Technology Quotes

David and I and the rest of the Yahoos here really believe that the internet should remain as free as possible. At the same time we are a business and have fiscal responsibilities.

The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late.

Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.

Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden: Languages whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP machine now permits LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf.

One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they never have to stop and answer the phone.

There's no set architecture in Linux. All roads lead to madness.

Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.

Any given program, once deployed, is already obsolete.

Computers are getting smarter all the time. Scientists tell us that soon they will be able to talk to us. (And by ‘they’, I mean ‘computers’. I doubt scientists will ever be able to talk to us.)

Getting Information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

Over the centuries the Indians developed sign language for communicating phenomena of interest. Programmers from different tribes (FORTRAN, LISP, ALGOL, SNOBOL, etc.) could use one that doesn't require them to carry a blackboard on their ponies.

To err is human--and to blame it on a computer is even more so.

It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being.

Too few people in computer science are aware of some of the informational challenges in biology and their implications for the world. We can store an incredible amount of data very cheaply.

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.

Advances in computer technology and the Internet have changed the way America works, learns, and communicates. The Internet has become an integral part of America's economic, political, and social life.

Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams.

Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity.

It would take a lot of time and effort (to repair the computers). And they can't run (programs and games) kids are interested in today. They're not even on the Internet. We wouldn't be offering them much of a carrot.

Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.

First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.

Well, another market is being created now out of Internet technology.

Over time, it's becoming more and more understood by people that we're acting in their interests. And that's a very, very powerful thing for our brand.

If a program is useful, it will have to be changed.

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.