By the time (the Leaning Tower of Pisa) was 10% built, everyone knew it would be a total disaster. But the investment was so big they felt compelled to go on. Since its completion, it cost a fortune to maintain and is still in danger of collapsing. There are no plans to replace it, since it was never needed in the first place. I expect every installation has its own pet software which is analogous to the above.
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The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are read more
The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.
The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was.
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was.
If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says read more
If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground read more
Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.
A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the read more
A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.
If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one read more
If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify read more
The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language.
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language.
