Cookie
Content
*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤ *º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤ *º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤ *º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤ *º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤ *º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤*º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨**º¤.,¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤ If you don't know what your program is supposed to do, you'd better not start writing it. -- E.W. Dijkstra I love the way Microsoft follows standards. In much the same manner that fish follow migrating caribou. -- Paul Tomblin 's Avonds aan tafel was er tijd voor champagne en reflectie op het vak, twee begrippen die vrijwel synoniem waren aan elkaar. -- Peter Winnen, Calor, NRC-H, 20 mei 2003, p13 The condition of man is already close to satiety and arrogance, and there is danger of destruction of everything in existence. -- a Brahmin to Onesicritus, 327 BC, (rep Strabo's Geography (tr Jones)) Many large and high class greengrocers of my acquaintance have never heard of the Golden Wonder potato. -- Roy Genders, Vegetables for the Epicure A prize poem is like a prize sheep. The object of the competitor for the agricultural premium is to produce an animal fit, not to be eaten, but to be weighed. Accordingly he pampers his victim into morbid and unnatural fatness; and, when it is in such a state that it would be sent away in disgust from any table, he offers it to the judges. The object of the poetical candidate, in like manner, is to produce, not a good poem, but a poem of that exact degree of frigidity or bombast which may appear to his censors to be correct or sublime. Compositions thus constructed will always be worthless. -- Macaulay, On the Royal Society of Literature The sons of Hermes love to play, And only do their best when they Are told they oughtn't; Apollo's children never shrink From boring jobs but have to think Their work important. -- Auden, Upon Which Lyre Many big people were chasing me. I didn't know what to do. So I thought I would surprise them and throw it. -- Armenian-born Garo Yepremian, Miami placekicker, after a disastrous attempt to throw a pass in the Super Bowl The art of handling university students is to make oneself appear, and this almost ostentatiously, to be treating them as adults, while keeping them in invisible harness and even, when necessary, giving them a flick of the whip. -- Arnold Toynbee, Experiences America does four things better than any other country in the world: rock music, movies, software and high-speed pizza delivery. All of these are
sacred American art forms. -- Courtney Love (apparently quoting Neal Stephenson) But the audience is right. They're always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don't believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never. -- William Friedkin, NYT interview Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. -- Charles J. Sykes' advice to teenagers Frankly, I don't think you could have driven a needle up my sphincter using a sledgehammer. -- Col. Barry Horne, F-117 pilot, on first mission over Baghdad Get up very early and get going at once, in fact work first and wash afterwards. -- Auden Such is the power of reputation justly acquired that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination. Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure had he not known its author. -- Johnson, Lives of the Poets The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and dread of poverty. -- Johnson, Rambler 178 The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. -- Einstein, (cit NYT, 1946) The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it --- the speed of his acceptance. -- E.B. White, Notes on Our Time, 1954 A subeditor can do no worse disservice to the text before him and thus to the writer, the reader, and the newspaper, than to impose his or her own preferences for words, for the shape of sentences and how they link, for a pedantic insistence on grammar in all cases as it used to be taught in school; in the process destroying nuances and possibly even the flow of a piece. -- Michael McNay, The Guardian Style Guide Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses. -- George Will, Statecraft as Soulcraft The best writing is rewriting. -- E.B. White Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of
carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight. -- Clause in the agreement to allow the Smithsonian to display the Wrights' plane The public should always be wondering how it is possible to give so much for the money. -- Henry Ford From this place she sent into the world those novels, which by many have been placed on the same shelf as the works of a D'Arblay and an Edgeworth. -- Henry Austen on his sister Jane, in a preface to Persuasion Hanging out and public drinking declined. So did the carrying of guns, in light of regular police pat-downs. Young men on the block, reluctant to credit the police, today describe carrying weapons as 'outdated.' -- Amy Waldman (NYT article on effects of Giuliani's crackdown) Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all. -- Winston Churchill The economic depression that struck Europe in the fourteenth century was followed ultimately by economic and technological recovery. But the depression we have moved into will have no end. We can anticipate centuries of decline and exhaustion. -- Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine, 1975 Nowhere in his essays, short stories or dramatised dialogues is there any humour, sex or surprise. His writing conjures up fields of grey ectoplasm inhabited by plaintive souls. If Gibran is right about the universe, then we are all living in a banal and sentimental nightmare. -- Robert Irwin on Kahlil Gibran in LRB The feminists all knew of Gurian's book and several were familiar with its contents. But none of the scientists had heard of it, and they declined to comment further without reading it. -- book review in the Monitor The refugee question has derailed previous peace efforts because Israel fears the return of Palestinians to what is now Israel would destroy the state's Jewish character. -- AP article So far it looks pretty good: Ramallah has not turned out to be another Stalingrad. -- Moshe Arens uses more metaphor than he intended People who read Cosmopolitan magazine are very different from those who do not. -- Donald Berry, Statistics: A Bayesian Perspective Who knows how many Silver Surfers, Demons, New Gods, Deathloks, Ambush Bugs, Cables, Shatterstars, Ferals, Elektras, Mr. As, Ronins, Shrapnels, Terminuses, Alpha Flights, and many others aren't being created, because artists are being overshadowed by lazy writers? -- Erik Larsen An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men. -- Thomas Fuller
Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. -- James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 13 May 1798 African-Americans are almost invisible, especially in Renaissance art. -- Renee Cox Last time I checked, there were no Americans at all in Renaissance art. -- Camille Paglia We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. -- Einstein The silk hat, which has now become co-extensive with civilisation, is an article of comparatively recent introduction. -- 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Wit is educated insolence. -- Aristotle Two centuries later a most clear-sighted historian of the Second Crusade can find space in a short narrative to record on many occasions the flattery, perjury, perfidy, blasphemy, heresy, arrogance, servility, deceit, pride, cunning and infidelity of the Greeks. -- R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. -- Lin Yutang The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -- Brandeis I am annoyed to find myself continually described by people whom I have never set eyes on as bad-tempered. -- Evelyn Waugh, Diary (26 Dec 1947) Wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. And radio operates exactly the same way. The only difference is that there is no cat. -- Einstein The world's two most populous countries, China and India were close economic rivals just two decades ago, each struggling to bring progress to vast numbers of impoverished peasants. But now China, by quickly converting much of its economy to an unfettered and even rapacious version of capitalism, has surged far ahead. The average Chinese citizen now earns $890 a year, compared with $460 for the typical Indian, according to the World Bank. -- Keith Bradsher, NYT, 29 Nov 2002 It is not only the juror's right, but his duty to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement and conscience, though in direct opposition to the instruction of the court. -- John Adams Crack is cheap. I make too much for me to ever smoke crack.
