Re: Apple II: Second Best Tech Product of All Time!

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Tristan Mumford wrote:
> mmphosis wrote:
>
>
> > PC World's Second Best Tech Product of All Time: Apple II
> >
> > http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130207-page,2-c,technology/article.html
> >
> > I found this on slashdot.org ...
> >
> > http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/07/04/03/0225236.shtml
> >
> > "PC World picks the 50 best tech products of all time. Apple holds
> > down seven places in the list, Microsoft two, and open source software
> > (Red Hat Linux) one. The top five, according to PC World, are:
>
>
> Are they serious? Even given the assumption that they are talking about
> computer related products in the last 30 years...
>
>
> > Netscape Navigator (1994),
>
>
> If they want to look at connectivity why not the MODEM, The IP stack,
> ARPANet, Mosaic etc etc.

Here, too, I would have gone with Mosaic, since it introduced me to the
web--the killer app of the 1990s--but Netscape had 100-1000 times as
many users as Mosaic, so there's the mass culture angle...

Of course, most web users didn't even know what a modem was--they just
plugged in their phone line (or used to).  Again, mass culture...

> > Apple II (1977),
>
>
> Not arguing.

Hey--it's good to "dance with the one that brung you".  ;-)

> > TiVo HDR110 (1999),
>
>
> I barely even know what a TiVo is. The only way I know at all is from stale
> US TV shows that have oozed over here slowly.
> Was it really so influential?

Absolutely--it fundamentally alters what television is by putting
it entirely under your control.

Once you've used a DVR, you will find yourself wanting one on your
radios, at the movies, and on life itself!  (I just want to replay
the last seven seconds...  ;-)

> > Napster (1999),
>
>
> This list is silly.
>
>
> > and Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS (1983)." 
>
>
> VisiCalc!

I, too, was struck by this omission.  Lotus 1-2-3 was merely an enhanced
rip-off of VisiCalc, which was pure genius.

Of course, I've heard that the automatically recomputed spreadsheet
was actually first realized on a mainframe, so it's another case of
the reinvention of a concept, coupled with a virtuoso implementation
on a (soon to be even more) popular microcomputer.

> Was the article written by a 13 year old?

While it admittedly reveals a very limited perspective on the part of
the judges, it is easier to understand as a list of computer tech
innovations that had great impact on 1) the industry, and 2) mass
culture.

All such lists are impossible to defend, since they are the composite
of a bunch of subjective impressions, not the result of any objective
evaluation--which must generally wait a few decades at least.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

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