Wietse Venema Quotes

Processes break in two ways. They break because they don't have the right checks and balances and because they don't have the right execution.

We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.

Unix gives you just enough rope to hang yourself - and then a couple of more feet, just to be sure.

In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.

Unix is like a toll road on which you have to stop every 50 feet to pay another nickel. But hey! You only feel 5 cents poorer each time.

All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise which is impossible.

It’s not who was right or who was wrong when a mistake was made. It’s about who learned from it.

Change is a process which has to be managed. If it's managed and managed well in the interest of the nation and the people, the likelihood is that it will end well.

The idea that hardware on networks should just be caches for movable process descriptions and the processes themselves goes back quite a ways. There's a real sense in which MS and Apple never understood networking or operating systems (or what objects really are), and when they decided to beef up their OSs, they went to (different) very old bad mainframe models of OS design to try to adapt to personal computers.

We are not greatly pleased that our friends should respect our good qualities if they venture to perceive our faults.

Learning from mistakes and constantly improving products is a key in all successful companies.

Nobody's Perfect

It's a very simple example to show that if you miss one step in a process in can cost you an enormous amount of time and money to fix. With a checklist, you can write it down and give it some someone else for them to do successfully. Checklists require discipline and organization, which is something internet marketers have to master.

Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.

Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system... I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too.

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide: If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

Looking at a first assembly is kind of like looking at an overgrown garden. You can't just wade in with a weed whacker; you don't yet know where the stems of the flowers are.

Injecting some confusion stabilizes the system.

On a purely technical side, I'm really very happy with how Linux gets used in a very wide set of different areas. It's important for development.

Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head (not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but) how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?

The best approach here, if at all possible, is to use supervisory and regulatory methods to restrain undue risk-taking and to make sure the system is resilient in case an asset-price bubble bursts in the future.

We focus a lot on the quality of experience, speed, reliability. It’s not sexy from a lot of people’s perspective, it’s not glitzy in the feature set, but it’s what people come to rely on.

This is the hallmark of a robust biological system: political parties can perish in a tragic accident and the society will still run, sometimes with little more than a hiccup to the system. It may be that for every strange clinical case in which brain damage leads to a bizarre change in behavior or perception, there are hundreds of cases in which parts of the brain are damaged with no detectable clinical sign.

You show me a successful complex system, and I will show you a system that has evolved through trial and error.

A good man complains of no one; he does not look to faults.