CompSci / PerComp -- paul's e-scrapbook [a.k.a. "Formless Void"; a.a.k.a. "What, Me Worry?"]

"Americans have no past and no future, they live in an extended present." This describes the state of computing. We live in the 80's extended into the 21st century. The only thing that's changed is the size. Windows XP has 70 million lines of code. It's impossible for Alan [Kay] to believe that it has 70 million lines of content. Microsoft engineers don't dare prune it because they don't know what it all does. -- Phil Windley's Technometria | Alan Kay: Is Computer Science an Oxymoron?

The Internet is like the human body. It's replaced all of its atoms and bits at least twice since it started even though the Internet has never stopped working. Attacks on the 'Net aren't really attacks on the 'Net, they're attacks on machines on the 'Net. Very few software systems, maybe none, are built in ways that sustain operation in spite of being continually rebuilt and continually growing. -- Phil Windley's Technometria | Alan Kay: Is Computer Science an Oxymoron?

paul's e-scrapbook

Computer Science & Personal Computing