Random insightful quotes

  1. Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing. (Wernher von Braun)

  2. Internet Explorer (n): Another bug, that is, a feature that can't be turned off, in Windows. See also: monopoly.

  3. Do or do not, there is no try (Yoda, Jedi Muppet)

  4. Bus error (passengers dumped)

  5. I am going to put my root password on a web page. I'll encrypt it of course, to prevent abuse. My fantastic encryption consist of uppercasing the entire password. Now, if anybody decrypts my lowercase password then I'll go after them in court for invading my privacy. Even worse if they actually use it... Yes. In America, you can sue anyone, at anytime, for anything. If I want to sue you because your socks don't match (and it doesn't matter if they do or not), I can. Of course, any judge with four or more working brain cells would immediately throw my case out, and hopefully throw my ass in jail if he ever saw me in his courtroom again.

  6. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (Arthur C. Clarke)

  7. The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad. (Salvador Dali)

  8. Now that I'm browsing at +2, I do avoid a lot of junk, but I sorta miss seeing my own posts

  9. There is no cure for human stupidity. We might as well work it to our advantage!

  10. Luck is skill supplemented by chance. (Ketriva)

  11. Luck is what others call skill when they have none themselves. (Phelan Kell)

  12. One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. (Plato)

  13. The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. (Tacitus)

  14. Someday we'll all look back at this and laugh...

  15. Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.

  16. If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't need a script.

  17. Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. (Bertrand Russell)

  18. Don't drink and drive... if you can smoke and fly!

  19. Perl: The only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption.

  20. Art is what you can get away with. (Andy Warhol)

  21. You can never have too many elephants on your team.

  22. Running Microsoft? What do you want to fix today?

  23. "Did I just hear you tapping the rhythm of that song with your pencil? That's $15, pal! Cough it up!" That was a dramatization. Had this been an actual case, the music industry would have confiscated your pencil and brought you to court for plagiarism and copyright infringement. This has been a test of the Emergency Music Industry Anti-Infringement System. Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your day.

  24. UNIX isn't dead, it just smells funny...

  25. 'Hey Look! It's not my fault; It's some guy named "General Protection."' (Ratbert)

  26. Game's over, losers! I have *all* the money!

  27. When axe came into the forest, the trees said "The handle is one of us."

  28. There are few problems that can't be solved with high explosives.

  29. I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for card playing.

  30. Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. (George Gordon Noel Byron)

  31. There's a short list of people whose opinions of me I give a rat's ass about, and guess what? You're not on it!

  32. 1984? That's a type-o, man. Orwell is here and now...

  33. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell)

  34. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest (Diderot)

  35. The significant problems we face today can not be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. (Albert Einstein)

  36. Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. (Henry Spencer)

  37. Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now!

  38. Curiosity may have killed the cat. But lack of it, is killing mankind.

  39. Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. (Ben Franklin, 1755)

  40. ... Good luck trying to get ahold of them when something goes wrong. Remember that contract you signed that said "no refunds?" Mary, the provisioning manager is on an eternal coffee break ...

  41. An intellectual is someone who has been moderated beyond their intelligence.

  42. A picture paints a thousand words, but a word paints a million different pictures.

  43. Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking (John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946))

  44. Paranoia is just Reality at a higher resolution!

  45. If I sang a song called "metallica sucks" and distributed it on napster...would I be banned?

  46. I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. (Orson Welles)

  47. Producing satire is kind of hopeless because of the literacy rate of the American public (Frank Zappa)

  48. ... but my main point is that you have to give the crap, not take it.

  49. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film. (Steven Wright)

  50. Stupidity should be painful.

  51. I had a really clever response on this topic, but I forgot it and posted that crap up there instead.

  52. sig: nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist

  53. (about algos of the century) haven't followed the link, but I hope the winner was:
    1. Turn on TV
    2. Watch Until bored
    3. Change channel
    4. Go back to 2

  54. I may turn out to be a little like the guy who invented television. When they asked him what he thought television would be used for, the only thing he could think of was education. Now all we have to watch is crap.

