21 Feb
2003
21 Feb
'03
8:09 p.m.
On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Eric Smith wrote:
It wouldn't have to be weapon design software. If it's something that
could do rapid logarithms for ballistics calculation, that would be
enough.
Peace... Sridhar
I've had
the discussion with workmates about the following scenario.
If the German forces had access to a single 5150 IBM PC back in 1940,
would the war have ended very differently? I think it would have.
How? Do you have any particular scenario in mind? It seems pretty
unlikely to me. I suppose it might depend a little bit on what software
they get with the computer. But even postulating some really amazing
software (off-the-shelf commercial software, not specialized weapon-
design software), it's hard for me to imagine how one PC would have
offered them any huge advantage over the allies.