Men æren, jo?

I am sorry, but I do not wish to accept the honorary degree you have offered me. I already have one degree, honestly earned, from Princeton. At the commencement when I received it, I remember watching the honorary degrees being conferred and feeling that an “honorary” degree was a debasement of the idea of a degree that confirms that certain work has been accomplished.

– Richard Feynman til Robert Boheen, 1967. (Perfectly reasonable deviations from the beaten track: The collected letters of Richard P. Feynman)

Genskabeligt

Computing has scientific roots, and if it is not open source, it is not science. The only way to win a Nobel Prize for a box welded shut is if you teleport the cat out before Schrödinger’s infernal device kills it.

– Poul-Henning Kamp: Free and Open Source Software—and Other Market Failures. ACMQueue Vol. 22, issue 1.

Den bløde bøde

If a “fine” is less than the profit from the infraction, it’s not a fine, it’s a business expense.

If a “fine” isn’t a fixed percentage of assets, it’s not a fine, it’s a poor tax.

If a “fine” only serves to enrich the government, not to make those harmed by the infraction whole, it’s not a fine, it’s a revenue stream.

If a “fine” is adjudicated by people who profit from the business being fined, it’s not a fine, it’s a stock buyback.

– Intertial Invites på Mastodon (link til indlæg)

Perspektiv inkl. teknologi

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that, in my opinion, *computing* itself is only tenuously about computers, and the sooner everyone gets on board with that – the sooner tech enthusiasts stop behaving like they have all the questions as well as all the answers to the world’s problems, and the sooner the rest of us stop playing the Emperor’s New Clothes in awe of their opaque bullshit – the safer we’ll all be.

– Jenny Andrew på Mastodon – link til indlæg