2008-03-16 Spinning World

Quote of the day (translated from German):
"The complexity of a product has a heavy influence on the productivity. [Boehm 1987, p. 47] gives a ratio of 1:2.36. Hence a complex product requires 2.36 as much time as a simple product."
Taken from the book Software Management by Helmut Balzert.

I wouldn't exactly say that this is the most stupid thing I've ever heard. (I've been around too long for that.) But it's high on the list. Very high. Believe it or not, this book is used in many lectures for software management. No wonder people don't take software projects seriously!

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I've started running again. Not very far. Not very fast. But I did it, and that's what counts. And tomorrow I'm going to do it again.

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Doctor Who inspired me to do a little math.
- Christchurch is located at 43°S.
- the earth's radius is 6378 km.
- a day has 24 hours (duh)
==> Christchurch spins with 2π*6378*cos(43) = 1,221 kilometers per hour around the planet's axis of rotation.
- the average distance between the sun and the earth is 149 million kilometers.
- a year has 365*24=8760 hours
==> the earth spins around the sun with 2π*149E6 / 8760 = 106,871 kilometers per hour.

And yet there's neither head wind nor lots of noise.