[Infrastructures] state machines

[Tracy R Reed]

I have been following this thread (and this list) for a few months 
trying to glean wisdom from the gurus and have managed to keep quiet 
thus far but this message tickled me.

Wesley Craig wrote:
> On 19 Sep 2006, at 12:14, Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:
>> (b) can you reliably record *and later restore* the state at *all*  
>> of those levels?
> 
> So, you're arguing that backup and restore don't work?  Is that  
> because of the quantum effects you mention?

I'm not sure if you are joking here or not. If a photon hits your 
computer the quantum state of the computer is changed. I, for one, don't 
care about that as far as my software goes. Unless it gets to the point 
where my computer melts. But then I have problems other than software.

> It's like the entire history of computing is wrong.  How do you  
> practically deploy a few hundred machines, given that the theory more  
> or less says that it's impossible?

Theory may say it is impossible to do it *perfectly* but in practice all 
most of us need is "good enough" and that is the only thing that allows 
any of us to actually get any real work done.

-- 
Tracy R Reed                  http://ultraviolet.org
A: Because we read from top to bottom, left to right
Q: Why should I start my reply below the quoted text