Re: The Science Generations

[Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>]

Bill Frantz wrote:
> At 10:10 AM -0800 12/8/96, Dale Thorn wrote:
> >The phrase "your beloved HPs" gives your hand away.

> What hand?  You appeared by your statements to be a lover of HP stuff.
> I now find it was only from that era.
> My of my hand is only to say that people DID use them other things for
> real business uses.  Your posts appeared to say that was impossible.
> However, as Bob Hettinger says, "Reality is not optional."

First, let me apologize for something I try never to do.  When someone
sends private email, if I put it to the list I should remove the sender's
name (if no permission given).

I still use HP personal computers, since (despite their problems) they
are still the most effective at running for a long time and processing
a lot of data.  As far as showing your hand, I find it interesting how
many erstwhile serious users will nonetheless wave away any discussion
of the specific problems computers have (particularly the early ones),
which I can only relate to denial.  In the words of Consumer Reports
back in the early-mid 1980s, "These electronic items are the least
reliable and most problematic things we've ever tested" (quote approximate).

I never said it was impossible to use an Apple (or early IBM) for serious
work of *some* kind, i.e., simple spreadsheet work.  What I said and I
hope it came through is this:

If you were using an IBM mainframe in the period 1980-1982 or thereabouts,
you would have what I call unreliable equipment, but, you would probably
also have IBM person(s) on site to keep the stuff running.  On the other
hand, IBM PC users (outside of large corporate sites) didn't necessarily
have that luxury, therefore, if they tried to do what I could easily do
with HP personal computer equipment, their IBM PCs would die and have to
be fixed "by the dealer", with more consequent unreliability added.

How many people have you heard of who could run databases on an IBM or
Apple II floppy system, entering data with fairly large files and several
indexes, and searching and printing the data almost continuously?  Those
people who know what I'm talking about should have a good laugh on that one.