Kosa.Kata

Don't be evil (TM)?

2009-09-21T13:07:00.001+08:00

"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

2009-08-29T09:25:00.000+08:00

"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

2009-08-16T11:16:00.001+08:00

"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

2009-07-29T00:07:00.000+08:00

"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

2008-11-09T09:06:00.000+08:00

"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

2008-03-09T07:52:00.003+08:00

"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?

2008-03-09T07:42:00.003+08:00

"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)

2008-01-19T13:29:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-19T13:08:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-09T21:54:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-09T21:33:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-09T21:17:00.000+08:00

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!

2008-01-03T20:33:00.000+08:00

"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

2007-12-29T00:38:00.000+08:00

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

2007-12-29T00:25:00.000+08:00

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?

2007-12-29T00:01:00.000+08:00

"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)

2007-12-28T23:30:00.000+08:00

"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

2007-12-28T23:13:00.000+08:00

"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!

2007-12-28T22:58:00.000+08:00

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

Low inhibitory ability

2007-07-15T20:00:00.000+08:00

"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.

Green lament

2007-05-22T21:40:00.000+08:00

It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.
-- Kermit the Frog, "Bein' Green"

Beautiful Mistakes

2007-05-22T21:29:00.000+08:00

"…But you need to make mistakes. Making mistakes is a beautiful thing."
-- Patrizia Moroso, "The Moroso method", Wallpaper*, Oct 2005
(Taken from my old Kosa.Kata blog at Wordpress.com)

Laissez-faire

2007-04-28T18:53:00.000+08:00

"I'm not religious in the normal sense... I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."
-- Stephen Hawking. "Stephen Hawking prepares for weightless flight," NewScientist.com, 26 April 2007.

Virtual Tivoization?

2007-04-23T19:14:00.000+08:00

"Our virtualization features can also encapsulate components that are under the GPL open-source license protecting valuable company IP from the obligation to publish source code"
-- Steve Subar, CEO and Co-Founder of Open Kernel Lab. "Commercial version of NICTA open source L4 real time kernel released," Embedded.com, 17 April 2007.

The path to learning

2007-04-23T07:35:00.000+08:00

"In my job, it's important not to be arrogant, not to be afraid to ask questions and say you don't know. How else can you learn?"
-- Keith Floyd. "A dash of Floyd," The Sunday Star, 22 April 2007.

A girl who knows her priority

2007-04-22T22:00:00.000+08:00

"Tennis is only a little game, that's all. I hope people don't look at tennis players like me and think we aren't connected with life outside tennis. We do watch the news, we do see what's going on and we do care. I know that tennis isn't the most important thing,"
-- Maria Sharapova. "Sharapova still haunted by Chernobyl," Telegraph Group Ltd, 10 April 2007.

The ultimate reason for making money

2007-04-22T21:41:00.000+08:00

"The coolest thing about making money is that you are able to give back... You have the opportunity to help people. You can only buy so many cars, so many houses, so many dresses and so many pairs of shoes, but it's not going to make you happy. But helping to save lives is incredible. I can't even begin to explain how amazing that is."
-- Maria Sharapova. "Sharapova still haunted by Chernobyl," Telegraph Group Ltd, 10 April 2007.

It's all in the semantics

2007-04-11T23:25:00.000+08:00

The word semantics is used by different groups to mean different things.
-- Tim Berners-Lee on Semantic Web. "Q&A with Tim Berners-Lee," BusinessWeek.com, April 9, 2007. Hopefully Semantic Web itself could unlock its own meaning...

The New Republic

2007-04-11T22:50:00.000+08:00

"What we have today is government of the people, by the flunkies, for the corporations."
-- Richard Stallman on Trusted Computing (what he called 'Treacherous Computing'), "GPLv3 - Transcript of Richard Stallman from the fifth international GPLv3 conference, Tokyo, Japan"

(Ouch! That hurts! (Parenthetical comment notwithstanding))

2007-03-31T14:52:00.000+08:00

(lawyers are whores - they are paid to argue for their client, not for the law)
-- Linus Torvalds in the Linux Kernel Mailing List "Re:GPL V3 and Linux - Dead Copyright Holders".

