10 ms·
This just takes the cake, because it's so true and so old: "On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures,
by edanm 16y ago
This just takes the cake, because it's so true and so old:
"On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
— Charles Babbage"
- dctoedt 16y agoThe questioners -- each of whom was a member of Parliament -- might have been using a superficially-polite circumlocution to raise (what we would now call) the GIGO question.
- edanm 16y agoInteresting, never heard that phrase. Anyone who's interested, GIGO means "Garbage In, Garbage Out". Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIGO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIGO. By the way, the Wikipedia page specifically mentions Babbage's quote.