  55. If ignorance is bliss, then why aren't more people happy?

  56. What? No bandwidth is available in Buckwheat, Kentucky? Oh.. perhaps, then, there is MONEY TO BE MADE if someone were to finance a big, fat pipe back to civilization! Or perhaps not.. and if not, that's probably why it isn't there in the first place.

  57. Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself a better computer. (Dilbert)

  58. You listening, Columbia? You want me to buy the new N'Sync album, rather than just download the tunes? Well, what kind of deal are you willing to make me, you greedy bastards? (insert evil laughter here)

  59. To brand a book as unsuitable is an important step toward making it required reading. (Marvin Kaye)

  60. Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it (Andrew Young)

  61. He who says it cannot be done should not interrupt a man doing it. (Chinese Proverb)

  62. British Telecom has just patented Bullshit and its smell!

  63. I'd rather have BeOS being developed by paid professionals than by a bunch of whining open-sourcers.

  64. There's none of that IDirectSound2->QueryDeviceAndPrayToGod() crap. It's SIMPLE.

  65. Wenn alle Stricke reißen, häng' ich mich auf.

  66. I love vegetarians - some of my favorite foods are vegetarians.

  67. Father: "I don't have any time now" Daughter: " But time is now" (F. Scaparro, Talis Pater, Rizzoli 1996)

  68. Press SPACEBAR once to quit or twice to save changes

  69. Quantum Physics: the dreams that stuff is made of.

  70. True democracy is best defined as 'three wolves and a sheep voting on who's for dinner'.

  71. You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. (Al Capone)

  72. I think it would be a great idea. (Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western Civilization)

  73. Do you want to trace your family tree? Run for public office. (Patricia H. Vance)

  74. In politics stupidity is not a handicap. (Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821))

  75. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. (Mahatma Ghandi)

  76. I didn't expect her to counter my plan with nakedness! (Matthew Miller)

  77. Never knock on Death's door: Ring the doorbell and run, he hates that.

  78. If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is!

  79. Your freedom to move your arm ends where my nose begins.

  80. I think there is a world market for about five computers. (Thomas J. Watson (Chairman, IBM) 1943)

  81. Love can not be much younger than the lust for murder. (Sigmund Freud)

  82. Knock, Knock...Who's there?...Penguin...Penguin Who? I'LL KILL YOU GATES, YOU SLIMEBALL!

  83. Don't rely on the kindness of strangers.

  84. A little science estranges a man from God. A lot of science brings him back. (Francis Bacon)

  85. To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. (Thomas Edison)

  86. He (Steven King) is one of those 'silver bullet' writers who can shit on a piece of paper and sell a million copies of it.

  87. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Albert Einstein)

  88. Who is General Failure and why is he reading my disk?

  89. 2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2.

  90. The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room ... especially if there is no cat. (Confucius)

  91. First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. (Mahatma Ghandi)

  92. If you can't win by reason, go for volume. (Calvin)

  93. You never truly understand a thing until you can explain it to your grandmother. (Albert Einstein)

  94. It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. (Andrew Jackson)

  95. I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for the thinnest part, and drill a great number of holes where the drilling is easy. (Albert Einstein)

  96. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. (Derek Bok, Former Havard President)

  97. For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier ... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out. (Steven Wright)

  98. When you gotta shoot, SHOOT! Don't talk. (Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez)

  99. If Windows is the answer, it must have been a stupid question.

  100. A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.

  101. One World, one Web, one Program. (Microsoft promotional ad 1995)
    Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer. (Adolf Hitler)

  102. That reminds me of a comment Yogi Berra once said when asked about his favorite restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

  103. The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. (Carl Sagan)

  104. Evil always wins, because good is stupid. (Dark Helmet)

  105. We are the most ripped-off company around ... (Bill Gates, 1980)

  106. Life is short. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. (Robert Doisneau)

  107. All great truths begin as blasphemies. (George Bernard Shaw)

  108. Laziness is the first step towards efficiency. (Patrick Bennett)

  109. Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams. (Mary Ellen Kelly)

  110. Have you ever noticed? Anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a moron. (George Carlin)

  111. ALL generalizations are shit.

  112. Reality corrupted. Reboot universe? (Y/N)

  113. Memorize the books before burning.

  114. Never attribute to maliciousness that which can adequately be explained by stupidity! (Mark Twain)

  115. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. (Carl Sagan)

  116. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist.

