Naval Gazing

[seamus finn]

A few scenes which caught my eye during the recent visit of The Tall Ships to Sydney.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

For some unknown reason I can only see the thumbnails, not the enlarged versions. When I click on an image, I get a blank screen with a large empty box with a tiny "X" in one corner. Same for all four.

[wmchauncey]

I had no difficulty seeing large version...interesting series that was well done.     

[RSL]

I didn't have any problems getting up the large versions either, Seamus. Try it again tomorrow, Eric. After thirty years doing software engineering I can tell you that computers and, nowadays, the web, are infested with gremlins. Tomorrow they may move on to some target other than your system, the sun will rise, and Seamus's pictures will leap onto your monitor.

An interesting series, Seamus, and, as usual, technically exceptional. But since I was a sea scout when I was in high school, I can tell you that the girl in that first picture has the wrong footwear for nautical adventures.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... I can tell you that computers and, nowadays, the web, are infested with gremlins. Tomorrow they may move on to some target other than your system, the sun will rise, and Seamus's pictures Obamacare Web Site will leap onto your monitor...

From Obama's press release?

P.S. Sorry, Seamus, do not mean to hijack the thread for yet another political debate, but just could not let the joke opportunity slide by. I sincerely hope that Russ, nor anyone else for that matter, is not going to take the bait

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

For some unknown reason I can only see the thumbnails, not the enlarged versions. When I click on an image, I get a blank screen with a large empty box with a tiny "X" in one corner. Same for all four.

Well, I tried again, and it's almost there now. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 enlarge nicely, but #3 is still blank.
I'll call Obama tomorrow and ask him to fix it. 

You do have an eye for the amusing slices of life, Seamus. I'll definitely keep on trying until I get to see #3 full-sized, too.
Gosh! Do you think maybe NSA is blocking it? 

[seamus finn]

Re gremlins, my own PC crashed last night and at the time of writing seems to be beyond repair! Is it a coincidence?

[RSL]

From Obama's press release?

P.S. Sorry, Seamus, do not mean to hijack the thread for yet another political debate, but just could not let the joke opportunity slide by. I sincerely hope that Russ, nor anyone else for that matter, is not going to take the bait

Shame, shame, Slobodan. You knew I wouldn't be able to resist. I don't need to bother with the comics in my newspaper now that the ACA "rollout" is in progress. I'll leave it at that. But on a more serious point, anybody who thinks they can speed up a software or web project by adding more people to the job needs to read The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. It's been one of my all-time favorites since the seventies. Fred was boss of the crew developing the operating system for the IBM 360. The project was falling behind, so management decided to add a bunch of programmers to the project. The book explores the reasons why adding more people further slowed development. One reason is that the more people you have on a software project the more meetings they have to have in order to stay coordinated. With more people you have two choices: more time in meetings, or uncoordinated top-speed development with catastrophic results. It's an immutable law, as we'll discover, now that we're "finding out what's in it."