pinewurst

Another veteran of that era. I think their cult-like behaviors and death marches are falsely remembered as glorious mission. I was in two recognizable startups in that era and, 35 years later, still have disturbing dreams about one of them. What I really, truly miss is lone wolf software development, God bless it!

While Krugman has never met anything he wouldn’t nationalize, it’s legitimate and traditional for national entities to enforce communications carrier controls in the national interest.

University of Arizona? I remember their antediluvian Cyber in 1984 and helping my roommates punch Fortran on cards. I at least got to use a VAX 11/750.

One can argue that CDC was obliviously dead by the early 70s.

Incompatible, increasingly archaic platforms, the best of those optimal for batch Fortran number crunching, counter to industry growth/interest. Organizational metastasis with a next gen platform (Cyber 180 as Star was stillborn - CISC from hell as 2nd system(s) syndrome) only at the end of the decade. Standards, coupled with profound organizational incompetence, ground it to dust. They made really good OEM disk drives for a while but sold the business off to fund their continuing failures.

There really needs to be a history that’s not an encomium to William Norris, Philosopher King of CDC.

I believe it's the LCM items that either didn't sell or were not considered worthy of auction by Jody Allen and her droogs.

(2020)

(2018)

(2025)