Teaching the horse not to eat
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I just read that Microsoft is shutting down R&D in a number of departments. The article commented about the short-sightedness of not doing R&D. About 40 years ago, George Rotsky (at that time editor of the Electronic Engineering Times newspaper) published an editorial titled "Teaching the horse not to eat". I wish that I could find the text of that article, because it was a wonderful statement about the perils of cutting R&D. In the article, he drew a parallel between cutting R&D and the farmer that taught his horse not to eat to cut down on expenses. Predictably the farmer's costs diminished up to the point when the unfortunate horse died. Such is the fate of companies that abandon R&D. Perhaps Microsoft could learn something from this editorial.
Fletcher Glenn
Link or it didn't happen.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I found only this: http://itnewscast.com/teaching-horse-not-eat[^] "Cars are getting better at avoiding collisions" That brings to mind that if you build cars that don't have collisions, you'll sell fewer and fewer cars. It's the opposite of the Shoe Event Horizon. :-D Maybe stopping R&D and sticking with the status quo is a good course of action? :badger:
I propose that all subtle mentions of H2G2 should automatically get 10 up votes!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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I just read that Microsoft is shutting down R&D in a number of departments. The article commented about the short-sightedness of not doing R&D. About 40 years ago, George Rotsky (at that time editor of the Electronic Engineering Times newspaper) published an editorial titled "Teaching the horse not to eat". I wish that I could find the text of that article, because it was a wonderful statement about the perils of cutting R&D. In the article, he drew a parallel between cutting R&D and the farmer that taught his horse not to eat to cut down on expenses. Predictably the farmer's costs diminished up to the point when the unfortunate horse died. Such is the fate of companies that abandon R&D. Perhaps Microsoft could learn something from this editorial.
Fletcher Glenn
Where can anyone point to the fantastic results of Microsoft's R&D? Where are the wonderful new technologies, solutions, and products that have come from Microsoft that last several years? ....... Why the new XYZ language that Microsoft R&D spearheaded is just fantastic! It puts all other programming languages to shame! And it's taking the programming world by storm! And their new operating system, Windows That Work, is a whole new generation and wonderful paradigm that sets the standard for the new generation of operating systems! And their new tablet! It's wonderful! It redefines computer use for the 21st century! They just can't make enough of them! And the BrowserX project! It replaced old fashioned HTML and CSS with their new XYZ language blows away the old web browsers and replaces it with a stunning and intuitive new application experience that is seamless across their new OS and the Internet! What a tour de force! ....... Oops! Wrong part of the multiverse! Here Microsoft failed and was quickly forgotten. The discontinuance of R&D was just one of the milestones on its way to its inglorious end. - Grant
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I propose that all subtle mentions of H2G2 should automatically get 10 up votes!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
Ah, well implementation is Somebody Else's Problem. :thumbsup:
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Ah, well implementation is Somebody Else's Problem. :thumbsup:
I'm sorry - I don't see it!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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I found only this: http://itnewscast.com/teaching-horse-not-eat[^] "Cars are getting better at avoiding collisions" That brings to mind that if you build cars that don't have collisions, you'll sell fewer and fewer cars. It's the opposite of the Shoe Event Horizon. :-D Maybe stopping R&D and sticking with the status quo is a good course of action? :badger:
That's not the article I was referring, but I found the one you saw in my own searches. Remember that the editorial that I was referencing was written in the 70's. There was not much in the way of stored text in those days, and the Arpanet (in time to become the Internet) was only available to the military and some educational institutions.
Fletcher Glenn
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Link or it didn't happen.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I was referring to the article in the CodeProject news: Microsoft layoffs claims Robotics Research team over the weekend[^] I suppose that I read more into the article than was there.
Fletcher Glenn
Ah. I've got a couple of Insiders to catch up on, so I hadn't seen it.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I just read that Microsoft is shutting down R&D in a number of departments. The article commented about the short-sightedness of not doing R&D. About 40 years ago, George Rotsky (at that time editor of the Electronic Engineering Times newspaper) published an editorial titled "Teaching the horse not to eat". I wish that I could find the text of that article, because it was a wonderful statement about the perils of cutting R&D. In the article, he drew a parallel between cutting R&D and the farmer that taught his horse not to eat to cut down on expenses. Predictably the farmer's costs diminished up to the point when the unfortunate horse died. Such is the fate of companies that abandon R&D. Perhaps Microsoft could learn something from this editorial.
Fletcher Glenn
A few months ago, our horse learned not to eat on her own. My wife spent months at the vet helping her to relearn and in the mean time tubing her so she wouldn't starve to death. Not a pleasant situation. Sorry, I can't appreciate the comparison at this time, but I do understand it and would normally appreciate the irony of making self-destructive choices. In case you are wondering, the ear and mouth paralysis are pretty much gone. She injured herself by fooling around with a feed-door, getting it open, when she pulled back, the door went with her, she tried harder to get away and put a 3 inch deep hole in her head right behind the ear, causing nerve damage. The good news is that my wife could bring her back to the same place she was injured at and placed third. (We prefer first, and get more than our fair share of those, but considering the situation we're glad she was healthy enough to compete.) Wish I could have been there.
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I found only this: http://itnewscast.com/teaching-horse-not-eat[^] "Cars are getting better at avoiding collisions" That brings to mind that if you build cars that don't have collisions, you'll sell fewer and fewer cars. It's the opposite of the Shoe Event Horizon. :-D Maybe stopping R&D and sticking with the status quo is a good course of action? :badger:
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
That brings to mind that if you build cars that don't have collisions
The article didn't say that, it said people wouldn't die or have injuries. We've substantially changed the car design to significantly reduce both, while only slightly reducing the wrecks. They also seem to be designing to reduce fender-benders instead of significant wreck reduction. It's interesting how times change. Looking at old movies, I cringe at the cigs being pulled out left and right and jumping into the car's boxed cabin with no seatbelts.