The absolute worst testers you can possibly have a…

The absolute worst testers you can possibly have are developers. They’re better than nothing. But barely. Even a mediocre tester will make your application better, and by proxy, encourage you to become a better developer. The very best testers will drag you, kicking and screaming if necessary, across the bug-bar threshold. Professional testers force you to become a better developer. Sometimes it’s painful. But in a good way, like a heavy workout.

Jeff Atwood

I can’t stand that this is what America is; that w…

I can’t stand that this is what America is; that we trade our children’s lives for the opportunity to purchase items specifically invented for killing. I can’t stand it. It’s pathetic and embarrassing and barbaric.

Jason Kottke

The USSR is a country that poses a serious threat …

The USSR is a country that poses a serious threat to the Western world. I am not referring to the military threat is not actually there. Our countries are sufficiently well armed, including nuclear weapons.

I’m talking about the economic threat. With the planned economy and the particular combination of moral and material incentives,

The Soviet Union managed to achieve high economic indicators.

The percentage of growth in GNP is almost twice that in our country’s . If add to this the enormous natural resources available to the Union, with the sound management of the economy are real rather than the possibilities of expel the global market.

[…]

So we have always taken steps to weaken the Soviet Union’s economy and create economic difficulties there, where the main role is played by the arms race.

An important place in our politics was the consideration of the weaknesses of the constitution of the USSR. Formally, it provided for the immediate withdrawal of the USSR by any republic which so wished, by decision of the Supreme Soviet and by simple majority.

True that the realization of this right was practically impossible due to the cementing role of the Communist Party and security organs. And yet, in this constitutional peculiarity, had potential opportunities for our policy.

Unfortunately and despite all our efforts for a long time the political situation in the USSR remained stable over a long period of time. We had a complicated situation, but soon we got a briefing on the early demise of the Soviet Soviet leader and the possibility of coming to power, with our help, of a person through which we could make our intentions in this area.

That was the assessment of my experts. Always conducive to the formation of a qualified group of experts on the Soviet Union and when the situation required it encouraged the emigration of Soviet specialists needed.

That person was Mikhail Gorbachev, whom our experts qualify as a reckless person, suggestible and very ambitious. He had good relations with most of the Soviet political elite, so he came to power, with our help, it was possible.

The activity of the Popular Front did not require large investments: duplicators comes to expenses and provide funding at officials Yet what was required significant funding support for prolonged strikes by miners. Great debates between you export raised the question on the appointment of Boris Yeltsin as leader of the Popular Front with the prospect of his subsequent election to the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, in counterbalance to the leadership of Gorbachev.

Most experts were pronounced against Yeltsin’s candidacy because of the peculiarities of his character and his past.

However, there were corresponding contacts, agreements and the decision to force Yeltsin’s candidacy, was definitely adopted. Although with great difficulty, Yeltsin was elected President of the Supreme Soviet of Russia and immediately adopted the declaration of sovereignty of Russia.

Margaret Thatcher

You can certainly build open source software in .N…

You can certainly build open source software in .NET. And many do. But it never feels natural. It never feels right. Nobody accepts your patch to a core .NET class library no matter how hard you try. It always feels like you’re swimming upstream, in a world of small and large businesses using .NET that really aren’t interested in sharing their code with the world – probably because they know it would suck if they did, anyway. It is just not a native part of the Microsoft .NET culture to make things open source, especially not the things that suck. If you are afraid the things you share will suck, that fear will render you incapable of truly and deeply giving back. The most, uh, delightful… bit of open source communities is how they aren’t afraid to let it “all hang out”, so to speak.

So as a result, for any given task in .NET you might have – if you’re lucky – a choice of maybe two decent-ish libraries. Whereas in any popular open source language, you’ll easily have a dozen choices for the same task. Yeah, maybe six of them will be broken, obsolete, useless, or downright crazy. But hey, even factoring in some natural open source spoilage, you’re still ahead by a factor of three! A winner is you!

Jeff Atwood

I’m not inclined to make grand pronouncements abou…

I’m not inclined to make grand pronouncements about the future of software, but if anything kills off commercial software, let me tell you, it won’t be open source software. They needn’t bother. Commercial software will gleefully strangle itself to death on its own licensing terms.

Jeff Atwood