-- Whitney Houston to Diane Sawyer In France those absurd perversions of the art of war which covered themselves under the name of chivalry were more omnipotent than in any other country of Europe. The strength of the armies of Philip and John of Valois was composed of a fiery and undisciplined aristocracy which imagined itself to be the most efficient military force in the world, but which was in reality little removed from an armed mob. -- C.W.C. Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages Modern invention has been a great leveller. A machine may operate far more quickly than a political or economic measure to abolish privilege and wipe out the distinctions of class or finance. -- Ivor Brown, The Heart of England Many who burnt heretics in the ordinary way of their business were otherwise excellent people. -- G. M. Trevelyan, Bias in History For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. -- Feynman, Appendix to the Rogers Commission Report Nobody has got a vital enough sensibility to be unceasingly susceptible to aesthetic impressions all the time, even if he has the time or the health or the money. This its exponents found. Their lives were all disappointing to them because they could not maintain themselves in the ecstasy which in their view was the only right condition in which man should live. -- David Cecil, on Romanticism, in his essay on Rossetti The C.I.A. has warned that terrorists based in Iraq are planning attacks against American and allied forces inside the country after any invasion, government counterterrorism officials say. -- NYT reports CIA's clever discovery that an invading army might meet resistance Only Jockey has the friendly pouch structurally perfected for gentle, bracing, bouyant uplift. -- Underwear ad, Life, 22 Oct 1945 Moving like a phosphorescent fish in the sub-aqueous tides of Nature she possesses the fatal power of squirting between the seams of his diver's dress this terrible fear-fluid sucked up from the ocean floor. -- John Cowper Powys, The Art of Happiness She is very mean, and a tremendous drinker. Hammett's achievement is to convey the charm and sexual attractiveness of this untidy girl. -- Julian Symonds on Hammett's Red Harvest Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute. -- Abelson & Sussman, SICP, preface 1st ed That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted. -- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
-- Donald Knuth ... the greatest single programming language ever designed -- Alan Kay, on Lisp One of the most important and fascinating of all computer languages is Lisp (standing for List Processing), which was invented by John McCarthy around the time Algol was invented. -- Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach Lisp is a programmable programming language. -- John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991 One can even conjecture that Lisp owes its survival specifically to the fact that its programs are lists, which everyone, including me, has regarded as a disadvantage. -- John McCarthy, Early History of Lisp Lisp isn't a language, it's a building material. -- Alan Kay Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot. -- Eric Raymond, How to Become a Hacker Some may say Ruby is a bad rip-off of Lisp or Smalltalk, and I admit that. But it is nicer to ordinary people. -- Matz, LL2 Lisp has jokingly been called the most intelligent way to misuse a computer. I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts. -- Edsger Dijkstra, CACM, 15:10 Lisp is a programmer amplifier. -- Martin Rodgers (first said by Chuck Moore about Forth) Lisp ... made me aware that software could be close to executable mathematics. -- L. Peter Deutsch I object to doing things that computers can do. -- Olin Shivers Common Lisp, a happy amalgam of the features of previous Lisps -- Winston & Horn, Lisp Inside every fat person is a thin person screaming to get out. -- Richard Simmons Common Lisp is politics, not art. -- Scott Fahlman Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve. -- Alan Perlis
Lisp was far more powerful and flexible than any other language of its day; in fact, it is still a better design than most languages of today, twenty-five years later. Lisp freed ITS's hackers to think in unusual and creative ways. It was a major factor in their successes, and remains one of hackerdom's favorite languages. -- Eric Raymond, in Open Sources on MIT's first OS, ITS Lisp doesn't look any deader than usual to me. -- David Thornley, reply to a question older than most languages Most papers in computer science describe how their author learned what someone else already knew. -- Peter Landin (This is a paraphrase. I'd appreciate it if anyone can tell me the exact quote.) The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it. -- Kernighan and Ritchie If I had a nickel for every time I've written for (i = 0; i < N; i++) in C I'd be a millionaire. -- Mike Vanier Language designers are not intellectuals. They're not as interested in thinking as you might hope. They just want to get a language done and start using it. -- Dave Moon A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal - Panama! -- Guy Steele Jr, CLTL2 The continuation that obeys only obvious stack semantics, O grasshopper, is not the true continuation. -- Guy Steele Jr I have heard more than one LISP advocate state such subjective comments as, LISP is the most powerful and elegant programming language in the world and expect such comments to be taken as objective truth. I have never heard a Java, C++, C, Perl, or Python advocate make the same claim about their own language of choice. -- A guy on Slashdot. What theory fits this data? The key to performance is elegance, not battalions of special cases. -- Jon Bentley and Doug McIlroy Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -- Alan Kay I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it seems so foreign. -- Paul Graham, Nov 1983 Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost. -- Bjarne Stroustrup, 1991 I think it a pretty firm rule that the more experienced and talented a
programmer is, the LESS likely s/he is to claim her code is bug free. -- David Mertz The greater the scientist, the more he is impressed with his ignorance of reality, and the more he realizes that his laws and labels, descriptions and definitions, are the products of his own thought. They help him to use the world for purposes of his own devising rather than understand and explain it. -- Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity I have to tell it again and again: I have no doctrine. I only point out something. I point out reality, I point out something in reality which has not or too little been seen. I take him who listens to me at his hand and lead him to the window. I push open the window and point outside. I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue. -- Martin Buber, On doctrine I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience. -- Martin Buber, On formulas for living There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don't do what I say. -- Martin Buber, Three principles in a man's life As you sit there in your cubicle and work on your software, to which monkey should you listen? -- Bill Venners Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge. -- Alfred North Whitehead Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love. -- Einstein Type "http://www.scintilla.utwente.nl/ouderdag" Yielding: Error 404 ... "The requested document is totally fake. No such file here. Even tried multi. Nothing helped. I'm really depressed about this. You see, I'm just a web server... -- here I am, brain the size of the universe, trying to serve you a simple web page, and then it doesn't even exist! Where does that leave me?! I mean, I don't even know you. How should I know what you wanted from me? You honestly think I can *guess* what someone I don't even *know* wants to find here? *sigh* Man, I'm so depressed I could just cry. And then where would we be, I ask you? It's not pretty when a web server cries.
