Quotes4study

Innovation is hard to schedule.

Dan Fylstra

We will face and deal with reality—on our own time schedule, when we are ready, and in our Higher Power’s timing. We do not have to accept chastisement from anyone, including ourselves, for this schedule. We will know what we need to know, when it’s time to know it.

Melody Beattie

"Maintain an awareness for contribution -- to your schedule, your project,

our company."

With the news that Nancy Reagan has referred to an astrologer when planning

her husband's schedule, and reports of Californians evacuating Los Angeles

on the strength of a prediction from a sixteenth-century physician and

astrologer Michel de Notredame, the image of the U.S. as a scientific and

technological nation has taking a bit of a battering lately.  Sadly, such

happenings cannot be dismissed as passing fancies.  They are manifestations

of a well-established "anti-science" tendency in the U.S. which, ultimately,

could threaten the country's position as a technological power. . . .  The

manifest widespread desire to reject rationality and substitute a series

of quasirandom beliefs in order to understand the universe does not augur

well for a nation deeply concerned about its ability to compete with its

industrial equals.  To the degree that it reflects the thinking of a

significant section of the public, this point of view encourages ignorance

of and, indeed, contempt for science and for rational methods of approaching

truth. . . . It is becoming clear that if the U.S. does not pick itself up

soon and devote some effort to educating the young effectively, its hope of

maintaining a semblance of leadership in the world may rest, paradoxically,

with a new wave of technically interested and trained immigrants who do not

suffer from the anti-science disease rampant in an apparently decaying society.

        -- Physicist Tony Feinberg, in "New Scientist," May 19, 1988

Fortune Cookie

Cheops' Law:

    Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.

Fortune Cookie

    A manager went to his programmers and told them: "As regards to your

work hours: you are going to have to come in at nine in the morning and leave

at five in the afternoon."  At this, all of them became angry and several

resigned on the spot.

    So the manager said: "All right, in that case you may set your own

working hours, as long as you finish your projects on schedule."  The

programmers, now satisfied, began to come in a noon and work to the wee

hours of the morning.

        -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

Fortune Cookie

"Maintain an awareness for contribution -- to your schedule, your project,

our company."

        -- A Group of Employees

Fortune Cookie

Mike's Law:

For a lumber company employing two men and a cut-off saw, the

marginal product of labor for any number of additional workers

equals zero until the acquisition of another cut-off saw.

Let's not even consider a chainsaw.

- Mike Dennison

[You could always schedule the saw, though - ed.]

Fortune Cookie

There cannot be a crisis next week.  My schedule is already full.

        -- Henry Kissinger

Fortune Cookie

Dallas Cowboys Official Schedule</p>

    Sept 14        Pasadena Junior High

    Sept 21        Boy Scout Troop 049

    Sept 28        Blind Academy

    Sept 30        World War I Veterans

    Oct 5        Brownie Scout Troop 041

    Oct 12        Sugarcreek High Cheerleaders

    Oct 26        St. Thomas Boys Choir

    Nov 2        Texas City Vet Clinic

    Nov 9        Korean War Amputees

    Nov 15        VA Hospital Polio Patients

Fortune Cookie

"We can't schedule an orgy, it might be construed as fighting"

        -- Stanley Sutton

Fortune Cookie

It 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.  Furthermore, 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"

Fortune Cookie

Innovation is hard to schedule.

        -- Dan Fylstra

Fortune Cookie

It 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.

Furthermore, 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"

Fortune Cookie

XXI:

    It's easy to get a loan unless you need it.

XXII:

    If stock market experts were so expert, they would be buying stock,

    not selling advice.

XXIII:

    Any task can be completed in only one-third more time than is

    currently estimated.

XXIV:

    The only thing more costly than stretching the schedule of an

    established project is accelerating it, which is itself the most

    costly action known to man.

XXV:

    A revised schedule is to business what a new season is to an athlete

    or a new canvas to an artist.

