Engineering & Science Notable Tech Quote Archive #31

Notable Tech Quotes - RF CafeThe number of statements uttered verbally and/or in print is uncountable. Some are more noteworthy than others either because of sheer brilliance, good humor, or utter inanity. We all hope our own remembered words, if any, fall into one of the first two categories rather than the third. I do a lot of reading and find many notable quotes to use that fit the theme of RF Cafe; they fall into all three categories. I always try to verify quotes from original sources or at least from printed books like The Experts Speak, of which I own a hard copy. Enjoy.

Notable Tech Quote Archive

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Notable Tech Quote: Corey S. Powell

Notable Tech Quote: Corey S. Powell"Often in science it takes a long time to understand exactly how confused you are." - Corey S. Powell, writing in "A Cosmos, Darkly," April 2016 Discover magazine. A maxim in all fields of science is that all theories, no matter how firmly established - or in modern political parlance "settled" - needs to be continually tested through empirical experimentation. Einstein's relativity theory an example of an area that is vehemently challenged, and continues to hod up. Other fields like cosmological evolution, is routinely found to be previously misunderstood, thus Mr. Powell's statement.

6/28/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Kevin Mitnick

Notable Tech Quote by Kevin Mitnick - RF Cafe"You can go to conferences. Go to the memory stick bowls and swap out the free ones with weaponized sticks." - Kevin Mitnick, famous FBI "Most Wanted" hacker at the 2016 Atlantic Design and Manufacturing show in New York City ...

 

 

6/21/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Vadim Makarov

Vadim Makarov, Notable Tech Quote - RF Cafe"You need to be a bit older than a teenager. And you need to have access to an optic lab. You don't have this technology in basements - yet." - Vadim Makarov, February 2016 Scientific American, regarding cracking of RSA encryption using quantum computers. Mr. Makarov and his team successfully decrypted an supposedly secure quantum transmission system designed by ID Quantique, using a portable suitcase of equipment.

5/31/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Clarke's 1st Law

Arthur C. Clarke, Clarke's 1st Law - RF Cafe"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." - Arthur C. Clarke, Clarke's 1st Law

 

5/17/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Sherry Hess

Notable Tech Quote: Sherry Hess - RF Cafe"When I am asked what I do for a living, I say 'my company makes the products that allow you to use all the wireless gadgets you love.'" - Sherry Hess, VP of Marketing, National Instruments, AWR Group, in an interview with Chris DeMartino of Microwaves & RF magazine. For nearly a decade, Sherry has been championing the extensive NI AWR Design Environment™ software product portfolio of high-frequency design environments consisting of System simulation (Visual System Simulator™), Circuit simulation (Microwave Office and Analog Office), and Electromagnetic analysis (AXIEM and Analyst™).

5/10/2016

James Clerk Maxwell on Education

James Clerk Maxwell (wikipedia image) - RF Cafe"The aim of an experiment of illustration is to throw light upon some scientific idea so that the student may be able to grasp it. ...The educational value of such experiments is often inversely proportional to the complexity of the apparatus." - James Clerk Maxwell, The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell - Vol. 2, p243, by W.D. Niven.

5/3/2016

Notable Tech Quote

Notable Tech Quote: 70% USMC Air Fleet Grounded - RF Cafe"We are an operational squadron. We are supposed to be flying jets, not building them." - Lt. Col. Harry Thomas,, commanding officer of VMFA-312, a Marine Corps F/A-18 squadron based at Beaufort, remarking in a story about how only 30% of the USMC air fleet is actually air worthy.

4/26/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Justin Trudeau, Canadian PM

Justin Trudeau Quantum Computing - RF Cafe Notable Quote"Don't get me going on this, or we'll be here all day, trust me." - Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, after responding to a snarky comment by a reporter who asked, "I was going to ask you to explain quantum computing, but - when do you expect Canada's ISIL mission to begin again, and are we not doing anything in the interim?" Trudeau slapped him down by answering, "Very simply, normal computers work by either there's power going through a wire, or not. It's 1, or a 0, they're binary systems. What quantum states allow for is much more complex information to be encoded into a single bit." He then talks about matter being both particles and waves at the same time, etc. This, from a politician? Whoa.

