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Oh I’ve done that too as a rookie. Software displayed an error message when the application was in a state that was impossible for it to be in, at least in theo

Oh I’ve done that too as a rookie. Software displayed an error message when the application was in a state that was impossible for it to be in, at least in theory. The error message was a line from 2001 Space Odyssey: “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that”. Of course when it ended up getting displayed it was displayed to a customer called Dave who has never seen (or read) 2001 Space Odyssey. The first lesson was to avoid funny error messages in the future. The other was that “impossible” things tend to happen surprisingly frequently in software.

DoreenMichele 8y ago
With 7 billion people on the planet, one in a million events are guaranteed to happen to about 7k people. Law of stats of large numbers etc
- zitterbewegung 8y ago
  More like birthday theorem applies here .
- mlyle 8y ago
  There's a lot of different possible 1 in a million events, though...
  - reificator 8y ago
    That is an excellent point actually...
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    True. I really intended it as 7k people will have had the same 1 in a million event. Sorry that wasn't clearer.
- 1wd 8y ago
  "Million-to-one chances...crop up nine times out of ten." https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Million-to-one_chance https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Million-to-one_chance
- opinionator1 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noid#Kenneth_Lamar_Noid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noid#Kenneth_Lamar_Noid
- hinkley 8y ago
  A formulation of this I heard recently: As a lottery ticket buyer, you may not need to prepare for winning the lottery. But as a lottery commission employee, you had better prepare for someone winning.
imron 8y ago
> The other was that “impossible” things tend to happen surprisingly frequently in software. "One in a million is next Tuesday" https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2004/03/30/one-in-a-million-is-next-tuesday/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2004/03/30/on...
- teddyh 8y ago
  That article contains a link to (http://www.jumbojoke.com/000036.html http://www.jumbojoke.com/000036.html), but the link is broken. I found it at (https://web.archive.org/web/20050205043510/http://www.jumbojoke.com/000036.html https://web.archive.org/web/20050205043510/http://www.jumboj...).
dataflow 8y ago
Wow, that's hilarious. Did he get creeped out at seeing his own name?

DoreenMichele 8y ago

With 7 billion people on the planet, one in a million events are guaranteed to happen to about 7k people. Law of stats of large numbers etc

zitterbewegung 8y ago
More like birthday theorem applies here .
mlyle 8y ago
There's a lot of different possible 1 in a million events, though...
- reificator 8y ago
  That is an excellent point actually...
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  True. I really intended it as 7k people will have had the same 1 in a million event. Sorry that wasn't clearer.
1wd 8y ago
"Million-to-one chances...crop up nine times out of ten." https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Million-to-one_chance https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Million-to-one_chance
opinionator1 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noid#Kenneth_Lamar_Noid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noid#Kenneth_Lamar_Noid
hinkley 8y ago
A formulation of this I heard recently: As a lottery ticket buyer, you may not need to prepare for winning the lottery. But as a lottery commission employee, you had better prepare for someone winning.

imron 8y ago

> The other was that “impossible” things tend to happen surprisingly frequently in software. "One in a million is next Tuesday" https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2004/03/30/one-in-a-million-is-next-tuesday/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2004/03/30/on...

teddyh 8y ago
That article contains a link to (http://www.jumbojoke.com/000036.html http://www.jumbojoke.com/000036.html), but the link is broken. I found it at (https://web.archive.org/web/20050205043510/http://www.jumbojoke.com/000036.html https://web.archive.org/web/20050205043510/http://www.jumboj...).

dataflow 8y ago

Wow, that's hilarious. Did he get creeped out at seeing his own name?