Slashdot Mirror

* Put up your hand if you played with Lego (mechano/etc) as a child, and
        * Put up your hand if you can appreciate Monty Python (the Goodies / Red Dwarf / etc) humour.

And for those of you with both hands up who haven't seen it yet, check out the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" special edition DVD. One of the extra features is an animated Lego version of the Camelot song and dance number. (You can also download it from a link here.) Even funnier than the original.

It's like that scene from Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail where they all look to the castle and say "Camelot". Then, just before the song and dance routine, Patsy mumbles: "it's only a model."

When a product is in Beta, devs get to deny everything. Well, even in final, they usually slither their way out, but that's not the point. At the end of the day, if the software breaks down, they just have to hire Patsy as their support agent to say: "it's only a beta."

Just think of the money being saved by not releasing final software. Could you imagine Microsoft coming along and reasing the final version of office? "Well," they'd say. "This really is it. We're really done now. You can't get any better than this." We wouldn't believe it.

Software is never finished. Programs go through a continious development cycle. If, at a point during the endless cycle, the product happens to co-incide with something the developer thinks people want, it gets released.

And, of course, no one really wants to support software anyway. I mean... except for those aftermarket guys... uh... consultants. Yeah. those guys. No, they only want to install it for you and then, when it breaks down, emit: "It's only a beta."

Releasing software as beta is just an admission that instead of finishing the job, they've done a good enough job and have now nipped off to the pub for a drink. Can you blame them for that? ;)

How does this happen? The opportunity that presents itself doesn't seem like a bribe. It seems like an opportunity that would otherwise go to waste.

Let me give an example. About a dozen years ago I was the (volunteer) treasurer of a non-profit organization. As such I chaired the Finance committee (also volunteers). We banked at the Metro Credit Union, an institution like a bank, except you become a (voting) member, not a client, when you open your account. The Credit Union offered a "member appreciation dinner" to all members who attended the Annual General Meeting. And my organization was allowed to send one member.

As Treasurer I could have attended without any paperwork. But I was already a member of the Credit Union, in my personal capacity. To delegate someone else required the signature of two members of my organization's Board of Directors.

Well, the Finance Committee could have discussed who could attend, and the Board could have discussed who could attend. But they only met once a month, so the President and I had a brief informal meeting, and she agreed to sign the document, allowing a buddy of mine, who sat on the Finance Committee to go.

Small potatoes, but that is how corruption starts. You are not behaving corruptly, you are making sure something doesn't go to waste.

So, those in positions where they can be tempted need written standards, that spell out what is allowed and what isn't.

I believe, in America, public office holders are not allowed to accept gifts worth more than $50. It clearly hasn't stopped them from having some very corrupt politicians. Starting with George Washington. Although Kitman's two books, George Washington's Expense Account and The Making of the President, 1789 are written in a humourous tone they do expose some very nasty corruption.

Just saw Monty Python Autobiography by the Pythons in my local bookstore (London) and, well, it's certainly big. From the same people that brought out the equally massive Beatles tome a couple of years ago. Looks quite good - about 1000 photos they say, but text mostly for serious cases who won't be too bored by the details of early 60s "light ent". Just in time for Xmas, coincidentally.

Dated 12 September 2003, and 20 August 2003, respectively:

Spamelot(!), The Broadway Musical

Eric Idle's "The Greedy Bastard Tour"