Monday, February 05, 2007

Only in horseshoes and big bombs

does 'close' count.

I searched for a song on Pandora. The system found it, but queued up another similar song instead of the one I asked for. The reason - their license does not allow them to immediately serve the particular songs that are searched.

Interesting model. When applied to identity, it might resemble

Requestor: Can I have Joe's shipping address?
Provider: As requested - here is Joe's email address.
Requestor: Sorry, you must have misheard, I asked for his shipping address.
Provider: My hearing is just fine, thank you very much.
Requestor: Didn't mean to offend, but you gave me his email address when I asked for his shipping address.
Provider: Indeed I did.
Requestor: Glad that's cleared up, could I get the shipping address then?
Provider: It's a perfectly good email address.
Requestor: I'm sure it is, but I don't need his email, I need his shipping address.
Provider: Seems a shame to not use it somehow.
Requestor: (sighing) OK, I'll take the email address. But I do need his shipping address.
Provider: Say hi to Joe from me when you use the email.
Requestor: I will most definitely mention you, but the shipping address ....
Provider: Oh, you need his shipping address?
Requestor: (pause) Yes, yes I do.
Provider: Are you going to ship something to him?
Requestor: Yes, but I don't see what ...
Provider: Did he get the flat screen? He's been wanting one for the longest time.
Requestor: I'm sorry but that's really none of your business.
Provider: Oh excuuuse me, what he bought is none of my business but his email address is yours?
Requestor: I didn't even want his email address!
Provider: Then why did you ask for it?
Requestor: Just forget it, I'll send him an email telling him to pick the parcel up from the store.
Provider: Hah, so you needed the email after all!

silence

Provider: Hello? Hello?

silence

Provider: Did you know he was a Sagitarius?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hmm in the You Can't Always Get What You Want category for Identity Management, some LDAP clients in the mid-90s were infamous for requesting an "approximate match" instead of a substring or equality match for a name.

A search for a "Mrs Trellis" (of North Wales) would suggest you might want to find a Terwilliger, a Thrailkill, a Threlkeld or a Trulock.