Scanner freakishness [was Re: Python list vs google group]

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 16 Jun 2018 11:54:15 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 11:00 AM, Jim Lee <jlee54 at gmail.com> wrote:

>> I once had a Mustek color scanner that came with a TWAIN driver.  If
>> the room temperature was above 80 degrees F, it would scan in color -
>> otherwise, only black & white.  I was *sure* it was a hardware problem,
>> but then someone released a native Linux driver for the scanner.  When
>> I moved the scanner to my Linux box, it worked fine regardless of
>> temperature.
>>
>>
> I would be mind-blown if I did not have the aforementioned too many
> hours. Sadly, I am merely facepalming. Wow.

I'm reminded of the story of the car that would break down whenever the 
owner bought vanilla ice cream, but not any other flavour.

Snopes points out that the story keeps changing (but that's just 
invariable "Chinese Whispers") and describes it as a legend:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cone-of-silence/


Whether or not that specific story is true, the premise is plausible.

There's also the story of Magic/More Magic:

http://catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html

I don't have a link, but I recall one story about an old Russian computer 
that would crash whenever a woman touched it. Apparently the women were 
wearing nylon stockings that would build up a static charge, and that was 
crashing the computer.

Another example I read about but don't have a link for is a researcher 
who used a genetic algorithm to design some sort of electrical circuit. 
Part of the circuit was open (it was only connected at one end), but when 
the researcher removed the open circuit, the rest of it stopped working.

It turned out that there were some subtle static electrical effects 
caused by the components on the open circuit, and the genetic algorithm 
found them and incorporated them in the design.




-- 
Steven D'Aprano
"Ever since I learned about confirmation bias, I've been seeing
it everywhere." -- Jon Ronson