of possible interest to Bangalore silklisters:
[an] "IndoUS Workshop on Rapid Manufacturing" will be held in
Bangalore during April 17–19, 2006 (Monday–Wednesday).
Contact: K.P. Karunakaran, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
:: :: ::
More importantly, I want somewhere that the government and the
majority of the residents would qualify as sane.
Of course! Just be sure to avoid the Alphane moon...
(A majority of the residents of the US probably do qualify as sane; one
probably need only be patient and apply Churchill's dictum: "Americans
always do the right thing ... once they've exhausted all the other
alternatives")
Right now we need folks with skills at designing cabin interiors,
multi-cultural (much less multi-lingual) control interfaces, network
simulations, folks with a background in queuing theory, station
design, and presentation artwork.
The big queuing theory lesson picked up from working on VOIP (where one
has the luxury of dropping packets; most people wouldn't use a
transport system that was in the habit of dropping pax) is that to have
predictable service, one must have slack.
The hand waving argument is that coming in early and running late are
not symmetrical: a delay (negative surprise) can always make a late
system later, but positive surprises only help until the queue is
drained -- it's difficult to improve on "all caught up".
So a system where arrivals are much more frequent than the service
cycle is predictable: it will get further and further behind.
Similarly, a system where arrivals are much less frequent than the
service cycle is also predictable: it will have bursts of activity, and
spend most of its time sitting idle, waiting for new arrivals.
If you let a bean counter look at all the idle resources, and trim them
out to become "efficient", they want to drive the system to the point
where arrivals are just as frequent as the service cycle -- but this is
no good, as the system gets much less predictable: some of the time it
is idle, and some of the time it is very backlogged. Computer
Scientists recognize avoiding this state as avoiding thrashing; pyramid
scheme operators recognize it as building up a downline; call center
operators (often) recognize it as the importance of controlling
worst-case-wait before controlling salary costs.
My apologies if the above isn't a very clear explanation. It may help
to meditate upon it while waiting at the doctor's office or for a
public official.
-Dave
:: :: ::
(switzerland is (in the spirit of compromise?) at once very libertarian
and very socialist: there is usually a small (well publicized) fee for
government services, and 3% unemployment is regarded as a horrendously
high rate; I don't know which of these has a greater effect, but
consequently have experienced only rare delays when dealing with public
offices)
