Hey, Today’s My Day Off!
This Blondie strip would apply to almost every guy: after all, it articulates a guy’s idea of a day off perfectly: I am sure no wife or mother would disagree with the above. You’d think a guy like Claude Shannon who invented information theory would be different (today that theory is behind the entire PC/laptop/cellphone/tablet revolution). Surely a guy that good would not be like Dagwood Bumstead, right? Wrong. Shannon also invented what he called the “ultimate machine”. Sounds very grand. Coming from the founder of information theory, you’d expect it to do something just short of being a perpetual motion machine. Well, prepare to be disappointed. And surprised. And amused. Here is Arthur C. Clarke’s description of Shannon’s “ultimate machine”: “It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry, purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath emerges a hand...