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Quotes of the Day for 10 November 2003 - Engineers

Our last issue was inspired by the engineering failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Eight hours later, I experienced my own engineering failure when the primary hard drive in my main workstation died an ugly, not to mention noisy, death. I had engineered a system whereby I kept very little data on that drive, but I've been surprised at how much had actually ended up there. The crash blew away the subscription database and the backup, so we're resuming mailing with most of the correct addresses.

The biggest thing that was lost was my incoming e-mail. If you unsubscribed on Thursday night, I lost the mail and you'll need to send it again. I also lost all the great quotes you had sent in the last two months, so if at all possible, please send them again.

Needless to say, backup has become the focus of a great deal of my engineering efforts the last few days. I don't have any backup quotes, here's a few on Engineers.

There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and engineers. While the first two are more pleasant, the third is by far the more certain.
     - Baron Rothschild

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.
     - Corrie Ten Boom

A scientist can discover a new star, but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do that.
     - Gordon L. Glegg

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
     - Rick Cook

Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.
     - Scott Adams

Medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits. And necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love. These are what we stay alive for.
     - Tom Schulman, Dead Poets Society (1989)

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