[PLUG-TALK] Horses Asses and Railways ( was Re: css question)

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Sat, 2005-07-30 at 00:11 -0700, AthlonRob wrote:
> I'm reminded of the basis for the width of our railroad tracks.

On Sat, Jul 30, 2005 at 12:21:10AM -0700, Wil Cooley wrote:
> Yes but like most of your horse's-ass theories, it's only a myth. :)
> http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

And if you actually read the snopes article, the author comes to
a false conclusion based on the facts presented - the horse's ass
theory is probably true, and that is what the text actually says. 
For some strange reason, Mikkelson chose to ignore or downplay the
importance of historical contingency.   Mikkelson is probably not a
builder of physical implements, and doesn't understand the chains
of dependency involved.  Or else can't resist a good sneer.  Many
facts are omitted that do not support the conclusion.  Not up to
the usual snopes standards.

For example, the "Southern Railway" paragraphs ignore the reason for
the mismatched gauges;  the antebellum South did not have a railway
network; instead, they had many short lines connecting the interior
to the coast, for moving cotton to trading ships.  Different ports
traded with different European cities, which had different gauges
(because the cities themselves differed).  Since the cotton was
bartered directly for rails and rolling stock from the destination
city, different gauges were the natural result.  Just like the
programs you write for your computer are similar to the programs
that you write for your customers, rather than similar to the
programs of other software consultants.

Contingency is extremely important to technology - if it was
not, there would be no Microsoft.  Frustrated idealists lament
contingency, successful people (like Linus Torvalds) leverage it.
GNU/Linux/FOSS will achieve World Domination when a few more smart
folks figure out how to leverage "what is" into "what can be".

... typing away on my historically contingent QWERTY keyboard ...

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs