Wednesday, May 14, 2008

...maybe five computers.

"I think there is a world market for about five computers" — Remark attributed to Thomas J. Watson (Chairman of the Board of International Business Machines), 1943.


Though there is no real evidence that Thomas J. Watson ever really made that statement, and it's often misquoted as fifty computers, I find it pretty ironic. I currently have ten computers in my cube here at work. No matter which quote you may have heard, that's pretty impressive. I either have a fifth of the number of computers that he was talking about, or twice as many.


Of those ten, I'm actively using only two of them, although I'm currently logged in remotely to three remotely.


I know that there's a LOT of people playing with way more computer power than I am... I'm not trying to brag about anything here. I'm just constantly amazed at how fast technology has grown and how much it changes from day to day.


Just look at the gadgets that Dick Tracy or Maxwell Smart used to carry and how futuristic it was then to think that someday you'd be able to stand on a street corner and call someone from a phone that you carried with you... Now it's difficult to find someone who doesn't have a cell phone (or two!) in their purse or pocket. And the moble phone/computer that is all the craze today? The Blackberry? Those things are more powerful than the first computer that my family had, and that was only the late 80's, more than 40 years after Mr. Watson supposedly made that statement.


...this is what happens when my mind waders at work.

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