Columbus analogy (Was: Corrections to trivia - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

11 Oct 1998

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> < 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? 
Columbus is a superb analogy for this thread!  Not that the results 
necessarily match, but that MANY related issues are also present.

Columbus is the "canonical" discoverer, in spite of the Vikings, or  even

...
 the previously existing "colonists" who had
been living there for a  LONG 
...
 time ever since coming over the Bering straits?
Well, that 'canonicity' of this is beginning to change.
...
 Likewise, the Intel 4004 is the "canonical"
first microprocessor, in 
spite of other previous units that might or might not meet various 
definitions. Unlike the columbus question, most people neither know nor care who
made the first microprocessor or what serial number it was. Just
about every m.p. is considered first by _someone_.
...
 > . . .  
> 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. 
Since FEW have ever heard anything about this other than TOTAL BS in  school, 
...
 it bears looking at some of the distortions.  What is
taught in school  is 
...
 even less accurate than would be a history of computers
by MS, IBM, 
Intel, or Apple.  In line with the use of it as an analogy, it is  useful 
...
 to look at how distorted it has become, and realize
that the same thing 
happens quite quickly in fields such as ours. It happens in all fields. It will
always happen. We're doing it now.
There is nothing new under the sun.
...
 but quite costly.

Columbus did NOT tell the world that it wasn't flat.  By the time of
Columbus, that was well known and accepted by all educated people.  The
only ones who still thought that it was flat are now paying dollars per
minute for telephone psychic readings.  Although there were some fears  of 
...
 dangers, sailing off the edge was NOT taken seriously
as a possibility  by 
...
 anybody with any education. As a matter of fact,
the Romans knew that the world was round. The
knowledge was lost for about 8 centuries.
...
 it was just too far going that way.  Even the diameter
and  circumference 
...
 of the earth had been reasonably accurately computed
(showing that the 
shortest route to the Indies was still to the east).

But Columbus had an inaccurate, wrong, crackpot theory that the earth  was
...
 about one third the size that had been calculated. 
Thus, he was  convinced
...
 that it WOULD be shorter going west.  There are a lot
of other issues
involved with his funding, etc.  Never knew that. All progress is made by
unreasonable men...
...
 He set off, and lo and behold, encountered land
somewhere near to where 
the Indies would have been if he had been right about his 1/3 size  theory.
...

BTW, his very first recorded words about the existing inhabitants were: 
"a good source for slaves". 
...

> 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.

Perhaps I'm cynical, ...
But I maintain that what determines the course of the industry is NOT  the 
...
 quality of the technology, but the marketing.  How else
do you explain 
the successes of IBM, MS, etc.?  Surely not due to their superior 
quality?!? Well, IBM really had very little competition. DEC and Data General
were quite successful too. But, since IBM was already around making
typewriters and card punchers, it was already firmly established in
the market. Did NCR ever venture into mainframes and minis, BTW? I
have seen a nicely designed AT clone of theirs.
...

And progressive improvement in hardware ... 
Only among people who submit to marketing and not quality.

...
 Fred Cisin                      cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft                        http://www.xenosoft.com
2210 Sixth St.                  (510) 644-9366
Berkeley, CA 94710-2219

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