On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:01:02 -0000, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > "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.
You'll be in there next, yourself. :-) > -- > Bob > > -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
