From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 11:22:00 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: PBS show
Message-ID: <199606140030.RAA18846@mail.pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:26 AM 6/13/96 +0000, Brad Shantz wrote:

>Since I live 10 blocks away from the main MS Campus, I hear 
>everything there is to hear about Bill Gates.  So, it was really 
>unnecessary for me to watch the hour and a hlaf devoted strictly to 
>who Bill stole what from.  **GRIN**

I only watched a few minutes of the show.  Did they mention that Microsoft 
actually bought the MSDOS operating system from Seattle Computer products?

Also, in about January of 1976, I attended a meeting at a hotel near Kansas 
City International airport, run by MITS (makers of Altair) showing off their 
computer.  (They drove a van around the country and demo'd the computer to 
throngs of...oh...hundreds of people.  

At the time, I had followed the budding microcomputer hobby only a little.  
I specifically recall being told at the show 
of complaints by a company called "Microsoft" that its "4K Basic" was being 
bootlegged.  (Note to the newbies:  The term "4K Basic" meant a Basic 
interpreter that fit in a main memory space of 0.004 megabytes.)   I soon 
learned that they were selling it for about $500, or about 12 cents per 
executable byte.

 
>> Those were exciting times. But, having worked at Intel during those heady
>> days, and being pretty active these days on the Net, I'd have to say the
>> Web, Net, Java, etc. are *just as exciting* (if not more so) than those
>> days. So, the best years are probably yet to come.
>
>Having started my "prefessional" Internet career at SPRY in 1993, I 
>agree that the best of the Internet is yet to come.  Bill Gates said 
>in the show last night that it is almost impossible to judge where 
>the market will be in a year because things are changing so fast.  
>Right now everything is a buzzword.  JAVA, etc...they are all infant 
>technologies that if marketed correctly could lead to the next 
>revolution.

Literally!


Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com