Author: Prakash Das
Date: 12:51:59 05/27/99
Go up one level in this thread
Well, I still don't understand the point of this "world championship" then. Sure , you can call it "hey, if nothing it will be fun", a "test of systems", etc. But what are exactly is this exercise trying to prove? If program A on hardware B, beats program D on hardware E - does that say much about A compared to B? This belies the principles of science - you have to have a uniform platform for all participants to make any kind of judgement. Someone said it is a test of "systems". Everything is a system - a philosophical concept to a microwave oven to a method of planting trees. Why call this a world championship at all .. why not simply, some kind of "fair"? I mean, to draw scietific conclusions on such a basis is impractical. There is no doubt that the latest programs will all do well given their owners will land up with super hardware. Hey, what a surprise! And invariably the programs that look bad are either the older ones, or the ones whose owners could/would not bring the best hardware. Considering that the results of this "world championship" will be used for marketing purposes, perhaps the organizers should have made it obligatory on each particpant to print some kind of following statement in case of a marketing advertisement: "This championship had participants using their own hardware. Because of the non-uniform nature of the hardware.. etc.. the results cannot be used to draw wide conclusions." Yes, there is nothing wrong in having fun, but don't call it a world championship. Equality in the name of science I demand :)
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