The Joys of IRC

twisted :: python :: internet

And in particular, #twisted. Here's a great little story (and moral)
from Moshe Zadka:

[13:41]<moshez> dreid: did I tell you about the watchdog
[13:41]<dreid> moshez: no
[13:42]<moshez> dreid: oh, man it is awesome
[13:42]<moshez> dreid: ok, so it goes like that
[13:42]<moshez> dreid: there are a bunch of components
[13:42]<moshez> each component has any number of heart-beats
[13:43]<moshez> a heart-beat is a "heart" (opaque string) and a "beat" 
                (a number)
[13:43]<moshez> the heart-strings are sent, as UDP packets, to the EKG 
                port
[13:44]<moshez> the watchdog launches all the components, and then 
                watches the EKG
[13:44]<moshez> if any component has a heart which doesn't beat, it 
                starts fixing the problem
[13:44]<moshez> the first few times, it will shut down all components 
                and bring them back up
[13:44]<Tv> moshez: when does the dog eat the heart?
[13:45]<moshez> if it sees it needs to do that too many times, it will 
                decide "patient is dead" and reboot the system
[13:45]<moshez> if it sees it needs to reboot the system too many 
                times, it will decide "patient is stupid" and stop curing 
                efforts
[13:46]<dreid> hehe
[13:46]<dreid> i like that last part
[13:47]<foom> so stupid is worse than dead, eh?
[13:47]<dash> foom: there aren't any stories about voodoo curing stupid
[13:48]<moshez> foom: yes. you might be able to resuscitate, but you 
                can't cure stupidity

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