        -- Norman Augustine

Fortune Cookie

We are preparing to think about contemplating preliminary work on plans to

develop a schedule for producing the 10th Edition of the Unix Programmers

Manual.

        -- Andrew Hume

Fortune Cookie

    My friends, I am here to tell you of the wonderous continent known as

Africa.  Well we left New York drunk and early on the morning of February 31.

We were 15 days on the water, and 3 on the boat when we finally arrived in

Africa.  Upon our arrival we immediately set up a rigorous schedule:  Up at

6:00, breakfast, and back in bed by 7:00.  Pretty soon we were back in bed by

6:30.  Now Africa is full of big game.  The first day I shot two bucks.  That

was the biggest game we had.  Africa is primerally inhabited by Elks, Moose

and Knights of Pithiests.

    The elks live up in the mountains and come down once a year for their

annual conventions.  And you should see them gathered around the water hole,

which they leave immediately when they discover it's full of water.  They

weren't looking for a water hole.  They were looking for an alck hole.

    One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my

pajamas, I don't know.  Then we tried to remove the tusks.  That's a tough

word to say, tusks.  As I said we tried to remove the tusks, but they were

imbedded so firmly we couldn't get them out.  But in Alabama the Tuscaloosa,

but that is totally irrelephant to what I was saying.

    We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren't developed.

So we're going back in a few years...

        -- Julius H. Marx [Groucho]

Fortune Cookie

What they say:                What they mean:

A major technological breakthrough...    Back to the drawing board.

Developed after years of research    Discovered by pure accident.

Project behind original schedule due    We're working on something else.

    to unforeseen difficulties

Designs are within allowable limits    We made it, stretching a point or two.

Customer satisfaction is believed    So far behind schedule that they'll be

    assured                    grateful for anything at all.

Close project coordination        We're gonna spread the blame, campers!

Test results were extremely gratifying    It works, and boy, were we surprised!

The design will be finalized...        We haven't started yet, but we've got

                        to say something.

The entire concept has been rejected    The guy who designed it quit.

We're moving forward with a fresh    We hired three new guys, and they're

    approach                kicking it around.

A number of different approaches...    We don't know where we're going, but

                        we're moving.

Preliminary operational tests are    Blew up when we turned it on.

    inconclusive

Modifications are underway        We're starting over.

Fortune Cookie

while it’s true that challenges do make us grow, the angels also say that peace leads to even bigger growth spurts. Through peace, our schedules and creativity are more open to giving service. Through peace, our bodies operate in a healthy fashion. Through peace, our relationships thrive and blossom. Through peace, we are shining examples of God’s love.

Doreen Virtue

System going down at 5 this afternoon to install scheduler bug.

Unknown

LIST (O.E. _liste_, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. _lijst_, Ger. _Leiste_, adapted in Ital. _lista_ and Fr. _liste_), properly a border or edging. The word was thus formerly used of a geographical boundary or frontier and of the lobe of the ear. In current usage "list" is the term applied to the "selvage" of a piece of cloth, the edging, i.e. of a web left in an unfinished state or of different material from the rest of the fabric, to be torn or cut off when it is made up, or used for forming a seam. A similar edging prevents unravelling. The material, cut off and collected, is known as "list," and is used as a soft cheap material for making slippers, padding cushions, &c. Until the employment of rubber, list was used to stuff the cushions of billiard tables. The same word probably appears, in a plural form "lists," applied to the barriers or palisades enclosing a space of ground set apart for tilting (see TOURNAMENT). It is thus used of any place of contest, and the phrase "to enter the lists" is frequently used in the sense of "to challenge." The word in this application was taken directly from the O. Fr. _lisse_, modern _lice_, in Med. Lat. _liciae_. This word is usually taken to be a Romanic adaptation of the Teutonic word. In medieval fortifications the _lices_ were the palisades forming an outwork in front of the main walls of a castle or other fortified place, and the word was also used of the space enclosed between the palisades and the enceinte; this was used for exercising troops, &c. From a transference of "list," meaning edge or border, to a "strip" of paper, parchment, &c., containing a "list" of names, numbers, &c., comes the use of the word for an enumeration of a series of names of persons or things arranged in order for some specific purpose. It is the most general word for such an enumeration, other words, such as "register," "schedule," "inventory," "catalogue," having usually some particular connotation. The chief early use of list in this meaning was of the roll containing the names of soldiers; hence to "list a soldier" meant to enter a recruit's name for service, in modern usage "to enlist" him. There are numerous particular applications of "list," as in "civil list" (q.v.), "active or retired list" in the navy or army. The term "free list" is used of an enumeration of such commodities as may at a particular time be exempt from the revenue laws imposing an import duty. Entry: LIST