  117. As we say in the south - "You can't un-ring a bell!"

  118. Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

  119. Apple Computer : Proudly going out of business for over 20 years

  120. When do you want to restart Windows today?

  121. Faith: not *wanting* to know what is true. (Nietzsche)

  122. Bill Gates is just a monocle and a Persian Cat away from being one of the bad guys in a James Bond movie. (Dennis Miller)

  123. Lisp kills brain cells. It's one of the few languages you can walk away from to get a soda, come back, and have no idea what you were doing...

  124. C is the language that believes that the programmer knows what he wants and deserves to get it, good and hard. (H.L. Menken, paraphrased)

  125. The MPAA must be saying "Ho Lee Fook." Pioneer had introduced a rewritable DVD drive.

  126. One exhausted campaign aide said if she survives, she plans to "apply for a job in a freak show."

  127. But there's a big difference between involvement and commitment. As someone once said while staring at a breakfast plate piled high with eggs and bacon: the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.

  128. DSL... And even then, the contracts have more weasel words in them than Bill Clinton ever heard of!

  129. (Netscape 6.0) Das erinnert mich wieder an die 3 G's: Gesehen, Gelacht, Gelöscht und zurück zu Opera.

  130. God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. (Voltaire)

  131. A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

  132. ... don't forget to mention KDE's addiction to ram and processor time. I've seen fork bombs which took less resources!

  133. Earn cash in your spare time - blackmail your friends

  134. I can't believe good security now involves weighing my keyboard. (Nicodermo Scarfo Face-o)

  135. Stare too long into the abyss of paranoia, and the abyss starts to stare back...

  136. It compiles - let's ship it!

  137. Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. (Pablo Picasso)

  138. Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. (Voltaire)

  139. So, the manager turned to the engineer who designed the first modem and asked why he wanted to build two prototypes...

  140. People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die. (Jim Davidson)

  141. I didn't realize that when the boss said "We work a half day here" he meant 8am to 8pm

  142. Fanatic (n): a person who won't change his mind and can't change the subject.

  143. If A equals success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut. (Albert Einstein)

  144. It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. (Abraham Maslow)

  145. Almost isn't good enough - but it's almost good enough.

  146. Apple is still perceived as a dead or dying maker of overpriced, under-performing goofy-looking hardware which only works with a one-button, hockey-puck mouse.

  147. As always with non-fluent speakers, the fish is your friend. Remember: You get a twofold benefit with Babelfish: The translation to the story to get the main gist of the story, and the actual translation has so many laughable areas, you have an entry to a bad poetry competition.

  148. My favorite word is existentialism. I can't say it and I'm not quite sure what it means. (Geri Halliwell)

  149. If that wasn't enough, it's actually based on an implementation of a Turing machine.

  150. We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.

  151. My head hurts, My feet stink, and I don't love Jesus. (Jimmy Buffett)

  152. Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.

  153. He who can laugh at himself shall be forever amused.

  154. Don't comment your code - it was hard to write, it should be hard to read!

  155. "FORMAT C:" - Kills bugs dead!

  156. Well what the hell did you expect? You expect to view Matrix with a Matrox card? Next time read the fine print. To view Matrix, buy a Matrix card. Damn.

  157. Caught signal SIGSIG read this comment again.

  158. If Godzilla did not exist, man would have had to create him.

  159. If you know yourself and the enemy, fear not the loss of a battle. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every win there will be a loss. If you know neither yourself nor the enemy, you will succumb every battle. (Sun Tzu, The Art of War)

  160. If you want to learn, the best way to do so is through experience. Unless you can't stand a loss on your record, just play somebody, get whooped, ask for any tips at the end of the game, rinse and repeat until people ask for your tips. Good luck. (Zirale)

  161. Trust in God, but tie your camel. (Old Persian proverb)

  162. The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.

  163. If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

  164. Don't eat yellow snow.

  165. You can still get the message, but maybe not by cryptanalysis. If you're in this business, you go after a reasonably cheap, reliable method. It may be one of the three Bs: burglary, bribery or blackmail," he said.

