Cogito, ergo sum

How come if you tell people that you don't like to stay inside the lines, you are considered undisciplined and uncontrollable, but if instead you say you like to think outside the box you are considered creative and innovative? -Tex Texin

According to Murphy, nothing goes according to Hoyle. -Tex Texin

No matter how early the flight arrives, the baggage always comes out at the same time. -Tex Texin

If you have a time travel device that is powered by a rechargeable battery, does it stop if you go back in time to a point when the battery was not charged? -Tex Texin

One man's e-mail is another man's Rorshach test. -Tex Texin

Spanish Proverb: Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence.
Tex's Proverb: Don't e-mail unless you can improve on the screen saver.

I keep reading about naming conventions, but I have never been to one and don't know anyone who has. - Tex Texin

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society." -Mark Twain¹
"Given current advertising trends, the same does not hold true for naked women." -Tex Texin

Footnote¹ More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927.

I don't believe in following rules or laws, just because they exist. When they don't make sense, I do what I think is right for the situation. I therefore brought my kids up to be independent and always question authority. Now that they are old enough to do so, the only authority they question is mine... - Tex Texin

"My dog salivates at the drop of a hat. I don't see the big deal with Pavlov. Now, if he could get a dog to stop drooling by ringing a bell, that would be something!" - Tex Texin

Living in New England, you get used to seeing the New Hampshire license plates with the state motto printed on it: "Live free or die".

So, you can therefore understand my surprise, when I drove south to North Carolina, and read their "First in flight" motto everywhere.

I thought to myself, what a bunch of cowards to be so proud of their readiness to flee at the first sign of trouble. Heck, if that's they way you feel, why not make the motto "Take it, it's yours".

Oh wait, I get it! Kitty Hawk and the Wright Bros. and all that.... -Tex Texin

The simplest explanation tends to be the best. (Occam's Razor)- William of Occam

We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. -Robert Wilensky

A language is a dialect that has an army and a navy. -Max Weinreich, linguist and author (1894-1969)

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. -Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"There's no such thing as a tough child--if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender." (W.C. Fields)

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." (Popular Mechanics, 1949)

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." (Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." (Western Union internal memo, 1876)

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" (David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s)

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers Studios, 1927

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft, 1981

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Patent Office