We used to have competitions to see who could code the shortest solution to a "computer question" .... this is the mindset that led inexorably to the Y2K problem... so the moral of this story is - " occams rasor"..... Occam was a fifteenth century mathematician who posited that when you were confronted with a number of alternative hypotheses to explain something, the most probable explanantion was the simplest....
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 09:00 am, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
What a perfect setting the discussion makes
No, I did not spend hours stringing together a couple of bleeding obvious Latin phrases -- not only do people have different tastes, they know different things. I rather thought that was one of the great advantages of this diverse list but my wry humour on the topic is suffering from that of which I appear to stand accused. Like, lighten up, people .
Roger, I would be delighted to be insulted in Nepalese as I will not understand a word of it and therefore plan to take it as a compliment then re-use freely on others.
As a quid pro quo (not wishing to avoid the theme entirely) I can offer preferred personal insults in Latin, Polish and Tamil, none of which I actually speak myself.
Looking at some of the other names, we ought to be able to do a wide variety of European and Asian languages. I wonder how many we have between us all -- actually speak, not counting knowledge of a few phrases and a bit of grammar?
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 09:13 am, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
Not wanting Ollie to feel left out , let me tell my good friend Peter that William did not live to the fifteenth century (although he made it into the fourteenth, which is later than I thought) and was not a mathematician but a theological philosopher. You were probably thinking of Copernicus who used his principle in Cosmology.
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 04:56 pm, by: Peter Burrett(Burrett)
Ollie's right, the super-pedant strikes again....Willy Ockham was a LOGICIAN - and in my mind, (which is inherently LOGICAL), that equates to both a MATHEMATICIAN and a PHILOSOPHER in equal MEASURE..... but you're right about the century......
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 05:04 pm, by: Danny Thomas(Dannyboy)
Think about it, look at it from their perspective, say what you want to say, and dont answer when they offer you their next load of babble being happy that you've made your point.
I just told a bloke on a kickboxing site to eat my work socks 'cause he was raving for months about this greek fighter saying he was unbeatable, I said that the Japanese fighter Masato would out point him, which he did, proved my point, didn't read his sore loser reply, I win hehehe
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 05:22 pm, by: Peter Burrett(Burrett)
No, Jeff, what SP was saying was that Occam did develop the theory, but as a product of theological philosophy (Whatever TF that is), and Copernicus used it later to divine heavnely bodies (15C eye candy?). SP was assuming, incorrectly, that I was mistakenly referring to Copernicus.....not so, SPsan
Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 06:13 pm, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
Jeff is right Peter, and I did not say otherwise. It is attributed to Wee Willie but was appears to have been a "leading" mode of thought at the time. I gather the fact that he applied it to the papacy made him stand out a bit, in that age...
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, let me tell my good friend Peter that William did not live to the fifteenth century (although he made it into the fourteenth, which is later than I thought) and was not a mathematician but a theological philosopher. You were probably thinking of Copernicus who used his principle in Cosmology. 