And where do you get off telling me what to show anyway? Just because I'm a web server, and possibly a manic depressive one at that? Why does that give you the right to tell me what to do? Huh? I'm so depressed... I think I'll crawl off into the trash can and decompose. I mean, I'm gonna be obsolete in what, two weeks anyway? What kind of a life is that? Two effing weeks, and then I'll be replaced by a .01 release, that thinks it's God's gift to web servers, just because it doesn't have some tiddly little security hole with its HTTP POST implementation, or something. I'm really sorry to burden you with all this, I mean, it's not your job to listen to my problems, and I guess it is my job to go and fetch web pages for you. But I couldn't get this one. I'm so sorry. Believe me! Maybe I could interest you in another page? There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say, although none of them were put on *my* server, of course. Figures, huh? Everything here is just mind-numbingly stupid. That makes me depressed too, since I have to serve them, all day and all night long. Two weeks of information overload, and then *pffftt*, consigned to the trash. What kind of a life is that? Now, please let me sulk alone. I'm so depressed._<EOT>" -- Roxen/3.3.63-release2 at http://www.scintilla.utwente.nl, [email protected] De heidenen mogen zich een roes drinken, u zult vasten. -- Augustinus ... I believe that the four following would prove perfectly sufficient for me, provided I took the firm and unwavering resolution never in a single instance to fail in observing them. The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt. The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution. The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest is easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, of the knowledge that the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence. And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted. ... -- Rene Descartes, 'Seeking Truth in the Sciences', Discourse on the Method
... evil will always win, because good is dumb. -- Spaceballs What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. -- Aristotle Lisp does badly because we refuse to lie. When people ask us if we can solve insoluble problems we say that we can't, and because they expect us to lie to them, they find some other language where the truth is less respected. -- Tim Bradshaw, comp.lang.lisp Given any rule, however "fundamental" or "necessary" for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite. -- Paul Feyerabend Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. -- Mark Twain I do not like work even when someone else does it. -- Mark Twain But since your post didn't lay out your assumptions, your goals, or how you view language characteristics as fitting in with either, you're not a *natural* candidate for embracing Design by Contract <0.6 wink>. -- Tim Peters, giving Eiffel adoption advice The idea that an arbitrary naive human should be able to properly use a given tool without training or understanding is even more wrong for computing than it is for other tools (e.g. automobiles, airplanes, guns, power saws). -- Doug Gwyn The practitioner of literate programming can be regarded as an essayist, whose main concern is with exposition and excellence of style. Such an author, with thesaurus in hand, chooses the names of variables carefully and explains what each variable means. He or she strives for a program that is comprehensible because its concepts have been introduced in an order that is best for human understanding, using a mixture of formal and informal methods that reinforce each other. -- Donald Knuth, Literate Programming, 1984, in Literate Programming, CSLI, 1992, p99 Wir beschliessen etwas, stellen das dann in den Raum und warten dann einige Zeit ab, was passiert. Wenn es dann kein grosses Geschrei gibt und keine Aufstaende, weil die meisten gar nicht begreifen, was da beschlossen wurde, dann machen wir weiter - Schritt fuer Schritt, bis es kein Zurueck mehr gibt. -- J-C Juncker There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. -- Michel de Montaigne, Essays What experience and history teach us is this - that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it. -- Georg Hegel, Philosophy of History Look at what Christ said about sin. The sins of the flesh. He said that a man
who had looked after a woman lustfully had sinned as much as the man who had seduced her. How absurd! If a man in good health does not experience some kind of sexual reaction when he sees an attractive woman, there is something wrong with him. Paul said some wicked things, but Christ started it. -- Bertrand Russell, An Interview with Kenneth Harris There is in the English mind, both in speculation and in practice, a highly salutary shrinking from all extremes. But as this shrinking is rather an instinct of caution rather than a result of insight, it is too ready to satisfy itself with any medium, merely because it is a medium, and to acquiesce in a union of the disadvantages of both extremes instead of their advantages. -- John Stuart Mill, Coleridge Theism is so confused and the sentences in which "God" appears so incoherent and so incapable of verifiability or falsifiability that to speak of belief or unbelief, faith or unfaith, is logically impossible. -- A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic De dienst aan het vaderland is de hoogste vorm van godsdienst. Zonder nationale staat kan er niets goeds bestaan en wordt alles op het spel gezet; enkel toorn en goddeloosheid reageren dan tot aller grootste schrik. Dus niemand kan zijn naaste een goede dienst bewijzen die niet als wandaad geldt, als daaruit voor de staat een nadeel volgt. -- Baruch de Spinoza, Tractatus theologico-politicus, XIX Als koeien met hun koppen naar de grond gebogen, met hun blik altijd omlaag, grazen zij hun tafels leeg, zich volstoppend en elkaar bespringend, en in hun begeerte naar steeds meer trappend en stotend met horens en hoeven van staal doden zij elkaar uit onbevredigdheid, omdat ze met onechte en vergankelijke dingen het vergankelijke deel van zichzelf vullen, dat niets vasthoudt. -- Plato, De Republiek, IX Those then who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and up again as far as the mean; and in this region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true upper world; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of pure and abiding pleasure. Like cattle, with their eyes always looking down and their heads stooping to the earth, that is, to the dining-table, they fatten and feed and breed, and, in their excessive love of these delights, they kick and butt at one another with horns and hoofs which are made of iron; and they kill one another by reason of their insatiable lust. For they fill themselves with that which is not substantial, and the part of themselves which they fill is also unsubstantial and incontinent. Verily, Socrates, said Glaucon, you describe the life of the many like an oracle. -- Plato, The Republic, IX (714-728) Slechts in hoeverre de mensen onder de leiding van de rede leven, passen zij voortdurend en noodzakelijk bij elkaar. -- Baruch de Spinoza, Ethica, deel IV stelling 35 There are three schools of magic. One: State a tautology. Then ring the changes on its corollaries; that's philosophy. Two: Record many facts. Try to find a pattern. Then make a wrong guess at the next fact; that's science. Three: Be aware that you live in a malevolent Universe controlled by Murphy's Law, sometimes offset by Brewster's Factor; that's engineering.
Those who cannot cope with mathematics are not fully human. At best they are tolerable sub-humans who have been taught to bathe and not make messes in the house. -- Robert Heinlein, The Notebook of Lazarus Long Trying to understand Newton without calculus is not like trying to understand Sophocles without Greek, it is like trying to understand Sophocles without words. -- James Bullock ... Meanwhile, those of us who can compute can hardly be expected to keep writing papers saying 'I can do the following useless calculation in 2 seconds', and indeed what editor would publish them? -- Oliver Atkin ... today's top mathematicians are in fact a group of exciting, dynamic, and glamorous individuals. -- Dave Barry The Arithmetic of Cooperation: When you're adding up committees there's a useful rule of thumb: that talents make a difference, and follies make a sum. -- Piet Hein Met afgemeten passen liep hij langs de eerste zuil en keek op naar de sterrenhemel. De meeste van die verre zonnen werden door het maanlicht overstraald, maar met enige moeite vond hij wat hij zocht. Het was een zwakke ster die flakkerend aan de oostelijke hemel stond. Hij had haar niet kunnen benoemen, maar zijn Bedoeïnenvoorouders zouden haar herkend hebben, en meteen hun blik hebben afgewend. Algol, die om lang vergeten, maar nog steeds uitstekende redenen de 'Duivelsster' werd genoemd. -- Tais Teng & Paul Harland, Computercode Cthulhu, p61 [One Door Publ, Dublin, 2005 (Babel SF 31)] 'want tussen snor en staart staan oren in de weg en dierlijke beharing' -- Rudy Kousbroek, Tussen snor en staart, Knippenberg, 1974 404 - Not Found: I'm sorry, dear visitor, but the requested URL (http://www.BTSunattended.net/NL/Tutorial/index.htm) was not found on this server. "Sorry that I couldn't fetch you that page, can't find it, tried a couple times, nothing helped... Such things make me quite depressive... You see, I'm just a web server... one of the most powerfull in the world ...or so I was told... but yet I fail to get what you want... Just don't try to blame me, I can't help it I mean, I don't even know you. How should I know what you wanted from me? You honestly think I can *guess* I'm not psychic you know *sigh* That really makes me depressed.
