I bought a book today by David Weinberger titled "Too Big to Know" which seems to be of the "Oh, Wow!" genre. He spent almost a page expounding on how big a number sextillion is. What really caught my attention was "the most popular corporate computers of the 1950s the IBM 650. With only only seventy-five of these machines installed anywhere . . . ." "The 650 cost your company $500,000, equivalent to $4 million in 2011 dollars. It's got its own room, its own fleet of maintenance folks, its own dress code: white lab coats, please." Well, I happened to be working with computers at an insurance company when we got our IBM 650. "Only seventy-five" seems inconsistent with "most popular." It didn't cost the company $500,000 because IBM didn't sell them, they leased them. Ours didn't have its own room and the maintenance was by one IBM employee who wasn't there full time and as for white lab coats, nary a one.
There was a footnote:
5. Leonard Dudley, Information Revolution in the History of the West (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008), p. 266.
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About Me
- Harlow
- Widowed, living alone, in good health, Master's Degree in Mathematics, athiest, was an actuary. Have 3 daughters, 2 granddaughters, 1 great grandson, 1 great granddaughter. Grew up in a small midwestern town, descended from pioneers.
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