Slashdot Mirror
The Origin of Murphy's Law
LauraW writes "HotAIR, the web site of the Annals of Improbable Research , is publishing a fascinating series on the Origin of Murphy's Law. It turns out there really was a Murphy, and the story of his law involves rocket sleds, Chuck Yeager, and Edwards Air Force Base. The article covers all these topics and more, and includes interviews with Yeager, the son of Murphy (really), and several surviving members of the project that inspired the law."
Murphy was an optimist.
Thereby proving the law!
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
"Bad people are punished by societies laws and good people are punished by Murphy's Law." --George, Dead Like Me
If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in.
Suncoast Linux - Sarasota, FL
If a server can be slashdotted, it definetly will be.
I don't believe processor speeds double every 18 months. I upgraded in 2000 to an P3 800 Mhz, and now I bought a AMP Athlon 2400 which only runs at 2.03MHz. Bogus I say.
I read it on Slashdot!
"Anytime a camera is present, someone will stretch open their bottom."
Trolling is a art,
"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"
:-)
including for Mr. Murphy himself, who most likely has been trying to stay very low profile for decades, and who now sees his hopes of finally not being associated with this calamitous law utterly vanish with a single Slashdot article.
Hi Ed
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Noun. 1. A contemptible or objectionable person.
2. A pitiable person. E.g."He's just had his car stolen and his wife has just run off with the milkman, the poor sod." This use is also be found with the expressions 'poor bastard' and 'poor bugger'.
* Abb. of the word sodomite.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Donath's Observation: Murphy was misquoted.
(Murphy actually said "If there's any way they can do it wrong, they will." They even quoted him wrong.)
But is there a Mr. Sod in the UK ?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
...it will be misspelled.
--Slashdot editor's law
up ^
Then, to make things doubly clear, put another identifier near the bottom, with its own arrow:
dn v
That way, with up saying up, and dn for down, the UPS (pronounced oops) guys can't get it wrong.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Sod's his first name. 'Off' is his last.
I've heard of him :)
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
We are all individuals!
I thought Murphy's Laws weren't written by Murphy, but by someone who has the same name...
you wil never read this post... /.
so much can go wrong when posting to
I want my karma, and I want it now!
I was expecting a scientific explanation for Murphy's Law. You know, like conservation laws for energy and momentum are explained from the symmetry of spacetime. If we maintain that Murphy's is a law of physics, there must be a *&^[#%&]$^#%{[[::@;' NO CARRIER
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
(Bemoaning our organization's hardware department):
"Those assholes won't do a job unless they can fuck it up first."
I guess this could be considered "news for newbies" because this has been in the jargon file for quite some time.
That's ok, you go read it guys. I'll just sit back sipping my ISO standard cup of tea and enjoying some ANSI standard pizza.
Be sure to submit a story when you find out why it's called El Camino Bignum.
I've always thought that "Murphy's law" was not precise enough. There's this addition that is needed to make it really work.
:D
Murphy's law revised:
"If anything can go wrong, it will. At the worst possible moment."
Try that one on for size. Proof? Two examples.
When a wing on an aircraft fails, not too many people will notice, unless the aircraft is flying.
You don't mind getting butter on your suit too badly, except when it's your new suit, that you just bought yesterday for this really important job-interview you're due for in about an hour.
I could go on for hours.
Karma? What's that again?
Has nothing to do with computers, but I read it on a Murphy's Law poster once: "Celibacy is hereditary." That just killed me.
So murphy's law *IS* rocket science.
--- Back to the trees, back to the trees !
Yes, but most people use the name "Blair" for him.
Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.
Blackadder: "First Name?"
Baldrick: "I'm not sure."
Blackadder: "Come on, you MUST have a first name."
Baldrick: "It might be Sod Off."
Blackadder: "Sod Off??"
Baldrick: "Yeah, when I was a young lad playing in the gutter, I used to say to all the other snipes, "Hello, my names Baldrick". And they'd say, "Yes we know, Sod Off Baldrick"
Suck figs.
Well at least one person disputes it:
I.V.
"These laws they're passing won't even compile anymore, let alone execute." - anon
Unfortunately, in the race to produce more and more idiot-proof designs, versus the proclivity of the universe to produce more idiots, the latter is winning.
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM