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Page 41

 
# 1321
In English, every word can be verbed.  Would that it were so in our
programming languages.
 
# 1322
In every non-trivial program there is at least one bug.
 
# 1323
In fact, S. M. Simpson, eventually devised an efficient 24-point Fourier
transform, which was a precursor to the Cooley-Tukey fast Fourier transform
in 1965.  The FFT made all of Simpson's efficient autocorrelation and
spectrum programs instantly obsolete, on which he had worked half a lifetime.
		-- Proc. IEEE, Sept. 1982, p.900
 
# 1324
In less than a century, computers will be making substantial progress on
... the overriding problem of war and peace.
		-- James Slagle
 
# 1325
In practice, failures in system development, like unemployment in Russia,
happens a lot despite official propaganda to the contrary.
		-- Paul Licker
 
# 1326
In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way.
		-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
 
# 1327
	In the beginning there was data.  The data was without form and
null, and darkness was upon the face of the console; and the Spirit of
IBM was moving over the face of the market.  And DEC said, "Let there
be registers"; and there were registers.  And DEC saw that they
carried; and DEC separated the data from the instructions.  DEC called
the data Stack, and the instructions they called Code.  And there was
evening and there was morning, one interrupt.
		-- Rico Tudor, "The Story of Creation or, The Myth of Urk"
 
# 1328
	In the beginning was the Tao.  The Tao gave birth to Space and Time.
Therefore, Space and Time are the Yin and Yang of programming.

	Programmers that do not comprehend the Tao are always running out of
time and space for their programs.  Programmers that comprehend the Tao always
have enough time and space to accomplish their goals.
	How could it be otherwise?
		-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
 
# 1329
	In the days when Sussman was a novice Minsky once came to him as he
sat hacking at the PDP-6.
	"What are you doing?", asked Minsky.
	"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe."
	"Why is the net wired randomly?", inquired Minsky.
	"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play".
	At this Minsky shut his eyes, and Sussman asked his teacher "Why do
you close your eyes?"
	"So that the room will be empty."
	At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
 
# 1330
	In the east there is a shark which is larger than all other fish.  It
changes into a bird whose winds are like clouds filling the sky.  When this
bird moves across the land, it brings a message from Corporate Headquarters.
This message it drops into the midst of the programmers, like a seagull
making its mark upon the beach.  Then the bird mounts on the wind and, with
the blue sky at its back, returns home.
	The novice programmer stares in wonder at the bird, for he understands
it not.  The average programmer dreads the coming of the bird, for he fears
its message.  The master programmer continues to work at his terminal, for he
does not know that the bird has come and gone.
		-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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