2023-10-24 07:57:30 <KipIngram   > Well, I've fallen back in to watching more of Norman Wildberger's math videos the last few days.  He just turns out to be a pretty interesting thinker.  He's become kind of controversial, but I don't think its fair to put too many negative labels on him.  He presents solid arguments, always stays calm and rational, etc.  He's got strong opinions, but there's really nothing wrong with that.  And I have a
2023-10-24 07:57:31 <KipIngram   > sneaky suspicion that he's more right than wrong.
2023-10-24 07:57:59 <KipIngram   > My interest in math is solidly on the applied side, so the issues he zeroes in on aren't really that relevant to me, but they're interesting nonetheless.
2023-10-24 13:55:58 <KipIngram   > Heh.  Wildberger just mentioned the "mistake" IBM made outsourcing the PC operating system to a third party.  Boy, I sure agree with that.  There was a *lot* about the handling of that whole project that was botched in a royal way.
2023-10-24 13:56:35 <KipIngram   > But IBM didn't really understand what they were holding - the team that was proposing that project to the executives estimated, as part of their financial argument, that they would sell 200,000 units.
2023-10-24 13:56:55 <KipIngram   > They just didn't understand they were sitting on the ENTIRE FUTURE of the computing industry.
2023-10-24 13:57:39 <KipIngram   > They didn't get it that by outsourcing the OS work they were literally handing the keys to the kingdom to another company.
2023-10-24 13:58:48 <KipIngram   > Underestimating your potential market by a factor of at least a thousand - ouch.
2023-10-24 13:59:55 <KipIngram   > Back in those days Boca Raton was a negligible little backwater office of IBM.
2023-10-24 14:00:07 <KipIngram   > Next thing you knew they were practically running the company.
2023-10-24 22:23:46 <KipIngram   > Holy cow.  Liebniz built a four operation calculating machine in **1671**.