"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." What doctors are told first when they start to learn diagnosis. Applies to debugging too.

And FWIW, "Zebras" was a working title for what became "House, M.D." because they were chasing zebra-style diseases, not horse-style (i.e. most common) diseases.

Or, "Programming is the art of breaking a problem into pieces so tiny that even a computer can solve them."

Or overestimate the bandwidth of FTP-by-mail.

Yes, such a thing existed - and one time took 2 weeks to deliver a copy of the Cello browser (i.e. early, pre-Netscape WWW).

I've read Bill's code - he was a good programmer for someone who was creating software out of whole cloth. My comment would be that some time spent reviewing what other people had coded first for the same problem (before starting his coding) would have improved Mr. Gates' code.

I'm late to the party here, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the Purdue University Research Repository (https://purr.purdue.edu) is designed as a Trusted Digital Repository for research data. The default lifetime is 10 years, but the Purdue Libraries will add noteworthy datasets to its permanent digital collection after their default lifetime expires. (And yes, I am a programmer on the project.)

You might want to look at LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (http://www.lockss.org/)) -- we are integrating PURR with the MetaArchive Private LOCKSS Network at Purdue (PURR is the Purdue University Research Repository, which is a Trusted Digital Repository for research data).