 The 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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 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
 "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
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