TV vs. Reading et al

[Matthew P Wiener]

David Casseres wrote:
> On the other hand it's extremely important to note, as you do, that
> Xerox is to this day a company whose main interest is in putting marks
> on pieces of paper.  The fundamental idiocy (look out, here comes my
> rant) of the first 10-15 years of personal computing was the notion that
> what the user is trying to produce is a piece of paper with marks on it.

This is not a "fundamental idiocy" on Xerox's part.  Those who tried to
be clever and make a new media out of the PC lost heavily.  It's easy
for those who can hack the could-have-been cutting edge to complain, but
we were always a tiny minority.  Xerox was going after what would indeed
sell.

You as might as well complain--and be just as off the mark--about IBM's
"fundamental idiocy" in keeping QWERTY, on the assumption that PC users
were looking for glorified typewriters.  As a matter of fact, most of
them were.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)