Computer Systems Quotes

• Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.

  Andy Rooney

  Witty, Work, Technology

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• The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.

  Gene Spafford

  Block, Security Systems, Rooms

  "Computer Recreations: Of Worms, Viruses and Core War" by A. K. Dewdney, Scientific American, www.koth.org. March 1989.

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• A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind.

  Joseph Weizenbaum

  Work, Technology, Mind

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  Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

  Bill Gates

  Success, Trust, Leadership

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• Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Science, Technology, Possible And Impossible

  Letter to the editor, Science, 19 Jan. 1968.

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• Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Science, Technology, Telescopes

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  Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Technology, Civilization

  "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (The Message of the Myth)". TV Mini-Series, June 22, 1988.

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• In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

  Yogi Berra

  Leadership, Funny Inspirational, Reality

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

  Charles Babbage

  Ideas, Two, Confusion

  Passages from the Life of a Philosopher ch. 5 (1864) See Countess of Lovelace 1; Modern Proverbs 35

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• As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.

  David Parnas

  Real, Learning, Insomnia

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• The inside of a computer is as dumb as hell but it goes like mad!

  Richard P. Feynman

  Learning, Technology, Mad

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• The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems.

  Bill Gates

  Success, Leadership, Work

  Interview with Suzanne Lammers, programmersatwork.wordpress.com. 1986.

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• Computer system analysis is like child-rearing; you can do grievous damage, but you cannot ensure success.

  Tom DeMarco

  Children, Analysis, Damage

  Tom DeMarco (1978). “Structured analysis and system specification”, Yourdon Press

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• Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls and secure access devices, and it's money wasted because none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain: the people who use, administer and operate computer systems

  Kevin Mitnick

  People, Dollars, Use

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• In engineering, as in other creative arts, we must learn to do analysis to support our efforts in synthesis. One cannot build a beautiful and functional bridge without a knowledge of steel and dirt, and a considerable mathematical technique for using this knowledge to compute the properties of structures. Similarly, one cannot build a beautiful computer system without a deep understanding of how to "previsualize" the process generated by the code one writes.

  Gerald Jay Sussman

  Beautiful, Art, Writing

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• We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins

  Ellen Ullman

  Cities, Way, Ruins

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• The main motivations were to try to leverage Google's expertise with large computer systems and to try to give something back to science

  Susan Wojcicki

  Motivation, Giving, Google

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• Those are all computational engines that are highly distributed and therefore highly robust, .. We're seeing a very significant evolution in the way we even think about computer systems, let alone specific applications.

  Vinton Cerf

  Thinking, Way, Evolution

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• In the judgment of design engineers, the ordinary means of communicating with a computer are entirely inadequate. [...] Graphical communication in some form or other is of vital importance in engineering as that subject is now conducted; we must either provide the capability in our computer systems, or take on the impossible task of training up a future race of engineers conditioned to think in a different way.

  Maurice Wilkes

  Communication, Mean, Thinking

  "Computers Then and Now". Journal of the ACM 15, Sect. 4, (pp. 1-7), January 1968.

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• When I use a direct manipulation system whether for text editing, drawing pictures, or creating and playing games I do think of myself not as using a computer but as doing the particular task. The computer is, in effect, invisible. The point cannot be overstressed: make the computer system invisible.

  Donald A. Norman

  Thinking, Editing, Games

  "The Design of Everyday Things". Book by Don Norman, ch. 6, p. 185, 1988.

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• Social engineering is using deception, manipulation and influence to convince a human who has access to a computer system to do something, like click on an attachment in an e-mail.

  Kevin Mitnick

  Attachment, Engineering, Deception

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• Today, no one would dispute that information technology has become the backbone of commerce. It underpins the operations of individual companies, ties together far-flung supply chains, and, increasingly, links businesses to the customers they serve. Hardly a dollar or a euro changes hands anymore without the aid of computer systems.

  Nicholas G. Carr

  Technology, Hands, Ties

  "Why IT Doesn't Matter Anymore". hbswk.hbs.edu. June 09, 2003.

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• Mort drove one of those little hybrid cars that, when not running on gasoline, was fueled by idealism. It was made out of crepe paper and duct tape and boasted a computer system that looked like it could have run the NYSE and NORAD, with enough attention left over to play tic-tac-toe. Or possibly Global Thermonuclear War.

  Jim Butcher

  Running, War, Play

  Jim Butcher (2011). “Ghost Story: A Novel of the Dresden Files”, p.56, Penguin

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• I think we're in an age where artists really have an incredible range of materials at their command now. They can use almost anything from household items - Jackson Pollock used house paint - to, you know, advanced computer systems, to good old oil paint and acrylic paint.

  Bill Viola

  Thinking, Artist, Oil

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• While many hackers have the knowledge, skills, and tools to attack computer systems, they generally lack the motivation to cause violence or severe economic or social harm.

  Dorothy E. Denning

  Motivational, Skills, Violence

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