Maybe this comes up more frequently for me than most of our readers, but I want to ask if it bothers any of you when people use the term "random" to describe the actions of a computer.
For example, in the office today I overheard someone bemoan the fact that the computer was "randomly" skipping over records that it was supposed to process.
I just prefer a more accurate description, along the lines of "I can’t figure out the pattern behind which records are being skipped" or even "the computer is occasionally skipping records". There is always a reason that the computer if working in the way it does, and just because you can’t figure it out doesn’t make it random.
Like beauty, randomness is in the eyes of the beholder, no?
So if your colleague does not understand the process, and calls it random, I think it a perfectly valid term to describe a SNAFU.
Here’s what it really is:
“The computer was randomly skipping over records.”
Translation: “For the life of me I can’t figure out what the hell’s happening to the damn machine….to absolve myself of any complicity in this SNAFU (thanks Shefaly :-))let me describe this phenomenon as random”.
And so it was that this term came to be.
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
http://quirkyindian.wordpress.com
@ Shefaly
I suppose it makes sense that one has to use terms according to their personal definition, but it sure makes accurate and clear conversation difficult!
@ Quirky Indian
I think your interpretation is spot on.
Conall (I notice it is the other brother 🙂
Isn’t random a bit like marmite? Some get it, some do not..
uh-huh.. I meant some get the process, some do not. So those, who get the process, do not call its outcome ‘random’; others do. Sorry..
What really irritates me about ‘random’ is when i-Tunes plays songs at ‘random’ but for some reason unknown to me, plays only about 15 songs of the hundreds that I have on the computer. How is that random?
@ Liam:
Does it? You know that comes as a relief. 🙂
I am so worried that I will hear the wrong kind of song if I play random numbers on iPod – which will then annoy me, distract me or have me singing and therefore waste my time – that I make lists and play only those..
I will try that randomiser just as soon as the current deadline is over…