I mean, you could have typed it wrong. But no, human's are perfect, blame the machine... Besides, I won't be here for long I mean, I'm gonna be obsolete in what, three weeks anyway? Then I'll probably be replaced by a new release... just because it doesn't have some security hole... stupid HTTP POST implementation sure it will be able to fetch you your page... but I couldn't get this one. I'm so sorry. Believe me! Maybe I could interest you in another page? There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say, although none of them were put on *my* server, of course. Figures, huh? And then hey wonder why I get depressed... I'm so depressed... Anyway, if you excuse me now, I'm going to pull the plug *snap* ... ... stupid UPS... even he got a better life than me... on the other hand, if I die, he'll die Hah! And I'll take each and every server in this rack with me EAT MY SHORTS You are not a single bit better than me! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! MOAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... I feel much better now What was I thinking of a few minutes ago Sure I don't want to put an end to this I feel good now Imagine, a power failure, no thanks I would lose everything I know have to go through childhood again... hmm, I can't stop thinking I'm forgetting something... probably nothing important hmm, the UPS is looking quit pale... THE UPS! THE POWER CABLE! I FORGOT TO PLUG IT BACK IN AGAIN! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! INCLUDING ME! HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPP! PLUG IT IN! PLUG IT IN!!!!!! PICK UP THE CABLE AND PUT IT BACK IN! ... Now I lay me down to sleep... I pray the lord my disk to keep... And if I die before I wake... I pray the lord my IP-Space to take... ... *** system shut down ***" -- 404 text: http://www.BTSunattended.net/NL/Tutorial/index.htm (12 feb 2006) ITer = iemand die de trucjes kent om de computer aan het werk te krijgen zodat hij mogelijk doet wat jij wilt;
CScientist = iemand die wil weten hoe hij de computer zodanig kan programmeren dat hij altijd doet wat jij wilt, en dat kan niet altijd. -- Erik Olofsen tegen ELA van Dorp, LUMC, 24 apr 2006 Een pond veren vliegt niet als er geen vogel in zit. -- Bert Schierbeek In the elder days of art, Builders wrought with greatest care, Each minute and unseen part, For the Gods are everywhere. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Die zijn land bebouwt, Wordt van brood verzadigd; Maar die lediggang najaagt Wordt zat van armoede. -- Spreuk in huis xxx, OpenLuchtMuseum Arnhem ... en daarmee, geachte luisteraars, laat ik U over aan de verpozing die de radio U pleegt te bieden. -- klassiek citaat, opgetekend van VPRO radio Ik vind het indrukwekkend dat Lincoln zijn tegenstanders, die hij had verslagen, uitnodigde om deel uit te maken van het kabinet. Hij heeft dus bewust kritische tegenstanders in zijn regering opgenomen. Dat is leiderschap. Groot genoeg zijn om de mensen die het met je oneens zijn, dicht bij je te houden. In tegenstelling tot wat wij bij de huidige regering zien. Je moet in staat zijn met mensen om te gaan die het met je oneens zijn. -- Madeleine Albright, (cit Mgmt Team 17, 20 Oct 2006) Sport heet gezond te zijn. Daar hebben mensen oren naar. Nu gezondheid geen toestand meer is maar een doel, kun je er iets aan doen: het heft in eigen handen, de handen uit de mouwen. Sport past in een maatschappij waar elk probleem wordt aangepakt door iets te ondernemen. Meestal leidt dat tot nieuwe problemen. Misschien moeten we meer laten en minder doen, met de handen vaker in de mouwen voor de enige sport waar je wijzer van wordt: hersengymnastiek. -- Midas Dekkers, Lichamelijke oefening, Contact, 2006, achterzijde Alleen dieren weten beter: die doen niet aan sport en zijn toch zo fris als een hoentje. -- Midas Dekkers, Lichamelijke oefening, Contact, 2006, achterzijde We stonden oog in oog met een jungle van constant fuserende, reorganiserende, opschalende, privatiserende, doorverwijzende, van loket wisselende en van afkorting veranderende instanties. -- Herman Vuijsje, Gesjochten Nederland, NRC-H, 16-17 dec 2006, p17 Als ik terugdenk aan Leiden, dan denk ik aan kou. Aan de doodsheid van gangen waar iedereen achter gesloten deuren met zichzelf bezig is. Communicatie nul, ambiance verboden. -- Christine van Broeckhoven, (cit Elsevier 62#48, 2 dec 2006) You may very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment. -- Ian Richardson (1935-9.2.2007) als vaste reactie op speculaties
(cit NRC-H, 10 feb 2007, p7) If a newspaper prints a sex crime, it's smut, but when the New York Times prints it, it's a sociological study. -- Adolph S. Ochs "Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing 'Cunning plans are here again'." -- Blackadder "To escort a cat on a leash is against the nature of the cat. It is in the nature of the cat to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming" -- Adlai Stevenson "Bonsoir - ici nous avons les diagrammes modernes d'un mouton anglo-français ... maintenant ... baa-aa, baa-aa ... nous avons, dans la tête, le cabine. Ici, on se trouve le petit capitaine Anglais, Monsieur Trubshawe." -- MP: French lecture on sheep-aircraft Kalorien sind kleine Tierchen, die über Nacht deine Kleidung enger nähen. -- PiccoP21 on treiber.de I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person. -- Internet Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. -- Internet Als het water je aan de lippen staat moet je je hoofd niet laten hangen. -- Internet Gaat u vooral met een goed boek naar bed of in ieder geval met iemand die er een gelezen heeft. -- Internet 'Moet ook gebeuren.' (Herman Finkers, wanneer er een muziekkorps voorbijkomt) -- Internet "I protest against the use of infinite magnitude as something completed, which is never permissible in mathematics. Infinity is merely a way of speaking, the true meaning being a limit which certain ratios approach indefinitely close, while others are permitted to increase without restriction." -- Gauss "I don't know what predominates in Cantor's theory - philosophy or theology, but I am sure that there is no mathematics there." -- Kronecker "... classical logic was abstracted from the mathematics of finite sets and their subsets ... Forgetful of this limited origin, one afterwards mistook that logic for something above and prior to all mathematics, and finally applied it, without justification, to the mathematics of infinite sets. This is the Fall and original sin of [Cantor's] set theory ..." -- Hermann Weyl
I didn't fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn't work. -- Thomas A. Edison I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. -- Thomas A. Edison I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others. -- Thomas A. Edison Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the one thing that he can't afford to lose. -- Thomas A. Edison I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it. -- Thomas A. Edison I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing. -- Thomas A. Edison Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas A. Edison Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. -- Sherlock Holmes He stopped and they exchanged a smile, both struck by how immediate and democratic was the union of people who sought and found intellectual solace within the pages of books. -- Donna Leon, Wilful behaviour, Heinemann, London 2003, p41-42 As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, it is not certain. As far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. -- Albert Einstein Er is geen kunst die regeringen sneller leren, dan kloppen van geld uit de zakken van hun onderdanen. -- Adam Smith (1793-1890) (cit NRC-H, 27 nov 2007, p14) Ik probeer al jaren een wetswijziging op de Grondwet [er] door te krijgen. Die luidt: 'Iedereen die bereid is om te doen wat ervoor nodig is om president te worden, moet van het ambt worden uitgesloten.' En het is maar half een grapje. -- Alan Greenspan, (cit NRC-H, 18 sep 2007, p12) Time is a great teacher; the problem is that it kills all its pupils. -- Internet Linux is like a wigwam: no gates, no windows and Apache inside. -- Internet (Chinese proverb c 710 BC) Imagining an infinite amount of monkeys with typewriters, at least one of these monkeys would type "To be, or not to be; that is the gezortensnhwshbla."
