[PRCo] Re: McKeesport

[Fred Schneider]

And one I created or I think I did....

Nature always favors the hidden flaw.


On May 15, 2011, at 11:10 PM, John Swindler wrote:

> 
> 
> It's actually 'Weiler's Law' - one of those variations of Murphy's Law.  It's a useful quote for anyone who has edited a magazine. Also my favorite.  The last time I quoted this was to a manager at SEPTA system safety after the feds told SEPTA to review all rail accidents since 2003 to reconcile differences in reporting between the national transit database and system safety oversight.  When you get to my age, no need to be p.c. anymore.  And never saw a need to take life too seriously - unless it was a safety issue.
> 
> Cheers
> John 
> 
> p.s.  there's lots of lists - here's the first one I found.
> 
> 
> Murphy's laws and other observations
> Murphy's laws
> 
> If anything can go wrong, it will. 
> If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the first one to go wrong. 
> If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway. 
> If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop. 
> Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. 
> If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something. 
> Nature always sides with the hidden flaw. 
> Mother nature is a bitch. 
> O'toole's commentary on Murphy's laws
> Murphy was an optimist. 
> Ginsberg's theorems
> 
> You can't win. 
> You can't break even. 
> You can't even quit the game. 
> Forsyth's second corollary to Murphy's laws
> Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, the roof caves in. 
> Weiler's law
> Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself. 
> The laws of computer programming
> 
> Any given program, when running, is obsolete. 
> Any given program costs more and takes longer each time it is run. 
> If a program is useful, it will have to be changed. 
> If a program is useless, it will have to be documented. 
> Any given program will expand to fill all the available memory. 
> The value of a program is inversely proportional to the weight of its output. 
> Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the programmer who must maintain it. 
> Pierce's law
> In any computer system, the machine will always misinterpret, misconstrue, misprint, or not evaluate any math or subroutines or fail to print any output on at least the first run through. 
> Corollary to Pierce's law
> When a compiler accepts a program without error on the first run, the program will not yield the desired output. 
> Addition to Murphy's laws
> In nature, nothing is ever right. therefore, if everything is going right...something is wrong. 
> Brook's law
> If at first you don't succeed, transform your data set! 
> Grosch's law
> Computing power increases as the square of the cost. 
> Golub's laws of computerdom
> 
> Fuzzy project objectives are used to avoid embarrassment of estimating the corresponding costs. 
> A carelessly planned project takes three longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned project takes only twice as long. 
> The effort required to correct course increases geometrically with time. 
> Project teams detest weekly progress reporting because it so vividly manifests their lack of progress. 
> Osborn's law
> Variables won't; constants aren't. 
> Gilb's laws of unreliability
> 
> Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. 
> Any system that depends upon human reliability is unreliable. 
> Undetectable errors are infinite in variety, in contrast to detectable errors, which by definition are limited. 
> Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cost of errors, or until someone insists on getting some useful work done. 
> Lubarsky's law of cybernetic entomology
> There's always one more bug. 
> Troutman's postulate
> 
> Profanity is the one language understood by all programmers. 
> Not until a program has been in production for six months will the most harmful error be discovered. 
> Job control cards that positively cannot be arranged in improper order will be. 
> Interchangeable tapes won't. 
> If the input editor has been designed to reject all bad input, an ingenious idiot will discover a method to get bad data past it. 
> If a test installation functions perfectly, all subsequent systems will malfunction. 
> Weinberg's second law
> If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. 
> Gumperson's law
> The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability. 
> Gummidge's law
> The amount of expertise varies in inverse ratio to the number of statements understood by the general public. 
> Zymurgy's first law of evolving system dynamics
> Once you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is to use a larger can (old worms never die, they just worm their way into larger cans). 
> Harvard's law, as applied to computers
> Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity and other variables, the computer will do as it damn well pleases. 
> Sattinger's law
> It works better if you plug it in. 
> Jenkinson's law
> It won't work. 
> Horner's five thumb postulate
> Experience varies directly with equipment ruined. 
> Cheop's law
> Nothing ever gets build on schedule or within budget. 
> Rule of accuracy
> When working toward the solution of a problem, it always helps if you know the answer. 
> Zymurg's seventh exception to Murphy's law
> When it rains, it pours 
> Pudder's laws
> 
> Anything that begins well ends badly 
> Anything that begins badly ends worse. 
> Westheimer's rule
