked. I felt at the time that he
should overlap them enough to gauge any improvement.

Since I don't know what would have constituted an improvement on his
terms, my feelings are meaningless in this context.

What bothers me about many threads on this NG is prospective builders
who have no idea (from using boats) what characteristics they would
like a boat to have. Nobody else can tell them that.

They have to go sailing (or whatever they do with a boat) on enough
different boats to begin to understand the problem they are trying to
solve. If building a boat is the only point, they could just avoid
disappointment by burning it before launch, as you suggested.



Rodney Myrvaagnes Opinionated old geezer

Brutal dictators are routinely reelected by 90+%
margins. Only in a truly advanced democracy can
one win an election by a negative 600,000 votes.