[vcf-midatlantic] Great vintage computer article.

[Herb Johnson]

 > A lot of people would like to see advanced forms of what we
 > used to call client-server technology do away with the
 > traditional idea of a stand alone personal computer.

Funny for this old guy to read this. In MY generation, the "traditional" 
idea of computing, was mainframe. The company and the government, owned 
ALL the computers, all the data, all the programs. Most people were 
powerless and computer-illiterate, and could not control or access their 
own data.

"A lot of people" - real people, not corporations - in that era, saw 
personal computing (even time-share terminals) as a way to gain economic 
and personal power, access to tools and knowledge, building of 
communities. MOst 1970's microcomputing was about empowering people and 
freeing information for personal and small business use. It started from 
the bottom-up; IBM was late to the game.

Now, who benefits when all the data is "on the server"? And access is 
limited not just by person, but by content? Not you and I! I'm not 
ignorant of the power of big algorithms across big data. But I'm not 
ignorant of my own previous experience, when personal computers enabled 
so many people to do so many things, for themselves.

And that's *another* reason to preserve 1970's vintage computing. To 
remember when that was true.

Herb Johnson


-- 
Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA
http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net
preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing
email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com
or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info