The Joel on Software Discussion Group

These were some of my favorite tech "laws"

Sturgeon's Law, of which the popular version says '80% of everything is crap' (Theodore Sturgeon, famous sci-fi author, had been asked why 80% of sci-fi is crap).

First observed the 'doubling of transistor density on a manufactured die every year' in 1965, just four years after the first planar integrated circuit was discovered. The press called this 'Moore's Law' and the name has stuck

The '80/20 Principle', also know as Pareto's law, simply states that approximately 80% of the output is a result of just 20% of the input. In Pareto's case, he found that 80% of the world's resources/wealth was under the control of just 20% of the population.

The Peter Principle was first introduced by L. Peter in a humoristic book (of the same title) describing the pitfalls of bureaucratic organization. The original principle states that in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their 'level of incompetence'.

The businessmen are responding to another law, dubbed Metcalfe's Law after Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the 'Ethernet' networking scheme that is still the dominant one in office networks. (This is my last equation, I promise.) It says that the usefulness of any network is roughly proportional to the square of the number of nodes upon it. The railroad, the Interstate Highway System, the telephone, and the FAX have all seen the same phenomenon: suddenly, they reach the 'elbow' in that parabolic 'usefulness' curve, and everybody has to be on it.


Parkinson's Law of Data prov.
'Data expands to fill the space available for storage'; buying more memory encourages the use of more memory-intensive techniques. It has been observed since the mid-1980s that the memory usage of evolving systems tends to double roughly once every 18 months. Fortunately, memory density available for constant dollars also tends to about double once every 18 months (see Moore's Law); unfortunately, the laws of physics guarantee that the latter cannot continue indefinitely.
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/Parkinson's-Law-of-Data.html

Philo's Law:
The first step in learning from your mistakes is to recognize you're making them"

:)

Philo

Lost's law: 80% of the use of the computers by the IT people is to self-entertainment only (no direct productivity).

Dennis' law - 80% of laws are actually observations continually reinterpreted to match reality.

Cole's Law: sliced cabbage.

Reynolds' law: The law is an ass (always).

Tang's law: Laws are for the lawless. :)

Bob Loblaw's Law Blog Law: 80% of the good shows get cancelled.

Prohm's Law:
Everyone sees everything through their own prism.

An essay on laws

The subject of laws is a controversial issue. There are many factors which influenced the development of laws. Until recently considered taboo amongst polite society, it is important to remember that "what goes up must come down." Inevitably feelings run deep amongst the upper echelons of progressive service sector organisations, obviously. Hold onto your hats as we begin a journey into laws.

Social Factors

There is cultural and institutional interdependence between members of any community. When Lance Bandaner said 'twelve times I've traversed the ocean of youthful ambition but society still collects my foot prints' [1] he was clearly refering to the impact of laws on today's society. Both tyranny and democracy are tried and questioned. Yet laws is quite good.

Status, Security, Fame - laws, all revolve around this 'golden fleece'. It is intrinsically linked to adolescent inner acclimatisation.

Economic Factors

Increasingly economic growth and innovation are being attributed to laws. We will study the Lead-a-Duck-to-Water model, making allowances for recent changes in interest rates.

How do we explain these clear trends? In spite of the best efforts of The World Bank housing prices will continue to follow laws for the foreseeable future. What it all comes down to is money. Capitalists love laws.

Political Factors

Modern politics owes much to the animal kingdom. Comparing the general view of politics held by the poor of the west with those of the east can be like comparing laws now, and its equivalent in the 1800s.

To quote that most brilliant mind Bartholomew Rock 'Man's greatest enemy is complacency with regards to personal and political hygiene.' [2] One cannot help but agree when faced with laws, that this highlights an important issue. If I may be as bold as to paraphrase, he was saying that 'political ideals are built on the solid cornerstone of laws.'

I wait anxiously. What will the next few years bring for laws?

Conclusion

In conclusion, laws is, to use the language of the streets 'Super Cool.' It collaborates successfully, it stimulates and it brings the best out in people.

I shall give the final word to star Miles Love Hewitt: 'laws is the new rock and roll! And the new opera!' [3]

[1] Lance Bandaner - Adventurous Spirit - 1993 See-Saw Publishing

[2] Rock - Roll It Up - 1977 - F. Lower Publishing

[3] Get On The Bus - Issue 321 - Media Books

http://radioworldwide.gospelcom.net/essaygenerator/

(There is also a proverb generator, but it doesn't work with my browser.)

http://radioworldwide.gospelcom.net/essaygenerator/proverb/

KayJay's Law: The mother of all laws is, you guessed it, the mother-in-law.

I am the law.

Sturgeon's Revelation: "Ninety percent of everything is crud."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law

Secure's consequence from Sturgeon's Revelation: Any system that depends on the goodwill and the abilities of the participants is doomed to failure. Cooperative multitasking, C-programming without a restrictive system security, and so on. Except when the system is constructed in a way that only the remaining 10 percent can use it. Then the consequence is recursively applied.

I fought the law and the law won.

Love under law, love under will.

Howe's Law: Everyone has a scheme that will not work.

Law of Probable Dispersal: Whatever it is that hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.

Losing the way of life, men rely on goodness. Losing goodness, men rely on laws.

"Lost's law: 80% of the use of the computers by the IT people is to self-entertainment only (no direct productivity)."

Lopac's Corrolary: And that includes programming. If it doesn't, it should.

Spooner's first rule of parenting: mess is law

Make love, not law.

Sturgeon's addendum

80% of all apps is CRUD

Sassy's Law: He who smelt it, dealt it.

Breakin' the Law!

"Rules and regulations, who needs them?"

Gall's Law: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

So true.

v's modification of sturgeon's:

80% of everything is crap. So build a system, throw 80% away and then 80% of the other 20% is crap..and so on. Which brings us to : Everything is crap.

There's a flaw in this reasoning but my new law says most laws are ignored, so it's OK.

I fought the law and the law won.

Betamax: proprietary technology -- whatever that means. :-)

Two of my favorite laws are:::

LaRochefoucauld's Law: "Chance cures us of many faults incurable by reason."


Brice Richard's Law: "Never give more than you can take in a relationship lest you move from commander to commanded without ever knowing how you lost the command."

..bet on it...

First Law of WingWalking

"Don't let go of one thing until you have firm hold of something else."

Also applies when upgarding anything in the world of software.

I can't believe no one has said this one yet:

Murphy's Law.

"Secure's consequence from Sturgeon's Revelation: Any system that depends on the goodwill and the abilities of the participants is doomed to failure."

...he says, citing wikipedia...

BTW, who said "Every piece of code has at least one bug and can stand to have one line of code removed. This means every program in the world can be reduced to one line of code that doesn't work."

Philo

Cruikshank's Law: 86.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot by an idiot.