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  fortune index  all fortunes 
  
 |  |  | #1891 |  | If the designers of X-window built cars, there would be no fewer than five steering wheels hidden about the cockpit, none of which followed the same
 principles -- but you'd be able to shift gears with your car stereo.  Useful
 feature, that.
 -- From the programming notebooks of a heretic, 1990.
 
 |  |  |  | #1892 |  | If the Tao is great, then the operating system is great.  If the operating system is great, then the compiler is great.  If the compiler
 is great, then the application is great.  If the application is great, then
 the user is pleased and there is harmony in the world.
 The Tao gave birth to machine language.  Machine language gave birth
 to the assembler.
 The assembler gave birth to the compiler.  Now there are ten thousand
 languages.
 Each language has its purpose, however humble.  Each language
 expresses the Yin and Yang of software.  Each language has its place within
 the Tao.
 But do not program in COBOL if you can avoid it.
 -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
 
 |  |  |  | #1893 |  | If the vendors started doing everything right, we would be out of a job. Let's hear it for OSI and X!  With those babies in the wings, we can count
 on being employed until we drop, or get smart and switch to gardening,
 paper folding, or something.
 -- C. Philip Wood
 
 |  |  |  | #1894 |  | If this is timesharing, give me my share right now. 
 |  |  |  | #1895 |  | If you ever want to have a lot of fun, I recommend that you go off and program an imbedded system.  The salient characteristic of an imbedded system is that
 it cannot be allowed to get into a state from which only direct intervention
 will suffice to remove it.  An imbedded system can't permanently trust anything
 it hears from the outside world.  It must sniff around, adapt, consider, sniff
 around, and adapt again.  I'm not talking about ordinary modular programming
 carefulness here.  No.  Programming an imbedded system calls for undiluted
 raging maniacal paranoia.  For example, our ethernet front ends need to know
 what network number they are on so that they can address and route PUPs
 properly.  How do you find out what your network number is?  Easy, you ask a
 gateway.  Gateways are required by definition to know their correct network
 numbers.  Once you've got your network number, you start using it and before
 you can blink you've got it wired into fifteen different sockets spread all
 over creation.  Now what happens when the panic-stricken operator realizes he
 was running the wrong version of the gateway which was giving out the wrong
 network number?  Never supposed to happen.  Tough.  Supposing that your
 software discovers that the gateway is now giving out a different network
 number than before, what's it supposed to do about it?  This is not discussed
 in the protocol document.  Never supposed to happen.  Tough.  I think you
 get my drift.
 
 |  |  |  | #1896 |  | If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some. 
 |  |  |  | #1897 |  | If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine,
 is somehow enobled and no-one dare criticise it.
 -- Pierre Gallois
 
 |  |  |  | #1898 |  | If you teach your children to like computers and to know how to gamble then they'll always be interested in something and won't come to no real harm.
 
 |  |  |  | #1899 |  | If you think the system is working, ask someone who's waiting for a prompt. 
 |  |  |  | #1900 |  | If you're crossing the nation in a covered wagon, it's better to have four strong oxen than 100 chickens.  Chickens are OK but we can't make them work
 together yet.
 -- Ross Bott, Pyramid U.S., on multiprocessors at AUUGM '89.
 
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