Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 23:21:34 -0500
Reply-To: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Subject: Re: Another OT: Copyright concern?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
The theory of stupid design (worse than random) at work in IBM has been, I believe, greatly overstated. Didn't IBM's virtual monopoly at the time make them vunerable to antitrust suits? I believe that the threat of constraint of trade suits had much to do with IBM's reluctance to monopolize microcomputer markets as well.
I do see evidence of stupid design in other sectors of the US. I heard a leading and highly educated advocate of intelligent design admit that he believed that God created the earth 9,000 years ago. Why would those so oblivious to facts thrive and multiply? The best evidence for intelligent design is that God has enough of a sense of humor to allow absurdities to keep us amused.
Sig
________________________________
From: owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu on behalf of David L Cassell
Sent: Sun 11/6/2005 1:06 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Another OT: Copyright concern?
SASL001@SAVIAN.NET wrote:
>The longer I'm in this industry, the more I realize that IBM engineers in
>the 50s and 60s pretty much invented everything that underlies computing.
>
>Hats off to Big Blue for being benevolent.
Or being clueless.
I guess I'm just more cynical than you, because I remember the PC XT
experiment
as being permitted at IBM as part of their 'skunk works' because no one in
manage-
ment thought there was any future in little toy boxes that could sit on a
desktop.
And then there were the Xerox PARC people. Was it them about whom it was
said,
"These guys couldn't market eternal life. If they ran Colonel Sanders,
they'd change
the slogan to 'Come eat cold dead fowl'."
David
--
David L. Cassell
mathematical statistician
Design Pathways
3115 NW Norwood Pl.
Corvallis OR 97330
_________________________________________________________________
Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!
http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
