GeekyStrings

... the psychological profiling [of a programmer] is mostly the ability to shift levels of abstraction, from low level to high level. To see something in the small and to see something in the large. -- Donald E. Knuth, in Jack Woehr. An interview with Donald Knuth. Dr. Dobb's Journal, pages 16-22, April 1996. [1]

He mistakes the reward for the goal; he does not realize that there is a deeper aim and an altruistic realm of technology's desire. He is lost. He does not connect privilege with responsibility; wealth with morality. I feel it is up to me to help him become found. It is my work, it is my task; it is my burden. -- Daniel Underwood, in "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland

Doing a good job cost him plenty over the years but he stubbornly insisted on it. I'd hate to characterize him as an idealist, but he did everything conscientiously and derived a lot of pride from that. He was, I think, wise enough to understand that pride was about all his show ran on. -- Robert Leo Heilman, in "Death of a Gyppo" in Oregon Quarterly, Summer 1996

A flying saucer arrives on Earth and the crew starts flying over cities and dams and canals and highways and grids of power lines; they follow cars on the roads and monitor the emissions of TV towers. They beam up a computer into their saucer, tear it down, and examine it. "Wow", one of them finally exclaims. "Isn't nature incredible!?" -- Fred Hapgood, in "Up The Infinite Corridor"

If you turn out to become the last freelance programmer on the world... Before you leave the room, remember to shut down the machines, turn out the light, and discard your former dreams and setbacks at the door. -- Capita Lai, translated from Mandarin by KenShan

We had to ask ourselves, "Are you One-Point-Oh?" -- The answer is what separates the Microserfs from the Cyberlords. -- Daniel Underwood, in Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

First they came for the crackers.
   But I never did anything illegal with my computer,
   so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the pornographers.
   But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway,
   so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
   But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi,
   so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the encryption users.
   But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway,
   so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me.
   And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

Improving the collective IQ for people who want to collectively work on tough problems. That's the grand challenge. The first one to do it wins, and the real winner is humanity. -- Doug Engelbart

Most computer technologists don't like to discuss it, but the importance of beauty is a consistent (if sometimes inconspicuous) thread in the software literature. Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology... Beauty is important in engineering terms because software is so complicated... Beauty is our most reliable guide to achieving software's ultimate goal: to break free of the computer, to break free conceptually. Software is stuff unlike any other... Software's goal is to escape this gravity field, and every key step in software history has been a step away from the computer, toward forgetting about the machine and its physical structure and limitations -- forgetting that it can hold only so many bytes, that its memory is made of fixed size cells, that you refer to each cell by a numerical address. Software needn't accept those rules and limitations. But as we throw off the limits, what guides us? How do we know where to head? Beauty is the best guide we have. -- David Gelernter, in "Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Computing", reprinted in Discover, September 1997

Your code today becomes the mind tomorrow: Your plan its means, your dream its ends, your ideal its elegance. Hack on.-- KenShan

The Converter Group in Building Seventeen, a notoriously glum Campus locale... -- Daniel Underwood, in "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland

/* Get out of here before we crash */ -- Microsoft Word source code

In-duh-vidual, that's what you are
In-duh-vidual, not up to par
Like a light on when nobody's home
You think a "hard drive" is traffic heading home
Never before
Has someone been more...
In-duh-vidual, in every way
And forever more
That's how you'll stay
That's why it's just unforgiveable
There are so many Induhviduals 
blah, blah, blah

Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: Any sufficiently complicated C or FORTRAN program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp. -- Philip Greenspun (who else?)

If you feel somewhat uneasy about learning how to use the most advanced software environment around, relax! -- Volume 1A ("Genera Concepts"), Lisp machine manual by Symbolics

If you haven't used grep, you've missed one of the simple pleasures of life. -- Brian Kernighan

Everywhere you look, you'll find objects at work. In fact, according to InformationWeek?, objects will penetrate 80-90% of all US companies by 1998. -- http://www.ow.com/events/oweast97/

Microsoft IDL is based on OsfDceRpcIdl... -- Jason Simmons (in fluent spoken "English"!)

Have you ever sat 10 minutes motionless in front of a screen debating whether to put in that optional semicolon? Man, you haven't lived... -- Hugo van der Sanden

Back in '42 when we was with the first wave of UNIX staff ashore at Guadalcanal and we had to get the file-system up ASAP, we were just popping all the memory boards we'd captured into the server, whapping the extra pins off the interface cards with the heavy end of a screwdriver as we went. We were being mailbombed 'round the clock by the Japs, and there were a couple of days there when it didn't look like the firewall was going to hold. And then at night when the big routers in the Slot were firing off packets at the enemy positions, you could hardly sleep the rumble was so bad but what a sight to see those activity lights flicker! -- James Grimmelmann

With the year 2000 looming in the near future, COBOL programmers are in demand. Two guides in the Dummies series can bring novices up to speed and help seasoned programmers supplement their knowledge of this resurfacing programming language. -- Intro to "COBOL for Dummies" in amazon.com

Generally, hyperlinks occur in cyberspace. Links, on the other hand, occur on the Internet. -- Eli Bohmer Lebow

When you surf the Digitas homepage, you are getting 100% pure, unadulterated, sledge-hammer wielding albino woman. -- Alexander Wong

George: "You don't think he'd yada yada a component model?" Elaine: "I've yada yada'd a component model." -- James Grimmelmann

People understand instinctively that the best way for computer programs to communicate with each other is for each of the them to be strict in what they emit, and liberal in what they accept. The odd thing is that people themselves are not willing to be strict in how they speak, and liberal in how they listen. -- Larry Wall

That stuff's sort of fun, and I think we should hold off on it. -- Eric Silberstein

In the past 5 to 10 years, there has been a general increase in how smart computers think they are. -- Eli Bohmer Lebow

Dave Pawson: "Where in the literature makes the statement [to] separate structure from presentation?" Tim Berners-Lee: "American Actors Guild." -- World Wide Web Consortium Advisory Committee meeting minutes from May 2000

There once was a girl from Dundee
Who never wrote programs in C
She felt that destruction
Lacked the seduction
Of referential transparency

I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself, "Dijkstra would not have liked this", well that would be enough immortality for me. -- Edsger Wybe Dijkstra