Two computer programmers are driving on a Highway. They
switch on the radio and there is a warning: Please note that a car is
driving on highway 75 against the traffic. The programmer near the driver
looks at him and says: One? There are hundreds of them.
While shopping for my first CD player, I was able to
decipher most of the technicalese on the promotional signs. One designation
had me puzzled, though, so I called over a salesperson and asked, "What
does 'hybrid pulse D/A converter' mean?" "That means", he
said, "that this machine will read the digital information that is
encoded on CDs and convert it into an audio signal - that is, into
music." "In other words this CD player plays CDs."
"Exactly."
At a recent software engineering management course in the
US, the participants were given an awkward question to answer. "If you
had just boarded an airliner and discovered that your team of programmers
had been responsible for the flight control software how many of you would
disembark immediately?"
Among the ensuing forest of raised hands, only one man sat
motionless. When asked what he would do, he replied that he would be quite
content to stay onboard.
With his team's software, he said, the plane was unlikely to
even taxi as far as the runway, let alone take off.
An artist, a lawyer, and a computer scientist are discussing
the merits of a mistress. The artist tells of the passion, the thrill which
comes with the risk of being discovered. The lawyer warns of the
difficulties. It can lead to guilt, divorce, bankruptcy. Not worth it. Too
many problems. The computer scientist says "It's the best thing that's
ever happened to me. My wife thinks I'm with my mistress. My mistress thinks
I'm home with my wife, and I can spend all night on the computer!"
I heard this story on the news sometime ago.
Apple had a new computer under development. Their project
name for it was "Carl Sagan" (I don't know why).
When the real Carl Sagan learned about this, he was upset.
He demanded that Apple stop using his name, even for their private, internal
projects.
Apple agreed. They changed the name of the project to
"Butthead Astronomer".