TIME IS MONEY

“We figure every Windows user will save a week of time every year.”

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, on how Windows XP will crash less frequently, freeing up users to spend hours on hold with Microsoft Support, waiting for a new activation key, CBS MarketWatch, 24 October 2001

THE DOG ATE MY DATABASE

“We are unfortunately just behind schedule. We know that all of this is imperative. Within the next weeks we will be back to the most updated index.”

AltaVista spokeswoman Kristy Kaspar, on the search engine’s failure to update its listings since July, News.com, 23 October 2001

THINGS FALL APART

“Microsoft is betting on a future that doesn’t have the PC and Windows at the center of everything.”

Release 1.0 editor Kevin Werbach, on Microsoft’s prepositioning for the post-PC age, The New York Times, 22 October 2001

INSUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED

“Technology is really civilization, let’s face it.”

Arthur C. Clarke, on the scientific duct tape that keeps society patched together, News.com, 19 October 2001

RM -RF /BIN/LADEN

“I think hackers should also be considered terrorists and sentences that hackers get should be in line with terrorist sentences.”

U.S. Representative Vernon Ehlers, who’s darn lucky the Slashdot kids don’t vote in his Michigan Congressional district, Wired News, 18 October 2001