[ExI] it was the best times, it was the best of times

[Keith Henson]

Tomasz Rola <rtomek at ceti.pl> wrote

> Please forgive me this programmer's hubris of mine, everybody.

> But to be frank, I consider introduction of programmable computer to be on
par with introduction of the wheel and writing. Especially when they met
the so called Individual and started to be used by her/him for all things
everydaily, big and small.

I might possibly be the oldest person on this list.  I was born in
1942. That's pretty much before the computer age.  I was in high
school before I saw my first computer, a vacuum tube IBM 650. Worked
my way through college programing geophysical type cases on an IBM
7494 and a CDC 6400. After I got out of school started a company that
designed, built and programmed industrial control and communication
devices. One of them had 34 80186 chips in it.

One of the uncomfortable facts I don't like to consider is that the
whole industrial complex upon which humans produce computers is
remarkably complex and fragile. It seems unlike to survive a serious
upset.

And then what?

Keith