Google Not Universal Panacea [was: Re: Where to find python c-sources]

[Erik Max Francis]

Steve Holden wrote:

> I don't think "The source tarball on python.org" could claim to be 
> telling him "exactly where it was" given that my copy of the web site 
> has 341 MB of stuff in it.

He doesn't have to search through the whole thing, there's a link on the 
front page, so this 341 MB figure is meaningless.

I certainly understand laziness.  I don't approve of it, but I can 
understand it.  But I really don't understand _defending_ laziness.

His grasp of the English language was just fine.  He could have gotten 
the answer to his question by using Google with less time and effort 
than it took him to post to Usenet, wait for a response, and then act on 
it.  Even if he were totally lazy and selfish, he could have gotten the 
answer more easily by using Google for ten seconds.  Language was 
obviously not a barrier here, since the very words he used in asking the 
question could have been typed into a search engine to get exactly the 
answer he wanted.

There are plenty of questions that are complex enough, or require 
knowing the right terminology which might not be obvious to an 
interested amateur, such that a search engine won't be the most 
practical way to do research.  This was _certainly_ not one of those cases.

-- 
Erik Max Francis && max at alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && AIM erikmaxfrancis
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