Re: Not to incite a language war but apparently the Corona lockdown was based on 13 year old undocumented C-Code

[Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid>]

On 2020-05-13 1:15, Rick Newbie wrote:
> 
>> What catastrophe? 
> 
> By that I meant the destruction of economy based on code mess.


There is no proof that there is a "code mess". There is a program in 
which some errors have been found and corrected. And there is a global 
pandemic that is being fought by shut-down measures which have had some 
negative effect on business and trade.

Just as a local note, Sweden, with its limited shut-downs, has had about 
5 times more covid-19 deaths per population than Finland, where I live, 
which did more extensive shut-downs.

The long-term economical effects depend on how governments support 
businesses and workers during and after the shut-downs. The U.S. seems 
to be doing it wrong, IMO, while Denmark, for example, is doing it 
right. IMO the main point to keep in mind is that this is *not* a 
run-of-the-mill depression or recession, but something quite different 
-- a pause. The goal should be to avoid unrecoverable harm such as 
people losing their homes, or healthy businesses going bankrupt.

> Of course you are right that "15000 lines of undocumented code" does not 
> mean that the author himself won't understand it anymore.
> 
> I know I would not understand it anymore after 13 years if that was my 
> code. But perhaps Mr. Ferguson is an underrated genius with 
> extraordinary mental capacity


As I understand it, this is not code that has sat, ignored, on a dusty 
shelf for 13 years, but "living" code that has been actively worked on 
and extended for 13 years. No need for sarcasm re Prof Ferguson's genius 
level.

> Based on the fact that he disregarded his own recommendation about 
> isolation and got caught with a cheating woman, I rather doubt it.


Eh? He had one-one-one (I assume) meetings with a lover, that's hardly 
breaking much social isolation. Problem was, the rapacious British 
press, always hungry for scandal, got to know of it.

If we start judging the worth of scientists and their products by their 
sex-lives, life for scientists is going to be rather duller, but for us 
watchers-on perhaps more exciting...

-- 
Niklas Holsti
niklas holsti tidorum fi
       .      @       .