| In early 1990s I worked at a mid-sized software company making software to help big businesses do big-business stuff. One day, another programmer pops into my cube and says: "Hey, how do you draw a 3d pie chart?" "What?" I asked. "Why?" "Well, Excel can do them. And somebody saw one. Now they want our software to draw them." "Are you serious?" "Yes, I need it like now. I'm supposed to demo it later today." So I get out a sheet of paper, draw some triangles, and work out that projection math. He walks away with the paper. Half an hour later, he calls me over. "Hey, it's a 3d pie chart!" And there it was: On a screen I was all too familiar with, where the 2d pie chart used to be, was a squat 3d pie chart, looking like it was a fat inch thick. Of course, there was too much margin above and below, because of the flatter aspect ratio, but hey, it was 3d and it was good enough for a demo. I think that was the first day I realized that programming can be used for evil. |