Stupid CP/M question

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Sat Jan 9 04:24:12 1999

On Sat, 9 Jan 1999, D. Peschel wrote:

> The disadvantage is that they always want to do things their way, and they
> always assume their way is right.

Oh yeah, like HP is the only one that behaves that way. That's how every
company protects their market (except IBM with the PC, in which they
forgot that one time and lost a monopoly). But I agree, HP seems to go
out of their way to Think Different :-)

> So, in your hypothetical universe, I would hope to see a less-haughty
> version of HP. Perhaps that would be an effect of entering the PC market in
> 1980, being flooded with customers, and realizing that their previous
> methods wouldn't work very well. Perhaps it would be a cause -- only a more
> flexible HP could enter the computer market, even in your world. Or perhaps
> it wouldn't be a problem at all, because (by now) HP would be the standard,
> with parts readily available.

As long as we're writing science fiction, here's the timeline for my
parallel universe:
        1972: HP introduces the 9830 and markets it as a business machine
as well as a scientific/engineering machine
        1974: HP introduces the 65, and offers hefty discounts to students
        1975: HP reject's Woz's idea for a personal computer, telling him
instead to use the HP65 form factor with an optional detachable querty
keyboard and TV video interface
        1976: HP introduces the Wozple 1
        1977: Dennis Ritchie leaves AT&T for HP and ports Unix to the
Wozple
        1978: Memory prices drop, Wozple RAM is increased to 1MB
        1979: Xerox introduces SmallTalk for the Wozple
        ...
        1995: Wozple 3-D laser memory cube upgrade to 32GB available
        1996: Wozple connection machine node count increased to 4 billion
        1997: Wozple intercommunication bandwidth exceeds 1 GB/s
        1998: Wozple eyephone resolution matches film
        1999: Wozple neural implants drop in price to $0.50
        2000: An obscure Harvard grad named Gates is suspended from
ebay for selling counterfeit Beanie Babies

Oh well, back to running scandisk on my WinTel box.

-- Doug
Received on Sat Jan 09 1999 - 04:24:12 GMT