"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should therefore be regarded as a criminal offense."

"Technology innovation is starting to explode and having open-source material out there really helps this explosion. You get students and researchers involved and you get people coming through and building start ups based on open source products."

"In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word "frustration"."

"I want people to understand the amazing, positive way our software can make leisure time more enjoyable, and work and businesses more successful."

"The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world, and it would always give you the right thing. And we're a long, long ways from that."

"A program is never less than 90% complete, and never more than 95% complete."

"Encryption...is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running the government... It's hard to think of a more powerful, less dangerous tool for liberty."

"What is the difference between a Turing machine and the modern computer? It's the same as that between Hillary's ascent of Everest and the establishment of a Hilton hotel on its peak."

"In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble."

"Database: the information you lose when your memory crashes."

"Apparently, Windows 98 is going to be renamed 'Diana, Princess of Windows'. It's overrated, overpriced, consumes loads of resources and crashes spectacularly..."

"I completely love playing and designing games and always will. I am so into games that I listen to game music all day. That may sound strange, but you can guarantee I'm a hardcore gamer and would never let you…"

"What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions."

"The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order-of-magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design, or problem-solving ability."

"There is no programming language–no matter how structured–that will prevent programmers from making bad programs."

"From the time I was 7, when I purchased my first calculator, I was fascinated by the idea of a machine that could compute things."

"I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that…"

"I wish life had an Undo function."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

"E-mail — When it absolutely, positively has to get lost at the speed of light."

"Life would be so much easier if we only had the source code."

"If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan."

"All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors."

"I think one of the big errors people are making right now is thinking that old-style businesses will be obsolete, when actually they will be an important part of this new civilization. Some retail groups are introducing e-commerce and think…"

"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."

"There's a great desire to be computer-savvy among those 50 and older. They're really hungry for it."

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."

"Anyone who spends their life on a computer is pretty unusual."

"There's a whole kind of hip element to it -- now I need this. Right smack in the middle of the 21st century, sophistication is marrying itself to a very old-fashioned notion of a table where you play games, long…"

"If I had taken a proprietary control of the Web, then it would never have taken off. People only committed their time to it because they knew it was open, shared: that they could help decide what would happen to…"

"To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer."

"Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris."

"Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to pound in the correct screw."

"I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here. I just wasn't aware of it…"

"NO, You cannot dial 911, I'm downloading my mail !!!"

"There are so many ways to heal. Arrogance may have a place in technology, but not in healing. I need to get out of my own way if I am to heal."

"Good programmers use their brains, but good guidelines save us having to think out every case."

"The computer provides the only way to give students a real foundation in 21st-century skills."

"No matter how slick the demo is in rehearsal, when you do it in front of a live audience, the probability of a flawless presentation is inversely proportional to the number of people watching, raised to the power of the…"

"In June 1994, while it is still our hobby, we renamed it "yahoo" to stand for "yet another hierarchical officious oracle"."

"It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them."

"It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame."

"Programming is an unnatural act."

"Software companies should take more responsibility for security holes, especially in browsers and e-mail clients. There are some straightforward things the industry should be doing right now to fix things, and I don't know why they haven't been done yet."

"Whereas knights of old wore armor of plate, the modern knights of the air wear the invisible but magic armor of confidence in technology."

"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."

"The danger from computers is not that they will eventually get as smart as men, but that we will meanwhile agree to meet them halfway."

"Home is where you hang your @."