It's always nice to place an appropriate default in a newly-created field. A well-chosen default will often be what the user requires and will be left there: it also reduces the opportunities for nulls to cause problems.

Why should any of the above be limited to the world of computers and databases? As soon as a farmer fences the last side of that new field, or screws on a gate, an appropriate default appears in the field. The default varies according to the field type: pigs for mud, sheep for grass, maybe even corn if it's ploughed.

How's this delivered? Under the banner of agricultural subsidy. Never mind the boring cheque in the post - you've turned the land over to agriculture, the animal or the crop is your bonus. Faceless bureaucrats simply sneak it into the field while the farmer's busy fixing that last piece of fence.
-- Steve Adams, Jan 06 2004

In this field we find default. http://lava.tamu.ed...oits/figs/fault.jpg
[Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004]

Brilliant in its simplicity. I would imagine you'd have to set up some sort of Neighbourhood Watch in order to determine who is currently fencing, and a specialist would decide the most appropriate livestock or crop. Over time, farmers may put up a certain type of fence, hoping to get a specific result. Chicken wire, for example.
-- lintkeeper2, Jan 06 2004


Already Baked. I'll bet there are birds, gophers, hedgehogs, mice, moles, voles or some such in any given piece of property you'd care to fence.
-- phoenix, Jan 06 2004


Ha! But this would be a pun, and those are sometimes frowned on around here.
-- DrCurry, Jan 06 2004


nice (+). Default Volvos in fjords ?
-- neilp, Jan 06 2004



random, halfbakery