Research is exciting. But should routine be automated?

The first time you do something, it's research and exciting. The second time, it's development and it's fun. The third time, you're a technician and you get pleasure in making sure the job is done efficienctly. And the fourth time, you're just turning the handle and wondering how you can automate the task so you don't have to do it the fifth time.

Not quite my philosophy, but I enjoy the variation of "new" and moving stuff forward, and I prefer to automate repetitive tasks rather than spend my time repeating things. The words come from Clifford Stoll, who I came across as author of "The Cuckoo's egg" where his investigation of a small accounting error on a Berkely timeshare system lead him into the early world of international computer security. Chris emailed me a youtube link - [here] - of Clifford giving a talk. Interesting to watch ...

Of course, much of what I teach is about researching and developing methods and algorithms, and then automating the techniques learned ... so I guess I share an element of Clifford's philosophy even if I don't think I could put on quite such as show as he does. "The Cuckoo's Egg ... together with over 700 other books ... may be found in our library at Well House Manor when you come on a Training Course with us.

(written 2011-09-14)

Associated topics are indexed under

G907 - Well House Consultants - Recruitment and Career Development
  [3594] Back to Uni - (2012-01-26)
  [3490] How not to call when job seeking ... - (2011-10-20)
  [2294] Can you learn to program in 4 days? - (2009-07-16)
  [2255] Past PHP delegates / others - coding help needed for next 3 months - (2009-06-23)
  [2109] Why most training fails ... - (2009-03-30)
  [1967] LinkedIn - Thrice Asked, and joined. - (2008-12-30)
  [1963] Best source to learn Java (or Perl or PHP or Python) - (2008-12-28)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [759] Watch your Google profile - (2006-06-13)
  [751] Want to be a technical trainer in the UK? - (2006-06-08)
  [729] Career development advice - (2006-05-23)
  [722] I'm answering a job applicant - (2006-05-16)
  [587] Job vacancy - double agent wanted - (2006-02-02)
  [585] Looking for Python staff - (2006-02-01)
  [503] 10 years C# knowledge please - (2005-11-23)
  [408] Can an older person learn a programming language - (2005-08-10)
  [389] Tough Love - (2005-07-25)
  [285] What career opportunities for web designers - (2005-04-20)
  [253] Finding the right holes - (2005-03-21)
  [198] A new skill may not be quick and easy - (2005-02-02)
  [116] The next generation of programmer - (2004-11-13)

G208 - Well House Consultants - Library
  [3259] Our library in Melksham - (2011-04-23)
  [2943] Our facilities to support Well House Consultants Courses - (2010-09-02)
  [924] The LAMP Cookbook - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl - (2006-11-13)
  [669] The best Open Source library in town - (2006-04-04)
  [167] Upgrade to the Library - (2005-01-03)

Back to
Python for loops - applying a temporary second name to the same object

Previous and next
or
Horse's mouth home

Forward to
Pressing ^C in a Python program. Also Progress Bar.

Some other Articles

Take the dog on a lead - do not carry her. Perl references.
Getting more log information from the Apache http web server
A demonstration of how many Python facilities work together
Pressing ^C in a Python program. Also Progress Bar.
Research is exciting. But should routine be automated?
Python for loops - applying a temporary second name to the same object
Melksham to become a part of Trowbridge?
Light bulbs
Moving from scripting to Object Orientation in Python
Sorta sorting a hash, and what if an exception is NOT thrown - Ruby

3732 posts, page by page

Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75 at 50 posts per page

This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).

You can Add a comment or ranking to this page

Public Training Courses

Running regularly at our UK training Centre.
[Schedule] - [About] - [Book]

Like this? ??