Pioneers of computing

[Michael Mulhern]

Talking of calculators, my first full time job was selling HP calculators
and Apple computers which was appropriate, but not necessary for my second
full time job as a calculator. Yes my job title was calculator, where I did
actuarial calculations on insurance products for variations.

So I went from selling them, to being one :)

//m

On Mon, 11 Mar 2019 at 9:43 pm, Bill Degnan via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 4:50 AM Brent Hilpert via cctalk <
> cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> > On 2019-Mar-10, at 5:16 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
> > > On 3/10/19 2:18 PM, Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote:
> > >> Historians, though not all, credit this development as the
> > >> beginning of the electronic-computing revolution that was truly
> > underway by
> > >> the mid-70s.
> > >
> > > Scotty, more power to the Reality Distortion Field!
> >
> >
> > It's not an out-to-lunch suggestion.
> >
> > The digital pocket calculator was the first mass-market digital
> electronic
> > device to be put in the hands of the consumer.
> >
> > Yes, all of us here know there were digital computers and other digital
> > electronic devices around many years before,
> > but the digital pocket calculator has a significant place at the
> > beginnings of the transition to the ubiquity of such technology in
> everyday
> > life,
> > as opposed to being behind-the-scenes in business, labs, and industry.
> >
> > One can argue the transition would have happened without the
> > pocket-calculator market -
> > just how influential it was in driving the innovation can be debated -
> but
> > the historical fact is it was there,
> > and a large market in the context.
> >
>
> Reading this thread...
>
> >
> Not sure why this suddenly became a thing to debate, but I will add that
> the multifunction function 1960s calculators were called "desktop
> computers" by publishers then
>
> https://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread_record.cfm?id=536
>
> Also, I did an talk at HOPE on the subject of the how the early handheld
> calculator class fit into the development of micro computers a few years
> later. The talk was my take on the subject anyway.
>
> Bottom line, one should avoid putting the modern 2019 definition a
> microcomputer/personal computer into what people were talking about in the
> mid 60s into the 70s "small/personal/microcomputer".
>
> Also, the significance of the single chip vs multi chip or single board
> CPU...is independent of the intended use or capacity/capabilities of the
> computer they went into.  Over time the significance of a "single chip" CPU
> will fade.  Modern computers no longer rely on this approach anyway, it was
> only a blip in time that "single chip cou"  mattered as much.
>
> My opinion of course
>
> Bill
>
> Bill
>
> >
>
-- 


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