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 7 "Liquid Gases" to "Logar"     1910-1911

"I'd love to go out with you, but I've been scheduled for a karma transplant."

Fortune Cookie

What are regarded as the dairy breeds of cattle is illustrated by the prize schedule of the annual London dairy show, in which sections are provided for cows and heifers of the Shorthorn, Jersey, Guernsey, Red Polled, Ayrshire, Kerry and Dexter breeds (see CATTLE). A miscellaneous class is also provided, the entries in which are mostly cross-breds. There are likewise classes for Shorthorn bulls, Jersey bulls, and bulls of any other pure breed, but it is stipulated that all bulls must be of proved descent from dams that have won prizes in the milking trials or butter tests of the British Dairy Farmers' Association or other high-class agricultural society. The importance of securing dairy characters in the sire is thus recognized, and it is notified that, as the object of the bull classes is to encourage the breeding of bulls for dairy purposes, the prizes are to be given solely to animals exhibited in good stock-getting condition. Entry: DAIRY

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 "Dagupan" to "David"     1910-1911

To entitle a workman engaged in an employment to which the act applies to compensation all the following conditions must be fulfilled: (1) There must be personal injury by accident. This will exclude injury wilfully inflicted, unless the injury results in death or serious and permanent disablement, but the act introduces a new provision by making the suspension or disablement from work or death caused by certain industrial diseases "accidents" within the meaning of the act. The industrial diseases specified in the 3rd schedule of the act were anthrax, ankylostomiasis, and lead, mercury, phosphorus and arsenic poisoning or their sequelae. But § 8 of the act authorized the secretary of state to make orders from time to time including other industrial diseases, and such orders have embraced glass workers' cataract, telegraphists' cramp, eczematous ulceration of the skin produced by dust or liquid, ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose or mouth produced by dust, &c. To render the employer liable the workman must either obtain a certificate of disablement or be suspended or die by reason of the disease. If the disease has been contracted by a gradual process, all the employers who have employed the workman during the previous twelve months in the employment to which the disease was due are liable to contribute a share of the compensation to the employer primarily liable. (2) The accident must arise out of and in the course of the employment. In each case it will have to be determined whether the workman was at the time of the accident in the course of his employment, and whether the accident arose out of the employment. It will have to be considered when and where the particular employment began and ended. Other difficulties have arisen and will frequently arise when the workman at the time of the accident is doing something which is no part of the work he is employed to do. So far as the decisions have gone, they indicate that if what the workman is doing is no act of service, but merely for his own pleasure, or if he is improperly meddling with that which is no part of his work, the accident does not arise out of and in the course of his employment; but if, while on his master's work, he upon an emergency acts in his master's interest, though what he does is no part of the work he is employed to do, the accident does arise out of and in the course of his employment. (3) The injury must be such as disables the workman for a period of at least one week from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed. (4) Notice of the accident must be given as soon as practicable after the happening thereof, and before the workman has voluntarily left the employment in which he was injured; and the claim for compensation (by which is meant notice that he claims compensation under the act addressed by the workman to the employer) must be made within six months from the occurrence of the accident or, in case of death, from the time of death. Want of notice of the accident or defects in it are not to be a bar to proceedings, if occasioned by mistake or other reasonable cause, and the employer is not prejudiced thereby. But want of notice of a claim for compensation is a bar to proceedings, unless the employer by his conduct has estopped himself from relying upon it. (5) An injured workman must, if so required by the employer, submit himself to medical examination. Entry: EMPLOYERS

