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Re: RIP William C. Lowe, "producer" of IBM's first personal computer

Dalek Dave29-Oct-13 1:09

Dalek Dave

29-Oct-13 1:09

Bill, virtually everyone on this site owes that man a round of applause for he created the jobs we are all doing now.

---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

Re: RIP William C. Lowe, "producer" of IBM's first personal computer

Colin Mullikin29-Oct-13 2:55

Colin Mullikin

29-Oct-13 2:55

Dalek Dave wrote:
he created the jobs we are all doing now.

He created accountancy...? D'Oh! | :doh:

The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde

Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin

Re: RIP William C. Lowe, "producer" of IBM's first personal computer

Mark_Wallace29-Oct-13 3:00

Mark_Wallace

29-Oct-13 3:00

Colin Mullikin wrote:
He created accountancy...?

No, red paint for buckets.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

Re: RIP William C. Lowe, "producer" of IBM's first personal computer

BillWoodruff29-Oct-13 4:31

BillWoodruff

29-Oct-13 4:31

Dave, not to disparage the late Mr. Lowe's contribution to our present reality, but I do think that if IBM had not done its PC, and Gates and Ballmer had not sold IBM a CP/M Clone OS for the 8086 prototype they didn't even own yet: the game today would be much the same, just the brand names would be different.

I think the game was set in motion by advances in material sciences as much as anything else: the work of Kilby (TI: germanium IC), Noyce (Fairchild: silicon IC), Faggin (Fairchild, Intel: Silicon Gate IC's => Intel 4004).

But, how fascinating it is to wonder what might have happened if Countess Ada and Charles Babbage had not gotten sidetracked from their work on the Analytical Engine, a true Turing-complete computer, by the idea they could predict the outcome of horse-races and blew their funds, causing Babbage's skilled work-force to quit.

Would we, as William Gibson and Bruce Stirling in their novel, "The Difference Engine," imagined, be living in an age, now, which was the successor to an early twentieth century in which massive steam-powered mechanical computers were ubiquitous ?

And, what if the incomparable genius Alan Turing had not had a tragic end to his life at so, relatively, young an age ?

Google CEO, Erich Schmidt: "I keep asking for a product called Serendipity. This product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." 2004, USA Today interview

Re: RIP William C. Lowe, "producer" of IBM's first personal computer

RedDk29-Oct-13 6:41

RedDk

29-Oct-13 6:41

"Bommy, Bommy I had a tewwible nightmare. I dweamt I ate a huge marshmallow."

"Well, Philly, a huge marshmallow? That would seem to be one of those sweet dreams not a nightmare."

"But bommy, when I awoke, my billow was gone!"

MQOTD

V.28-Oct-13 23:08

28-Oct-13 23:08

Movie Quote Of The Day

Through your arrogance and stupidity, you've opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war! You are unworthy of these realms, you're unworthy of your title, you're unworthy... of the loved ones you have betrayed! I now take from you your power!

Which movie?

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