“If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.”
(Robert X. Cringely)
“The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.”
(Edsger W. Dijkstra)
“The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should therefore be regarded as a criminal offense.”
(Edsger W. Dijkstra)
“If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.” (Edsger W. Dijkstra)
"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."
(Edsger W. Dijkstra)
“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are–by definition–not smart enough to debug it.”
(Brian Kernighan)
“I don’t care if it works on your machine! We are not shipping your machine!”
(Vidiu Platon)
“There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.”
(Alan J. Perlis)
“To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.”
(Paul Ehrlich)
“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history–with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.”
(Mitch Radcliffe)
"Predictions"
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
(Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899)
“I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.”
(Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1948)
“It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.”
(John Von Neumann, circa 1949)
“But what is it good for?”
(Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968)
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”
(Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977)
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
(Bill Gates, 1981)
“Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM, which is more than any application will ever need.”
(Microsoft, on the development of Windows NT, 1992)
