Gordon Vaughan

"The thing that politicians and journalists never get about tech is that, first, tech nowadays pretty much means software and, second, with software, the rules/authority/power (whatever you want to call it) are embedded in the code. So the tech will end up doing whatever the programmers tell it to do, NOT the company executives, the lawmakers, the customer, or whoever ordered that technology. Since the code is pretty much invisible, these folks can insist that it does one thing and not another, but how could they even know?" - Gordon Vaughan

"Programmers still don't seem to feel much responsibility for their their profession as a whole (quality standards, data protection, etc.), or have much concern for each other or the next generation. Moore's Law has almost made things too easy, but it's hardly a healthy ecosystem when everything gets reinvented (and most of the people replaced) every decade or so. There needs to be some foundations laid and seeds planted, as you say." - Gordon Vaughan

"Always liked the term "idea processor", thought that really clarified the distinction. In fact, I remember being annoyed at the direction More took over time, as it seemed to increasingly emphasize presentations vs. outlines and tree charts. As a marketing strategy, that was probably brilliant, as More was one of the first in the presentation category, but I guess "editing structure" was what always most interested me." - Gordon Vaughan

"Compared to Palm or Blackberry, it seems like the PDA function has become a poor stepchild in the media-oriented smartphone world. But I did use to converse on Twitter with a guy in Sri Lanka (IIRC) who managed several fairly complex blogs from his smartphone. I believe it was a Nokia. I don't quite get why Google Glass gets so much hype - there must be dozens of similar concepts out there. Is there anything that isn't pretty obvious about it? The real story would seem to be sensors in general. There's going to be oodles of them, everywhere before long. Wouldn't it be just as cool to have glasses that see behind you? And enhanced hearing, magnification, so on. And there's plenty of other kinds of sensors. For instance, it's amazing to me that the accelerometers on phones haven't gotten more attention yet." - Gordon Vaughan