(On the day of the New World announcement IBM
> released four "program products". A headline in a subsequent issue of
> _Computerworld_ read "SURPRISE! Software costs as much as a printer!".
> The reference was to one of the four program products, Generalized
> Information System (GIS), which had a monthly charge (running forever) of
> ~US$1200 (in 1969 dollars!), which was about the same as the monthly
> rental fee for a 1403-N1 1100 lpm printer.
And a festering piece of excrement that was. The GIS Query Editor, in particular, was buggy with a primitive user interface to boot.
Julian Thomas:
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In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 -
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A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history -- with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila. -- Mitch Ratliffe