> Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 08:18:56 -0700 > Subject: Re: Source code to identify user through browser? > From: rustompm...@gmail.com [...] > > What do you mean by user? > > Ha! Nice question. Not in direct answer but here's E.W Dijkstra > defining 'user': > > [from http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD618.html > ] > ---------------------------- > The computer “user” isn’t a real person of flesh and blood, with > passions and brains. No, he is a mythical figure, and not a very > pleasant one either. A kind of mongrel with money but without taste, > an ugly caricature that is very uninspiring to work for. He is, as a > matter of fact, such an uninspiring idiot that his stupidity alone is > a sufficient explanation for the ugliness of most computer systems. > And oh! Is he uneducated! That is perhaps his most depressing > characteristic. He is equally education-resistant as another equally > mythical bore, “the average programmer”, whose solid stupidity is the > greatest barrier to progress in programming. It is a sad thought that > large sections of computing science are effectively paralyzed by the > narrow-mindedness and other grotesque limitations with which a poor > literature has endowed these influential mythical figures. (Computing > science is not unique in inventing such paralyzing caricatures: > universities all over the world are threatened by the invention of > “the average student”, scientific publishing is severely hampered by > the invention of “the innocent reader” and even “the poor reader”!)
Didn't know he was such a humorist! lol Although I prefer when he's serious: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1094.html
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