Weathering the Broken Links

Do they really think that enumerating all sorts of stupid things you can do with gasoline is a deterrent to its misuse? Can any statisticians speak up as to whether these sorts of lists actually reduce frivolous civil lawsuits?

I rather think that the following list would have been perfectly acceptable and just as complete.

• For use as a motor fuel only…DUH!
• Yep, it’s a known carcinogen.  What, are you going to stop driving!?

I’ve got a few friends and family members who are broken links.  They’re not dumb.  They just think I have some magical powers of computer use that they are incapable of harnessing.   I guess I’ve had a few too many IT tech support requests from them lately.  So I have set up a canned response in my email app to send a copy of this xkcd goodie.

A few weeks ago I had a birthday. I sort of knew it was coming, but then completely forgot about it. I was almost caught flat-footed with no gift to give to myself. But thankfully livejournal’s automated systems gave me a timely reminder.

Thank goodness, embarrassment averted.

* No…I’m not actually Joe Smith.  I’ve [poorly] photoshopped in the name to protect the not so innocent.  Please don’t email that poor guy with the email address joesmith@gmail.com.

UPDATE:

In the spirit of doing something about issues rather than just venting, I submitted a support request.  And the fine support folks at livejournal, very quickly informed me that:

“You have added yourself to your friend’s list, so when the system goes to send out the birthday notifications to your friends, it sends one to you too.”

It’s certainly a very good answer.  But it does beg the questions:

• Why does their friend system allow me to be my own friend?
• Still, why won’t their automated systems recognize that it’s sending this notification to yourself?

Oh, I remember.  It’s software and, while it’s easy to develop for the common/average case, coding for the exceptions is troublesome.

We’ve been having a patio built off the back of our house and it’s nearly complete. There’s a lot of sitting wall and our contractor’s been trying to get the material that we want top cap it. It’s a limestone that comes in 22 inch squares that are 2.25 inches thick. Here’s the conversation he had:

Supplier Girl) How many do you need?
Contractor) Well, I need 85 linear feet
Supplier Girl) [thinking and using a calculator]
Supplier Girl) You need four
Contractor) Four?
Supplier Girl) Yes, four.
Contractor) How long are they?
Supplier Girl) 22 inches
Contractor) [using a calculator]
Contractor) I think I need at least 47 maybe 48
Supplier Girl) No, I know what I’m talking about. You need 4.

I don’t know what’s most disturbing:

• that this girl didn’t realize he said 85 feet
• that, after assuming all math was being done in inches, she had to use a calculator to determine that 4 x 22 = 88 which was just enough for an 85 wall, OR
• that my landscape contractor responded with “How long are they?” without any hint of a facetious to (well I’m pretty sure he wasn’t joking, but rather thought that maybe supplier girl was referring to raw uncut slabs…that were 21.5+ feet long a piece!!)

I guess I’m being a bit unfair. I did get math and statistics degrees in college and am marginally competent in basic arithmetic. But honestly, despite the need to involve calculators in this exchange, I think the larger problem was one of poor communication on both parties parts.