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis"     1910-1911

It soon became evident, that there was no more enthusiastic advocate of the new ideas than the emperor himself. Within a few months the vermilion pencil gave the imperial sanction to a succession of edicts which, had they been carried into effect, would have amounted to a revolution as far-reaching as that which had transformed Japan thirty years previously. The fossilized system of examinations for the public service was to be altogether superseded by a new schedule based on foreign learning, for the better promotion of which a number of temples were to be converted into schools for Western education; a state department was to be created for the translation and dissemination of the standard works of Western literature and science; even the scions of the ruling Manchu race were to be compelled to study foreign languages and travel abroad; and last, but not least, all useless offices both in Peking and in the provinces were to be abolished. A further edict was even reported to be in contemplation, doing away with the _queue_ or pigtail, which, originally imposed upon the Chinese by their Manchu conquerors as a badge of subjection, had gradually become the most characteristic and most cherished feature of the national dress. But the bureaucracy of China, which had battened for centuries on corruption and ignorance, had no taste for self-sacrifice. Other vested interests felt themselves equally threatened, and behind them stood the whole latent force of popular superstition and unreasoning conservatism. Entry: 1885

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton"     1910-1911

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION, in English company law, the regulations for the internal management of a joint stock company registered under the Companies Acts. They are, in fact, the terms of the partnership agreed upon by the shareholders among themselves. They regulate such matters as the transfer and forfeiture of shares, calls upon shares, the appointment and qualification of directors, their powers and proceedings, general meetings of the shareholders, votes, dividends, the keeping and audit of accounts, and other such matters. In regard to these internal regulations the legislature has left the company free to adopt whatever terms of association it chooses. It has furnished in the schedule to the Companies Act 1862 (Table A), a model or specimen set of regulations, but their adoption, wholly or in part, is optional; only if a company does not register articles of its own these statutory regulations are to apply. When, as is commonly the case, a company decides to have articles of its own framing, such articles must be expressed in separate paragraphs, numbered arithmetically, and signed by the subscribers of the memorandum of association. They must also be printed, stamped like a deed, and attested. When so perfected, they are to be delivered, with the memorandum of association, to the registrar of joint stock companies, who is to retain and register them. The articles of association thereupon become a public document, which any person may inspect on payment of a fee of one shilling. This has important consequences, because every person dealing with the company is presumed to be acquainted with its constitution, and to have read its articles. The articles, also, upon registration, bind the company and its members to the same extent as if each member had subscribed his name and affixed his seal to them. (See also MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION; COMPANY; INCORPORATION.) Entry: ARTICLES

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of"     1910-1911

There is no point in waiting.

The train stopped running years ago.

All the schedules, the brochures,

The bright-colored posters full of lies,

Promise rides to a distant country

That no longer exists.

Fortune Cookie

A comment on schedules:

 Ok, how long will it take?

   For each manager involved in initial meetings add one month.

   For each manager who says "data flow analysis" add another month.

   For each unique end-user type add one month.

   For each unknown software package to be employed add two months.

   For each unknown hardware device add two months.

   For each 100 miles between developer and installation add one month.

   For each type of communication channel add one month.

   If an IBM mainframe shop is involved and you are working on a non-IBM

      system add 6 months.

   If an IBM mainframe shop is involved and you are working on an IBM

      system add 9 months.

Round up to the nearest half-year.

--Brad Sherman

By the way, ALL software projects are done by iterative prototyping.

Some companies call their prototypes "releases", that's all.

Fortune Cookie

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