Re: Fwd: Re: Odd...

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On Tuesday 23 September 2003 03:40, Daniel Cassidy wrote:
> Umm. In short, I had exactly the same problem.
>
> No, really. Was I not clear on this?

i must've missed that mail, sorry...

> Or maybe it's all a spectacular coincidence. But it seems to me that if two
> people experience the same problem with the same version of the same
> distribution on different machines, while one of those people also
> experienced the same problem with different versions of the same
> distribution on the same machine, but does not experience the problem with
> other distributions on the same machine, with the same usage patterns
> throughout, that just maybe, the distribution might be to blame.

perhaps, but perhaps not. i'm not arguing that it couldn't be MDK, simply that 
until one knows what the cause is, it's very hard to say _what_ it is. what 
if, for example, MDK enables certain hardware optimizations and the hardware 
you use has a bug in it with those optimizations; other distros might not do 
it the same way, so the problem manifests with MDK but not with other 
systems; it would be a hardware bug, however. or it could be a spectacular 
coincidence, since 2 data points is hardly conclusive when the root cause 
isn't even known. then again, perhaps MDK is faulty and to blame. who knows.

apparently unlike you, i prefer to have actual facts to work with rather than 
limited circumstantial evidence and conjecture before i make sweeping 
statements.

actually, i'm not interested in arguing whether or not this was a MDK issue 
any further, since not only do we lack the data to carry on such an 
argument , but i think there's a much more interesting topic here: how and 
why people reach (often spurious) conclusions.

> Umm, I believe that the common term for what you are describing is
> 'wisdom'. So I will take this as a compliment.

wisdom is one possible good aspect of this learning behaviour; superstition 
and prejudice are some of the possible negative aspects of this learning 
mechanism. 

my statement wasn't meant to be either a compliment or an insult, but rather a 
description of a human learning mode that often leads us to abandon more 
scientific (and often more useful) methods of discovery in lieu of simply 
drawing conclusions out of thin air, often without even realizing we're doing 
that...

we justify it by creating plausible stories based on what we have perceived 
around us in the past, and rely on the comfort that brings to make up for the 
lack of hard evidence. politicians, scam artists and IT industry "analysts" 
often rely on this tendency.

> > in any case, i fail to see how the fact that you have had problems with
> > MDK makes any difference to the fact that many people, including Andy and
> > myself, have and continue to use MDK to great success.
>
> It doesn't. But the reverse is also true.

ROFL.. no shit, sherlock. you stated the reverse in your email, the one i was 
replying to. in fact, i used the same wording you did hoping the reader would 
recognize that and realize the turnabout concept... or is this just where i'm 
supposed to say, "oh yeah! well the reverse of the reverse is also 
true!" ? ;-)

my point was that simply saying that two people have had [success|failure] 
does not mean that the majority experience will experience the same.

> And, if it ever comes falling down around you, don't say I didn't warn you.

don't worry, i wouldn't. even if you didn't.

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
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