18 years Ago
Essence of Programming
Published by marco on
“Almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching.”
Array Indices
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“Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.”
Software Quality
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“You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time. (Bertrand Meyer)”
Death and Taxes Redux
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“The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed.”
Dumbing it Down
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“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
Malice and Intent
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Limitations
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“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”
Programming is Writing
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“Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to to, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.”
Rules of the Dance
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Fussball Gesetz
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“Zuerst hatten wir kein Glück, und dann kam auch noch Pech dazu.”
A Good Rule of Thumb
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“When in doubt, assume my tongue is in my cheek.”
Mongol Philosophy
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“To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!”
Fascism, American-Style!
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“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
19 years Ago
Puppets
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“I’ll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. ‘I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.’ ‘I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.’ ‘Hey, wait a minute, there’s one guy holding both puppets!’ ‘Shut up! Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control. Here’s Love Connection. Watch this and get fat and stupid. By the way, keep drinking beer, you fucking morons.‘”
Government Work is Wet Work
Published by marco on
“Why shouldn’t I work for the N.S.A.? That’s a tough one, but I’ll give it a shot. Say I’m working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself, ‘cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem... [More]”
Ignorance Abides
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“I have never won a debate with an ignorant person.”
Modern Communication
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“Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an email.”
Going Along to Get Along
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“What [people] are mostly interested in, lad[ies] and gentlemen, is going along to get along. Which only shows up for what it is—monstrous—if you pull back and take the long view.”
Absolute Truth
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“It is the purest arrogance to suppose that an instrument so fallible as the human mind can even conceive absolute truth, much less comprehend it.”
Witchcraft
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“You can kill a flock of sheep with witchcraft, provided you also feed them arsenic.”
Elite Intellectuals
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“[The attitude towards Haiti] is a depressing illustration of how a highly disciplined intellectual class can reframe even the most depraved actions as yet another opportunity for self-adulation.”