Cynic, n.: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Any medium powerful enough to extend man's reach is powerful enough to topple his world. To get the medium's magic to work for one's aims rather than against them is to attain literacy.
-- Alan Kay, "Computer Software", in Scientific American, September 1984
Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable. As in all the arts, a romance with the material must be well under way. If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be spent to make computing a part of our lives?
-- Alan Kay,"Computer Software", Scientific American, September 1984
Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.
-- Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996
And some quotes from people who might wish they'd remained silent...
JC at
cynix.net