Technology Quotes

The danger from computers is not that they will eventually get as smart as men, but that we will meanwhile agree to meet them halfway.

I get Canadian porno - that's the extent of satellite service and Internet in my house.

WWW? Nice toy, but what a waste of time.

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.

When music technology takes the place of musicianship, it's time to pull the plug.

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

In June 1994, while it is still our hobby, we renamed it "yahoo" to stand for "yet another hierarchical officious oracle".

Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden: Languages whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP machine now permits LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf.

If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.

The computer is the most extraordinary of man's technological clothing; it's an extension of our central nervous system. Beside it, the wheel is a mere hula-hoop.

It is extremely unlikely that anyone coming out of school with a technical degree will go into one area and stay there. Today's students have to look forward to the excitement of probably having three or four careers.

I have gotten everything from a one-page letter written in pencil to a 50-page computer generated masterpiece.

Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system... I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too.

I remember the difficulty we had in the beginning replacing magnetic cores in memories and eventually we had both cost and performance advantages. But it wasn't at all clear in the beginning.

It was never clear that it wouldn't just stop (the WWW). Any time during that exponential growth, it could have stalled. I think we were never very confident until 1993.

Two men were examining the output of the new computer in their department. After an hour or so of analyzing the data, one of them remarked: "Do you realize it would take 400 men at least 250 years to make a mistake this big ?

In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.

Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more ‘user-friendly’… Their best approach so far has been to take all the old brochures and stamp the words ‘user-friendly’ on the cover.

Artificial Intelligence: the art of making computers that behave like the ones in movies.

We are always saying to ourself.. we have to innovate. We got to come up with that breakthrough. In fact, the way software works.. so long as you are using your existing software.. you don't pay us anything at all. So we're only paid for breakthroughs.

The medium, or process, of our time - electric technology is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action.

The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing.

Many people see technology as the problem behind the so-called digital divide. Others see it as the solution. Technology is neither. It must operate in conjunction with business, economic, political and social system.

In software, we rarely have meaningful requirements. Even if we do, the only measure of success that matters is whether our solution solves the customer’s shifting idea of what their problem is.

It's just like a computer. The more you load up, the slower it gets, the more issues arise.