Trivia Question

From: vance_at_neurotica.com <(vance_at_neurotica.com)>
Date: Sat Feb 22 04:09:51 2003

On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Eric Smith wrote:

> > I've had the discussion with workmates about the following scenario.
> > If the German forces had access to a single 5150 IBM PC back in 1940,
> > would the war have ended very differently? I think it would have.
>
> How? Do you have any particular scenario in mind? It seems pretty
> unlikely to me. I suppose it might depend a little bit on what software
> they get with the computer. But even postulating some really amazing
> software (off-the-shelf commercial software, not specialized weapon-
> design software), it's hard for me to imagine how one PC would have
> offered them any huge advantage over the allies.

It wouldn't have to be weapon design software. If it's something that
could do rapid logarithms for ballistics calculation, that would be
enough.

Peace... Sridhar
Received on Sat Feb 22 2003 - 04:09:51 GMT