4/19/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Anon Profundities

Notable Tech Quote 4-5-2016, Math Lesson - RF Cafe"Dear algebra: stop asking us to find your 'x': He's not coming back."

"Möbius strippers never show you their backsides."

"All generalizations are false, including this one."

"A polar bear is a rectangular bear after a coordinate transform."

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

"I don't care what it is, when it has an LCD screen, it makes it better."

"We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts."

"Polaroids /nm./: what polar bears get from sitting on ice caps."

4/5/4016

Notable Tech Quote: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi notable quote - RF Cafe"Research is four things: brains with which to think, eyes with which to see, machines with which to measure and, fourth, money." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prize winning physiologist who is credited with discovering vitamin C.

3/29/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Robert Lucky

Robert W. Lucky (wikipedia image) - RF Cafe"Nothing is forever, and forever comes very quickly in technology." Robert W. Lucky, writing in The End of the Smartphone?, IEEE Spectrum. Dr. Lucky authored the "Reflections" column in Spectrum for more than two decades, always providing a great combination of technical savvy, wit, and humor; his was usually the first thing I read each month.

3/22/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Quasianonymous

Notable Tech Quote re Morse Code Requirement - RF Cafe"I do like to say that I'm proud to be a twentieth century, 20 WPM Extra and not a 10-4 good buddy, Roger Dodger licensee." - Quasianonymous* (actually not Anonymous to me, but the originator prefers to remain anonymous to everyone else). For a sufficient sum of untraceable currency, I shall disclose the name of this wit (just kidding... $orta). There is a well-established rift, sometimes serious and sometimes not, between pre-required-Morse-code and post-required-Morse-code Hams. Morse code requirements for all levels of Amateur radio licenses was dropped by the ITU in 2003, and by the FCC in 2007. *Bonus factoid: Quasimodo, of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame fame, is from the Latin "quasi modo," meaning per the priest's interpretation of the deformed child "in the mode of a human;" ergo, quasianonymous. ...

3/15/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Ward Silver

Ward Silver (N0AX) notable tech quote - RF Cafe"This isn't impedance matching as much as it is 'impedance hiding'." - Ward Silver (N0AX), in the March 2016 issue of Nuts & Volts magazine. The statement is in reference to using resistive impedance matching rather than reactive matching. Ideal inductors and capacitors have only an imaginary reactive impedance and therefore dissipate no power, whereas ideal resistors have only a resistive impedance and do dissipate power. Although in the real word Rs, Ls, and Cs all have both resistive and reactive (R±jX) parts, the most lossless impedance match consists of Ls and Cs, the exception being if both the source and load are purely resistive (not likely). Mr. Silver, a longtime columnist for the ARRL's QST magazine, also writes the monthly The Ham's Wireless Workbench" column for Nuts & Volts.

3/8/2016

Notable Tech Quote: Ron Wayne Who?

Original Apple Computer Logo by Ron Wayne - RF Cafe"I honestly don't regret walking away at all." - Ronald (Ron) Wayne, the 'other' Apple Computer founder of whom you've never heard. He sold his 10% stake in Apple to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ('the Woz') for $800 in 1976. It would be worth tens of billions today. Does Mr. Wayne really expect us believe he doesn't regret walking away from all that dough? Somehow a lifetime designing slot machines doesn't seem like a suitable substitute. He gambled and lost - big time ...

3/1/2016

Notable Tech Quote - Einstein on Peer Review

Albert Einstein - RF Cafe"I see no reason to address the – in any case erroneous - comments of your anonymous expert." - Albert Einstein to the editor, Mr. John Tate, of The Physical Review, in response to a critical review of his submitted paper. The date was July 23, 1936.

2/23/2016

 

Notable Tech Quote: Nils Testor

Nils Testor Notable Tech Quote - RF Cafe"Learn with your head but also with your hands" - Nils F. Testor, founder of the Testor Corporation, maker of the well-known Testors brand of adhesives and paints. Nils Testor, an early 20th century immigrant from Sweden, is a classic American success story. Having begun his management career at Woolworth as a stock boy (although he had a college degree from Stockholm), his business acumen and love of the arts - including airplane modeling - quickly propelled him into the position of entrepreneur as owner and progenitor of the Testor ...

2/16/2016