  166. All your CD sales are belong to us.

  167. Confusion to you, losers.

  168. Standards are to Microsoft what garlic is to vampires.

  169. The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they'll be when you kill them.

  170. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. (Albert Einstein)

  171. Very funny Scotty, now beam down my clothes!

  172. If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution. (Robert Sewell)

  173. Lawyers are quite adept at making ridiculous arguments with a perfectly straight face and not a touch of irony. You can't embarrass a trial lawyer.

  174. Those who cast the votes decided nothing. Those who count the votes decided everything. (Stalin)

  175. Send lawyers, guns and money. The shit has hit the fan. (Warren Zevon)

  176. No publisher will ever pay you enough to successfully sue them. (Dave Sim)

  177. Never meant half of the things I said to you. So you know, there's a half that might be true. (G. Phillips)

  178. The cigarette does the smoking, you're just the sucker.

  179. First a decryptor is a circumvention device, then a program that makes a decryptor is a circumvention device, then a paper detailing techniques that could be used to create such a program is a circumvention device. How much further would it have to go before the RIAA declared the human brain to be a 'circumvention device'? Everyone with an IQ above 120, please report to either the lobotomy room or the courtroom. (Kevin Fox)

  180. Did someone hit them with a stupid stick? (about Intel releasing the P4)

  181. Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud, after a while you realize the pig is enjoying it.

  182. Life's not fair, but the root password helps. (BOFH)

  183. Attorney Daniel Alter likened DeCSS to "software programs that shut down navigational programs in airplanes or smoke detectors in hotels." He warned: "That software creates a very real possibility of harm. That is precisely what is at stake here." Those dire warnings had hackers sitting in the back of the courtroom snickering. After all, DeCSS was developed by open-source devotees as a simple way to play DVDs on a Linux computer.

  184. You could write a DeCSS implementation using Perl's English module, record yourself reading the code out loud with Metallica playing in the background, encode it as an MP3, and piss of both the RIAA and the MPAA at the same time. :-)

  185. A no smoking section in a restaurant is like having a no peeing section in a swimming pool.

  186. The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. (Oscar Wilde)

  187. If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants. (Newton)

  188. "God is dead." -Nietsche, "Nietsche is dead." -God

  189. How many six year olds does it take to design software? (From Microsoft Ad.)

  190. We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has powerful muscles, but no personality. (Einstein)

  191. I have a shotgun, a shovel and 30 acres behind the barn. Do not trifle with me.

  192. Could someone please buy these (watermark) people a clue? I mean, do they just live in their own little world completely oblivious to the reality that they are fighting a war they can't win? There are just so many reasons they can't stop the copying of digital information.

  193. If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. (Carl Sagan)

  194. There is an old proverb (Swahili, I think) that says "when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers".

  195. The only thing worse than being talked about - is not being talked about! (Oscar Wilde)

  196. Stand up ... and you lose your seat.

  197. $> cd pub
    $> more beer

  198. Do as I do : don't have a TV. All of a sudden, you will find yourself with a lot of free time on your hands to play with your favorite PS2, code a bit there and there, surf the web, read books (ya know those weird thingies with a lot of paper inside), meet with friends, learn cooking, have sex and assorted fun, listen to music, you name it. TV is a brain-munching parasite, worse than ESB. With satellite, cable and 100 channels of shit (© the Pink Floyds), it doesn't even have anymore the excuse of being an unifying social experience as it was 30 years ago, you know, a common something that could bring all sorts of people together, however insignificant was this shared "culture". Throw this TV away. Have a life.

  199. We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. (Benjamin Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776)

  200. Come the millennium, month twelve, in the home of the greatest power, the village idiot will come forth to be acclaimed the leader. (Nostradamus, 1555)

  201. A physicist is an atom's way of knowing about atoms.

  202. People who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either one being made.

  203. Linux *is* user friendly. It's not idiot-friendly or fool-friendly!

  204. The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead.

  205. Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. (Mark Twain)

  206. It all goes back to the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.

  207. Secret windows code: while (1) { if (num_process > 1) { bluescreen(rand()); } }

  208. A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer is to computing what a McDonalds Certified Food Specialist is to fine cuisine.

