Comments on: The Last Analogs http://blog.oddhead.com/2009/01/31/the-last-analogs/ Musings of a computer scientist on predictions, odds, and markets Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:47:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: FoolsGold http://blog.oddhead.com/2009/01/31/the-last-analogs/#comment-397 FoolsGold Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:15:58 +0000 http://blog.oddhead.com/2009/01/31/the-last-analogs/#comment-397 Archive everything? Remember the days of expensive memory and even rather expensive off-line storage devices? Error messages were numbers because the memory space to store a full sentence was too expensive. Archive everything? We used not to be able to even consider such a notion when tape libraries filled entire rooms and were sequentially read. What luxuries we have now? Or are there mixed blessings involved? If we rely on a ContactApplet to eliminate duplicate email addresses, will we lose the ability to fine tune something in a manner the program does not understand? Archive everything?
Remember the days of expensive memory and even rather expensive off-line storage devices?
Error messages were numbers because the memory space to store a full sentence was too expensive.
Archive everything? We used not to be able to even consider such a notion when tape libraries filled entire rooms and were sequentially read.
What luxuries we have now?
Or are there mixed blessings involved?
If we rely on a ContactApplet to eliminate duplicate email addresses, will we lose the ability to fine tune something in a manner the program does not understand?

]]> By: FoolsGold http://blog.oddhead.com/2009/01/31/the-last-analogs/#comment-396 FoolsGold Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:01:18 +0000 http://blog.oddhead.com/2009/01/31/the-last-analogs/#comment-396 There are advantages to analog! A racecar driver glances down at his guages and only sees the needles pointing straight up; he doesn't want to process digital information because he knows his brain does not have that luxury. What happens if you store in your digital file: "friend is a pain when drunk"? How does one store "lives at xxxxxxx but is married, so don't send her flowers"? That should not be world readable. Recently some children were shown pictures of early disk drives and they didn't know what they were. The world changes, often at a fast pace. I'm reminded of an old cartoon of a man with green eyeshades and a fountain pen sitting in a glass cage with a sign reading: Strike here if accounting department's computer fails. Ofcourse, with Enron, WorlCom, Madoff, etc., maybe pen and ink and personal attention to details in a ledger book have advantages over digital storage. There are advantages to analog!
A racecar driver glances down at his guages and only sees the needles pointing straight up; he doesn’t want to process digital information because he knows his brain does not have that luxury.

What happens if you store in your digital file: “friend is a pain when drunk”? How does one store “lives at xxxxxxx but is married, so don’t send her flowers”? That should not be world readable.

Recently some children were shown pictures of early disk drives and they didn’t know what they were. The world changes, often at a fast pace. I’m reminded of an old cartoon of a man with green eyeshades and a fountain pen sitting in a glass cage with a sign reading: Strike here if accounting department’s computer fails. Ofcourse, with Enron, WorlCom, Madoff, etc., maybe pen and ink and personal attention to details in a ledger book have advantages over digital storage.

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