Corrections to trivia

< So, is Columbus less important because the Vikings reached the Americas < before him? Or is it only important that most of the lasting effects < descend from Columbus? since I'm not a student of this general branch of history I can't comment accuractly. It would seem to me the big differnece was the wave of colonization that resulted. Better put, the vikings were here. Columbus told the world two things, it's not flat and there are great riches in the east. Somewhere in ther is the difference in those explorations goals. < Yes this is OT, but it mirrors one of the recent arguments on ClassicCmp < and it could be argued either way because both arguments have validity. < It comes down to what the individual thinks is 'important'. True. The consideration is not the indiviual importance of any item but it's impact on the collective picture. What is significant is the picture was in some respects a collection of snapshots in time without continuity or context. There were/are pieces missing from the puzzle and it would be nice to fill them in. For example; Two of the oldest computing models Harvard and Von Neuman date back to the first machines yet they influence machines still. To make the picture complete we also need to know if there are other models and what they are. An aside to this is while Intel is currently the apparent successful leader en masse we still don't know how it will play over time yet to come. There have been near reversals in the past and it would only take the next design leap to change the current course. Also the industry is only 30 years old in a century where we are still developing fundemental technologies. My example for that is in the late 70s and early '80s everyone said that 16bit CPUs would wipe the 8bitters away. It sorta did, but not to the projected extent. There would be a wave of 8bitters like the Kaypro, ampro, SB180 to name a few in the 84-86 window and later. The 16 bit machine really didn't reflect enough of an improvement as the next level needed more. I'd say Apple knew (tripped on) this when they did the jump have the real impact. I expect that while Merced and Alpha are having an impact we have yet to see the next significant impactor. While we are going much faster, the way we compute is still logically similar to some very old machines. Allison