LOL. I had three graduate students (PHd CompSci candidates) working for me back at UMass. I come around the corner to see them all clustered around one of the PCs. Apparently one of the graduate students had slid a CD-ROM between two of the blanking panels instead of opening the CD-ROM tray. They were trying to figure out where the CD had gone.
After a chuckle, I showed them how to open the case and retrieve the CD.
That quote is misattributed and I also think it is not something Dijkstra would have said. Quite the opposite actually. However, I think this quote from him is much more beautiful:
In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind.
He did say it because I heard him say it. The sentence just before was: "Our field should be called 'Computing Science' rather than 'Computer Science.'"
ecpottinger|5 years ago
Learning nothing but theory can come back to bite you some times.
mrunkel|5 years ago
After a chuckle, I showed them how to open the case and retrieve the CD.
edejong|5 years ago
In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind.
(Turing award lecture, 1972)
dreamcompiler|5 years ago
C1sc0cat|5 years ago
As our second best DBA did when I worked at BT - he had worked at NPL and Dijkstra was his boss