On Friday 10 September 2004 09:14 am, John Woodgate did deign to grace us
with the following:

I read in sci.electronics.design that Tim Wescott
wrote (in .
com) about 'Another hopeless text: spot the errors...', on Fri, 10 Sep
2004:
I used to know a guy who had worked at a company that made estimator
pads for log scalers -- had keys to enter all the parameters, an LCD
screen, microprocessor, the whole nine yards. The first time he went to
check it with a _real_ log scaler this old coot stepped out of the
shack, looked at an entire load of lumber on a truck and said "that's
about X board-feet". Kevin spent half an hour measuring and entering
and came up with the same number.

Progress. Go figure.

The old coot had probably already measured it. Old coots have a way of
fixing to win.
--
By golly, I guess I must be an old coot. I went to Staples to get a
ream of 11x17 paper. All they had was a box. (10 reams per). The droid
said that was the only way they can sell it. I said, "Don't be stupid.
Just break open the box and get out a ream." This moron says, "Oh, they
don't have barcodes on the single reams, they can't scan it." I just
grumbled at him and went up to the register, and asked the kid, "Can
you do a price check?" - BTW, this was the same kid who had got his
boss, who was the one who said they can't sell one ream. So, the droid
is off somewhere, I go slide a ream out of the box, the kid prices it,
and it's about five bucks. So I go to the droid, and ask, "Are you a
betting man? Tell you what - let's crack that box, and if the ream is
not marked, I'll pay you five bucks, but if it is, you gotta buy it
for me." He didn't want to bet, but he relented, and went and got
the same ream that I had just had scanned, but stealthily put back,
and let me buy it. Maybe this should be a true tale of induhviduals.

Cheers!
Rich