OT: Happy Birthday Larry Niven

[Brad Clements]

Okay, okay.. I concede. Been too long since I've read the book. Perl must be
a Motie langauge

So .. Python must be a Ringworld language.

--
Novell DeveloperNet Sysop #5

_
"Andrew Dalke" <dalke at dalkescientific.com> wrote in message
news:aanctd$960$1 at slb6.atl.mindspring.net...

> I thought Motie ships were wierdly designed.  Ahh, here's a quote from
> "The Mote in God's Eye", p70 in my paperback copy
>
>   ... but some of the intact mechanisms were just as odd.  There was no
>   standardization of parts in the probe.  Two widgets intended to do
>   almost the same job could be subtly different or wildly different.
>   Braces and <<page break>> mountings seemed had carved.  The probe was
>   as much a sculpture as a machine.
>   ...
>   Every nut and bold in that probe was designed separately.
>   ...
>   "...The Motie engineers made two widgets do one job, all right, but the
>   second widget does two other jobs, and some of the supports are
>   also bimetallic thermostats and thermoelectic generators all in one.
>   Rod, I barely understand the words.  Modules: human engineers work in
>   modules, don't they?"
>     "For a complicated job, of course they do."
>     "The Moties don't.  It's all one piece, everything working on
>   everything else."
>
> 'Course, they ain't got nothing on Pak Protectors, who could single-
> handedly build a fusion powered interstellar ship if given enough yams
> to live on.
>





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