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To: marginmike who wrote (54990)	1/6/2001 12:25:18 PM
From: Mike M2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

marginmike, I agree that the computer has and will continue to deliver some dramatic boosts to productivity in certain areas. I would guess the Henry Fords assembly line production techniques generated greater productivity gains than Dell's manufacturing techniques. Remember the Forbes article some years back explaining how Dell made more profits from operating in its own stock ( selling puts, buying calls and stock) than from the sale of PCs over the 3 yr period 1996-8. Inflating the claims on existing wealth ( wealth being the ability to create goods and services of value- measured in real terms - not hedonics i must add) truly a new era . HO HO HO & HO Mike

To: marginmike who wrote (54990)	1/6/2001 12:49:57 PM
From: IceShark	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Oh, come on. Everyone was using computers as tools more or less to the same effect as now by the mid '80s. Same goes for machine tools that are computer controlled to wack out a product all by themselves. It is true that processing power has increased dramatically, but the impact on actually getting work done hasn't been anywhere near what DOL would have you believe. A monster lotus spreadsheet may have taken 5 minutes to recalculate so you would just go get a new cup of coffee, which you were going to do anyway. -g-

To: marginmike who wrote (54990)	1/6/2001 4:32:13 PM
From: Tom M	Respond to of 436258

>>computer until 1990 was nothing more then a glamorous Typewriter<< I was working on mainframe & minis from 1980 on doing applications. IMO Database and Networking, both which were in full swing during the 80's, was and continues to be on of the most important areas. The big difference now is that all kinds of objects such as graphics, video & audio live in databases and can be manipulated as easy as text & numbers back then via today's GUI. I never did a mainframe or mini application that used computers as glamorous Typewriters, for that we had wordprocessers. We did run the whole infrastructure of the fortune 500 company I worked for on computers however. Right down to following our manufacturing progress via barcode in realtime. I also did a comercial expert system in the 80's - remember when AI was the Wall St darling? We did just fine without losing all that productivity to retraining everyone every 6 months for the latest buggy Microsoft offering. regards, Tom

To: marginmike who wrote (54990)	1/6/2001 7:48:25 PM
From: Earlie	Respond to of 436258

MM: 5 axis CNC machining has been around for two decades. Ditto CAD. Bigger "Vax" boxes drove the tool paths then. (g) Best, Earlie

To: marginmike who wrote (54990)	1/6/2001 10:31:58 PM
From: Charles P. Hubbard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Sorry marginmike, but you are terribly wrong. Do you think a "glamorous typewriter" was used to calculate satellite orbits and put men on the moon? And how about all the business use of computers? In the 40's, it cost the banks 10 cents just to process a check, and that was when 10 cents was real money. I was programming real stored program computers 20 years before you were born, so I will excuse your ignorance on this point. CPH