Governor Mario Cuomo comments

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 14:08:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jim Huggins <huggins@eecs.umich.edu>
Subject: "Change" and October 1993 CACM


How ironic.


In the October 1993 issue of CACM, the "Inside RISKS" column contains a long
litany of computer systems which were proposed as new and better alternatives
to existing systems, but rarely were completed "on time, within budget, and up
to spec."


In the same issue, the "Newstrack" column reports on the recent announcement
of plans to build an IBM supercomputer with 512 processors at Cornell.  New
York Governor Mario Cuomo comments, "I really don't understand it, but I know
it means change; and from change comes strength."


Perhaps -- but as "Inside RISKS" demonstrates this month, change which is not
carefully planned and carefully executed may bring weakness, too.  The
attitude that "if I do it on a computer, it's better, and if it's on a bigger
computer, it's better yet" still seems far too prominent.