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Douglas Adams quotations to live by
- ymse 10y agoI always keep this in mind when building fault-tolerant systems: The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair. And user interfaces: A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
- david-given 10y agoI've always liked: Some things you should care enough about to do badly.
- Aelinsaar 10y ago"A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program. Zaphod waved a hand and the channel switched again." -From The Hitchhiker's Guide It feels prescient, and the kind of thing we're going to be living through sooner rather than later.
- huxley 10y agoYep, though the fussiness of OTA (over-the-air) TV and radio broadcasts was probably quite inspirational. Rowan Atkinson explored OTA in a Mr. Bean skit: https://youtu.be/Sm3_qEMTdc4 https://youtu.be/Sm3_qEMTdc4
- Aelinsaar 10y agoI still have fond memories of my father inducing me to hold the antenna during game-time one year.
- acheron 10y agoAnyone know the original source of the Bach quote? "Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe."
- gardano 10y agoI really want to know this too. Anybody? It's funny because it's true.
- CarolineW 10y agoIt appears to be original to Adams - I've found no earlier references, and every reference I've found is unattributed or explicitly attributed to Adams.
- acheron 10y agoYeah, I hadn't seen it attributed to anyone else, I just was trying to find a better citation that had when/where he said it. As Abraham Lincoln said, "don't trust quote attributions on the Internet".