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Reminds me of the story of a farmer asking if an engineer can help him identify sick ostriches on his farm. So to identify a sick ostrich, it doesn't eat anymor
by kabouseng 8y ago
Reminds me of the story of a farmer asking if an engineer can help him identify sick ostriches on his farm. So to identify a sick ostrich, it doesn't eat anymore, so the engineer develops a tilt sensor that you strap to the ostriche's neck, and if it doesn't tilt enough times a day the ostrich didn't eat and a LED would light up red indicating the ostrich is sick and requires the farmers attention.
Now the problem is to separate the sick ostriches from the healthy ones. So the thinking is you connect the ostrich camp with a narrow passage to another camp, and put out food in the other camp and as the ostriches move to the new camp you capture and divert the sick ones.
Turns out that when you put out food in the new camp, only the healthy ostriches will move to the new camp and the sick ones will stay behind because they are in any case not interested in food.... which negates the need for engineer and his sensor in the first place :D
- Wiles_7 8y agoThat reminds me of this story about removing empty boxes from a production line. https://userweb.cs.txstate.edu/~br02/cs1428/ShortStoryForEngineers.htm https://userweb.cs.txstate.edu/~br02/cs1428/ShortStoryForEng...
- EADGBE 8y ago> and six months (and $8 million) later a fantastic solution was delivered — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. I don't believe this story
- gmiller123456 8y agoFunny, but obviously not real. If the guys were tired of "tired of walking over every time the bell rang", the number of defects detected wouldn't be 0.
- brokenmachine 8y ago1.Bell is ringing too much and people are tired of walking over: defects > 0 2.Put fan there to blow empty boxes: now defects == 0 I don't see the problem.
- BioMeditate 8y agoYea you would put the fan before the check point so the line doesn't stop.
- jspash 8y agoI love stories like this. I've heard that software brains love complexity and tend towards complex solutions when given half a chance. But after you've been burnt too many times with unmaintainable systems, the long piece of string with a couple of pulleys suddenly becomes the best solution. Even if it doesn't come with an app!
- dev_dull 8y agoI was thinking this too. The 80/20 solution is a long rope that extends to a window so you can open/close it without going outside!
- carapace 8y ago> NASA did start to develop a space pen, but the costs soon spiraled and when the agency came up against public opposition the astronauts reverted back to using pencils. http://www.physics.org/facts/apollo-nasa-pen.asp http://www.physics.org/facts/apollo-nasa-pen.asp