Saturday, December 03, 2011

A different kind of optimization...(part 2)




Laurent tells me that he is not sure about the take away message from this video.

I once had the idea that I would want to fly the Concorde before its fateful flight. But then I realized that what I really wanted was to fly at Mach 2 or 17 in some sort of spiritual experience. Flying at Mach 2 or less than Mach 1 really doesn't matter when you want to fly from point A to point B.

I think the take away message is that optimization sometimes is in the allocation of resources as opposed to the creation of new hardware. Point and shoot cameras for instance are really trying to catch up to DSLRs  when that market is slowly but surely being eaten by the billion smartphones that have direct access to the interweb. In the same way car rental companies are there to hold reservations, people do not really want to take pictures, they want to show pictures.

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2 comments:

Laurent DUVAL said...

I have been visiting Le Bourget museum (Air and Space museum) recently. I entered a Concorde for the first time of my life. So tiny... The guide told us about the crash, but more interestingly about the technology. She said it was so noisy that they had air hostesses serve buckets of champagne up from take-off so that passengers could enjoy the short flight and forget about the lack of comfort. Both approaches may coincide.

Laurent DUVAL said...

"Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. That is, travel to any part of universe without moving."

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