Stan Kelly-Bootle was an unusual combination of a folk singer-songwriter and a computer scientist. His most famous song was Liverpool Lullaby
Oh you are a mucky kid
Dirty as a dustbin lid
When he hears the things that you did
You'll get a belt from yer dad…
Dirty as a dustbin lid
When he hears the things that you did
You'll get a belt from yer dad…
The song was recorded by (amongst others) the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Judy Collins, and Cilla Black.
At the same time Kelly-Bootle followed a career as a pioneer computer scientist, on both sides of the Atlantic, and wrote several important books on computing.
He also wrote a humorous book, The Devil's Data Processing Dictionary, a witty and sardonic skit on the computer jargon and technology of the 70's and 80's. An example definition
Computer Science: A combination of astrology and numerology, but lacking the accuracy of the former and the precision of the latter.
Another example
Recursion: See Recursion
is timeless, but most of the book depends too much on vanished technology to be funny today.
I was reminded of the Dictionary when preparing for a 10-minute talk on algorithms I was giving recently. I wanted to illustrate that an algorithm that may never stop is (arguably) not an algorithm. This reminded me of Kelly-Bootle's 'Algorithm for perfecting human happiness'. In essence it was
1. Is human happiness perfect?
2. If NO, improve it and return to Step 1.
3. If YES, stop.
I ended up using the following variant from the excellent xkcd series, because it not only may not stop; it is positively guaranteed not to.
Comments
New comment
That sounds like The Jargon File. Link to an old version.
Later published as The Hacker's Dictionary (the old meaning of hacker, not the criminal meaning).
I've attached an edition from 2000, nope, I can't see how. Aha, a link to the 2003 edition: link.It is essential reading for anyone who considers themselves to be a hard core nerd.
Oh, there's an even later one from 2012! Link.
New comment
I love this kind of stuff. It's the nerd instinct in me.