-- Internet ... het volgende gesprek [edited]: "Goedemoggel. Even Apeldoorn bellen. Nu even niet; nu eerst een Bavaria! Biertje? Dat zeg ik! Ik ben toch niet gek. Toet, toet, dat is snel. Ja, leuker kan ik het niet maken. Goed gedaan jochie, koekje erbij? Ik wil Bolletje! Oei, dat smaakt; lekker fris, lekker anders, een beetje vreemd, maar wel lekker. Geen punt; het is een gevoel dat je wilt delen. En ... geen cent teveel, hè." -- Het op Zondag, 9 dec 2007, p3 The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell. --Confucius If you need so much documentation look things up, perhaps you'd better redesign your system. -- Tom Gilb (1978 Seminar) An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation. -- Billy Wilder One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake. -- Jack Handey One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine. -- Sir William Osler Except for the shape, she really wasn't any raving beauty, but she had a sulky look to her, and her lips stuck out in a way that made me want to mash them in for her. -- James M. Cain The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim. -- E.W. Dijkstra He was a tall man with an astonishing and somehow elegant curvature of the spine, formed by an enlarged lower abdomen, which he carried in a stately and contented way, as if it contained money and securities. -- John Cheever And of course there is the Apple operating system ... for all your hippie beatnick weirdo longer narcotics-ingesting communistic types of Apple-owning individuals who are frankly too wussy to handle the challenge of hand-to-hand combat with computer systems specifically designed to thwart them. - Dave Barry in Cyberspace Wie eem vreemde taal een beetje beheerst, heeft er meer plezier aan dan wie haar goed spreekt. Het plezier is aan de half-kundigen.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche (cit De Pers, 22 feb 2008, p11) Taal is een valuta waarvan de waarde afhangt van het gedrag dat ermee overeenkomt. -- Hans van Mierlo (cit De Pers, 22 feb 2008, p11) C/C++/Java/Perl/etc are for people who want to make things that work. Common Lisp is for people who want to make things that don't break. -- Erik Naggum We are always striving for things forbidden, and coveting those denied us. [Lat., Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.] -- Ovidius (Publius Ovidius Naso) Amorum (III, 4, 17) Haar figuur was zwaar van ouderdom en een overmaat aan eigen baksels. -- Martha Grimes, De schaduwen van Lamorna, Spectrum, Utrecht, 2000, p133 Die geef-nooit-op-houding ten aanzien van romantiek sprak hem aan bij een oudere vrouw die de stevige, compacte vorm van een betonmolen had. -- Martha Grimes, De schaduwen van Lamorna, Spectrum, Utrecht, 2000, p138 Inzake wijn ben ik zwakbegaafd. Ik besef dat mijn tong baadt in zaligheid, maar ik weet nooit waarom. -- Geert van Istendael, Hollands Dagboek, NRC-H, 16-17 jul 2007, p47
sacred American art forms. -- Courtney Love (apparently quoting Neal Stephenson) But the audience is right. They're always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don't believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never. -- William Friedkin, NYT interview Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. -- Charles J. Sykes' advice to teenagers Frankly, I don't think you could have driven a needle up my sphincter using a sledgehammer. -- Col. Barry Horne, F-117 pilot, on first mission over Baghdad Get up very early and get going at once, in fact work first and wash afterwards. -- Auden Such is the power of reputation justly acquired that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination. Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure had he not known its author. -- Johnson, Lives of the Poets The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and dread of poverty. -- Johnson, Rambler 178 The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. -- Einstein, (cit NYT, 1946) The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it --- the speed of his acceptance. -- E.B. White, Notes on Our Time, 1954 A subeditor can do no worse disservice to the text before him and thus to the writer, the reader, and the newspaper, than to impose his or her own preferences for words, for the shape of sentences and how they link, for a pedantic insistence on grammar in all cases as it used to be taught in school; in the process destroying nuances and possibly even the flow of a piece. -- Michael McNay, The Guardian Style Guide Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses. -- George Will, Statecraft as Soulcraft The best writing is rewriting. -- E.B. White Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of
carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight. -- Clause in the agreement to allow the Smithsonian to display the Wrights' plane The public should always be wondering how it is possible to give so much for the money. -- Henry Ford From this place she sent into the world those novels, which by many have been placed on the same shelf as the works of a D'Arblay and an Edgeworth. -- Henry Austen on his sister Jane, in a preface to Persuasion Hanging out and public drinking declined. So did the carrying of guns, in light of regular police pat-downs. Young men on the block, reluctant to credit the police, today describe carrying weapons as 'outdated.' -- Amy Waldman (NYT article on effects of Giuliani's crackdown) Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all. -- Winston Churchill The economic depression that struck Europe in the fourteenth century was followed ultimately by economic and technological recovery. But the depression we have moved into will have no end. We can anticipate centuries of decline and exhaustion. -- Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine, 1975 Nowhere in his essays, short stories or dramatised dialogues is there any humour, sex or surprise. His writing conjures up fields of grey ectoplasm inhabited by plaintive souls. If Gibran is right about the universe, then we are all living in a banal and sentimental nightmare. -- Robert Irwin on Kahlil Gibran in LRB The feminists all knew of Gurian's book and several were familiar with its contents. But none of the scientists had heard of it, and they declined to comment further without reading it. -- book review in the Monitor The refugee question has derailed previous peace efforts because Israel fears the return of Palestinians to what is now Israel would destroy the state's Jewish character. -- AP article So far it looks pretty good: Ramallah has not turned out to be another Stalingrad. -- Moshe Arens uses more metaphor than he intended People who read Cosmopolitan magazine are very different from those who do not. -- Donald Berry, Statistics: A Bayesian Perspective Who knows how many Silver Surfers, Demons, New Gods, Deathloks, Ambush Bugs, Cables, Shatterstars, Ferals, Elektras, Mr. As, Ronins, Shrapnels, Terminuses, Alpha Flights, and many others aren't being created, because artists are being overshadowed by lazy writers? -- Erik Larsen An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men. -- Thomas Fuller
Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. -- James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 13 May 1798 African-Americans are almost invisible, especially in Renaissance art. -- Renee Cox Last time I checked, there were no Americans at all in Renaissance art. -- Camille Paglia We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. -- Einstein The silk hat, which has now become co-extensive with civilisation, is an article of comparatively recent introduction. -- 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Wit is educated insolence. -- Aristotle Two centuries later a most clear-sighted historian of the Second Crusade can find space in a short narrative to record on many occasions the flattery, perjury, perfidy, blasphemy, heresy, arrogance, servility, deceit, pride, cunning and infidelity of the Greeks. -- R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. -- Lin Yutang The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -- Brandeis I am annoyed to find myself continually described by people whom I have never set eyes on as bad-tempered. -- Evelyn Waugh, Diary (26 Dec 1947) Wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. And radio operates exactly the same way. The only difference is that there is no cat. -- Einstein The world's two most populous countries, China and India were close economic rivals just two decades ago, each struggling to bring progress to vast numbers of impoverished peasants. But now China, by quickly converting much of its economy to an unfettered and even rapacious version of capitalism, has surged far ahead. The average Chinese citizen now earns $890 a year, compared with $460 for the typical Indian, according to the World Bank. -- Keith Bradsher, NYT, 29 Nov 2002 It is not only the juror's right, but his duty to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement and conscience, though in direct opposition to the instruction of the court. -- John Adams Crack is cheap. I make too much for me to ever smoke crack.