> To estimate the time it takes to do a task: estimate the time you think it should take, multiply by two and change the unit of measure to the next highest unit. Thus, we allocate two days for a one hour task. 
> Stockmayer's theorem
> If it looks easy, it's tough. If it looks tough, it's damn near impossible. 
> Atwoods corollary
> No books are lost by lending except those you particularly wanted to keep. 
> Johnson's third law
> If you miss one issue of any magazine, it will be the issue that contains the article, story or installment you were most anxious to read. 
> Corollary to Johnson's third law
> All of your friends either missed it, lost it or threw it out. 
> Harper's magazine law
> You never find the article until you replace it. 
> Brooke's law
> Adding manpower to a late software makes it later. 
> Finagle's fourth law
> Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it will only make it worse. 
> Featherkile's rule
> Whatever you did, that's what you planned. 
> Flap's law
> Any inanimate object, regardless of its position, configuration or purpose, may be expected to perform at any time in a totally unexpected manner for reasons that are either entirely obscure or else completely mysterious. 
> 
> 
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: McKeesport
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 18:01:20 -0400
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> 
>> I was just about to put John's legendary quote on line but you beat me to it! 
>> 
>> Ed said something else to me over the weekend. Let's see if I can quote it precisely. "The museum will eat you alive it you allow it." Some people are there every time I go there ... Dave Hamley, Bernie Orient, Bruce Wells. I suspect that, in addition to the time they put in at the museum, they probably log as many hours at home or more on museum projects. We have people put in around a thousand hours a year or half a full-time job. It's obscene when it eats people like that. 
>> 
>> Some of the members would like other lives. There are around 600 members and those who are active and working are a small percentage of that. As I recall, the number of volunteer hours is around 23,000 a year, or around 11 full-time bodies. That sounds like a lot but you could probably lose another 10,000 hours a year and not even know where it went. I'm sure you could put two full-time bodies in the library and still not catch up. 
>> 
>> You could lose another two to four thousand hours a year in fund raising. 
>> 
>> If you had a couple of full time volunteers for a year or two, you might be able to rewire 1138 and get it running again and also get that Philly 8000 on the road. And PST 14 needs a replacement brake blending valve. Point is you could use two full time guys volunteering in the shop alone and you still wouldn't catch up. The horse car needs platform knees to you don't need props to hold the platforms up. That alone would be 4,160 hours. 
>> 
>> Yes, nothing is impossible for those who do not have to do it. 
>> 
>> 
>> On May 15, 2011, at 5:35 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
>> 
>>> That would be wonderful idea if someone would provide money and time in
>>> quantity. As John Swindler likes to say, nothing is impossible to the
>>> person who doesn't have to do the work. And I don't have either the people
>>> or the time to make the selection of what gets digitized, let alone doing
>>> it. It would be a huge waste of time and talent to scan 100% of the
>>> holdings, let me guarantee you!
>>> 
>>> Ed 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Phillip
>>> Clark Campbell
>>> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 11:50 AM
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: McKeesport
>>> 
>>> Yes, Ray, that is an excellent idea. The museum depends upon donations,
>>> sales, grants not having regular income like business. Thus photos can be a
>>> source of identification and income which poses problems in posting. There
>>> is an answer; just don't know how that can be approached.
>>> 
>>> Phil
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Ray <rayprco53 at verizon.net>
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>> Sent: Sun, May 15, 2011 10:58:55 AM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: McKeesport
>>> 
>>> I agree the special effects were way overboard.
>>> 
>>> You might try clpgh.org to see if these photos are online at the Carnegie
>>> library. I wish PTM could do some thing with the University of Pittsburgh
>>> and their Historic Pittsburgh web site and put their collection on line.
>>> 
>>> Ray
>>> 
>>> 
>>> May 15, 2011 09:14:33 AM, pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org wrote:
>>> 
>>> ===========================================
>>> 
>>> Yes, interesting content but the most hellish video I have ever watched. A
>>> different special effect every photo is massive overkill isn't it. It is
>>> highly annoying. Does the Carnegie library have online photos?
>>> 
>>> Phil
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Ray
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>> Sent: Sat, May 14, 2011 7:21:06 PM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] McKeesport
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Pretty interesting. Some cool PRCo shots in Part 3. 
>>> 
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4HgtpGMgI&feature=related
>>> 
>>> Ray
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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