Ah, well, I don't know about his mouth, but for awhile there several
non-stupid things came off his drawing pencil. It's kind of tough for a
person who has built a multi-billion-dollar company from scratch over 20
years to realize, let alone admit, that the magic may well have moved
on, and that then-current realities may be different from those abroad
in "The Good Old Days." Ken's quote is a particularly egregious example
of this problem, but the thinking behind it was not unique to him, as
anyone who's worked for the now-defunct Massachusetts minicomputer
makers can surely attest. That mode of thinking, if not about that
particular topic, is afoot today in Silicon Valley, and ten-odd years
from now we'll look back in scorn at the obviously self-evident
stupidity of industry pundits currently acknowledged as geniuses. As
Yogi Berra is purported to have said, "It's tough to predict, especially
the future."
-----Original Message-----
From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Monday, September 25, 2000 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: Our fine educational system (was: Login on VMS)
>On Mon, 25 Sep 2000, Bill Pechter wrote:
>
>> "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their
>> home."
>> -- Ken Olson, President of DEC, World Future Society
>> Convention, 1977
>> -+-+=-+-
>>
>> ...and then again there's the following. (Both quotes are in my
>> FreeBSD box MOTD as a reminder.
>>
>> One of the questions that comes up all the time is: How
>> enthusiastic is our support for UNIX?
><...>
>>
>> -- Ken Olsen, president of DEC, DECWORLD Vol. 8 No. 5, 1984
>
>Did anything ever come out of Ken Olsen's mouth that was not very
stupid?
>
>Sellam International Man of Intrigue and
Danger
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
>Looking for a six in a pile of nines...
>
> VCF 4.0 is September 30-October 1
> San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California
> See http://www.vintage.org for details!
>
Received on Mon Sep 25 2000 - 13:20:26 BST