George Carlin (God rest his soul) had this great bit about humanity. From memory:
“How’s the earth doing?” people ask. “We’re destroying the earth.” How’s the EARTH doing?! Earth is doing just dandy. Four billion years and counting. Like we’re really going to hurt the Earth. You wanna know how the Earth is doing? Why don’t you go on down to Pompeii and ask those people frozen in place under Vesuvius. The EARTH is doing just fine. It’s not going anywhere….we are. (::Wild applause::)
Pack your S*@# folks, we’re going away. Time’s up. Earth needed oil, and we got the dinosaurs. Then it needed plastic, so it got us. It’s got plastic, so…
/Digression.
So, today, I had a prolonged technical discussion with a colleague from India. This guy and I are far from infallible, but I trust this man. He’s careful, diligent, and professional. He told me “The Frobulator won’t support foobar().”
We discussed it back and forth, and I said I’d relay the information. First person I meet: “We’re meeting some challenges with the Frobulator not supporting foobar().”
“Oh really,” said individual replies and swivels to workstation. “Google….frobulator support….foobar….Ah, first hit is ‘How to make frobulator support foobar.’ Let me send that your way in an email.” And she did, with the tagline of “You’re welcome.”
I could feel my ire rising so I thanked said individual and wished them a pleasant remainder of the morning.
I guess I can just retire to something real, since the first ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ response from Google, or some copy/pasta’s code from StackOverflow.com is gospel.
Perhaps the whole purpose in humanity isn’t plastic, but rather the Googleplex and StackOverflow. Pipe that crap into a compiler and let’s just hit the beach or go for a hike.
My button pushing finger’s tired, Jane. Where’s Elroy?