  209. If you think my post is senseless, try reading it backwards.

  210. Wagner's music is better than it sounds. (Mark Twain)

  211. A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. (William James)

  212. In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current. (Thomas Jefferson)

  213. Better to stay silent, and let people think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

  214. Christianity is a 2000 year old swindle... It makes you fear when there is nothing to fear, and hope when there is nothing to hope for. (Hugh Whitemore, Breaking the Code)

  215. My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch. (Jack Nicholson)

  216. On the other hand, you have different fingers.

  217. attrition.org's response to MC litigation threat:


  218. Two witches watch two watches. Which witch watched which watch?

  219. Why don't record labels just ROT13 all the lyrics? Can't really hurt today's pop songs...

  220. "'AOL's actions are unprecidented and completely anti-consumer' said Microsoft Spokesman Vivek Varma." ::falls off chair laughing:: It's sad to see that big business revolves around the "idiot factor", that is, trying to influence the decisions of the idiots that will use whatever the "Out of Box Experience" dictates they should use.

  221. Even the continents drift. (George. F. Will)

  222. Never trust any writing that uses the word "consumers." This writing is pro-corporate propaganda, written by and for corporate heads.

  223. When in doubt, recompile the source.

  224. The more you know, the less you understand.

  225. This Ashcroft character seems like a bigger threat to the US than Bin Ladin. All he needs is a towel on his head and a camel betw een his legs and he's set. (anonymous hacker)

  226. If this sentence in German were, then would the words in the right order be.

  227. Es wird nie so viel gelogen wie vor der Wahl, waehrend des Krieges und nach der Jagd (Bismarck)

  228. Be incomprehensible. If they can't understand you, they can't disagree with you.

  229. Multiple Inheritance is like a parachute. You don't often need it, but when you do, you really need it (Booch)

  230. Java: the elegant simplicity of C++ and the blazing speed of Smalltalk.

  231. Emacs is a great OS, but it lacks a good text editor. That's why I use vi.

  232. To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.

  233. rm -f /bin/laden

  234. I will never let my schooling get in the way of my education (Mark Twain)

  235. One of us needs to stick ones' head in a bucket of ice water (Hobbes)

  236. That money talks, I'll not deny, I heard it once, It said "Good-bye." (Richard Armour)

  237. Just crack the copy-protection (which many rippers already can do) by checking the "do not use CD error-correction" checkbox availible in some rippers/encoders. I can't remember whether it's to be checked or unchecked, you figure it out. Or, you could write a crack, and release it sans source. That way, it's protected by the DMCA. You can market it as a "sound quality enhancer" or some such. That way, the Industry must legally sit helplessly by as anyone with both brains and balls wrecks shop.

  238. Repartee - Something we think of twenty-four hours too late (Mark Twain)

  239. Buffer the overflow slayer

  240. Never argue with an idiot, they'll only drag you down to their level then beat you by experience.

  241. Death by colon cancer is probably the final destination for anybody who lives too long. You can't pack all that shit in there and not have some cellular mutation eventually.

  242. Never buy from a rich salesman (Goldenstern)

  243. We regret to inform you, Mr. Anderson, that you have three different people in your household using this computer to access the internet. Your bill will be adjusted accordingly.

  244. Science is like sex: Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it (Feynman)

  245. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step (Lao Tsu)

  246. This space unintentionally left unblank

  247. Our universe is probably a mere atom inside a larger universe, and these radiation bursts are simply the efforts of their Einstein trying to split us.

  248. Read Nemesis (Isaac Asimov). BTW, by the time a large spaceship like that goes half way to the star we would have developed technologies allowing us to go back and forward to and from the star 100 times a day. The poor crew of that ship would have arrived to the star only to visit a McDonald restaurant!

  249. After Clarke wrote "The Fountains of Paradise," which included the space elevator concept, he was asked when such devices might actually come into use. His response: "Probably about 50 years after everyone quits laughing."

