New Word of the Day (WOTD): Pessimal adjective : Describes a situation that is the least favourable or advantageous (the opposite of optimal).
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Vannevar
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2 comments:
V:
In re: "pessimal", there is this lore, extracted from The Story of Mel:
'Mel never wrote time-delay loops, either,
even when the balky Flexowriter
required a delay between output characters to work right.
He just located instructions on the drum
so each successive one was just past the read head
when it was needed;
the drum had to execute another complete revolution
to find the next instruction.
He coined an unforgettable term for this procedure.
Although “optimum” is an absolute term,
like “unique”, it became common verbal practice
to make it relative:
“not quite optimum” or “less optimum”
or “not very optimum”.
Mel called the maximum time-delay locations
the “most pessimum”.'
You may be...ummm...experienced enough to appreciate the tale in toto.
Regards,
Frank
Dear Frank, I enjoyed that tremendously. Thank you very much for taking the time to send it over. Cheers, Vannevar.
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