http://www.thoughtmechanics.com/200...ny-and-totally-wrong-predictions-of-the-past/ * “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949 * “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 * “I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957 * “But what … is it good for?” Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip. * “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 * “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Western Union internal memo, 1876. * “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s. * “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp. * “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927. * “I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.” * “A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies. * “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962. * “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. * “If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads. * “So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’” Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer. * “Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.” 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s revolutionary rocket work. * “You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.” Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus. * “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859. * “The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project. * “This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He’s doomed.” Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast. * “Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929. * “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. * “Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.” Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television. * “Louis Pastueur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872 * “The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.” Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873
This is my computer I built from scrath base where it is a lil more than a ton. Newest Magna PC operating system Amedahnag = Our Snake Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
alexander graham bell never owned a phone. xerox invented the PC but never developed the idea. steve jobs seen the product and launched apple computer. the first 8 bit IC cpu, the 8080, was about the size of a postage stamp. there are a few qoute threads lurking around, i'll see if i can scare a few of them up.
It is always possible to find silly quotes from dummies and/or from people who should know better. If the opinions quoted in previous posts were due to mainstream scientists and inventors, we would still have the technology of 100-200 years ago. It annoys me when people make statements like: Circa 200 BC, Eratosthenes not only knew the Earth was a sphere, he set up and used a valid method of estimating its size. All sea faring cultures (including some prior to Eratosthnes) had lots of individuals who at least suspected that the Earth was not flat. Seeing a ship appear or disappear over the horizon gives you a good clue. Note that views from mountains or even hills 500 or more feet high indicates that eyesight is good enough to see beyond the horizon, requiring an explanation for the diapearance of ships over the horizon when viewed from sea level. My father was not a physicist in the late 19th & early 20th century, only a damn good engineer who read about physics. When I mentioned that science was considered a closed subject in his era, he scoffed and said something like the following. "I remember some college professors making dumb statements like that prior to Einstein, Bohr, et all. I also remember Scientific American articles mentioning the following problems." The Michaelson/Morley experiment (circa 1882) which was inexplicable using the physics of the time. Prior to the explanation provided by Einstein leading to Special Relativity, this was known to be an indication of some flaw in classical physics requiring some new concepts at a fundamental level. The Obler paradox had been known since the early 19th century and required some explanaation not consistent with classical cosmology. It was known that the sun was many millions of years old (we now know about 4600 million years). Yet the most energetic chemical reaction known at the time would have resulted in the sun burning out in about 50,000 years. This indicated an energy producing process 1000 or more times greater than anything known to classical science. The ultraviolet catastrophe was a puzzlement to classical physics, requiring some revolutioary new developments (Quantum Theory was required to explain this one). Mainstream scientistis are today and have been for 500 plus years a lot smarter than suggested by those who make fun of them. BTW: I remember story about some leading scientist circa 1800 claiming that we would never be able to determine the composition of stars due to their distance. A collegue demurred, saying that study of radiation from the sun and comparison with radiation generated on Earth might someday give us a clue. I have often heard mention of the former scientist and his claim, ommiting the comments by his colleague. Mass spectrometry was developed perhaps 30-50 years later.
Victorian (English) revisionism - apparently (from what I've read) there were TWO mediaeval authors (woo-woos of their time) who claimed such, and the Victorians latched onto these two and ignored the rest, merely to demonstrate the superiority of their own age. Not sure about physics, but there was a patents officer who declared that he was going to close the patents office because "everything that could be invented already had been" - again Victorian.
