The put down was for not so much that our system was not capable of sensitivity analysis, or perhaps that we did not even know what sensitivity analysis was, but that we were unwilling to admit it.
----------- The braggart claims to have Superman's powers. "Can you crush things like Superman?" The braggart took a walnut in each hand, absolutely crushed them to a pulp, and said, "Yes, I can." "Can you see far away like Superman?" The braggart flipped down a pair of binocular glasses he was wearing and read out the words on the sign at the end of the block, and said, "Yes I can." "Can you fly like Superman?" The braggart walked up to the roof of a 3-floor building, and jumped off with a flying leap! Splat! With great struggle and lots of moaning, he raised himself up on his elbows, and said, "Yessssh, yesh, ... yesh I can." On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 2:16 PM, Dan Bron <j...@bron.us> wrote: > I don't get the put-down (or joke). Can you explain it to me? > > -Dan > > > ----- Original Message --------------- > > Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] more fork examples > From: Roger Hui <rogerhui.can...@gmail.com> > Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 13:14:12 -0800 > To: Programming forum <programm...@jsoftware.com> > > Thanks for the compliment but what I really need are for y'all to send me > quotes/anecdotes not yet in the list. For example: > > Once, in the early 1980s, Ken Iverson visited us in Calgary. Fred > Appleyard and I proudly showed off our system implemented in direct > definition. Ken asked a question which is essentially, "Can you do > sensitivity analysis?" We start mumbling something. Ken says, "Can you > touch your shoulder?", and proceeded to reach behind his neck to touch the > opposite shoulder. I have yet to recover from this put-down :-). > > BTW, among the APL crowd, accusing somebody of "mumbling something" is done > by putting your hand in front of your mouth and muttering, "but ah eh blah > blah ...". > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