  250. Gravity doesn't apply to us now that we have rockets.

  251. As for Mr. Gates... let's just say that I've shaken his hand, and twelve years later it still feels a bit dirty.

  252. I think Smalltalk is inappropriate for serious industrial developments. After all, run time is a little late to find out whether you have a landing gear. (Bertrand Meyer)

  253. I have a theory it's impossible to prove anything, but I can't prove it.

  254. After all is said and done, there is always alot more said than done.

  255. There is a point in your life when you realize that you have written enough destructors... (Miguel de Icaza on .NET)

  256. Fatal Exception: Microsoft has performed an illegal operation: Abort, Retry in another court, Ignore?

  257. The cure for 1984 is 1776.

  258. unzip;strip;touch;finger;mount;fsck;more;yes;umount;sleep

  259. Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire (Robert Frost)

  260. Best read with a brain.




  261. The UNIX philosophy basically involves giving you enough rope to hang yourself. And then a couple of feet more, just to be sure.

  262. Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. (W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO)

  263. This reminds me of a hilarious study I read about in college... Several pigeons were put into identical boxes that would spit out a food pellet once every minute. Within a few minutes one pigeon was hopping up and down constantly, the second was continually spinning, and another wouldn't stop bobbing his head... It turns out tha t they were assuming that whatever action they were doing when the food first was dispensed was causing the food to be released, so they would continue to do it indefinitely to keep the food coming! If A is happening, then it MUST be a result of B....

  264. We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.

  265. The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination (Douglas Adams)

  266. Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be tolerated until they acquire some sense. (William Phelps)

  267. Don't take life seriously, you'll never get out alive.

  268. The average Ph.D thesis is nothing but the transference of bones from one graveyard to another. (J. Frank Dobie, "A Texan in England")

  269. I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. (Abraham Lincoln)

  270. Evil is that which one believes of others. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake. (H.L. Mencken)

  271. The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. (Voltaire)

  272. I am always ready to learn although I do not always like to be taught. (Churchill)

  273. California's $95M Oracle deal: "Look, just because you can't even install or use the software doesn't mean you don't have to pay for it! I paid $25,000 to your campaign, and I want my $95M in revenues, dammit!"

  274. Sony (holding royal flush): I raise you $1.
    Nintendo (holding four 9s): I'll see your $1 and raise you $2.
    MS (holding jack-squat): I'll see your $2 and raise you A MILLION BILLION DOLLARS.
    Sony: Fold.
    Nintendo: Fold.
    MS: Mwahahahahahaha.

  275. All spelling errors are intentional and are there to show new and improved ways of spelling old words. Gramatical errors are due to too many English classes/teachers.

  276. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. (Voltaire)

  277. We will either find a way, or make one. (Hannibal (247-183 B.C.), Carthaginian General)

  278. A perfect digital copy of crappy content ... is still crappy content. When will the networks learn?

  279. Tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a phone call when you are unable to speak? (The Matrix)

  280. Backgammon is a game of luck. The more you play the luckier you get.

  281. If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

  282. If something I said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, I meant the other one.

  283. One of Clarke's Laws: The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine

  284. RIAA's obligatary business plan post:
    1. Screw customers
    2. Screw now former-customers
    3. Censor the internet
    4. ???
    5. Profit!

  285. It could be a while until we can expand worm holes and tow them to a neutron star but didn't someone say that if it is possible it will happen. If it is impossible it will just take a little longer.

  286. As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. (Albert Einstein)

  287. Florence Fund @ Tompaine.com:


  288. You will suffer endless agonies if you fail to understand this simple point. (Numerical Recipes in C, about matrix input of the simplex algorithm)

  289. But don't feel bad. For a human to compete against a computer in some kind of 'best in the world' contest is a little like letting a hydraulic jack enter a weight lifting contest.

  290. Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts Do.

  291. If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.

  292. Experience proves that anyone who has studied geometry is infinitely quicker to grasp difficult subjects than one who has not. (Plato: The Republic, Book 7, 375 B.C.)

  293. Once you've discovered it's easy to make a universe out of an ounce of vacuum, why not make a bunch of them?" (Dr. Craig Hogan, a cosmologist at the University of Washington)

  294. The universe in some sense must have known that we were coming. (Freeman Dyson)

  295. If it crashes when you do that, don't do that. (advice seen on webpage)

  296. The problem with re-inventing the wheel is the desire to make it square, so it won't roll away, and to later enhance it by making it triangular thereby eliminating one bump.

