Pair of Twiggys

Yes, of course: nobody had thought of a cheap personal computer before him. (Which reminds me, does the CHM have a Datapoint 2200? If not, we really out to try to round one up for them.) Or even a personal computer. (Ditto for the LINC.) Although I suppose you might have been talking about the software. I mean, without that whole display/windows/menu/mouse thing he invented, to allow ordinary people to use a computer, where would we be? Look, I fully admit that Steve Jobs was a _very_ sharp person who had a _tremendous_ influence. (Every time I hear someone saying marketing people are useless - first up against the wall, etc - I reply 'No, only bad ones - which is a lot of them. The very best ones, like Steve Jobs, are worth their weight in triple-refined iridium. A _good_ marketing person can tell you what customers _want_. A _truly great_ one can tell you what they _need_, but don't yet even realize they do.') However, the people (and there are quite a few of them) who have gone way off the deep edge, and have turned him (and Apple) into some sort of overblown cult, just don't have a balanced perspective. There are plenty of people out there who deserve at least as much credit for the information society we now live in, who are almost totally unknown to the population at large; starting (probably) with Licklider. Noel