by Dolly » Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:43 pm
The NewZealand Farmer
A Kiwi farmer was herding his flock in a remote NZ pasture when suddenly a
brand-new BMW X5 advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Hugo Boss suit, Gucci shoes, D&G sunglasses
and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the farmer, "If I tell you
exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?" The
farmer looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully
grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure, Why
not?" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,
connects it to his vodafone cell phone. He surfs to a NASA page on the
internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an
exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite
that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then
opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image
processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an
email on
his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.
He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel
spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data
via an email on his IPod and, after a few minutes, receives a
response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his
hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the farmer
and says, "You have exactly 1586 sheep." "That's right. Well, I guess you
can take one of my sheep." says the farmer. He watches the young man
select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it
into the trunk of his car.
Then the farmer says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly
what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?" The young man thinks
about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" "You're a consultant."
says the farmer.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required." answered the farmer. "You showed up here even
though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew;
to a question I never asked; and you don't know crap about my business. Now
give me back my dog."