Forgot your password?
Cyhist Apr 3 1997 I
Document Actions
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 17:16:37 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security"
<PADGETT@HOBBES.ORL.MMC.COM>
Subject: CM> Common mythconceptions AKA "If it didn't happen that way,
it shuda"
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>PCs clearly were used by various forces within corporations to gain an upperhand on other forces inside the corporation. But, to the extent that the corporation paid the bill, these purchases were more-or-less explicit decisions to accomplish a corporate goal. What was that goal?
You are assuming there was a central plan. IMNSHO Mark got it right with "Accidental Empires" in that it just sort of happened.
Was deep in engineering at the time & it did start out as "cheaper than a 3270" and mostly secretaries had them. Of course most wound up under the control of a resident engineer. Now the VAXes had come in as being lower cost answers to the Big Blue mainframes (VAXes are minis. By definition.) by 1983-4 Vaxes were becoming high expense items (mentioned the $135/connect hour before). At 1 1/2 hours a day offset, a $3,000 PC could pay for itself in a month was the reasoning. Besides they were fun.
So the few that infiltrated became insideous and pretty soon everyone wanted one. By 1986 you were low on the ladder if forced to use a dual floppy, mid-range had XTs, and secretaries had ATs (and the person who could rebuild the CMOS on an AT was a valuable commodity). Didn't happen suddenly, nor was there a master plan (that came later), just a long slow process.
Do know that in 1984, a PC was a "wazzat" but by 1986 everyone where I worked was trying to get one. To the working class was a status symbol though the managers really did not want them. The secretaries liked them particularly after I wrote a program to turn a PC/modem into a phone book/autodialer that could handle our change-it-every-month long distance access system (one month the access code would be six digits, next fourteen. For a long time it went before the number being called, then it was after). However am pretty sure it all got started here because someone realized that it was cheaper for a secretary to have a PC and a printer than a typewriter and a 3270.
I know that my prime purpose was to use in place of the IBM model "C" had been pounding and a VT-100. Suspect that if you looked at the retail prices of terminals and typewriters in 1980, you would see the same thing.
Warmly,
Padgett
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security"
<PADGETT@HOBBES.ORL.MMC.COM>
Subject: CM> Common mythconceptions AKA "If it didn't happen that way,
it shuda"
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>PCs clearly were used by various forces within corporations to gain an upperhand on other forces inside the corporation. But, to the extent that the corporation paid the bill, these purchases were more-or-less explicit decisions to accomplish a corporate goal. What was that goal?
You are assuming there was a central plan. IMNSHO Mark got it right with "Accidental Empires" in that it just sort of happened.
Was deep in engineering at the time & it did start out as "cheaper than a 3270" and mostly secretaries had them. Of course most wound up under the control of a resident engineer. Now the VAXes had come in as being lower cost answers to the Big Blue mainframes (VAXes are minis. By definition.) by 1983-4 Vaxes were becoming high expense items (mentioned the $135/connect hour before). At 1 1/2 hours a day offset, a $3,000 PC could pay for itself in a month was the reasoning. Besides they were fun.
So the few that infiltrated became insideous and pretty soon everyone wanted one. By 1986 you were low on the ladder if forced to use a dual floppy, mid-range had XTs, and secretaries had ATs (and the person who could rebuild the CMOS on an AT was a valuable commodity). Didn't happen suddenly, nor was there a master plan (that came later), just a long slow process.
Do know that in 1984, a PC was a "wazzat" but by 1986 everyone where I worked was trying to get one. To the working class was a status symbol though the managers really did not want them. The secretaries liked them particularly after I wrote a program to turn a PC/modem into a phone book/autodialer that could handle our change-it-every-month long distance access system (one month the access code would be six digits, next fourteen. For a long time it went before the number being called, then it was after). However am pretty sure it all got started here because someone realized that it was cheaper for a secretary to have a PC and a printer than a typewriter and a 3270.
I know that my prime purpose was to use in place of the IBM model "C" had been pounding and a VT-100. Suspect that if you looked at the retail prices of terminals and typewriters in 1980, you would see the same thing.
Warmly,
Padgett
______________________________________________________________________
