In today's lecture I mentioned a famous keynote talk at an OS conference that had its audience thinking. Found it: Systems Software Research is Irrelevant http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/utah2000.pdf "This talk is a polemic that distills the pessimistic side of my feelings about systems research these days. I won’t talk much about the optimistic side, since lots of others can do that for me; everyone’s excited about the computer industry. I may therefore present a picture somewhat darker than reality."