Posted on 12/24/2016 5:06:50 AM PST by sodpoodle
1.) “The idea that cavalry will be replaced by these iron coaches is absurd. It is little short of treasonous.” — Comment of Aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Haig, at tank demonstration, 1916
2.) “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878
3.) "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
4.) "Reagan doesn't have that presidential look." – United Artists executive after rejecting Reagan as lead in the 1964 film The Best Man
5.) "Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." – Dr. Dionysius Lardner, 1830
6.) "The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.” — IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959
7.) "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
Sorta crazy really, surely they experienced hurricane like winds or tornadoes and would have known about speeds of over 25 mph. Race horses move at that speed.
The gallop averages 40 to 48 kilometres per hour (25 to 30 mph). The world record for a horse galloping over a short, sprint distance is 88 kilometres per hour (55 mph).
“I didn’t check the internet or Snopes these for accuracy.”
If you’re looking for accuracy, avoid Snopes.
I always heard it as:
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dis....”
“The market for color printers will be limited to the administrative offices of a few of the Fortune 500 CEOs for the sole purpose of preparing color handouts for board meetings”
- Kodak Management (circa 1995)
26) Boys will be boys.
Add Paul Ehrlich’s murderous prediction that we’d all starve due to overpopulation by the 1980s
” Ken Olson was not a visionary.”:
Ken Olson was pretty much the opposite of a visionary. He and his management team drove DEC into the ground, pursuing slightly faster VAX/DECnet computers each year for ridiculously expensive prices as Unix, SGI, Sun Microsystems, RISC, SPARC, TCP/IP, Intel x86 and PCs left them standing still in the dust.
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
—Robert Jastrow
Home computers didn’t really take off until there was an Internet to connect them to.
What do people mainly use their computers for? Facebook, youtube, looking up recipes, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.