Essentially everyone, when they first build a distributed application, makes the following eight assumptions. All prove to be false in the long run and all cause big trouble and painful learning experiences.
1. The network is reliable
2. Latency is zero
3. Bandwidth is infinite
4. The network is secure
5. Topology doesn’t change
6. There is one administrator
7. Transport cost is zero
8. The network is homogeneous
There are some real bastards in this department who don’t mind breaking a few eggs to make an omelette, but thank god there are the new boys like me who want to maintain decent civilized standards of terrorist eradication. We’ve got the upper hand for the moment, but they’re waiting for us to slip-up, and a little slip-up like this is just the chance they are looking for.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything in this world is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinks that the mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is mistaken. It is called a net because it is made up of a series of interconnected meshes, and each mesh has its place and responsibility in relation to other meshes.
“The survey identified three key obstacles that stand in the path of improved document management: technology, people and strategy.”
David MacDonald, “Outsourced knowledge management is one option.” Computing Canada, March 5, 1999.
TK: A perfect universal contractor observation that can be reused for virtually any technology project to sound profound and important… years later, this still makes me laugh except that some very large company got paid thousands for this pamblum…