> > "John Francis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > Just thought I'd share this one - a quick snap I took > > > a few hours ago at the Computer History Museum. > > > > > > http://panix.com/~johnf/temp/BillAndJohn.jpg > > > > > > being a computer history museum, i hope there is a footnote > somewhere > > there about statements like "640k ram is enough for anyone" and "the > > internet is just a passing fad"... :)) > > Hardly. See, for example: > > http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,1484,00.html > >
Yes, it sounds just too much like the apocryphal remark attributed to IBM's Thomas Watson (a 1.0 version of Bill) that 5 computers would be all the world needed. My first job as a programmer in the early 80s was at a site running an ICL 1901T mainframe (http://pink-mouse-productions.com/icl/1900.htm) which was almost 20 years old at the time, which we programmed in assembler, and which didn't have an OS, just an executive. Input was on paper tape only (not even cards) and output was to a paper teletype, 2 very fast chain printers, mag tape and 2 enormous exchangeable disk packs. There was great excitement one day when we took delivery of an extra 640k (24-bit words, not bytes) for it. It was the size of a double door - just big enough to get into the machine room - and apparently cost close to £250,000. They have an example in the Science Museum here in London. In fact, I was rather taken aback to see how much stuff in the museum was stuff I had worked with in the past, and could probably still operate if I had a mind to. -- Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
