Sheep?

I thought we were ostriches?!?...

I was reading these posts and it occurred to me... maybe we SHOULD

consider ourselves ostriches.... I mean, we've always heard about the

head-in-the-sand deal, but what do we really know about them? Here is

some interesting info:

- fastest animal on 2 feet - they've been seen outrunning antelope in

full gallop (good match for VFP)

- too large to fly (aka, clipped by MS marketing)

- very strong legs - speed, fending off enemies (MS frustrated at the

survivability of VFP)

- the eggs are the largest of any bird (e.g. you get more done with VFP

before 8am than most .Net developers do in a whole day ... <hee

hee>)

- habitat is out in the wild, going where they will, doing what they want

(any DB backend, or a simple file-based DB which can be served up on any

platform) - but this aspect isn't a great match since MS owns VFP...

:-/

- average lifespan - 30-70 years (wow! long life for a bird)

But then, what group would be better described as sheep (Ovis

aries to the snobs among us <hee hee>)? How about the .Net

crowd... lets see....

- domesticated (Yep - beholden to, and at the mercy of, MS all the

way)

- a surprising percentage (15%) die early due to lameness and disease

(MS's security holes?)

- sheep have been bread to herd and NOT act independently (wow! spot on

MS's .Net goals there)

- raised to be sheared (ah yes... the joys of MS licensing fees)

- if wool production doesn't generate enough money, the sheep can always

be slaughtered (prophetic!! - the next MS paradigm shift when .Net

stuff gets to be enhanced/rewritten to something new in the future)

- average lifespan - 11-16 years (not counting the ones slaughtered 'on

purpose')

- as an aside, female sheep are called ewe's, and although pronounced

'you', it sure looks like is eww (as in yucky) which is what I think of

.Net every time I see it

- oh, and interestingly, sheep can fall prey to foxes (LOL!! I wish

'natural selection' was the primary factor in the computer

industry...)

So, by golly, I would definitely prefer to be an ostrich than a sheep.

One thing is for sure, after actually looking up stuff about the ostrich,

I'm pretty impressed with the bird. All that head-in-the-sand stuff

clearly shows the 'marketing' of ostriches has been sorely lacking. That

bird has some great stuff! So I think we should officially change the

mascot of our list from sheep to ostrich (did we actually ever have a

mascot?).

Oh well, enough fun for the day. Time for the head to go back in the sand

to get some work done. MS-sheep need not respond.

;-)

-Charlie

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