Over the past one-hundred years it is mind-boggling to observe the advancements in technology. It is even more amazing to see how viewpoints have been reshaped by various breakthroughs. Those who have spend most of their lives working with computers and/or the internet, can probably relate to the frustrating, em
barrassing and awestricken moments that are oftentimes realized. In our rapidly changing technical times, some of the best companies have looked extremely stupid, while others have amused us with their observations. Here are 28 of our favorite quotes:
1. “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
-Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
2. “I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.”
-Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1948
3. “It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology.”
-John Von Neumann, circa 1949
4. “The Internet? We are not interested in it”
-Bill Gates, 1993
5. “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”
-Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
6. “Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM, which is more than any application will ever need.”
-Microsoft, on the development of Windows NT, 1992
7. “If McDonalds were run like a software company, one out of every hundred Big Macs would give you food poisoning, and the response would be, ‘We’re sorry, here’s a coupon for two more.’ “
-Unknown, at least to us
8. Naturally we feel that mentally ill people are not what we are looking for when we hire programmers – although there is no empirical data to support or contradict that view…… Is it appropriate to give tests for mental illness to anyone applying for any kind of job?
-Weinberg The Psychology of Computer Programming
9. “If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.”
-Gerald Weinberg
10. “Software is like sex: It’s better when it’s free.”
-Linus Torvalds
11. “There are only two industries that refer to their customers as ‘users’.”
-Edward Tufte
12. “Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.”
-Steve Wozniak
13. “UNIX is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity.”
-Dennis Ritchie
14. “PHP is a minor evil perpetrated and created by incompetent amateurs, whereas Perl is a great and insidious evil, perpetrated by skilled but perverted professionals.
-Jon Ribbens
15. Real programmers are surprised when the odometers in their cars don’t turn from 99,999 to 99,99A.
-Unknown
16. “The three most dangerous things in the world are a programmer with a soldering iron, a hardware type with a program patch and a user with an idea.”
-The Wizardry Compiled by Rick Cook
17. “They have computers, and they may have other weapons of mass destruction.”
-Janet Reno
18. “Computers are getting smarter all the time. Scientists tell us that soon they will be able to talk to us. (And by ‘they’, I mean ‘computers’. I doubt scientists will ever be able to talk to us.)”
-Dave Barry
19. “There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don’t believe this to be a coincidence.”
-Jeremy S. Anderson
20. “The only people who have anything to fear from free software are those whose products are worth even less.”
-David Emery
21. “If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution.”
-Robert Sewell
22. “Fifty years of programming language research, and we end up with C++?”
-Richard A. O’Keefe
23. “First learn computer science and all the theory. Next develop a programming style. Then forget all that and just hack.”
-George Carrette
24. Technology is dominated by two types of people: Those who understand what they do not manage. Those who manage what they do not understand.
-Putt’s Law
25. These machines have no common sense; they have not yet learned to “think,” and they do exactly as they are told, no more and no less. This fact is the hardest concept to grasp when one first tries to use a computer.
-Donald Knuth
26. “Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and better idiots. So far the Universe is winning.”
-Rich Cook
27. “It’s ridiculous to live 100 years and only be able to remember 30 million bytes. You know, less than a compact disc. The human condition is really becoming more obsolete every minute.”
-Marvin Minsky
28. “Can creation ever surpass its creator??”
-Mankind
Flickr.com shouldn’t be new to the internet user who has used the web for more than a month. Flickr is a photo sharing website that operates on much the same principles of Twitter. A user uploads photos, and the photo stream is shared with followers, and in the public stream.
The release of the iPod and other digital audio products spawned an uprising of home radio broadcasters (podcasters) much like blogging spawned a new generation of journalistic and topical experts. In simple terms, a podcast is a regular audio or mutimedia recording that is syndicated and distributed over the internet.
It used to be that cell phones were used as a more portable way to make and receive phone calls. The modern cell phone has evolved into an all-in-one phone, camera, camcorder, GPS, PC, and text chat platform. Despite continued technological and application development for cell phones, text messages are still the most used phone feature. It is estimated that 2.3 trillion text messages were sent in 2008. Because of the text message phenomenon, new phone designs now incorporate full QWERTY keyboards for the frequent texter.
Gone are the days of the traditional atlas. For the consumer that either can’t, or just won’t buy a 
