Nick Sieger: Rare Rubiestag:blog.nicksieger.com,2005:TypoTypo2010-11-22T19:38:57+00:00Nick Siegerurn:uuid:08507152-87fb-40ee-9e73-b3644c2c56192007-05-24T17:16:05+00:002010-11-22T19:38:57+00:00Rare Rubies<p>Stumbling upon a description of a <a href="http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/ruby/index.htm">rare Burmese Ruby gemstone housed in the Smithsonian</a>, this line popped out at me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While sapphire, emerald and diamond gems weighing hundreds of carats exist, high quality Burmese rubies larger than 20 carats are exceedingly rare.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We could rephrase that a bit:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While Java, C++, and C# programs weighing hundreds of thousands of lines of code exist, high quality Ruby programs larger than 2000 lines are exceedingly rare.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Isn’t it strange how you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowclone">hardly notice a difference</a>?</p>
<p><img src="http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/images/ruby/main_ruby2.jpg" alt="Carmen Lucia Ruby"/></p>