"My reasons for putting Linux out there were pretty selfish. I didn't want the headache of trying to deal with parts of the operating system that I saw as the crap work. I wanted help."- Linus Torvalds (Creator of Linux) in an interview with Wired,
"You can have the best computer set-up in the world but, if someone can convince a member of staff to let them in, all that is useless. The weakest link in any security chain is always human."
- Kevin Mitnick in "The hacker's tale: an interview with Kevin Mitnick"
An interview with the Financial Times
Published October 26, 2002
"I'd shut [Apple] down and give the money back to the shareholders."- Michael S. Dell, CEO of Dell Computer, in response to being asked at a Gartner Group symposium what he would do if he woke up in the body of Steve Jobs.
"You can't stop technology. Even if they succeed in shutting down those particular services, new services will spring up. It's the nature of the Internet."- Shawn Fanning, founder of Napster, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
"Steve Jobs is not a credible CEO or anything else for Apple. The worst thing would be to appoint Steve CEO, except that it would give Steve the opportunity to preside over both Apple's birth and death."- David Coursey (Industry commentator) in the San Jose Mercury News, July 10, 1997.
"Speech is speech. It doesn't matter if it is words on paper or bits on bytes."- John Perry Barlow (EFF Founder) in an interview with the San Francisco Examiner, July 11, 1990.
The Mac is the first computer good enough to be criticized. ... The IBM PC is beneath comment. It's been known for 12 years how to do a good-looking display and IBM didn't put one on its machine. You can't have any favorable comment beyond that. That is the ultimate in know-nothingness.- Alan Kay (Apple Fellow) in an interview with InfoWorld, June 11, 1984.
"In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it." (pp 40 - 41)
"Happiness is the only thing life's about. You don't buy a computer unless you think it's a road to greater happiness. You don't do anything in life unless it's for happiness. That's the only way you can measure life, by the number of smiles per day. It's food, fun, and friends."- Steve Wozniak in his valedictory address
Considering all of the hoopla that has preceded the Mac's introduction, we are still greatly impressed with Apple's new product. The Macintosh is a well-designed personal computer that, dollar for dollar, represents the most advanced personal computer to date. The MC68000 processor, the 3.5-inch variable-speed disk drive, the high-resolution display, the advanced operating system and user interface as well as the rich use of graphics make this machine superior to the rest of the pack. In our opinion, the success of the Macintosh will be determined by Apple's ability to provide or to encourage others to supply hardware expansions and exciting and usable software. We think Apple has at least one thing right—the Macintosh is the one machine with the potential to challenge IBM's hold on the market.- Thomas Neudecker
“Everybody should be in a business once in their lives that competes with Microsoft, just for the experience.”- Marc Andreessen (Netscape founder) in an interview with The Economist,
"Hacker" is a term of honour and respect. It is a term that describes a skill, not an activity, in the same way that "doctor" describes a skill. It was used for decades to describe talented computer enthusiasts, people whose skill at using computers to solve technical problems and puzzles was - and is - respected and admired by others possessing similar technical skills.
"Welcome to the red light district of the new millennium."- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Secrets," February 2, 2001. In the episode, a school teacher is murdered after a student discovers a classified ad in which she is seeking sexual partners. In presenting the classified ad to the detectives investigating the case, a police computer tech in the episode characterizes the internet as "the red light district of the new millennium."
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
“…an Internet browser is a trivial piece of software. There are at least 30 companies that have written very credible Internet browsers, so that’s nothing… ”- Bill Gates as quoted in
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These [...] interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.The letter is of particular note, as Einstein's exact religious beliefs have been in contention since he first came into the public eye. As a child, Einstein attended a Catholic school while receiving private tutelage in Judaism, but neither of his parents were particularly religious. He later wrote that, "The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression."
