Comments on: on determinism http://rojisan.com/blog/2003/08/on-determinism/ This site is currently broken Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:47:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: meta-roj blog http://rojisan.com/blog/2003/08/on-determinism/comment-page-1/#comment-8 meta-roj blog Sat, 16 Aug 2003 11:28:41 +0000 http://rojisan.com/blog/2003/08/on-determinism/#comment-8 <strong>determinism redux - hola, friendster!</strong> this week just seems to be a week to pick pieces of the blog up and smash them into headines. first, i found a vc headline that resonated with social capital... and now, the subject of todays redux is friendster... determinism redux – hola, friendster!

this week just seems to be a week to pick pieces of the blog up and smash them into headines. first, i found a vc headline that resonated with social capital… and now, the subject of todays redux is friendster…

]]> By: Dave http://rojisan.com/blog/2003/08/on-determinism/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Dave Fri, 08 Aug 2003 00:06:26 +0000 http://rojisan.com/blog/2003/08/on-determinism/#comment-7 This is an interesting question for most people who try to design any kind of product even outside of the computer world. I design mechanical components for helicopters. Will the customer decide to purchase a second hand, 10 year old aircraft and then proceed to employ it in carrying multiple loads of logs down a mountainside daily? This application could well be beyond the designer's intention. The more well defined the application of a technology is, the better and more elegant the design can be. If the application is left wide open, the product will most likely be far from the optimum solution for any of the things it is designed to do. A helicopter that is designed to fly executives for 10 years and then haul logs for 10 more will be far heavier than it needs to be to fly the executives, and far quieter and smoother than it needs to be to transport the logs. This is an interesting question for most people who try to design any kind of product even outside of the computer world. I design mechanical components for helicopters. Will the customer decide to purchase a second hand, 10 year old aircraft and then proceed to employ it in carrying multiple loads of logs down a mountainside daily? This application could well be beyond the designer’s intention.

The more well defined the application of a technology is, the better and more elegant the design can be. If the application is left wide open, the product will most likely be far from the optimum solution for any of the things it is designed to do. A helicopter that is designed to fly executives for 10 years and then haul logs for 10 more will be far heavier than it needs to be to fly the executives, and far quieter and smoother than it needs to be to transport the logs.

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