Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Mel Smith" Newsgroups: comp.lang.javascript Subject: Re: Super basic newbie question Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:12:47 -0600 Lines: 42 Message-ID: <9s9a04F48bU1@mid.individual.net> References: <4f58cbd4$0$21489$ba4acef3@reader.news.orange.fr> <5049dd4e-dcc9-4ea4-8ea1-633cb5f8ed0b@i16g2000yql.googlegroups.com> <4Uwh8GHjinWPFwBf@invalid.uk.co.demon.merlyn.invalid> <4f5b170a$0$12497$ba4acef3@reader.news.orange.fr> <6h6nl7p2ekpjoq90fotvrq909ifj0752lj@4ax.com> <6lhrl7psq2hvtjd88sf2d8vin63un9pcps@4ax.com> X-Trace: individual.net 4+DbwvuMzxP0lkefKPN37wwdlDCguxSnW1hkFAw41NXJkEyVj0 Cancel-Lock: sha1:LF/lUOx7hQVszK47vWKbltPm1M4= X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.javascript:12647 Swifty said: "> > I was in IT before TCP/IP was invented. I remember remarking that I > saw no future for it. I've made worse mistakes. Sify: I made the biggest mistake of my life: I was a member of a 2-man IT team (the other guy was Dan McCormack) that was sent to Provo, Utah in the early '80s to investigate a small company that needed $1 million 'seed' money to carry on with development of their new networking technology. In their small building, I witnessed a guy getting 'smashed' from a bottle of booze in his desk drawer. In another we watched as a guy tried to connect two 'micro computer' boards and show us how he could transmit messages thru his basic new network technology. The boards were about ten feet apart, and several wires were floating in the air above and near us between the boards. The test failed and the guy got very flustered. This was very unsettling; and then there was a final meeting that day between us and one of their top executives. He was very nervous, and really wanted us to recommend that his company get the $1 million seed money. This would give our Canadian Company (Altel Data), a 25% stake in the new company. So, Dan & I reurned to Canada, and I wrote up a paper for our Canadian managers that strongly recommended that we *not* invest in this scary U.S. startup. So, my managers accepted my negative recommendation. This company later turned out to be Novell !! It later turned out that I left Altel Data (to go on my own), and Altel Data itself was collapsed due to the emergence of microcomputers, and the collapse of minicomputers (we had sold Vax and PDP minis before then). -Mel Smith (Loser-at-Large)