Two thirds of the earth’s population lives and dies without ever making or receiving a phone call.
Men have become the tools of their tools. – Henry David Thoreau
For half the people in the world, the nearest telephone is a two-day walk away.
Why computers and toddlers are alike
1) They have limited memory
2) You must tell them specifically what you want them to do
3) You must repeat instructions several times
4) There is no guarantee they will do as you want them to
5) They lose things
6) Adding items can be difficult
7) Networking is unpredictable and problematic
8) They throw temper tantrums
Normal people believe that it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet. – Scott Adams (writes Dilbert)
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. – Richard Feynman (mathematician)
The most important space in the “space age” is between the ears. – Thomas J. Barlow
Technological change is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal. – Albert Einstein
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. – B.F. Skinner
A specification that will not fit on one page of 8.5×11 inch paper cannot be understood. – Mark Ardis
It’s currently a problem of access to gigabytes through punybaud. – J. C. R. Licklider
There’s no point in having that idealistic view that in the future technology is going to rescue us. There’s no point in thinking technology is evil and it’s going to destroy us. The good and the bad come from the people. – Simon Phipps
That’s the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in Oath of Fealty
Machines take me by surprise with great frequency. – Alan Turing (World War II era math genius who helped break the German coding machines named “enigma”. Laid the foundation for modern computers which are called “Turning machines”.
There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. – Charles Anthony Richard Hoare
Einstein argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer. – Fred Brooks, Jr.
Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. – H. Mumford Jones
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. – Albert Einstein , Out of My Later Years
I didn’t build it. I didn’t sell it to you. I didn’t break it. I’m just here to fix it. – Johans Gustoff Wagner
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all. – John F. Kennedy
There is no mechanical problem so difficult that it cannot be solved by brute force and ignorance.
It all depends on your PERSPECTIVE:
Top 5 Reasons Why Computers Must Be Female:
5. No one but their creator understands their logic.
4. Even the smallest mistakes are immediately committed to memory for future reference.
3. The native language used to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
2. The message “bad command or filename,” is about as informative as “If you don’t know why I’m mad at you, then I’m certainly not going to tell you.”
1. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half you paycheck on accessories for it.
Top 5 Reasons Why Computers Must Be Male:
5. They’ve heavily dependent on external tools and equipment.
4. They periodically cut you off right when you think you’ve established a network connection.
3. They’ll usually do what you ask them to do, but they won’t do more than they have to and they won’t think of it on their own.
2. They’re typically obsolete within five years and need to be traded in for a new model. Some users, however, feel they’ve already invested so much in their machine that they’re compelled to remain with an under powered system.
1. They get hot when you turn them on, and that’s the only time you have their attention.
Humans ability to invent new things almost always exceeds their capacity to make them function correctly.
Technology does not drive change — it enables change.
You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing. – Walker Percy
We must learn to balance the material wonders of technology with the spiritual demands of our human race. – John Naisbitt
America has run the world for at least the past 50 years, and when you’re at the top that long, you forget what it’s like in the valley. There are 5+ billion people out there now who are willing to study harder, work harder for less money and be more industrious than we are. And we’re linked to them by technology. With telecommunicating, you can have your bookkeeping done in Madra, India, for less than it costs here. Today technology can replace whole new industries, so you have to stay flexible. To survive today, you have to be able to walk on quicksand and dance with electrons. – Frank Ogden
The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers. – Sydney J. Harris
A lot of what appears to be progress is just so much technological roccoco. – Bill Grey, Control Data
There will be a road.
It will not connect two points.
It will connect all points.
Its speed limit will be the speed of light.
It will not go from here to there.
There will be no more there.
We will all only be here.
– MCI TV commercial
The Ultimate Acronym:
ACRONYM: Automatic Computerized Reorganization Of Names Yielding Meaninglessness
In science, one can learn the most by studying what seems the least. Solomon said “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.”
The most elegant computer programming language is the one that best matches the problem, the selected algorithm, and the programmer’s preferred methodology and style.
Given any controversial topic, any book about it that reaches the best-seller list is most likely wrong. – Henry Palka of Hartford, Connecticut
AUTOMATION/MECHANIZATION: When an elderly woman was asked why she was standing in line to buy stamps from a teller when she could have used a stamp machine she replied: “The machine won’t ask me about my arthritis!”
Clarke’s Laws:
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them to the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Clarke’s first law once was called just Clarke’s Law. Then the publisher of a translation called the second quote , Clarke’s Second Law. Clarke then called the third quote , Clarke’s Third Law and said if three laws was good enough for Newton then…….
Asimov’s Corollary (to Clarke’s First Law):
When the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists, and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion — the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, right.
NETWORKS: In the beginning of PCs people used “Sneaker-Net”. Carried diskettes to one another (using “sneakers”!)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clarke
Computers WORK, people THINK. – Old IBM Adage
Illustrating the problems a computer would have in understanding the spoken word, consider the meaning of the following sentences:
I never slept with my wife before we got married. How about you?
She dropped the cup on the table and broke it.
He was at death’s door until the doctors pulled him through.
People can recognize friendship OR People can wreck a nice friendship.
Please write to Mrs. Wright right now.