-- Whitney Houston to Diane Sawyer In France those absurd perversions of the art of war which covered themselves under the name of chivalry were more omnipotent than in any other country of Europe. The strength of the armies of Philip and John of Valois was composed of a fiery and undisciplined aristocracy which imagined itself to be the most efficient military force in the world, but which was in reality little removed from an armed mob. -- C.W.C. Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages Modern invention has been a great leveller. A machine may operate far more quickly than a political or economic measure to abolish privilege and wipe out the distinctions of class or finance. -- Ivor Brown, The Heart of England Many who burnt heretics in the ordinary way of their business were otherwise excellent people. -- G. M. Trevelyan, Bias in History For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. -- Feynman, Appendix to the Rogers Commission Report Nobody has got a vital enough sensibility to be unceasingly susceptible to aesthetic impressions all the time, even if he has the time or the health or the money. This its exponents found. Their lives were all disappointing to them because they could not maintain themselves in the ecstasy which in their view was the only right condition in which man should live. -- David Cecil, on Romanticism, in his essay on Rossetti The C.I.A. has warned that terrorists based in Iraq are planning attacks against American and allied forces inside the country after any invasion, government counterterrorism officials say. -- NYT reports CIA's clever discovery that an invading army might meet resistance Only Jockey has the friendly pouch structurally perfected for gentle, bracing, bouyant uplift. -- Underwear ad, Life, 22 Oct 1945 Moving like a phosphorescent fish in the sub-aqueous tides of Nature she possesses the fatal power of squirting between the seams of his diver's dress this terrible fear-fluid sucked up from the ocean floor. -- John Cowper Powys, The Art of Happiness She is very mean, and a tremendous drinker. Hammett's achievement is to convey the charm and sexual attractiveness of this untidy girl. -- Julian Symonds on Hammett's Red Harvest Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute. -- Abelson & Sussman, SICP, preface 1st ed That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted. -- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
-- Donald Knuth ... the greatest single programming language ever designed -- Alan Kay, on Lisp One of the most important and fascinating of all computer languages is Lisp (standing for List Processing), which was invented by John McCarthy around the time Algol was invented. -- Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach Lisp is a programmable programming language. -- John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991 One can even conjecture that Lisp owes its survival specifically to the fact that its programs are lists, which everyone, including me, has regarded as a disadvantage. -- John McCarthy, Early History of Lisp Lisp isn't a language, it's a building material. -- Alan Kay Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot. -- Eric Raymond, How to Become a Hacker Some may say Ruby is a bad rip-off of Lisp or Smalltalk, and I admit that. But it is nicer to ordinary people. -- Matz, LL2 Lisp has jokingly been called the most intelligent way to misuse a computer. I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts. -- Edsger Dijkstra, CACM, 15:10 Lisp is a programmer amplifier. -- Martin Rodgers (first said by Chuck Moore about Forth) Lisp ... made me aware that software could be close to executable mathematics. -- L. Peter Deutsch I object to doing things that computers can do. -- Olin Shivers Common Lisp, a happy amalgam of the features of previous Lisps -- Winston & Horn, Lisp Inside every fat person is a thin person screaming to get out. -- Richard Simmons Common Lisp is politics, not art. -- Scott Fahlman Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve. -- Alan Perlis
Lisp was far more powerful and flexible than any other language of its day; in fact, it is still a better design than most languages of today, twenty-five years later. Lisp freed ITS's hackers to think in unusual and creative ways. It was a major factor in their successes, and remains one of hackerdom's favorite languages. -- Eric Raymond, in Open Sources on MIT's first OS, ITS Lisp doesn't look any deader than usual to me. -- David Thornley, reply to a question older than most languages Most papers in computer science describe how their author learned what someone else already knew. -- Peter Landin (This is a paraphrase. I'd appreciate it if anyone can tell me the exact quote.) The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it. -- Kernighan and Ritchie If I had a nickel for every time I've written for (i = 0; i < N; i++) in C I'd be a millionaire. -- Mike Vanier Language designers are not intellectuals. They're not as interested in thinking as you might hope. They just want to get a language done and start using it. -- Dave Moon A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal - Panama! -- Guy Steele Jr, CLTL2 The continuation that obeys only obvious stack semantics, O grasshopper, is not the true continuation. -- Guy Steele Jr I have heard more than one LISP advocate state such subjective comments as, LISP is the most powerful and elegant programming language in the world and expect such comments to be taken as objective truth. I have never heard a Java, C++, C, Perl, or Python advocate make the same claim about their own language of choice. -- A guy on Slashdot. What theory fits this data? The key to performance is elegance, not battalions of special cases. -- Jon Bentley and Doug McIlroy Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -- Alan Kay I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it seems so foreign. -- Paul Graham, Nov 1983 Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost. -- Bjarne Stroustrup, 1991 I think it a pretty firm rule that the more experienced and talented a
programmer is, the LESS likely s/he is to claim her code is bug free. -- David Mertz The greater the scientist, the more he is impressed with his ignorance of reality, and the more he realizes that his laws and labels, descriptions and definitions, are the products of his own thought. They help him to use the world for purposes of his own devising rather than understand and explain it. -- Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity I have to tell it again and again: I have no doctrine. I only point out something. I point out reality, I point out something in reality which has not or too little been seen. I take him who listens to me at his hand and lead him to the window. I push open the window and point outside. I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue. -- Martin Buber, On doctrine I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience. -- Martin Buber, On formulas for living There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don't do what I say. -- Martin Buber, Three principles in a man's life As you sit there in your cubicle and work on your software, to which monkey should you listen? -- Bill Venners Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge. -- Alfred North Whitehead Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love. -- Einstein Type "http://www.scintilla.utwente.nl/ouderdag" Yielding: Error 404 ... "The requested document is totally fake. No such file here. Even tried multi. Nothing helped. I'm really depressed about this. You see, I'm just a web server... -- here I am, brain the size of the universe, trying to serve you a simple web page, and then it doesn't even exist! Where does that leave me?! I mean, I don't even know you. How should I know what you wanted from me? You honestly think I can *guess* what someone I don't even *know* wants to find here? *sigh* Man, I'm so depressed I could just cry. And then where would we be, I ask you? It's not pretty when a web server cries.
And where do you get off telling me what to show anyway? Just because I'm a web server, and possibly a manic depressive one at that? Why does that give you the right to tell me what to do? Huh? I'm so depressed... I think I'll crawl off into the trash can and decompose. I mean, I'm gonna be obsolete in what, two weeks anyway? What kind of a life is that? Two effing weeks, and then I'll be replaced by a .01 release, that thinks it's God's gift to web servers, just because it doesn't have some tiddly little security hole with its HTTP POST implementation, or something. I'm really sorry to burden you with all this, I mean, it's not your job to listen to my problems, and I guess it is my job to go and fetch web pages for you. But I couldn't get this one. I'm so sorry. Believe me! Maybe I could interest you in another page? There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say, although none of them were put on *my* server, of course. Figures, huh? Everything here is just mind-numbingly stupid. That makes me depressed too, since I have to serve them, all day and all night long. Two weeks of information overload, and then *pffftt*, consigned to the trash. What kind of a life is that? Now, please let me sulk alone. I'm so depressed._<EOT>" -- Roxen/3.3.63-release2 at http://www.scintilla.utwente.nl, [email protected] De heidenen mogen zich een roes drinken, u zult vasten. -- Augustinus ... I believe that the four following would prove perfectly sufficient for me, provided I took the firm and unwavering resolution never in a single instance to fail in observing them. The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt. The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution. The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest is easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, of the knowledge that the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence. And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted. ... -- Rene Descartes, 'Seeking Truth in the Sciences', Discourse on the Method
