Don't be evil (TM)?

"Google is not building a library, it is building a bookstore"
-- Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor, University of Virginia. "Google Books' Latest Foe: The Justice Dept.," BusinessWeek, September 20, 2009.

Precise language to reason precisely

"In the end, programs are just mathematics, and you can reason about them mathematically"
-- Gerwin Klein, NICTA, "Universal kernel code to keep computers safe," NewScientist, 28 August 2009.

Fashionable Science

"The fact is science is like any other social network. It's a lot easier to go along with the crowd. Every now and then there's a revolution in science, a paradigm shift, like when Einstein came along, but it's so easy to lock people into a particular way of thinking, of trying to build on the ideas that are in vogue. In the end, there is almost a fashion in science — ideas that are in, ideas that are out."
-- Brian Clegg, "What Came Before the Big Bang?," TIME.com, August 13, 2009.

Pardon My French

"There is no mention of Umno; Umno can go to hell"
-- Nik Aziz, upon clarifying his call to "bury the hatchet" to mean Kelantan's relations with the Federal Government and not between PAS and Umno, "PAS' peace gesture insincere, says Mahathir," The Star. 28 July 2009.

A humble giant

"I confess that I can’t swim. I am astonished that humans can swim. I used to worry that when I sailed on ships, I would sink to the bottom in case anything happened to the vessels."

-- Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, "Mahathir can’t swim, urges parents to ensure their kids can ," The Star, November 9, 2008.

Back from irrelevance

"This is a new dawn... Tomorrow we will start building a brighter future"
-- Anwar Ibrahim, in the early morning after Malaysia Election 2008. "Malaysian politics turned upside down," Reuters, March 8, 2008.

Throwing in the towel too soon?

"We've lost, we've lost."
-- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at 3am during a press conference a day after the 2008 Malaysia Election. "BN forms new Government with simple majority of 132," NST Online, 9 March 2008.

Security through obscurity (or through litigation)

The DMCA imposes a serious restriction on the freedom of speech. The DMCA makes it illegal to talk about certain security systems. The equivalent law for non-digital protection systems would make it illegal to warn people about a cheap and very weak door lock being installed on their houses because criminals could also use that same information.
-- Niels Ferguson, "Censorship in action: why I don't publish my HDCP results," The Risks Digest, Volume 21: Issue 61

To err is human

You learn from your mistakes, but there are too many mistakes to make them all yourself. That's why we publish. We share our knowledge with others, so that they don't have to repeat the same mistake.
-- Niels Ferguson, "Censorship in action: why I don't publish my HDCP results," The Risks Digest, Volume 21: Issue 61

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

I think that people that are not willing to take the risk to fail are not true entrepreneurs. If you are afraid to fail, then you should go and become a banker.
-- Yossi Vardi, a well-known Israel's technology investor. "A Conversation with Yossi Vardi," BusinessWeek, January 2, 2008.

Eager to please

I don't look at business plans. After 38 years I've found that 100% of business plans say that their idea is very good. I think they are useless. I also don't like PowerPoint presentations. I don't think you can judge the validity of an idea. Maybe someone else is working on the exact same thing elsewhere. I found the more I liked the idea the bigger my losses were. Falling in love with an idea makes your vision blurry. I don't like demonstrations because the young guys showing me are so enthusiastic they think it is the greatest thing in the world—at least in their life, and if you don't fake an orgasm, they go away very disappointed.
-- Yossi Vardi, a well-known Israel's technology investor. "A Conversation with Yossi Vardi," BusinessWeek, January 2, 2008.

Music to my ears

Technology is like a piano. You need to have it to create music but you really need the pianist.
-- Yossi Vardi, a well-known Israel's technology investor. "A Conversation with Yossi Vardi," BusinessWeek, January 2, 2008.

To the bitter end!

"Some Malaysians can be said to be 'holier than thou'. This means they are all ulama. So, I think if I continue to hold positions in the party or Government, this will be a burden to the Government and party, especially in the context of Islam Hadhari."
-- Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who resigned from all government and political positions over the recent sex video scandal. "‘People wanted me to quit’," TheStar, January 3, 2008.

(I have always liked this man. His Malay is impeccable. He has a strong track record and he tends to make sense when he speak. However, if I read what he said above correctly, he seems to be disparaging Islam Hadhari when he juxtaposed that term with ulama and "holier than thou". Maybe I shouldn't be reading too much into the words of a frustrated man?)

Something out of nothing

Write a paper promising salvation, make it a "structured" something or a "virtual" something, or "abstract", "distributed" or "higher-order" or "applicative" and you can almost be certain of having started a new cult.
-- E.W. Dijkstra, "EWD 709: My hopes of computing science," April 1979.

Either way, you lose

Confusing "love of perfection" with "claim of perfection", people will accuse you of the latter and then blame you for the first.
-- E.W. Dijkstra, "EWD 709: My hopes of computing science," April 1979.

Extraterrestrial intelligent life?

"There is not much sign of it on Earth."
-- Stephen Hawking. "Stephen Hawking prepares for weightless flight," NewScientist.com, 26 April 2007.

Ignorant is bliss (or not)

"It's one thing not to know something, it's another thing altogether to choose not to know."
-- U.S. Representative Christopher Smith in "Jerry Yang on the Hot Seat," BusinessWeek, November 6, 2007.

The not-so-innocuous pencil

"Even a pencil could use a manual, though—how many years does it take to learn how to use it? It's more natural to use one as a weapon!"
-- Don Norman in "Are Cars Too Safe? Are User Manuals Necessary?," BusinessWeek, December 5, 2007.

It's all magic!

"Magic is science insufficiently explained."
-- Eric Schmidt in "Google's CEO on the Power of Clouds," BusinessWeek, December 13, 2007.

Low inhibitory ability

"Smoking is not something which is bad. It's not taking drugs. The only concern is that smoking causes cancer... I smoke cigars. You can ask my constituents if they are happy with my performance."
-- Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. A rather reckless response to a tame remark by Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat that he preferred to choose candidates who do not smoke. "Nazri Hits out at Pas over smoking remark," New Sunday Times, July 15, 2007.