Computer Science Quotes - Page 5

• Throughout my academic career, I'd given some pretty good talks. But being considered the best speaker in the computer science department is like being known as the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs.

  Randy Pausch

  Careers, Computer, Academic

  Randy Pausch (2008). “The Last Lecture”, p.11, Hachette UK

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• C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.

  Dennis Ritchie

  Quirky, Computer, Programming

  "Inventing Unix". Interview with Samuel K. Moore, Steven Cherry, spectrum.ieee.org. May 27, 2011.

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• Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.

  Donald Knuth

  Funny Inspirational, Bugs, Computer

  Memorandum to Peter van Emde Boas, 29 Mar. 1977

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• Computer Science: A study akin to numerology and astrology, but lacking the precision of the former and the success of the latter.

  Stan Kelly-Bootle

  Astrology, Numerology, Study

  Stan Kelly-Bootle (1995). “The Computer Contradictionary”, p.44, MIT Press

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• The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

  Nathaniel Borenstein

  Humorous, Learning, Agreement

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• Consciousness, like a complex system of software, has thousands of levels of nested, self-accessing subroutines

  Frederick Lenz

  Science, Self, Levels

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• Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

  Rick Cook

  Winning, Technology, Race

  "The Wizardry Compiled". Book by Rick Cook, 1989.

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• I fear - as far as I can tell - that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training. I've heard complaints from even mighty Stanford University with its illustrious faculty that basically the undergraduate computer science program is little more than Java certification.

  Alan Kay

  Stanford University, Training, Java

  ACM Queue, Volume 2, issue 9, queue.acm.org. December 27, 2004.

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• It is a real service to humanity and the world to be a good programmer, particularly if you design great products. You make is easier for everybody, everybody has less headaches.

  Frederick Lenz

  Real, Science, Design

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• I am a professor at the computer science department, but I don't know how to use a computer, not even for Email.

  Endre Szemeredi

  Science, Email, Use

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• I don't know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras.

  Alan Kay

  Arrogance, Computer, Nano

  YouTube Channel "Jeff Gonis"/"Alan Kay at OOPSLA 1997 - The computer revolution hasnt happened yet", www.youtube.com. February 11, 2013.

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• For those who wish to stay and work in computer science or technology, fields badly in need of their services, let’s roll out the welcome mat.

  Sheldon Adelson

  Technology, Wish, Needs

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• A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.

  Alan Perlis

  Attention, Levels, Language

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

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• We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Learning, Roots, Evil

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• When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.

  Alan Perlis

  Compassion, Students, Graduates

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• Artificial Intelligence is creating a mind, hopefully as pure a mind as possible, for a computer.

  Frederick Lenz

  Science, Creating, Mind

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• Computer science departments have always considered 'user interface' research to be sissy work.

  Nicholas Negroponte

  Research, Computer, User Interface

  "Lifestreams" by Steve G. Steinberg, www.wired.com. February 1, 1997.

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• Most papers in computer science describe how their author learned what someone else already knew.

  Peter Landin

  Paper, Computer, Lisp

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• Theoretical Computer Science is just as useless as everything we mathematicians do.

  Jennifer Tour Chayes

  Science, Useless, Computer

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• At extremely high processing speeds we are able to find patterns of order in what other people would perceive as chaos.

  Frederick Lenz

  Science, Order, People

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• Computer science is not as old as physics; it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this does not mean that there is significantly less on the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's: younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense upbringing!

  Richard P. Feynman

  Couple, Mean, Years

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• There's a good part of Computer Science that's like magic. Unfortunately there's a bad part of Computer Science that's like religion.

  Hal Abelson

  Magic, Computer

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• Computer science needs to be part of the core curriculum - like algebra, biology, physics, or chemistry. We need all schools to teach it, not just 10%.

  Brad Feld

  School, Curriculum, Needs

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• Follow your dreams wherever they lead you and pay for those dreams with good jobs in software programming and computer design!

  Frederick Lenz

  Dream, Jobs, Science

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• If you seek to develop the mind fully, for the enlightenment process, you will benefit if your career is related to computer science, law, medicine, or the arts.

  Frederick Lenz

  Success, Art, Buddhism

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