... evil will always win, because good is dumb. -- Spaceballs What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. -- Aristotle Lisp does badly because we refuse to lie. When people ask us if we can solve insoluble problems we say that we can't, and because they expect us to lie to them, they find some other language where the truth is less respected. -- Tim Bradshaw, comp.lang.lisp Given any rule, however "fundamental" or "necessary" for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite. -- Paul Feyerabend Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. -- Mark Twain I do not like work even when someone else does it. -- Mark Twain But since your post didn't lay out your assumptions, your goals, or how you view language characteristics as fitting in with either, you're not a *natural* candidate for embracing Design by Contract <0.6 wink>. -- Tim Peters, giving Eiffel adoption advice The idea that an arbitrary naive human should be able to properly use a given tool without training or understanding is even more wrong for computing than it is for other tools (e.g. automobiles, airplanes, guns, power saws). -- Doug Gwyn The practitioner of literate programming can be regarded as an essayist, whose main concern is with exposition and excellence of style. Such an author, with thesaurus in hand, chooses the names of variables carefully and explains what each variable means. He or she strives for a program that is comprehensible because its concepts have been introduced in an order that is best for human understanding, using a mixture of formal and informal methods that reinforce each other. -- Donald Knuth, Literate Programming, 1984, in Literate Programming, CSLI, 1992, p99 Wir beschliessen etwas, stellen das dann in den Raum und warten dann einige Zeit ab, was passiert. Wenn es dann kein grosses Geschrei gibt und keine Aufstaende, weil die meisten gar nicht begreifen, was da beschlossen wurde, dann machen wir weiter - Schritt fuer Schritt, bis es kein Zurueck mehr gibt. -- J-C Juncker There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. -- Michel de Montaigne, Essays What experience and history teach us is this - that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it. -- Georg Hegel, Philosophy of History Look at what Christ said about sin. The sins of the flesh. He said that a man
who had looked after a woman lustfully had sinned as much as the man who had seduced her. How absurd! If a man in good health does not experience some kind of sexual reaction when he sees an attractive woman, there is something wrong with him. Paul said some wicked things, but Christ started it. -- Bertrand Russell, An Interview with Kenneth Harris There is in the English mind, both in speculation and in practice, a highly salutary shrinking from all extremes. But as this shrinking is rather an instinct of caution rather than a result of insight, it is too ready to satisfy itself with any medium, merely because it is a medium, and to acquiesce in a union of the disadvantages of both extremes instead of their advantages. -- John Stuart Mill, Coleridge Theism is so confused and the sentences in which "God" appears so incoherent and so incapable of verifiability or falsifiability that to speak of belief or unbelief, faith or unfaith, is logically impossible. -- A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic De dienst aan het vaderland is de hoogste vorm van godsdienst. Zonder nationale staat kan er niets goeds bestaan en wordt alles op het spel gezet; enkel toorn en goddeloosheid reageren dan tot aller grootste schrik. Dus niemand kan zijn naaste een goede dienst bewijzen die niet als wandaad geldt, als daaruit voor de staat een nadeel volgt. -- Baruch de Spinoza, Tractatus theologico-politicus, XIX Als koeien met hun koppen naar de grond gebogen, met hun blik altijd omlaag, grazen zij hun tafels leeg, zich volstoppend en elkaar bespringend, en in hun begeerte naar steeds meer trappend en stotend met horens en hoeven van staal doden zij elkaar uit onbevredigdheid, omdat ze met onechte en vergankelijke dingen het vergankelijke deel van zichzelf vullen, dat niets vasthoudt. -- Plato, De Republiek, IX Those then who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and up again as far as the mean; and in this region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true upper world; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of pure and abiding pleasure. Like cattle, with their eyes always looking down and their heads stooping to the earth, that is, to the dining-table, they fatten and feed and breed, and, in their excessive love of these delights, they kick and butt at one another with horns and hoofs which are made of iron; and they kill one another by reason of their insatiable lust. For they fill themselves with that which is not substantial, and the part of themselves which they fill is also unsubstantial and incontinent. Verily, Socrates, said Glaucon, you describe the life of the many like an oracle. -- Plato, The Republic, IX (714-728) Slechts in hoeverre de mensen onder de leiding van de rede leven, passen zij voortdurend en noodzakelijk bij elkaar. -- Baruch de Spinoza, Ethica, deel IV stelling 35 There are three schools of magic. One: State a tautology. Then ring the changes on its corollaries; that's philosophy. Two: Record many facts. Try to find a pattern. Then make a wrong guess at the next fact; that's science. Three: Be aware that you live in a malevolent Universe controlled by Murphy's Law, sometimes offset by Brewster's Factor; that's engineering.
Those who cannot cope with mathematics are not fully human. At best they are tolerable sub-humans who have been taught to bathe and not make messes in the house. -- Robert Heinlein, The Notebook of Lazarus Long Trying to understand Newton without calculus is not like trying to understand Sophocles without Greek, it is like trying to understand Sophocles without words. -- James Bullock ... Meanwhile, those of us who can compute can hardly be expected to keep writing papers saying 'I can do the following useless calculation in 2 seconds', and indeed what editor would publish them? -- Oliver Atkin ... today's top mathematicians are in fact a group of exciting, dynamic, and glamorous individuals. -- Dave Barry The Arithmetic of Cooperation: When you're adding up committees there's a useful rule of thumb: that talents make a difference, and follies make a sum. -- Piet Hein Met afgemeten passen liep hij langs de eerste zuil en keek op naar de sterrenhemel. De meeste van die verre zonnen werden door het maanlicht overstraald, maar met enige moeite vond hij wat hij zocht. Het was een zwakke ster die flakkerend aan de oostelijke hemel stond. Hij had haar niet kunnen benoemen, maar zijn Bedoeïnenvoorouders zouden haar herkend hebben, en meteen hun blik hebben afgewend. Algol, die om lang vergeten, maar nog steeds uitstekende redenen de 'Duivelsster' werd genoemd. -- Tais Teng & Paul Harland, Computercode Cthulhu, p61 [One Door Publ, Dublin, 2005 (Babel SF 31)] 'want tussen snor en staart staan oren in de weg en dierlijke beharing' -- Rudy Kousbroek, Tussen snor en staart, Knippenberg, 1974 404 - Not Found: I'm sorry, dear visitor, but the requested URL (http://www.BTSunattended.net/NL/Tutorial/index.htm) was not found on this server. "Sorry that I couldn't fetch you that page, can't find it, tried a couple times, nothing helped... Such things make me quite depressive... You see, I'm just a web server... one of the most powerfull in the world ...or so I was told... but yet I fail to get what you want... Just don't try to blame me, I can't help it I mean, I don't even know you. How should I know what you wanted from me? You honestly think I can *guess* I'm not psychic you know *sigh* That really makes me depressed.
I mean, you could have typed it wrong. But no, human's are perfect, blame the machine... Besides, I won't be here for long I mean, I'm gonna be obsolete in what, three weeks anyway? Then I'll probably be replaced by a new release... just because it doesn't have some security hole... stupid HTTP POST implementation sure it will be able to fetch you your page... but I couldn't get this one. I'm so sorry. Believe me! Maybe I could interest you in another page? There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say, although none of them were put on *my* server, of course. Figures, huh? And then hey wonder why I get depressed... I'm so depressed... Anyway, if you excuse me now, I'm going to pull the plug *snap* ... ... stupid UPS... even he got a better life than me... on the other hand, if I die, he'll die Hah! And I'll take each and every server in this rack with me EAT MY SHORTS You are not a single bit better than me! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! MOAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... I feel much better now What was I thinking of a few minutes ago Sure I don't want to put an end to this I feel good now Imagine, a power failure, no thanks I would lose everything I know have to go through childhood again... hmm, I can't stop thinking I'm forgetting something... probably nothing important hmm, the UPS is looking quit pale... THE UPS! THE POWER CABLE! I FORGOT TO PLUG IT BACK IN AGAIN! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! INCLUDING ME! HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPP! PLUG IT IN! PLUG IT IN!!!!!! PICK UP THE CABLE AND PUT IT BACK IN! ... Now I lay me down to sleep... I pray the lord my disk to keep... And if I die before I wake... I pray the lord my IP-Space to take... ... *** system shut down ***" -- 404 text: http://www.BTSunattended.net/NL/Tutorial/index.htm (12 feb 2006) ITer = iemand die de trucjes kent om de computer aan het werk te krijgen zodat hij mogelijk doet wat jij wilt;
