truyen cuoi (fwd)

[Nhat Quang Ton <nqt@minyos.its.rmit.EDU.AU>]

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>From nqt  Thu Apr 24 11:22:16 1997
From: Nhat Quang Ton <nqt>
Message-Id: <199704240122.LAA19988@minyos.its.rmit.EDU.AU>
Subject: truyen cuoi
To: nqt (Nhat Quang Ton)
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 11:22:14 +1000 (EST)
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          Twentieth Century Predictions

                         submitted by Nannette Ching Edelman



"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with
the best people, and I can
assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?"
--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968,
commenting on the
microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
--Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,
1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as
a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
--Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay
for a message sent
to nobody in particular?"
--David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in
the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better
than a 'C,' the idea must be
feasible."
--A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper
proposing reliable
overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
--H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary
Cooper."
--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With
The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say
America likes crispy
cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
--Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
--Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The
literature was full of examples
that said you can't do this."
--Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M
"Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even
built with some of your
parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We
just want to do it. Pay
our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went
to Hewlett- Packard,
and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college
yet.'"
--Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP
interested in his and
Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction
and the need to have
something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack
the basic knowledge ladled
out daily in high schools."
--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary
rocket work.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
crazy."
--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for
oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
--Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de
Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
--Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the
intrusion of the wise and
humane surgeon".
--Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-
Extraordinary to Queen Victoria
1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
--Bill Gates, 1981