T
Tom Anderson
Here's everything specifically about programming and allied arts, plus a
few extras, from my sig file. I haven't checked to eliminate redundancy
with things that have already been posted. At least one (from Red Adair)
is known to be apocryphal. Context is not supplied, and is often
important; i might be able to clarify individual cases if anyone is
interested.
With regards to people who think this thread is a waste of space: you know
where your delete buttons are.
So:
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr.
Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers
come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of
ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage
We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that
needs to be done. -- Alan Turing
Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than
from books -- Alan Turing
The Web isn't hypertext, it's DECORATED DIRECTORIES! -- Ted Nelson
One of the principal objects of theoretical research in my department of
knowledge is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in
its greatest simplicity. -- Josiah Willard Gibbs
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait
until you hire an amateur. -- Red Adair
Our only chance for survival is better engineering. -- James Dyson
We'll never win by being like them. Our best tactic is to be better.
Better necessarily means different. -- Jon Rentzsch
I sometimes think that the IETF is one of the crown jewels in all of
western civilization. -- Tim O'Reilly
No kings, voting or presidents, just a rough consensus and running code.
-- Dave Clark
Yesterday's research projects are today's utilities and tomorrow's
historical footnotes. -- Roy Smith
Do more with less -- R. Buckminster Fuller
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that worked. -- Gall's Law
Formal logical proofs, and therefore programs, are *utterly meaningless*.
-- Dehnadi and Bornat
Formal logical proofs, and therefore programs - formal logical proofs that
particular computations are possible, expressed in a formal system called
a programming language - are utterly meaningless. To write a computer
program you have to come to terms with this, to accept that whatever you
might want the program to mean, the machine will blindly follow its
meaningless rules and come to some meaningless conclusion. -- Dehnadi and
Bornat
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -- Alan Kay
The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution
hasn't started yet. -- Alan Kay
Technology is anything that wasn't around when you were born. -- Alan Kay
I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with
epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by
trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. -- Max Born
Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of
indirection. But that usually will create another problem. -- David
Wheeler
Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of
indirection. -- David Wheeler
A program is only as good as its worst piece of code. -- Joshua Cranmer
There is no harm in being sometimes wrong especially if one is promptly
found out. -- John Maynard Keynes
The coolest thing to do with your data will be thought of by someone else.
-- Rufus Pollock
Many CS algorithms become less useful when questions start getting
answered with "maybe". -- Eric Sink
If it ain't broke, open it up and see what makes it so bloody special. --
The Bastard Operator From Hell
tom