ABC Book
Z: Zed
       
Y-Z pdf (1.9MB): click pic
Preface A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pics

 
Teaching OO using Java
Calculational
logic
festive occasions
ABC book
CS Faculty over the years
CS@Cornell
The Triple-I Administration
How Bush Operated

 

 

Z is the Zed, the Omega, the End.
And Z was indeed the last letter I penned.

I hope you found this ABC book informative and entertaining. I pat us on the back a lot, for we are a top-ranked department. We’ve been regarded as one of the top five ever since the first NRC ranking that included computer science, just behind CMU, Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT (alphabetical order).

But don’t take rankings too seriously. Yes, there are great departments, but there are many very respectable CS departments too, and all should be commended for the job they are doing. We are all in this together, doing our share for CS and society, and none of us is indispensable.

The way I see it, just live right, do your best, but don’t worry about the result —and don’t take yourself too seriously.

An Indispensable Man
by Saxon N. White Kessinger, 1959

Sometime when you’re feeling important,
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You’re the best qualified in the room.

Sometime when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions,
And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,
Is a measure of how you will be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time,
It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example,
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.