[dba-Tech] What got you interested in technology? IT's rich and famous share their memories

Arthur Fuller fuller.artful at gmail.com
Fri Nov 18 10:43:37 CST 2011


A little bit, but as you said, there weren't a lot of apps for it to write
about, so I wrote about the launch party at Bletchley and then the split
between MS and IBM on the project; stuff like that. Given the time and
place, I liked the OS itself, but there's only so much I can do with an OS
and an assembler.

/A.

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Gustav Brock <gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:

> Hi Arthur
>
> In the early 90s I had the "pleasure" of writing for the local PR agency
> that was responsible for the Danish version of the IBM Helpware Magazine.
> As such I had to run OS/2 on my 486 pc with 16 MB of RAM to test different
> things. I liked OS/2 except that no applications were at hand and it had
> some corners. First at the later Warp version it became polished.
> The task was a nightmare as the British PR agency responsible for Europe
> supplied the articles and these were loaded with errors I just couldn't
> ignore should the magazine be of any help for the common user. Thus, I
> often faced a rewrite rather than a translation.
>
> I have never touched OS/2 since then except for one client who ran an OS/2
> server - which basically was the Lan Manager server OS. The server was
> later replaced with an NT Server when version 3.5 came out.
>
> Did you write about OS/2?
>
> /gustav
>
>
> >>> fuller.artful at gmail.com 18-11-2011 15:33 >>>
> My first box was purchased on March 15, 1983. It was a Unitron, a clone of
> the Apple II. It came with Apple SOS and a CP/M card containing 48K of RAM.
> First thing I bought was a 16K expansion card. I used to run WordStar,
> Supercalc and dBASE II on it. It took about a month to become skilled at
> dBASE II and from then on I've been hooked on databases.
>
> Speaking of OS/2, at that time I was a freelance journalist working for
> several magazines, writing mostly software reviews etc. IBM flew a bunch of
> journalists to Bletchley Park to unveil OS/2. Bletchley park initially
> became famous as the place where they cracked the Enigma machine.
>
> A.
>
> On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 8:43 AM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:
>
> > Hi Arthur
> >
> > I'll share a part of my memory that for some unknown reason popped
> forward
> > the other day:
> >
> > Do you remember the time when OS/2 was moving ahead, that a major issue
> to
> > discuss was if it would be able to launch in a machine equipped with 4 MB
> > of RAM?
> > I don't recall what made 4 MB a magic number but today, where 4 GB is
> > standard in main-level machines, it is hard to imagine that this
> parameter
> > could get any attention at all.
> > Perhaps it was cost - I guess 1 MB of RAM at those days equals 4 GB
> today.
> > Didn't Compaq manufacture a full-length(!) add-in board with 3 MB
> extended
> > RAM? At a fortune.
> >
> > /gustav
>
>
>
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