implicity

Let us suppose that one who is ignorant of the first principles of algebra and geometry, has chanced to light upon a book which treats of any mathematical science What conception can he form of the nature of the information which lays open to his sight? what opinion as to its general utility? what conclusion upon the question whether it would he desirable for him to commence the study? none whatever. The page which lies before him is filled with characters repulsive in their appearance, and conveying no meaning to one not previously acquainted with them. They are in fact to him, a foreign language, a system of hieroglyphics, which there is no more probability of his being able to decipher, than of his reading at first sight, the language of an Arab or Chinese Under these circumstances many have left the subject with an ignorant contempt for what was to them useless and unintelligible, many with an equally ignorant admiration for those who could fathom what appeared so profound and incomprehensible

The idea that any nice, sympathetic woman can, without further thought, teach children to 'understand' arithmetic is just plain foolish.

Young doctors in mathematics, anxiously seeking positions in which their training and talents may have some play, often ask whether it is possible for a man to do elementary teaching for long and keep alive mathematically. It is. The life of Boole is a partial answer; the career of Weierstrass, the prince of analysts, 'the father of modern analysis', is conclusive.

The only way with a maths master is to hav a very worried xpression. Stare at the book intently with a deep frown as if furious that you cannot see the answer. at the same time scratch the head with the end of the pen. After 5 minits it is not safe to do nothing any longer. Brush away all the objects which hav fallen out of the hair and put up hand.
"Sir?" (whisper)
"Please sir?" (louder)
"Yes, molesworth?" sa maths master. (Thinks: it is that utter worm agane chiz)
"Sir i don't quite see this"
nb it is esential to sa you don't quite 'see' sum as this means that you are temporarily bafled by unruly equation and not that you don't kno the fanetest about any of it [Dialog continue:]
"What do you not see molesworth?" (Thinks: a worthy dolt who is making an honest efort)
"number six sir i can't make it out sir."
"What can you not make out molesworth?"
"number six sir."
"it is all very simple molesworth if you had been paing attention to what i was saing at the beginning of the lesson. Go back to your desk and think."
This gets a boy nowhere but it show he is KEEN which is important with maths masters.
Maths masters do not like neck of any kind and canot stand the casual approach.
HOW NOT TO APPROACH A MATHS MASTER
"Sir?"
"Sir sir please?"
"Sir sir please sir?"
"Sir sir please sir please?"
"Yes molesworth?"
"I simply haven't the fogiest about number six sir."
"Indeed, molesworth?"
"It's just a jumble of letters sir i mean i kno i couldn't care less whether i get it right or not but what sort of an ass sir can hav written this book."
(Maths master give below of rage and tear across the room with dividers. He hurl me three times round head and then out of the window.)

• The finest pieces of software are those where one individual has a complete sense of exactly how the program works. To have that, you have to really love the program and concentrate on keeping it simple, to an incredible degree.
• We're no longer in the days where everything is super well crafted. But at the heart of the programs that make it to the top, you'll find that the key internal code was done by a few people who really know what they were doing.
• Unfortunately, many programs are so big that there is no one individual who really knows all the pieces, and so the amount of code sharing you get isn't as great. Also, the opportunity to go back and really rewrite something isn't quite as great, because there's always a new set of features that you're adding on to the same program.
• The worst programs are the ones where the programmers doing the original work don't lay a solid foundation, and then they're not involved in the program in the future.
• Programs today get very fat; the enhancements tend to slow the programs down because people put in special checks. When they want to add some feature, they'll just stick in these checks without thinking how they might slow the thing down.
• Before Paul and I started the company, we had been involved in some large-scale software projects that were real disasters. They just kept pouring people in, and nobody knew how they were going to stabilize the project. We swore to ourselves that we would do better

Bill Gates interviewed in 'Programmers at Work', Microsoft Press, 1986

5.5" A5 A6 B5 B6 16K A4 8.5" 11" 13" 14" B4 8K A3 17"

since no photocopier i have ever seen uses any paper sizes but A4 and A3, wouldn't it be more helpful to just write A4-70%, A4-80%, A4-90% etc along the edge of the glass??