“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” Attributed to Pablo Picasso.
“Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.” Doug Larson.
“Spam will be a thing of the past in two years’ time.” Bill Gates, World Economic Forum, 2004.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, 1949.
“Almost all of the many predictions now being made about 1996 hinge on the Internet’s continuing exponential growth. But I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, 1995. (3Com was a manufacturer that specialised in network products, recently taken over by Hewlett Packard).
Interviewer: “Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a programmer?”
Bill Gates: “No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system.” from Programmers at Work (Lammers, S, 1986)
