From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.uzoreto.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Niklas Holsti Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Not to incite a language war but apparently the Corona lockdown was based on 13 year old undocumented C-Code Date: Wed, 13 May 2020 14:07:15 +0300 Organization: Tidorum Ltd Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net Zck1eezfG+QjKRUiU4ceWQ+klA7JcblSWQ8hF2kJnmXct6P+j0 Cancel-Lock: sha1:cHmQpoShnnZui3wzcFo9eYZBCsw= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.14; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.5.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-US Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:58674 Date: 2020-05-13T14:07:15+03:00 List-Id: 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 . @ .