(Edited and formatted by George ALEFantes)


Privacy interferes with the free flow of personal information.
George ALEFantes


You can now pre-order an Apple iPad; but do you really want to, asks Steven J Vaughan-Nichols. "I mean, I get why you'd want an iPad. I'd like one too," he writes. "But," he says, "when I consider that there are soon going to be literally dozens of cheaper, Linux-powered iPad devices on the market, I find it a lot easier to resist putting $499 on my credit card. On top of that, Apple will be including DRM on some eBooks and other iPad content. I really, really hate DRM. All that said, I agree the iPad is really cool. I predict with absolute faith that the iPad and its clones are going to kill off single purpose devices like dedicated eReaders such as Amazon's Kindle and GPS devices within the next three years. How can it not work out this way? For the same price as a high-end dedicated device, you can get a tablet that will do everything they can do and far more. But, and this is the important bit, you don't have to buy an Apple iPad to get all of the iPad's goodies. ARM, a mobile microprocessor power, is predicting that we'll see no less than 50 ARM-processor-powered iPad clones by year's end. And, what will they be running? These ARM-powered entertainment tablets will all be running Linux.
Soulskill, from Here Come the Linux iPad Clones, at www.SlashDot.Org, 3/12/2010


The nice people at Apple are making sure that dumb kids and senile old people, and all the rest of us don't hurt ourselves, because we're too stupid to make our own decisions. Last time I was in Home Depot I saw high-powered welding machines, bandsaws, nailguns, great big heavy pieces of lumber, bottles of sulfuric acid and muriatic acid, pesticides, and many other scary dangerous products that anyone could buy. That's right, anyone could walk in off the street and purchase literal truckloads of lethal implements and chemicals. It's a good thing none of the titans of tech own the hardware stores.
Carla Shroder, from All Hail Our Benevolent Corporate Overlords, at www.LinuxToday.Com, 3/10/2010


In three years, when the low-end WiFi-powered iPad costs $199, many households will buy 3 or 4 of them and just leave them lying around the house. These iPads won't be "owned" by any one member of the household, the way PCs and cell phones are. They won't live on desks, the way desktops do, and they won't be carried everywhere, the way mobile phones are. They'll just be there, around the house, on tables and counters, the way today's books, magazines, games, and newspapers are, booted up, ready to use.
Henry Blodget, from We Have Seen The Amazing Future Of Apple's iPad And This Is It, at www.BusinessInsider.Com, 1/29/2010


DAVE BARRY

A user is what computer professionals say when they mean "idiot."


CHEOP'S LAW

No project was ever completed on time and within budget.


LAWS OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING

Any given program costs more and takes longer.

The value of a program is proportional to the weight of its output.

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.


GERROLD'S LAWS OF INFERNAL DYNAMICS

An object in motion will be heading in the wrong direction.

An object at rest will be in the wrong place.


POURNELLE'S LAW OF COSTS AND SCHEDULES

Everything costs more and takes longer.


BILL GATES

Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put three man-years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?
1976


STEVE WOZNIAK

Most inventors and engineers live in their heads. They're almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone - best outside of corporate environments, where they can control an invention's design without a lot of other people.

Why do I say engineers are like artists? Engineers often strive to do things more perfectly than even they think is possible. Every tiny part or line of code has to have a reason, and the approach has to be direct, short, and fast. It's this reach for perfection, this striving to put everything so perfectly, in a way no one has done before that makes an engineer or anyone else a true artist.


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