Klarinet Archive - Posting 000267.txt from 2005/03

From: "Don" <dhatfield@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Things to say after concerts
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 12:41:17 -0500


> ...and the classic:
>
> Time flies like an arrow

Or the even more Groucho Marx version...
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

> for which a computer program found seven meanings (more meanings than
> the sentence has words). This was back in the days when linguists
> first thought that computers may be able to understand natural language.

I remember having to learn COBOL for an advanced math class in college in
1976-77 in order to do assignments on THE (as in only one) computer. You had
to stay signed up three weeks in advance to keep your weekly hour of time in
a computer room that looked a lot like the engineering room in the Star Trek
TV series. (he engineering majors would pay you good money to do your
assignments so they could have your computer time to play games...and I
never noticed anything natural about how it handled my language when I
cursed it.) As a result of working that into my schedule I ended up with a
7am Monday morning clarinet lesson for two semesters.

Don Hatfield

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