Holy War Version III

2007-03-31T14:38:00.000+08:00

I literally feel that we do not - as software developers - have the moral right to enforce our rules on hardware manufacturers. We are not crusaders, trying to force people to bow to our superior God. We are trying to show others that co-operation and openness works better.
-- Linus Torvalds in the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) "Re: GPL V3 and Linux - Dead Copyright Holders".

Elitist?

2007-03-24T07:50:00.000+08:00

The computer, Postscript, the Internet and "globalization" have unleashed a couple of cultural revolutions which also churned the understanding of writing in a mess. A clear lake was transformed into a muddy marsh landscape. All the old rules and values are jeopardized, being replaced with many contradictory new ones. Non-professionals are allowed to make typography - it's the end of knowledge in the hands of a few: a lot of people who have always been reading, but hardly writing, discovered a cultural asset - design, like with silverware or chairs.
-- Manfred Klein, "Manfred Klein - the interview" (This article is a translation from the original piece in German)

People is an important part of the equation

2007-03-24T07:37:00.000+08:00

"Communication between people is what makes us a society... The World Wide Web is, together, technology and society. It is computers and people."
-- Tim Berners-Lee. "Sir Tim Berners-Lee Gives Congress Vision Of The Future", Embedded.com, Jan 3, 2007

Childhood Dreams

2007-03-19T22:09:00.000+08:00

“As a little child, I cried because I wanted to fly into outer space. My parents found it hard to pacify me with toys. I also wanted to explore the depths of the ocean floor as much as I wanted to sail across the high heavens. And so I became a PADI-certified scuba diver and also a student pilot.”
-- Namira Salim. "Namira — first female astronaut from Dubai," Khaleej Times Online, 2 April 2006. She would be the first Pakistani woman to be in space on the Virgin Galactic Space Ship in 2008.

Alphabets of horror

2007-03-19T20:44:00.000+08:00

"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."
-- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. "Transcript: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses 9/11 role", CNN.com, March 15, 2007.

I need a vacation!

2007-03-13T21:40:00.000+08:00

...I've always taken big vacations. I get quite intense about what I'm doing and get very involved with work, and then I take my vacations, which have usually been climbing mountains or skiing or doing a lot of exploration.
-- Frances Allen in Frances Allen's Oral History Interview - Transcript. She is the first woman to receive the Turing Award.

Going against the current

2007-03-13T21:17:00.000+08:00

"They're using the Steve Jobs method, ... You don't use focus groups. You just do it right."
-- John Maeda, in reference to the design process of XO, the $100 Laptop. "The Face of the $100 Laptop," March 1, 2oo7.

Goals in life

2007-03-07T23:04:00.000+08:00

I don't have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don't think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice.
-- Richard Stallman in "Free Software as a Social Movement," ZNet, December 18, 2005.

Give me liberty or...

2007-03-07T22:37:00.000+08:00

I'm a Liberal, in US terms (not Canadian terms). I'm against fascism.
-- Richard Stallman in "Free Software as a Social Movement," ZNet, December 18, 2005.

(Apparently liberalism is not a global unified thing. See Liberalism at Wikipedia.)

Two sides of the same coin

2007-03-04T19:29:00.000+08:00

"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man; when a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch."
-- Bette Davis, as quoted in "Who are you calling a bitch?," The Guardian, January 26, 2007.

One statement too long

2007-03-03T13:13:00.000+08:00

"Zaman nabi bercinta dan kahwin dengan Khadijah dulu, umur Nabi berapa? Berapa umur Siti Khadijah?... Tua ke muda tu? Dah nak mampus ke tidak tu?"

Translation: "When the Prophet courted and then married Khadijah, what was his age? How about Siti Khadijah's age? Was she young or old? Wasn't she about to kick the bucket?"

-- Rosnah Mat Aris, during a live show on TV3. I think the first three statements were forgivable although a bit out of taste. But the last one pretty much sealed the wrath of the people.

Yin and Yang

2007-03-02T21:54:00.000+08:00

People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
-- Alan Kay, as quoted by Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPhone at MacWorld 2007.

Learn to know

2007-03-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
-- Richard Feynman
(Does anyone know where he mentioned this?)