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"Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers
believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet."
"If you can't make it good, make it look good."
"640k ought to be enough for anybody." (1981)
-Bill Gates
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
(Ken Olsen, Digital Equipment Corp, 1977)
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
(Popular Mechanics, 1949)
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
(IBM's Thomas Watson, 1943)
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is
inherently of no value to us."
(Western Union internal memo, 1876)
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
(Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents,
1899).
"Not even Maxwell Smart would be fooled"
"Perhaps you have been a manager too long"
"You are good at twisting things to your point of view; perhaps as good
as I am."
- Bob Scheifler
"In life you don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate."
"You should have to have a permit to have children."
- Greaseman
Clever people can pretend to be stupid. The other way round is more
difficult."
- Kurt Tucholsky
"The more things change, the bigger the diffs."
"It takes a long time to be an instant success."
- Jeff Barr
"You can't debug wood." - Sean Trowbridge
"In Icon Heyday, everything was an icon; each piece of software had its
Bird's Nest, Frying Pan, High-Button Shoe and so. There's less
of that now, but icons are still used as if they made the software
clearer, whereas they're just a bigger target to point at, and
you still take a chance at what's behind the door."
- Ted Nelson
"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."
- Fred Brooks "The Mythical Man Month"
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was
standing on the shoulder of giants.
-- Albert Einstein
If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants
were standing on my shoulders.
-- Hal Abelson
If we don't realize we're standing on the shoulders of giants,
we're not as likely to watch our step...and that first one is a doozy.
-- Michael A. Stone
In computer science, we stand on each other's feet.
-- Brian K. Reed
Michael A. Stone on firewalls
Firewalls are generally designed to get emotional when they see
streams of binary data.
You could suggest rebuilding the firewall to use a different
internal protocol to transfer data for instance...but only if
you want the entire programming staff to start carrying voodoo
dolls with blond ponytails.
A well-designed firewall is less likely to negotiate than a german
police officer whose blader is about to explode.
... a practice roughly akin to rubbing sticks of dynamite together
to keep warm. ;-)
Michael A. Stone on reliability
if you want something to be reliable, the standard design limit is
three sigma.. roughly 99.75%. for safety-critical system, the
stanard is six sigma.. which means your chance of failure is about
as good as your chance of winning the lottery, having bigfoot deliver
the check, and getting hit by lightning as he hands it to you.
I want a lawyer who says things I can take into court...not print as
fortune cookies.
- Michael A. Stone
Codig is like anything else.. spend enough time smacking your head
against walls, and eventually you can tell brick from concrete on
the first thump. 'expertise' is just a factor of skull thickness
and determination to get to the other side.
- Michael A. Stone
We all know we keep getting put into ridiculous situations by nitwits with
an MBA they got (apparently) out of a box of cracker-jacks, but we
never stop to ask ourselves, "how did this walking empty space get
power over me?"
- Michael A. Stone
Michael suggests to walk away from potential trouble client, and...
if you don't, you may as well be standing on the brink of an
alligator pit, rubbing yourself down with Cajun blackening spices.
- Michael A Stone
... just more agricultural byproducts interfacing with the rotary impellor.
- Michael A. Stone paraphrasing you-know-what
Real programmers don't comment their code. It was hard to write, it
should be hard to understand.
more real programmer...
plus Mel
about web site design:
Grim reality: function works, but flash sells.
grimmer reality: flash sells.. once.. but it's hell to maintain.
The facts of life:
The two most common elements in the universe are
hydrogen and stupidity.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Deja Moo: the feeling that you've heard this bullshit before.
psychiatrists say that one out of four people are
mentally ill. Check three friends. If they're OK...
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve
as a warning to others.
The average woman would rather have beauty than
brain because the average man can see better than
he can think.
Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by moving from
where you left them to where you can't find them.
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