“The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.” NeedsHumansRoomsBehindsDemandLowsSittingProgramMachinesNotesClarityPostsManifestationGradesCoveredDisorderYellowDesksStereotypeDeclarationProgrammersCokeAnnoyanceHuman ThoughtMessinessGrowlingPost It Notes Author:Ellen Ullman
“Machines are designed not to be random. When you call up a word processing program on your computer, you don't want it to be different every time you call it up. You want it to stay the same.” WantDifferentTechnologyComputerProgramMachinesProcessing Author:Rupert Sheldrake
“When I lost my faith in people I put my trust in things To avoid the disappointment Trusting people brings... I tried to do it all myself then Surrounded by my stuff All I found were limitations I could not rise above There are gadgets and contraptions Immaculate machines There's a program you can download now That will even dream your dreams It'll even dream you dreams For a monthly fee Clear up your complexion You get a hundred hours free Possessions cannot save you.” PeopleDreamFoundLostStuffHoursClearHundredProgramMachinesDisappointmentPossessionLimitationYour DreamsConsumerismRise AboveFeesOverconsumptionGadgetsDownloadsComplexionImmaculateTrusting People Author:John Gorka
“All our technology - whether we use fax machines or computers or speak on phones or watch programs on television - is based on the premise that the essential nature of the material world is non-material.” WorldUseSpeakWatchesTechnologyTelevisionMaterialsEssentialsComputerProgramMachinesPhonesPremisesMaterial WorldFaxFax Machines Author:Deepak Chopra
“A computer program is a message from a man to a machine. The rigidly marshaled syntax and the scrupulous definitions all exist to make intention clear to the dumb engine.” MenClearComputerMessagesProgramMachinesIntentionDefinitionsDumbEnginesSyntax Author:Fred Brooks
“There is an inherent dissonancebetween the quasi-formal world of computer programs - defining the programmed machine in each system - and the non-formal problem world of the system requirements.” WorldProblemComputerProgramMachinesInherentFormalRequirementsDefining Author:Michael Jackson
“Chess computers do not sweat during time pressure and commit costly blunders. Furthermore, the strength of these programs (over and above their faultless recall processes) lies in their capacity to make relatively superficial tactical decisions with incredible speed. Positional values, long-range strategy, aesthetic judgment, and political astuteness remain staples of human performance, man vs. machine results in the foreseeable future to the contrary not withstanding.” MenHumansLongPoliticalLyingValuesProcessDecisionResultsJudgmentComputerCapacityProgramMachinesPerformancesPressureStrategyIncrediblesSpeedContraryChessCommitRangeSweatAestheticRecallsSuperficialBlundersStaplesTacticalWithstanding Author:Ira Carmen
“Programming is how we talk to the machines that are increasingly woven into our lives. If you aren't a programmer, you're like one of the unlettered people of the Middle Ages who were told what to think by the literate priesthood. We had a Renaissance when more people could read and write; we'll have another one when everyone programs.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingAgeOur LivesMiddleProgramMachinesProgrammingMiddle AgesProgrammersRenaissanceWovenPriesthood Author:Tim O'Reilly
“If the universe is a non-spatial computer, a 'time machine' is a program that allows a user to have the same (ontologically non-spatial) feelings or experiences that occurred or s/he merely feels to have occurred in the past, with an in-built function to have different feelings or experiences than those of the past, and thus creating a possibility to change the past or to rewrite history in a pseudo sense.” IfsFeelsDifferentFeelingsPastUniversePossibilityComputerCreatingBuiltProgramMachinesFunctionUsersPseudoTime MachineSpatialDifferent Feelings Author:Kedar Joshi
“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.” IfsKindHas BeensTwoIdeasAbleAnswersFiguresPrayingComputerProgramMachinesIntelligenceConfusionOccasionsMathematicalProgrammingProvokingAccuracyComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceProgramming LanguagesComputingRight AnswersComputer Systems Author:Charles Babbage
“We need to reform our school lunch programs. We need to get healthy items into the vending machines.” NeedsSchoolHealthyProgramMachinesReformLunchItemsVending MachinesSchool Lunch Author:Joan Lunden
“The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly. A programmer is ideally an essayist who works with traditional aesthetic and literary forms as well as mathematical concepts, to communicate the way that an algorithm works and to convince a reader that the results will be correct.” WayHumansWellsFormHuman BeingsResultsWrittenReaderConceptsProgramMachinesCommunicateTraditionalMathematicalConvinceAestheticProgrammersComputer ProgrammingComputingAlgorithmsEssayists Author:Donald Knuth
“In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program.” HumansCoursesStarsPersonalityAspectProgramMachinesOriginalsNotionHarvestDownloadsHuman Personality Author:Poul Anderson
“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.” PeopleTechnologyWrittenTrustComputerProgramMachinesProgrammingComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageSoftware EngineeringSoftware DesignComputer TechnologyLisp Author:Hal Abelson