concerning museum specimens, an area receiving considerable atten¬ 
tion in museums around the world (see reports in this issue on the 
automation of data in systematic collections and on the Bolus Her¬ 
barium system). As an individual scientist and systematist watch¬ 
ing the development of such systems, I remain very doubtful about 
their ultimate success and their value as opposed to their costs, 
but it seems rather dog in the mangerish for me not to recognize 
the overall interest in and movement towards the activity in mus¬ 
eums. I hope that inclusion of material concerning this activity 
in MUDPIE will lead to the presentation of views both pro and con, 
and perhaps form the basic framework for a thorough discussion of 
the movement at the ICSEB meetings in Boulder in 1973.--JAP. 
REMARKS WORTH REPEATING 
In a recent paper included in the volume 
Computers in the 70's," edited by Gruenberger 
turns several felicitous phrases worth passing on 
"Consider our overkill capacity in terms of 
Every computer has at least one high-speed pr 
producing 1000 pages per hour in six copies. F 
per month, and 65000 machines, it figures out to 
per month for every person in the country. Have 
1200 pages this month? If we extrapolate to 1980 
printing speeds of 3000 lines per minute), the 
14,000 pages per person per month." 
"Documentation is like sex: when it's good, 
good; and when it's bad, it's better than nothing 
Expanding Use of 
, Dick H. Brandon 
to you, such as: 
printed output, 
inter, capable of 
iguring 600 hours 
around 1200 pages 
you read your 
(300000 computers 
figure goes to 
it's very very 
M 
"An industry of a 
penditures, and 65,000 
we slash the oh or slash 
million people, $22 billion in annual ex¬ 
machines, with a controversy over whether 
the zero is totally ludicrous." 
"I can go to work for you...as a systems analyst and do abso¬ 
lutely nothing for 18 months and you will not know it ...After six 
months, if you ask me. I'll tell you that I've been gathering 
data. Six months later I'll tell you I've been doing data analy¬ 
sis. And at the end of 18 months. I'll tell you that I've had to 
gather new data because the users have made changes. And if, af¬ 
ter that, you challenge me to produce something. I'll quit." 
"We have made 
who is fired can 
crease of $1000 
gap). The loyalty 
that is how you tel 
member, he gave his 
unemployment totally 
get a n new job withi 
a year (a number that 
gap for systems analy 
1 those two groups apa 
talk in March, 1970!) 
obs 
ol 
e te 
. A pro 
gr 
n 
two 
hou 
rs, and a 
t 
c 
an 
be 
ca 
lied the 
lo 
s 
t s 
is 
$ 
2000 a ye 
ar 
r 
t. " 
(o 
n this o 
ne 
ammer 
an in 
yal ty 
— and 
, re- 
