Venema Quotes & Sayings

Windows favors multi-threading, which means that a service is implemented by one single process. — Wietse Venema

As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included. — Wietse Venema

When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause. — Wietse Venema

This is not your mom's fairy tale.'

From a review of my novel, 'Course of Mirrors. — Ashen Venema

In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems. — Wietse Venema

Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting. — Wietse Venema

Defect-free software does not exist. — Wietse Venema

Adding functionality is not just a matter of adding code. — Wietse Venema

At the time the Sendmail program had a very poor reputation with respect to security, with four root vulnerabilities per year for two successive years. — Wietse Venema

Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance. — Wietse Venema

Postfix keeps running even if one Postfix process dies; Windows requires that someone restarts the service. — Wietse Venema

But soon the wine sack was empty, and sleep brushed my ears with her ash-lips. — Catherynne M Valente

This will surprise some of your readers, but my primary interest is not with computer security. I am primarily interested in writing software that works as intended. — Wietse Venema

Comedians have varying levels of training. It can range from classically trained actors (like Robin Williams) to people who took comedy classes to folks who just started doing it. That's the beauty of comedy: it's close to a pure meritocracy. — Ted Alexandro

My reply is: the software has no known bugs, therefore it has not been updated. — Wietse Venema

One bug in an SMTP server can open up the whole machine for intrusion. — Wietse Venema

The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems. — Wietse Venema

I speak my mind because it hurts to bite my tongue." - Unknown — Randi Cooley Wilson

In the life of every believer, there is conformity to Christ's suffering, a participation in Christ that inevitably includes the elements of self-denial, shame, and loss. — Cornelis P. Venema

Qmail out of the box works fine, so people will want to use it regardless of licensing restrictions, even when the software does not ship with their system software. — Wietse Venema

Sure, but competition is good for the user. — Wietse Venema

I was brought up on the proletarian left, and I remain there. The fair go for workers is fundamental, and I don't believe the free market has a mind. — Clive James

The Postfix security model is based on keeping software simple and stupid. — Wietse Venema

At dusk, Wakefield "had my most important thought that day." Wading into chest-deep water at first light that morning, "I found that my legs would hardly hold me up. I thought I was a coward." Then he had discovered that his sea bags with their explosives had filled with water and he was carrying well over 100 pounds. He had used his knife to cut the bags and dump the water, then moved on to do his job. "When I had thought for a moment that I wasn't going to be able to do it, that I was a coward, and then found out that I could do it, you can't imagine how great a feeling that was. Just finding out, yes, I could do what I had volunteered to do. — Stephen E. Ambrose

Coming back to the topic of computer security, the TCP Wrapper is an example of such a safety net. I wrote it when my systems were under attack by someone who appeared to walk through walls. — Wietse Venema

So let's go," I say, eyes on hers. She nods and stands; I want to hold out my hand to help her, walk her to the car with my hand on her back, but I'm conscious of where we are, surrounded by co-workers. So I turn and walk, leaving her to trail behind me until we reach the elevators. We pass Sawyer and Everly on the way out, Everly beaming smugly while Sawyer shakes his head and mouths, No. Dick. I'm tempted to flip him off but again, mindful of my surroundings, I ignore them both and keep walking — Jana Aston

Like all software, Qmail can survive only when it keeps up with changing requirements. — Wietse Venema

Most of the effort in the software business goes into the maintenance of code that already exists. — Wietse Venema

Must come here more often ... — Ashen Venema

I want to avoid locking people into solutions that work only with Postfix. People should have a choice in what software they want to use with Postfix, be it anti-virus or otherwise. — Wietse Venema

People may forget the quantity of your works but cannot forget the quality of your works. — Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions. — Wietse Venema

For many people my software is something that you install and forget. I like to keep it that way. — Wietse Venema

When all is lost, when all is let go of, when all is abandoned, what you are left with is an ocean of bliss. — Robert Thurman

I was going to visit IBM for six months as a visiting scientist. Now, six months is a lot of time, so I came with a whole list of projects that I might want to work on. — Wietse Venema

I don't expect an overnight change of all desktops to what the US Military used to call B3 level security. And even that would not stop users from shooting themselves into the foot. — Wietse Venema