It is American term. Rube Goldberg was a fictional character that I believe was originally in a comic strip around the 1930's. His claim to fame was to construct complicated and arcane devices or interconnected groups of devices to do even some of the most simplest tasks. Most were mechanical devices, this was before computers. The term though is now used to describe any complicated or round about way to do what should be a simple task.
I think there is currently a yearly Rube Goldberg contest to see who can make the most complicated device! As I say, this was before computers. I can't imagine what Rube could have done with a computer! David Longo >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/13/02 04:12AM >>> Hi Richard, ---> ... but is awfully Rube Goldberg. Is this something very American-specific or I just have a hard day so am unable to understand :-) Zlatko Krastev IT Consultant "MMS <health-first.org>" made the following annotations on 12/13/2002 09:30:19 AM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary, or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it, and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. Health First reserves the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. Any views or opinions expressed in this message are solely those of the individual sender, except (1) where the message states such views or opinions are on behalf of a particular entity; and (2) the sender is authorized by the entity to give such views or opinions. ==============================================================================
