<html>
<head>
<style><!--
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
font-size: 12pt;
font-family:Calibri
}
--></style></head>
<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>> Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 08:18:56 -0700<br><div>> Subject: Re: Source code to identify user through browser?<br>> From: rustompmody@gmail.com<br>[...]<br>> > What do you mean by user?<br>> <br>> Ha! Nice question. Not in direct answer but here's E.W Dijkstra<br>> defining 'user':<br>> <br>> [from http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD618.html<br>> ]<br>> ----------------------------<br>> The computer “user” isn’t a real person of flesh and blood, with<br>> passions and brains. No, he is a mythical figure, and not a very<br>> pleasant one either. A kind of mongrel with money but without taste,<br>> an ugly caricature that is very uninspiring to work for. He is, as a<br>> matter of fact, such an uninspiring idiot that his stupidity alone is<br>> a sufficient explanation for the ugliness of most computer systems.<br>> And oh! Is he uneducated! That is perhaps his most depressing<br>> characteristic. He is equally education-resistant as another equally<br>> mythical bore, “the average programmer”, whose solid stupidity is the<br>> greatest barrier to progress in programming. It is a sad thought that<br>> large sections of computing science are effectively paralyzed by the<br>> narrow-mindedness and other grotesque limitations with which a poor<br>> literature has endowed these influential mythical figures. (Computing<br>> science is not unique in inventing such paralyzing caricatures:<br>> universities all over the world are threatened by the invention of<br>> “the average student”, scientific publishing is severely hampered by<br>> the invention of “the innocent reader” and even “the poor reader”!)<br><br>Didn't know he was such a humorist! lol<br><br>Although I prefer when he's serious:<br><br><a href="http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1094.html" target="_blank">http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1094.html</a><br><br></div> </div></body>
</html>