Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: techguerrilla who wrote (51974)	7/25/2004 11:27:49 AM
From: Jim Willie CB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

the most significant computer people in the early 1980's yes, they helped pull the US Economy magnificently Lotus founder, developer of "123" I believe his name was Manzi (of course, an Irishman) the concept was stolen by Microsoft and became Excel spreadsheets revolutionized accounting and tracking this 1st "killer app" changed the world the resulting efficiency is not measurable Steve Jobs and Wozniak, founders of Apple (both Irishmen) they developed the personal computer concept from the garage workshop, they assembled semiconductors and built interfaces, using busses and small storage devices they borrowed the XEROX PARC GUI concept the PC eventually became a required piece of equipment on every desk in the industrialized world, whether corporate or personal at home Bill Gates and Paul Allen, monopolist thieves of Microsoft (they are communists, not Irishmen) give them credit for exploitation and making it happen the desktop came of age through their sales & support effort even if it was full of theft, coercion, and date rape give Allen some credit for leaving, blamed on Hodgkins Ken Olsen and the Big Boys at Digital Equipment Corp (Irish also) yeah, yeah, yeah, dont dismiss just because they failed and because I am biased from my 13 yrs there read what follows and then decide their Ethernet concept (developed jointly with Xerox) is the foundation for much of today's networking they developed the Ethernet-based intranet for internal email within Digital walls (known as ENET, the Engineering Network) whose protocols Cisco expanded with routers and switches, then unleashed into multi-vendor world wide emails I aint an engineer, but I believe their Ethernet intranet paved the way for full scale internet after DOD Arpanet could not be contained they undercut IBM with the entire distributed system concept away from the mainframe, which was extended further with the server concept to exploit smarter PC's their abandoned PRIZM project from Dave Cutler on an industrial strength PC operating system in a Seattle skunkworks project (abandoned in 1987) was picked up by Microsoft and later emerged as Windows NT YES, YOU MIGHT SAY, KEN OLSEN DROPPED THE BALL AND THROUGH A WRENCH IN MY CAREER Ken Olsen is clealy the Billy Buckner of the Computer World he was set to become an icon, a god, then he screwed up WE COULD NOT BELIEVE OUR EYES & EARS WHEN IT FELL APART INSTEAD OF GETTING SMALLER, MULTI-PROCESSING, AND NETWORKING ACROSS VENDOR OPERATING SYSTEMS, HE TRIED TO DUPLICATE IBM AND THEIR MAINFRAME, EVEN HIRED THEIR BEST GUYS my group advised against many of his decision no sooner than the publication of "In Search of Excellence" hit the racks with its first chapter on Digital's success, did the company implode suddenly in the ultra-fast moving computer industry after fatal errors the book's revision required a final chapter on Digital, but was never written his most famous quote is still (something like) "no serious work will ever be done on PC's, only games" his view cost him his top minds, top executives, almost $2 billion, and a claim at computer immortality AND THE BIGGEST WINNER OF ALL, TOTALLY UNHERALDED THE TEAM AT XEROX P.A.R.C. (Palo Alto Research Center) FOR DEVELOPING THE GUI BEHIND PC'S AND APPLES (Graphic User Interface) THEIR WORK WAS LEFT UNPROTECTED FOR LEGAL APPROPRIATION their work enabled computer programmers and computer users to get around the cumbersome line-by-line programming environment, whose ugly nature led me to pursue Statistics in grad school instead of Computer Science these guys are really the Tooth Fairies they gave and gave and gave, and got next to nothing in return now Xerox is just another also-ran in the US Mfg Dustbin / jim p.s. to be honest, I believe Manzi, Jobs, Wozz, and Olsen's gang are the biggest heros who changed the world and ushered in the 1990 decade of tech prosperity XEROX PARC were just the gate keepers better yet, PARC was the invisible Master of Ceremony (MC)