It's one of the oldest jokes on the Internet, endlessly forwarded from e-mailbox to e-mailbox. A software mogul-usually Bill Gates, but sometimes another-makes a speech. "If the automobile industry had developed like the software industry," the mogul proclaims, "we would all be driving $25 cars that get 1,000 miles to the gallon." To which an automobile executive retorts, "Yeah, and if cars were like software, they would crash twice a day for no reason, and when you called for service, they'd tell you to reinstall the engine."

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