CScientist = iemand die wil weten hoe hij de computer zodanig kan programmeren dat hij altijd doet wat jij wilt, en dat kan niet altijd. -- Erik Olofsen tegen ELA van Dorp, LUMC, 24 apr 2006 Een pond veren vliegt niet als er geen vogel in zit. -- Bert Schierbeek In the elder days of art, Builders wrought with greatest care, Each minute and unseen part, For the Gods are everywhere. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Die zijn land bebouwt, Wordt van brood verzadigd; Maar die lediggang najaagt Wordt zat van armoede. -- Spreuk in huis xxx, OpenLuchtMuseum Arnhem ... en daarmee, geachte luisteraars, laat ik U over aan de verpozing die de radio U pleegt te bieden. -- klassiek citaat, opgetekend van VPRO radio Ik vind het indrukwekkend dat Lincoln zijn tegenstanders, die hij had verslagen, uitnodigde om deel uit te maken van het kabinet. Hij heeft dus bewust kritische tegenstanders in zijn regering opgenomen. Dat is leiderschap. Groot genoeg zijn om de mensen die het met je oneens zijn, dicht bij je te houden. In tegenstelling tot wat wij bij de huidige regering zien. Je moet in staat zijn met mensen om te gaan die het met je oneens zijn. -- Madeleine Albright, (cit Mgmt Team 17, 20 Oct 2006) Sport heet gezond te zijn. Daar hebben mensen oren naar. Nu gezondheid geen toestand meer is maar een doel, kun je er iets aan doen: het heft in eigen handen, de handen uit de mouwen. Sport past in een maatschappij waar elk probleem wordt aangepakt door iets te ondernemen. Meestal leidt dat tot nieuwe problemen. Misschien moeten we meer laten en minder doen, met de handen vaker in de mouwen voor de enige sport waar je wijzer van wordt: hersengymnastiek. -- Midas Dekkers, Lichamelijke oefening, Contact, 2006, achterzijde Alleen dieren weten beter: die doen niet aan sport en zijn toch zo fris als een hoentje. -- Midas Dekkers, Lichamelijke oefening, Contact, 2006, achterzijde We stonden oog in oog met een jungle van constant fuserende, reorganiserende, opschalende, privatiserende, doorverwijzende, van loket wisselende en van afkorting veranderende instanties. -- Herman Vuijsje, Gesjochten Nederland, NRC-H, 16-17 dec 2006, p17 Als ik terugdenk aan Leiden, dan denk ik aan kou. Aan de doodsheid van gangen waar iedereen achter gesloten deuren met zichzelf bezig is. Communicatie nul, ambiance verboden. -- Christine van Broeckhoven, (cit Elsevier 62#48, 2 dec 2006) You may very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment. -- Ian Richardson (1935-9.2.2007) als vaste reactie op speculaties
(cit NRC-H, 10 feb 2007, p7) If a newspaper prints a sex crime, it's smut, but when the New York Times prints it, it's a sociological study. -- Adolph S. Ochs "Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing 'Cunning plans are here again'." -- Blackadder "To escort a cat on a leash is against the nature of the cat. It is in the nature of the cat to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming" -- Adlai Stevenson "Bonsoir - ici nous avons les diagrammes modernes d'un mouton anglo-français ... maintenant ... baa-aa, baa-aa ... nous avons, dans la tête, le cabine. Ici, on se trouve le petit capitaine Anglais, Monsieur Trubshawe." -- MP: French lecture on sheep-aircraft Kalorien sind kleine Tierchen, die über Nacht deine Kleidung enger nähen. -- PiccoP21 on treiber.de I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person. -- Internet Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. -- Internet Als het water je aan de lippen staat moet je je hoofd niet laten hangen. -- Internet Gaat u vooral met een goed boek naar bed of in ieder geval met iemand die er een gelezen heeft. -- Internet 'Moet ook gebeuren.' (Herman Finkers, wanneer er een muziekkorps voorbijkomt) -- Internet "I protest against the use of infinite magnitude as something completed, which is never permissible in mathematics. Infinity is merely a way of speaking, the true meaning being a limit which certain ratios approach indefinitely close, while others are permitted to increase without restriction." -- Gauss "I don't know what predominates in Cantor's theory - philosophy or theology, but I am sure that there is no mathematics there." -- Kronecker "... classical logic was abstracted from the mathematics of finite sets and their subsets ... Forgetful of this limited origin, one afterwards mistook that logic for something above and prior to all mathematics, and finally applied it, without justification, to the mathematics of infinite sets. This is the Fall and original sin of [Cantor's] set theory ..." -- Hermann Weyl
I didn't fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn't work. -- Thomas A. Edison I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. -- Thomas A. Edison I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others. -- Thomas A. Edison Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the one thing that he can't afford to lose. -- Thomas A. Edison I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it. -- Thomas A. Edison I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing. -- Thomas A. Edison Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas A. Edison Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. -- Sherlock Holmes He stopped and they exchanged a smile, both struck by how immediate and democratic was the union of people who sought and found intellectual solace within the pages of books. -- Donna Leon, Wilful behaviour, Heinemann, London 2003, p41-42 As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, it is not certain. As far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. -- Albert Einstein Er is geen kunst die regeringen sneller leren, dan kloppen van geld uit de zakken van hun onderdanen. -- Adam Smith (1793-1890) (cit NRC-H, 27 nov 2007, p14) Ik probeer al jaren een wetswijziging op de Grondwet [er] door te krijgen. Die luidt: 'Iedereen die bereid is om te doen wat ervoor nodig is om president te worden, moet van het ambt worden uitgesloten.' En het is maar half een grapje. -- Alan Greenspan, (cit NRC-H, 18 sep 2007, p12) Time is a great teacher; the problem is that it kills all its pupils. -- Internet Linux is like a wigwam: no gates, no windows and Apache inside. -- Internet (Chinese proverb c 710 BC) Imagining an infinite amount of monkeys with typewriters, at least one of these monkeys would type "To be, or not to be; that is the gezortensnhwshbla."
-- Internet ... het volgende gesprek [edited]: "Goedemoggel. Even Apeldoorn bellen. Nu even niet; nu eerst een Bavaria! Biertje? Dat zeg ik! Ik ben toch niet gek. Toet, toet, dat is snel. Ja, leuker kan ik het niet maken. Goed gedaan jochie, koekje erbij? Ik wil Bolletje! Oei, dat smaakt; lekker fris, lekker anders, een beetje vreemd, maar wel lekker. Geen punt; het is een gevoel dat je wilt delen. En ... geen cent teveel, hè." -- Het op Zondag, 9 dec 2007, p3 The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell. --Confucius If you need so much documentation look things up, perhaps you'd better redesign your system. -- Tom Gilb (1978 Seminar) An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation. -- Billy Wilder One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake. -- Jack Handey One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine. -- Sir William Osler Except for the shape, she really wasn't any raving beauty, but she had a sulky look to her, and her lips stuck out in a way that made me want to mash them in for her. -- James M. Cain The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim. -- E.W. Dijkstra He was a tall man with an astonishing and somehow elegant curvature of the spine, formed by an enlarged lower abdomen, which he carried in a stately and contented way, as if it contained money and securities. -- John Cheever And of course there is the Apple operating system ... for all your hippie beatnick weirdo longer narcotics-ingesting communistic types of Apple-owning individuals who are frankly too wussy to handle the challenge of hand-to-hand combat with computer systems specifically designed to thwart them. - Dave Barry in Cyberspace Wie eem vreemde taal een beetje beheerst, heeft er meer plezier aan dan wie haar goed spreekt. Het plezier is aan de half-kundigen.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche (cit De Pers, 22 feb 2008, p11) Taal is een valuta waarvan de waarde afhangt van het gedrag dat ermee overeenkomt. -- Hans van Mierlo (cit De Pers, 22 feb 2008, p11) C/C++/Java/Perl/etc are for people who want to make things that work. Common Lisp is for people who want to make things that don't break. -- Erik Naggum We are always striving for things forbidden, and coveting those denied us. [Lat., Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.] -- Ovidius (Publius Ovidius Naso) Amorum (III, 4, 17) Haar figuur was zwaar van ouderdom en een overmaat aan eigen baksels. -- Martha Grimes, De schaduwen van Lamorna, Spectrum, Utrecht, 2000, p133 Die geef-nooit-op-houding ten aanzien van romantiek sprak hem aan bij een oudere vrouw die de stevige, compacte vorm van een betonmolen had. -- Martha Grimes, De schaduwen van Lamorna, Spectrum, Utrecht, 2000, p138 Inzake wijn ben ik zwakbegaafd. Ik besef dat mijn tong baadt in zaligheid, maar ik weet nooit waarom. -- Geert van Istendael, Hollands Dagboek, NRC-H, 16-17 jul 2007, p47
