To err is human, but to really screw things up requires a design committee of bureaucrats. Henry Spencer More Quotes by Henry Spencer More Quotes From Henry Spencer Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. Henry Spencer unix A bit of tolerance is worth a megabyte of flamming. Henry Spencer bits tolerance C++ is the best example of second-system effect since OS/360. Henry Spencer effects example MS-DOS isn't dead, it just smells that way. Henry Spencer microsoft smell technology If you lie to the compiler, it will get its revenge. Henry Spencer programming revenge lying If I must be ruled by larcenous bullies, I much prefer that they be located far away. Local bullies know far more about me and my doings than faraway bullies sitting in offices in Washington, and can oppress me far more effectively. Henry Spencer bully office sitting Altruism is a fine motive, but if you want results, greed works much better. Henry Spencer greed results want Programming graphics in X is like finding the square root of PI using Roman numerals. Henry Spencer roman-numerals squares roots Politics /n/: from 'poly ticks', short for 'many small bloodsucking insects'. Henry Spencer tick democracy political Belief is no substitute for arithmetic. Henry Spencer arithmetic belief science Those who do not understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it -- badly. Henry Spencer We're thinking about upgrading from SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 3.5. Henry Spencer Rocket engines generally are simpler than jet engines, not more complicated. Henry Spencer rocket than more complicated On the technical side, Apollo 8 was mainly a test flight for the Saturn V and the Apollo spacecraft. The main spacecraft system that needed testing on a real lunar flight was the onboard navigation system. Henry Spencer test side flight real In the long run, it's impossible to make progress without sometimes having setbacks, although people who get lucky on their first attempt sometimes forget this. Henry Spencer progress sometimes long people Progress requires setbacks; the only sure way to avoid failure is not to try. Henry Spencer try progress failure way SpaceX does seem to have had a run of bad luck, with its first three launches all failing. Henry Spencer bad bad-luck three luck Is manned space exploration important? Yes - not least because it simply works much better than sending robots. Henry Spencer better robots space important The demise of Constellation is not the death of a dream. It's just the end of an illusion. Henry Spencer end illusion dream death My one concern is that when money gets tight, it's easy to cut R&D funding that isn't tied to a specific project - look at what's happened to NASA's aviation research. Henry Spencer look money research easy
