Saturday March 16, 2019; 2:46 PM EDT
I was reminded of a story from Living Videotext in the 80s. We had a rule that every desk had to have a PC on it, which was somewhat radical for the 80s. That included our receptionist, Tammy, who was like my officemate, since my room was adjacent to the front entrance. We put a Toshiba desktop on the table next to her desk, and put a copy of ThinkTank on it, for notetaking, but she never used it. That was allowed too, the computer just had to be there. turned on and ready to go. #- One day we got a confidential demo of a new product from Data General, the first battery powered PC-compatible laptop. This was a huge deal. I brought groups of all the employees in to show it to them, including of course Tammy.#
- When she saw it she said "I would use that computer." I was puzzled. "But Tammy that computer does exactly what your Toshiba does." She replied, but it doesn't have all those wires. #
- I learned something memorable there. People find computers intimidating because of all the wires. I don't blame them, I would too. That's the great thing about iPhones I guess. No wires.#
- PS: While we were testing the DG/One we were also testing the first Macintosh. Both used 3.5 inch floppy drives. But the formats weren't compatible. I tried to communicate to both companies, without violating the others' NDA that there was an opportunity to be compatible, but neither were interested. #