4 Dec
2003
4 Dec
'03
11:44 a.m.
On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Tom Jennings wrote:
I had the distinct pleasure of personally picking up
our (CSSN, Inc,
Boston Mass) CP/M-80 v2.2 OEM diskettes from the Pacific Grove house. It
was definitely old hippy decor, very nice. Bunch of hacker weirdos
making good stuff. Saw PL/M demoed playing chess, met Gary merely in
passing through (mumble).
Total culture clash is not hard to imagine. Money is very conservative
(read: reactionary) and makes little room for uniqueness. The whole
microcomputer world died for me with the coming of the PC, culture-wise,
and is why i left it behind.
I agree. <sigh>
But there were some precursors and warnings, even before IBM got into it,
such as the "serious" renaming of playful company names:
Thinker Toys became Morrow Designs
Kentucky Fried Computer became Northstar
Intergalactic Digital Research became Digital Research Inc.
Parasitic Engineering and Golemics ceased to be significant players, ...
Computer companies hired advertising agencies, instead of hoky homemade
ads,
If you called Microsoft on the phone (206) 255-8080?, you had to know the
last name of who you wanted.
Software came in a shrink wrapped box, instead of a ziploc bag.
The suits arrived.