Scales fallen from eyes

At work this week an analyst came in to consult with users on our needs in relation to a super-duper new management information system.

At one point she remarked that the locus of system problems often occurs “between the chair and the keyboard.”

We errant users gnashed our teeth and were fairly blown away by this radical new conceptual framework in which to consider human interaction with computers: Don’t think of them as staff, think of them as CKIUs — Chair/Keyboard Interface Units.

Meanwhile, a pundit interviewed this week on Lateline helpfully illumined the present troubles in Afghanistan with a gynaecological analogy: “You can’t make a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

Yep, it’s all clear to me now!

By the way, I believe that particular gyno-analogy was originally minted by Warren Buffet in relation to US President Obama’s economic stimulus initiatives. A very useful meme which undoubtedly will be deployed again and again to illuminate the ineffable.

Finally, I was dazzled by a tv program Thursday night on ABC1 called “Web Warriors.” The program reported earnestly on a computer worm virus that, although “undetectable”, was confidently asserted to have infected millions of PCs all around the world.

A stunning work of investigative journalism, to be sure!

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