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** The Gmail story contains an answer to the obvious question about agile models you might ask if you have only experienced waterfall models: How does anything ambitious get finished by groups of stubborn individuals heading in the foggiest possible direction of “maximal interestingness” with neither purist visions nor “customer needs” guiding them?

The answer is that it doesn’t get finished. But unlike in waterfall models, this does not necessarily mean the product is incomplete.
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** I have never been very responsible about writing test code; a lot of code interacts with enough systems that it can require elaborate harnesses to exercise, and I could often convince myself (probably incorrectly) that it wasn’t worth the effort.

— John Carmack
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** Considerthe cubes, {1, 8, 27, 64, 125, . . . }. Their first differences {7, 19, 37, 61, . . . } might at first seem to lack an obvious pattern, but taking the second differences {12, 18, 24, . . . } takes you down to the simply related level. Taking the third differences {6, 6, . . . } brings us to the perfectly stable level, where chaos dissolves into order.
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** To give an "intensional definition" is to define a word or phrase in terms of other words, as a dictionary does. To give an "extensional definition" is to point to examples, as adults do when teaching children. The preceding sentence gives an intensional definition of "extensional definition", which makes it an extensional example of "intensional definition".
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** While in college, I used to tutor in the school’s math lab. A student came in because his basic program would not run. He was taking a beginner course, and his assignment was to write a program that would calculate the recipe for oatmeal cookies, depending upon the number of people you’re baking for. I looked at his program, and it went something like this:

10 Preheat oven to 350
20 Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl
30 Mix until smooth
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** "Я не смотрю телевизор!".

Как правило, об этом заявляют с гордым видом человека, покорившего Эверест, как будто один только этот факт должен сообщить нам о том, что говорящий — человек незаурядный и разносторонний. Такие люди думают, что раз они не смотрят телевизор, то обладают абсолютно незатуманенным сознанием и исключительно индивидуальным взглядом на всё происхоящее. Как будто промыть мозги можно только через телевизор.
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** Хохлы организовали группу бойктирования Фейсубка в Фейсбуке.

В Фейсбуке, Карл!
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** "С одной стороны, они говорят, что 86 процентов – ватники и запутина, пойдут за власть в огонь и в воду, ибо тупые и оболваненные.

С другой стороны, всякий раз, когда надо идти за власть в огонь и воду, оказывается, что ватников свезли на автобусах, заплатили им деньги и централизованно сделали им плакаты, которые они тут же, как только надзор кровавой гебни ослаб, побросали. То есть, выходит, ни шиша они не за власть и не запутина, а каждый за себя и за свои деньги."
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** Politics is an extension of war by other means. Arguments are soldiers. Once you know which side you’re on, you must support all arguments of that side, and attack all arguments that appear to favor the enemy side; otherwise it’s like stabbing your soldiers in the back—providing aid and comfort to the is the. People who would be level-headed about evenhandedly weighing all sides of an issue in their professional life as scientists, can suddenly turn into slogan-chanting zombies when there’s a Blue or Green position on an issue.