In programming, a string is an ordered series of data values, often denoting a set of printable characters.
A Procrustean string is a fixed length string where the string value is truncated, if it is too long, OR it is padded with space characters to fit the allocated lenght, if it is too short.
The term 'Procrustean' refers to the archetypal serial killer of Greek mytholoy, Procrustes, who operated an inn located along a well-traveled country road to Athens. He was a suave, charming and hospitable innkeeper who offered weary travelers on the way to Athens the best food, wine and an iron bed that was special because it would always fit the guest who slept on it.
The iron bed would always fit any guest who slept on it because after so much wining and dining, Procrustes would make sure that the guest would indeed fit by cutting off their legs if they were too tall for the bed or by stretching their legs if they were too short for the bed.
He had a decent bloody streak going, even by modern day serial killing standards, until that Greek hero, Theseus, out-ate, out-drank, out-wrestled Procrustes to his special iron bed where he met the same fate he doled out to many unsuspecting travelers. Too long for his own bed, so the Greek legend goes, so his legs were chopped off.
The morals of the story, of course, are a) avoid iron beds as a matter of self-preservation until you check the devil in the offering details; b) avoid any bed of assumptions that breed a type of conformity that dulls the ability to think independently lest your legs be chopped off; and, c) avoid any thing that sounds too good to be true like the niche technology standard dictating the evolution of the de facto technology standard.
I daresay that we shall bear witness to the way those lessons will be drummed into the crania of some of our friendly neighborhood Qualcommites. If they're not busy attacking and smearing anything and anybody who doesn't conform to their narrowly conceived and rigidly held views about QCOM and global wireless, they are busy consoling themselves and reinforcing their narrowly conceived and rigidly held views about QCOM.
The amusing thing to watch is none of them seem to be able to adequately address the fact that Qualcomm has acknowledged that they don't have any relevant TDMA/GSM IPRs and that will necessarily dilute QCOM's claims on WCDMA.
Scratch any reasonable sounding person here on SI or RB or Yahoo and present that fact and the reaction will reveal either somebody who can think for himself or yet another foul-mouthed zealot prone to rants and tantrums, depending on the price of QCOM.
You ain't seen nothing yet. Lol. |
