brainstorms

Friday May 26, 2006

recently noted quotes

when all else fails, try philosophy. -- taner edis [ghost in the universe]

The NSA would like to remind everyone to call their mothers this Sunday. They need to calibrate their system. -- quoted in bruce schneier's blog

being attuned to vague resemblances is the hallmark of intelligence, for better or for worse. -- douglas r. hofstadter [metamagical themas]

the right way to calculate the animosity and marksmanship of the urban pigeon is to considerboth the presence and the absence of poop on our jackets -- daniel gilbert [stumbling on happiness]

[i nominate the following quote for the stupidest sentence by an occasionally respected industry veteran award]

Their software isn't better, their hardware isn't better, and they can't see themselves as anything but a maker of hardware or software, so my simple recommendation is that they take the rest of their cash and try entering a hot new field like -- say -- space flight. Or making really fine cakes. The world will always need fine baked goods. Or just give it back to the shareholders. Really. -- robert cringely on SUN [It Doesn't Take an Einstein to Realize Why Microsoft Is Headed Down and Google Is Headed Up]

surely, if we could create the world anew, the practice of organizing our lives around untestable propositions found in ancient literature -- to say nothing of killing and dying for them -- would be impossible to justify. what stops us from finding it impossible now? -- sam harris [the end of faith: religion, terror and the future of reason]

if history reveals any categorical truth, it is that an unsufficient taste for evidence regularly brings out the worst in us. -- sam harris [the end of faith]