On Monday 12 March 2007 10:42, Richard Loosemore wrote: > ... Overlooking the practical deficiencies of actual Lego as > a material for dealing with food, one could imagine a kind of neoLego > that really was adequate for making all the tools in my kitchen. Grant > me that as a presupposition. > > Now, I wouldn't be *too* unhappy to call a kitchen equipped with neoLego > tools a set of "modular" tools, but there is clearly a sense in which my > real kitchen has tools that are very much more modular than a set of > neoLego ones.
I think we're just stumbling on words here. I tend to use "module" to mean the most basic components of whatever level of concern I'm talking about at any given time, rather than to indicate (e.g.) "usability or fitness for a particular purpose." > But if I tried to use my food mixer as a salad spinner, it would be a > disaster! Could I adapt it? Well, maybe, but I would practically have > to dismantle the whole thing and rebuild it at the nits and bolts level > to convert it to a salad spinner .... and even they I mihgt have to get > materials from elsewhere to complete the project. BIG job. >... > With my neoLego, on the other hand, it is quite possible that I could > make a quick change to quickly get a rough salad spinner, then gradually > improve the new design over the course of time until it was a 100% good > tool. The second case is a lot more like what I envision going on, (and so I'm using "module" at the level of Lego part). Full rebuild/replacements are virtually impossible in a market/evolutionary setting. > I am willing to be flexible on the use of "module," but at the moment I > am just trying to ask what sense of that term is important here. Maybe > a weakened sense that just means "cluster of conceptual apparatus that > is easily disassembled and reassembled, but which has a tendency to stay > together as a unit" would be a good interpretation. That would be pretty much the opposite of the way I've been using it. Typically in electronics, a module is a factory-sealed unit that is the smallest unit of organization that you the circuit designer deals with. To me the word conjures up the components I used to play with as a kid that consisted of a few transistors, resistors, and whatnot cast into a block of resin with a few leads coming out the bottom. "Module" comes from modulus, which is the diminutive of modus or measure. As I understand it, it meant the unit measure of whatever you were working with, i.e. that you could express any other measurement in whole multiples of it. > P.S. Off topic: Does anyone know of a really reliable brand of salad > spinner? Hate the damn things: they keep breaking on me. http://www.gmi-inc.com/Products/beckman%20tl100.htm Josh ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
