In spite of experts, nothing is impossible!

These are great! You've got to love it when 'experts' get it so wrong. :) Stan

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television." "The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." - - Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." -- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923 "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." -- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957 "But what is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981 This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us," -- Western Union internal memo, 1876. "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s. "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible," -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.) "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper," -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind." "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make," -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies. "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962. "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible," -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this," - - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads. "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy," -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859. "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." - - Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University , 1929. "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value," -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France . "Everything that can be invented has been invented," -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899. "The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." -- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University "I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself." -- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox. "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872 "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon,"-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873. And last but not least... "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

Wisdom

This is not the normal thing to be posted here; but I wanted to take a moment to reflect and show a sign of respect to a friend who had died. And, perhaps we can all take a lesson or two from a wise 'elder statesman'; someone who has been through it all before.

From: Modern Living ... http://sometimesontheedge.blogspot.com/2009/04/wisdom.html ...

Dave, my friend and bridge partner died recently, at age 92. He had suffered a stroke 10 years previously which had left him paralized and in a wheelchair. Although the paralysis was over his whole body, he did have very limited use of his right hand. He could not speak.

He had lived. He was a young man during the 1930s “Dirty Thirties” Depression. He had fought in World War II. He had married and raised a family. During his working career he worked in 'electronics'; through tube radios, then radar to computer chips. In other words, he had a wealth of wisdom to impart.

We were able to bid and play bridge with the help of some assistive devices. He was by far the best player in our group. He always had the kindness and patience to teach beginners.

He had become computer literate, and used the 'hunt and peck' keyboard method with the limited use of his right hand. He composed articles, wrote correspondence and emails, and kept in touch with friends. Those of us who were more 'able-bodied' were amazed at the amount of effort and time that he put into work.

He was a true inspiration to us all with his Gaelic sense of wit, irony, and wry humor. That was with him until the end of his life.

We were all very saddened with his loss. That was partially because he brought such happiness and joy to all of those around him. Indeed, he provided hope and inspiration for younger people hoping to learn to grow older gracfully.

It was his material, and with his permission, that we began a series of posts called “Dave Sez”. There will be more posts scheduled for the 1^st day of following months, but some of those posts from past months are here:

• How To Plant Your Garden from July, 2008

• Things Have Changed from August, 2008

• Why Ask Why? from September, 2008

• Inner Strength from October, 2008

• Playing With Words from November, 2008

• Food For Thought from December, 2008

• Trivia from January, 2009

• Ponderables - post 1 from February, 2009

• For Lexophiles from March, 2009

• Today's Stock Market Report from April, 2009

Calamity and Confusion

"Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm."

Colton, Charles Caleb · Difficulties

Write Programs

Interviewer: "Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a programmer?"

Bill Gates: "No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system."

FORTRAN - primary purpose of the DATA statement

"The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change."
- FORTRAN manual for Xerox computers

Programming graphics in X

"Programming graphics in X is like finding sqrt(pi) using Roman numerals."
- Henry Spencer

Compiler Construction

"Never put off until run time what you can do at compile time."
- David Gries, in "Compiler Construction for Digital Computers", circa 1969.

Snopes.com > Urban Legends > Computer

Snopes.com > Urban Legends > Computer
The primary means by which urban legends and other misinformation are being spread. Everything from ‘stupid computer users’, false (but, sadly, sometimes real) virus warning hoaxes; and other information about computers resides here.

Does increase traffic and the use of the word 'wisdom' in Web 2.0+ equate to an increase in human wisdom?

Interest Appears to be Growing in the use of the word "Wisdom"?

Wisdom – What is It?

Extract . . . . .

• personal wisdom,

• socio-cultural wisdom, and

• the role that higher education could play in the development of both of these.

"People have been interested in wisdom for a long time. In the East, we can look back to the Upanishads, the teachings of the Buddha, Confucianism, and Taoism. In the West, it began with a few Sumerian and Egyptian texts, followed by the Old Testament prophets, the Greek philosophers, the Christian gospels, and the theologians of the Middle Ages.

The views of wisdom presented by these writers differ in detail. But they are consistent in the idea that wisdom is desirable and, in some sense, superior to ordinary. In the 20th century — for reasons not yet clear — the term wisdom fell out of common usage. People used words like excellence, intelligence, cleverness, aptitude, proficiency, and brilliance that danced around the edges of wisdom, but they avoided the term itself.

For much of the 20th century, wisdom was also out of favor in academia. Despite the fact that philosophy literally means love of wisdom, as we've already heard, wisdom was not considered a suitable subject for scholarly study. That began to change about 1980, and since then reports on 36 wisdom research studies have been published. .....

Interest in wisdom now appears to be growing in the general population as well as academia. During the past year the number of Web pages worldwide has grown by about 200%. During that same period, however, the number of Web pages containing the word wisdom grew by 1200% — to a present total of more than 170 million pages!

- WISDOM: The Highest Aim of Life and Higher Education A text (with slides) rendering of Copthorne Macdonald's “Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar” address at Rollins College April 5, 2006.

- The Wisdom Page --- a site devoted to wisdom resources

(Ed: Rather doubtful that an increase in the use of the word 'wisdom' actually equates to any real increase in human wisdom.)