Re: cert discussion

[Jay Plett <jay@EE.Princeton.EDU>]

I'm reminded of the person, back in the good-ole-days when you
could conduct dialog on Usenet news, who prefaced many of his
articles with "Ahem".  (I think he quit after somebody made a
crack about "that guy who always clears his throat before he
speaks"; I thought he should have been proud of such notice.)

Ahem.

> you can either
> 
> 	1) Do whatever people are interested in doing right now.
> OR
> 	2) Do nothing at all.
>
> ... At the moment, SAGE's
> resources for supporting people who are actually going to get
> work done are nearly infinite; if somebody desperately wants to
> pursue certification, great!

If the argument is that Usenix has money to burn for anybody
who's eager to spend it, we're in trouble.

> If all you've got is a cart, why worry about where the horse would go
> if you had one? 

If you need to haul manure and somebody wants to sell you a cart
but there's no horse to be found, why would you buy the cart?

> But if someone offers me an ice cream cone, and all the ice cream
> they've got is vanilla, I don't turn it down just because I like
> peppermint-stick better. 

Even if vanilla makes you break out in hives?


It's true that catchy metaphors sell everything from all-terrain
vehicles to swampland to people who need neither.  Hopefully
this forum will find pertinent analysis more persuasive.

	...jay