  297. Baruch's Observation: If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

  298. Well, Ms. Rosen, I'll tell you what: You forward all your e-mail unedited to a public mailing list, scan and post all your private written correspondence to the same list, give us all-read access to your hard drives and post 24-7 webcams in your boudoir and bathroom, and then I'll believe you understand the invasion of privacy your shrill insistence on flushing what's left of the Constitution down the toilet entails. (Ferrell)

  299. Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. (Mark Twain)

  300. For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. (H.L. Mencken)

  301. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality. (Dalai Lama)

  302. I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. (Albert Einstein)

  303. It's worth pointing out that you don't have to optimize what you don't write. The most powerful optimization tool in existence may be the delete key. (The art of unix programming)

  304. Anytime you've got the pope and the Dixie Chicks against ya, your time is up. (Michael Moore at the 2003 Academy Awards, addressing "curious George" W. Bush)

  305. I can already tell you what's going to happen to all those extra cycles that faster hardware is going to give us in the next hundred years. They're nearly all going to be wasted. (Paul Graham)

  306. A deep, unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something.

  307. I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. (Voltaire)

  308. The Microsoft motto: "We're the leaders, wait for us!"

  309. Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. (Jamie Zawinski, in comp.lang.emacs)

  310. I always said I wanted to die of old age, by which I meant that I wanted to be stepped on by an elephant while making love. (Zelazny)

  311. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away, and think this to be normal, is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be... (Douglas Adams)

  312. Deserves [death]! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. (Gandalf)

  313. The title of this
    this book contains
    two errors.

  314. The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.

  315. History is a lie commonly agreed upon. (Oscar Wilde)

  316. It's a DSP, not a CPU. Stream comes in one end, chip does some magical shit to it, stream comes out the other end.

  317. Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work. (Thomas Edison)

  318. When anger rises, think of the consequences. (Confucius, 551-479 BC)

  319. C++: an octopus made by nailing extra legs onto a dog.

  320. Fascists divide in two categories: the fascists and the anti-fascists. (Ennio Flaiano)

  321. But the decision to base UserLinux on GNOME stands. Further personal abuse will be ignored as cheerfully as it has been for the past week, I've had a decade of practice at that and do it really well now. (Bruce Perens on GNOME vs. KDE in UserLinux)

  322. An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question. (John Tukey)

  323. Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. (Alan Kay)

  324. Dilbert's Project Uncertainty Principle: If you understand a project, you won't know its cost, and vice versa.

  325. A doctor can always bury his mistakes. An architect can only advise his client to plant ivy. (Frank Lloyd Wright)

  326. System debugging, like astronomy, has always been done chiefly at night. (Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.)

  327. In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not at a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity : Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist. (Neal Stephenson)

  328. In all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane. (Sam Clemens)

  329. The best time to make friends is before you need them. (Ethel Barrymore)

  330. Algebraic symbols are used when you do not know what you are talking about.

  331. Patch or be patched. (relating to a Linux kernel vulnerability)

  332. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. (Sun Tzu)

  333. All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. (Sun Tzu)

  334. Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free. (Montgomery Burns)

  335. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension. (Freeman Dyson)

  336. If make doesn't do what you expect it to, it's a good chance the make-file is wrong. (BSD make documentation)

  337. I learned from experience that one cannot be victorious by the sword alone. We don't want to rule over millions of Palestinians, whose population is doubling every generation. The disengagement is a gateway to another reality. (Ariel Sharon, Oct.2004)

  338. To this day, many C programmers believe that 'strong typing' just means pounding extra hard on the keyboard. (Peter van der Linden)

  339. Whenever people agree with me, I always think I must be wrong. (Oscar Wilde)

  340. Java is high performance. By high performance we mean adequate. By adequate we mean slow. (Mr. Bunny)

  341. The #1 rule of engineering: Pick two.

  342. Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. (Arthur C.Clarke)

  343. Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still. (Chinese Proverb)

