shlomif fav quotes

If we want to have any kind of confidence that the hash is really
unbreakable, we should make it not just longer than 160 bits, we should
make sure that it's two or more hashes, and that they are based on totally
different principles.

And we should all digitally sign every single object too, and we should
use 4096-bit PGP keys and unguessable passphrases that are at least 20
words in length. And we should then build a bunker 5 miles underground,
encased in lead, so that somebody cannot flip a few bits with a ray-gun,
and make us believe that the sha1's match when they don't. Oh, and we need
to all wear aluminum propeller beanies to make sure that they don't use
that ray-gun to make us do the modification _ourselves_.

Linus Torvalds in http://lwn.net/Articles/132513/

I feel much better, now that I've given up hope.

Ashleigh Brilliant

Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.

Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD)

The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than
the question of whether a submarine can swim.

Edsger W. Dijkstra

Why are there so many unmaintainable applications written in PHP and Perl?
Because PHP and Perl let undisciplined, inexperienced programmers write
useful code. So does Ruby -- but give it the popularity and longevity of PHP
and Perl (at least in English-speaking circles) and I bet you'll see plenty
of bad code written in Ruby too.

This seems like a variant of the Hackers and Painters fallacy. (Paul Graham
is rich. Paul Graham writes Lisp. Therefore everyone who writes Lisp will
get rich.) "All of the good, smart programmers I know are using Ruby. They
write good code. Therefore you can't write bad code in Ruby!"

It feels like there's another fallacy in there somewhere. I want to call it
the Pre-Post-Java Blindspot, where Java was the beginning of Serious
Programming Languages and only its successor will unseat it. (Like any good
fallacy, you have to ignore history, such as the fact that Ruby's between 10
and 12 years old.)

(I mean, if you really just can't read regular expressions, why not admit
it? You could start a twelve-step program or something.)

chromatic in http://xrl.us/iyzb

I have upgraded the plot device's hard-drive, soft-drive and squishy drive,
and it is now being the world's most powerful super-computer!

The Angry Scientist in "Sheep in the Big City"

I have abandoned my search for truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy.

Ashleigh Brilliant

Will: "Roses are red,
Violets are Blue.
Jazz and I are black,
But, Carlton, what are you?"

Excerpt from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"

"I took the sweet life
but I never knew
I'd be bitter from the sweet"

-- Never Been to Me / Charlene

One bug, two bugs, tar bugs, su bugs,
grep bugs, mew bugs, old bugs, new bugs.
This bug has a little hack,
This bug has a broken stack.
Say! What a lot of bugs to track.
Yes, some are in tar, and some in su.
Some are old. And some are new.
Some in sed, and some in jed.
And some are even in parted.
Why are they in parted, jed and sed?
I do not know. Bugs should be dead!
Some in jpeg, and some in TIFF
This TIFF one has an attached diff.
From there to here, from here to there
Test release bugs are everywhere.

From the Fedora Core 2 Release Notes.

He says "One and one and one is three".
Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see.

Excerpt from "Come Together" by the Beatles.

What is is. Perceive It. Integrate it. Act on it. Idealize it.

Leonard Peikoff

Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by
definition crazy. (Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become
upstanding citizens. I'm flexible, and not black-and-white.)

Linus Torvalds in
http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/06/09/2128249

Yet, acting on fully integrated honesty (Neo-Tech), not reason itself, is
the basic moral act. When Genghis Khan, for example, chose to use reasoning
for a specific military move, then in an out-of-context sense, he chose to
act morally by protecting himself and his troops (thus filling human
biological needs). But in the larger sense of fully integrated honesty,
Khan's total actions were grossly immoral in choosing to use aggressive
force in becoming a mass murderer (thus negating human biological needs).
The highly destructive, irrational immorality of Genghis Khan's overall
dictatorial military actions far outweighed any narrow, out-of-context
"moral" actions. ...Genghis Khan was enormously evil as were Stalin, Hitler,
Mao, Castro, Pol Pot.

Neo-Tech Orientation and Definitions
http://www.neo-tech.com/orientation/

Much of the relative simplicity of Java is - like for most new languages -
partly an illusion and partly a function of its incompleteness. As time
passes, Java will grow significantly in size and complexity. It will double
or triple in size and grow implementation-dependent extensions or libraries.
That is the way every commercially successful language has developed. Just
look at any language you consider successful on a large scale. I know of no
exceptions, and there are good reasons for this phenomenon. [I wrote this
before 2000; now see a preview of Java 1.5 - http://xrl.us/kb3a ]

Bjarne Stroustrup in
http://public.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#Java

The dictionary definition of capitalism is: An economic system characterized
by private ownership of capital goods and by investments that are determined
by private decision rather than by state control. Prices, production and
distribution of goods are determined by a free market.

...

But most writers and commentators put dishonest altruistic-platonistic
connotations on the meaning of capitalism: A system of exploitation of the
weak by the strong -- devoid of love and good will. A system in which
unwanted goods and services are pushed onto consumers through clever,
deceptive advertising for the sole purpose of profits and greed. Capitalism
dominates most Western governments. Capitalism, big business, and fascism
are synonymous.

Neo-Tech IV / The Neo-Tech Discovery.