1980 – The world’s first gigabyte-capacity disk drive, the IBM 3380, was the size of a refrigerator, weighed 550 pounds (about 250 kg), and had a price tag of $40,000( $113 thousand in present day terms [13]), 2.52 GB 1980 – ST-506 first 5¼ inch drive released with capacity of 5 megabytes, cost $1500 Last week, I was contacted by Finis … Continue reading
Category Archives: Technology
Could Qualcomm really buy Intel: It is all Heddy Lamar’s fault
Learning today that Qualcomm has a market capitalization that is now greater than Intel’s, makes me a bit sad and disappointed in myself. Continue reading
Smart TV 1995: sponsored by the Software Publishers Association whose motto at the time was “Don’t copy that floppy”.
PBS had a television show called the Computer Chronicles which ran from 1981-2002.
There is a particularly interesting episode and one that relates to my recent post “When Technologies Collide”. The title of the episode is Smart TV 95 and it was recorded in 1995. It is a pretty amazing piece of history which was captured by the Internet Archieves. It is about 25 minutes long and is worthwhile watching especially for those interested in Interactive TV.
I comment about about this show in which I am interviewed as well as speculate about the future of Interactive Television.
Continue reading
WhenTechnologies Collide: The Next Wave of Computing
This is an amazing graph from GigaOm (see story here). As readers of my blog know, I played a very significant role in creating residential broadband starting in 1992 and continuing until 1999, when I resigned my position at Intel as Corp. Vice President of Business Development. While I was sure then that the Internet … Continue reading
My 1993 Performance Review at Intel (a piece of my history but also a piece of the history of the Internet)
I happened to be cleaning up some old files and came across a number of my performance reviews at Intel. I am posting a summary of one, written in 1993, which dealt with my job performance almost twenty years ago. This was the beginning of the most important period of my career. It was also … Continue reading
Intel enters the set top race again and again
For twenty years, Intel has tried to enter the set top box market. The company still does not have a strategy for success in my opinion. Continue reading
Facebook: Mixed feelings about Facebook and some views on the IPO.
Facebook is the latest in a line of mediocre technology companies that were at the right place at the right time. Continue reading
Life Blues: My reaction to Outlaw Blues by Jonathan Taplin
In reading Outlaw Blues by Jonathan Taplin, I realized how easily my life could have gone in a different direction. Maybe, if I liked the music better, I would have become part of the rock music scene. My management and leadership skills might have taken me on a path similar to Jonathan and eventually my creative side might have emerged as it did for him. I had a similar experience reading Holy Beggars by Aryae Coopersmith whom I recently met. In reading Aryae’s book, I realized that I could have easily continued to explore the spiritual side of myself and may have ended up in Israel as a Rabbi. But I fell in love with technology. By 1966, I was working at the Langley Porter Institute, UCSF Medical School, designing equipment for brainwave bio feedback. From that point on, I had a continuing connection to technology. Now I am back to studying music. Jonathan is a Professor at USC. Continue reading
How I got the iPad right in 1994 but was wrong about the Information Furnace
Now before you think this post is all about how insightful I was, and I was, it is really about how things turned out differently than I thought and wanted. It really is about a failure to implement a vision and an exploration of the possibility that things could have ended up differently.
In that very same article (again 1994), I coined the term i-pad (see the Article). Sixteen years later, Apple announced the iPad on Jan. 27th, 2010. Coincidentally, it happened to be my 65th birthday. Continue reading
Rotterdam 1969-1974: The Thoraxcenter
Towards the end of 1968, I accepted a position at the Thoraxcenter in Rotterdam. My task was to create and run the computer dept. It was actually two depts. One was part of the medical school at Erasmus University and the other was part of the Dijkzigt University Medical Center. Accepting the position was both … Continue reading
Two Thirds Done 