There was a writer who wanted to create important literature. He wanted to write words that would be read by many people. He wanted to write words that would make people laugh, words that would make them cry, words that would make them angry, words that would make them shake their heads in sorrow. He found the job he was looking for. He now writes error messages for Microsoft.
He he... I just read this in a book I'm reading about debugging strategies for .NET developers. I thought is was priceless.
another good anonymous quote was:
Did you hear about the programmer who drowned at the beach? There was a full complement of marines near by, but none of them offered to help since they couldn't understand why the programmer was shouting "F1, F1!"
ah... techie humor
Other than reading today, I was also watching a documentary called "Why we Fight" that I rented from Blockbuster. It shines an interesting light on the role of the CIA, arms manufacturers, think thanks, and how they all come together.
Think about this for example: the production of the B2 bomber employs at least 100 people from each state. This means that if the B2 bomber isn't made anymore, a politician will lose 500 or more votes in each state. One vote for the person who loses their job, and all of that person's family. This means that in order to keep the public happy, a politician has to keep making a B2 bomber...
The documentary had a representative from Boeing state the number of people in each state employed by the B2 bomber... it also had a California senator from 2003 state that for every job lost, a politician loses five votes...
So, my thought is, if you purchase a bomber, you need to use it in order to justify the cost of purchasing a bomber. You can't make a bomber without knowing that it will be sold. You can't use a bomber without making bombs, and then the bomb has to be used... this means you have to go to war in order to use the bomb. Bush did say that we didn't go to Iraq because of 911... So why did we go into Iraq?
I think the problem is that not enough Americans care about what we are doing to realize the lessons learned by the Roman Empire... in order to control a world wide empire you need a standing army (which we have)... President George Washington claimed that a large standing army would destroy the Ideals which he wanted to uphold...
Eisenhower had a good speech:
...In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist... We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizen can compel the proper meshing the of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.
-President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address
anyway... that's my thought.
oh, and on the productive side of things today, I finally spoke with someone at Volt about positions at Microsoft that I could have a chance at being hired for. Wish me luck!
Later,
SteveO