  344. An open operating system does not only have advantages. (Microsoft)


  345. ... McVoy first blustered and threatened, but ultimately chose to go home and take his ball with him: he withdrew permission for gratis use by free software projects, and Linux developers will move to other software. The program they no longer use will remain unethical as long as it is non-free, but they will no longer promote it, nor by using it teach others to give freedom low priority. We can begin to forget about that program. ... Richard M. Stallman about Bitkeeper software. Full article: BitKeeper bon-voyage is a happy ending



  346. If God had meant for man to see the sunrise, He would have scheduled it later in the day.

  347. There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns the ones we dont know we dont know. (Donald Rumsfeld)

  348. I didn't know it was impossible when I did it.

  349. Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die. (Mel Brooks)

  350. C++ doesn't try to make it impossible for bad programmers to write bad programs; it enables reasonable developers to create superior software. (C++ FAQ Lite)

  351. Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. (Bertrand Russell, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism)

  352. NO USA BIDDERS. Absolutely no US bidders. This is a Great British Pounds auction. No shipping to the USA. USA BIDDERS WILL BE REPORTED TO EBAY FOR INTERFERENCE. This is due to the fact that US bidders don't understand the exchange rate differences. (found on Ebay)

  353. Stallman then reiterates the four freedoms that he says underpin Free Software. Real programmers count from zero, so freedom Zero is the freedom to run the program as you wish; One is the freedom to study and change the software; Two is the freedom to redistribute copies as you wish; Three is the freedom to distribute modifed versions as you wish.

  354. Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. (Salvador Dali)

  355. Never argue with a pedant over nomenclature. It wastes your time and annoys the pedant. (Lois McMaster Bujold, Memory)

  356. Benjamin Franklin once asked, "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time for that's the stuff life is made of. Time must be the greatest prodigality; since lost time is never found again and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then be up and doing, and doing to the purpose; so that by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy. Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour."

  357. Gandhi said, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

  358. May 2007: 09-11-9d-e3-d8-56-63 : f9-02-74-5b-41-c5
  359. When the Nazis came for the communists,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a communist.
    
    When they locked up the social democrats,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a social democrat.
    
    When they came for the trade unionists,
    I did not speak out;
    I was not a trade unionist.
    
    When they came for me,
    there was no one left to speak out.
    -Martin Niemöller
    

  360. Wer Rechtschreibfehler findet, darf diese behalten.

  361. Bill Gates about TerraPower: “The new nuclear design … is quite amazing,” Gates said. “Basically no human should ever be required to do anything.”

  362. Margaret Mead once said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

  363. George Bernard Shaw: People who say it cannot be done ... should not interrupt those who are doing it.

  364. Neil deGrasse Tyson: If humans one day become extinct from a catastrophic [asteroid] collision, we would be the laughing stock of aliens in the galaxy, for having a large brain and a space program, yet we met the same fate as that pea-brained, space program-less dinosaurs that came before us.

  365. We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. (Carl Sagan)

  366. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!", but "That's funny ..." (Isaac Asimov)

  367. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. (Carl Sagan)

  368. An ounce of algebra is worth a ton of verbal argument. (J.B.S. Haldane)

  369. If you're worried about what the government will do next, that's a sign the government is too powerful. (Read on Slashdot)

  370. Science advances one funeral at a time (Max Planck, paraphrased)

  371. Don’t tell your problems to people - 80% don’t care, and the other 20% are glad you have them. (Lou Holtz)









  372. Freedom of speech is the ultimate deontological principle (as I explain in The Parasitic Mind). There is no "I believe in freedom of speech BUT..." Short of the usual provisos (e.g., defamation, direct incitement to violence, etc.), there is NO exception to unrestrained free speech. You don't like Judaism. Feel free to criticize it. You don't like Israeli policies. Feel free to criticize it. You don't like capitalism. Feel free to criticize it. You don't like the Republican Party. Feel free to criticize it. You don't like any specific belief system, ideology, or political position. Have at it! No one's feelings are sacrosanct. No ideology is above scrutiny. Islam does not get a pass because "Islamophobia." You don't like open border immigration. Speak out! You think that not all cultures are equal. Say it! This is the stuff of free speech. The quicker that we extinguish the reflex to sanitize the world in order to protect some people's feelings, religions, and/or belief systems, the quicker we can regain our freedoms and liberties. (Gad Saad, August-5-2024 on X)

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