On Tue, 2004-12-14 at 18:15 +0100, Tollef Fog Heen wrote: > This sounds a bit like the government whose country had three > different types of power plugs. None compatible, of course. Somebody > then got the great idea that if they invented another one to supersede > the three plugs in use (since that caused overhead). That country now > has four plugs in use.
Actually, it's more like the country that has a few dozen different types of power plugs, and they're all so minutely different from each other that the consumer has no idea why it's like that, only that if he buys something that requires electricity, he can only use what he buys in 50% of the places that have electrical power. Also, the differences are small enough that he *might* be able to plug in what he has bought in some of the other places, but he's never sure if or when the thing he plugs in will blow up. Three of the six makers of the most common plug types then get together, realize the stupidity of the current situation, and decide to correct it. At the very worst, there are two fewer plug types. At the very best, the dozens of others gradually disappear too. The end result is that consumers can now buy electrical equipment that work in more places. -- Ian Murdock 317-578-8882 (office) http://www.progeny.com/ http://ianmurdock.com/ "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible." -T.E. Lawrence
