You know, I really liked Jeffrey's observation, but Sellam's
reply gave me a good chuckle. My thoughts on it are that history is
something to be passed on, with as little personal bias and as much
fact as possible, so that the same mistakes aren't repeated. Often,
it takes the fresh eyes to bring something into proper perspective
when the original participants are too close to the problem to see it
in an unbiased light.
Jeff
>On Sat, 7 Apr 2001, Jeffrey S. Sharp wrote:
>
>> It depends on your definition of 'kid'. I'm 22, but I am probably
>> near the young end of the distribution as well. The fact that we're
>> young, however, does not make us any less deserving of the pleasure of
>> exploring the history of computing through classic computers.
>> Granted, we might know less than the older gurus here, but we are just
>> as important. Lack of knowledge is a temporary obstacle; even the
>> gurus were neophytes once. If the traditions, folklore, and spirit of
>> computing in ages past are to survive, then at some point the flag
>> must be passed to the next generation.
>
>Nope, we intend to keep everything from you young whipper-snappers. Your
>first history lesson is to understand that computers used to sit behind
>big panes of glass, accessible only to the priesthood that maintained
>them. You communed with them only through a small hole where you passed
>your punched cards and got your results back (usually just error
>messages).
>
>So too it is with computer history. You can only have access to the
>knowledge we pass to you through the little hole in the window. Do not
>try to subvert our authority or we will find it fit to smite thee.
>
>And let's just get one thing straight, you were either born to compute or
>you ended up being some post-degree market-molded wannabee nerd who
>couldn't get a job in your chosen profession and just jumped on the
>bandwagon during the great Internet bubble economy of the late 1990s and
>"became" a programmer.
>
>So it is not true that "gurus were neophytes once". Gurus are born,
>not made.
>
>Ah, nothing like a good rabble rousing to start a Sunday morning.
>
>Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
--
Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems:
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Received on Sun Apr 08 2001 - 12:10:42 BST