To Mark Hooper and any other British readers that I may have offended:
If my little LBC joke in the March Reader's Digest offended you, I most
certainly do apologize; it was not my intent to denigrate anyone.
Having said that..... If you read it again, you will find that I did not
say "Why are there no British computers". I was simply quoting some unknown
person on this list who said it. I may be guilty of plagiarism, but nothing
else. In fact, I have a lot of respect for the technical capability of
British engineers. I worked with a number of them in U.S. companies
throughout my engineering career. (It was called the "brain drain" --
remember?) My very first computer was a British-made Sinclair kit. It was
great! I added the optional outboard memory, all of 16k as I recall. I
taught myself some BASIC and had a fine time with it, and even wired in a
real keyboard eventually to replace the little membrane keyboard. I also
recall reading that the Brits did a lot of radar development in WWII.
I'll admit that the British can build good computers if you admit that old
British cars often leak oil. If you have any doubt, I'll be happy to send
you a photo of my garage floor.
Sumner Weisman
P.S. Mark, I lost your e-mail address so am sending this to the list only.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-triumphs@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-triumphs@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Mark Hooper
> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 4:07 PM
> To: 'Sumner Weisman'; Triumphs
> Subject: RE: Reader's Digest Triumph Joke, very long, not LBC but very
> Bri tish.
>
>
> Sumner said : "Why are there no British computers?"
>
> (Anybody who doesn't want to hear about computers please stop
> here, I don't
> want to bore the list)
>
> For the purposes of this note LBC = Little British Computer ;^)
>
> Now you've done it!!! (steam mode on!!!) (grin)
>
> (Actually, not mad or anything, just setting the record straight.)
>
> Back at the beginning of the forties when the USA was still
> clutching itself
> and hoping Hitler would spontaneously combust (Hey! it happened
> to the Mayor
> of Warsaw, so who knows...), England was somewhat involved in building
> electronic machines to break the codes of Germany and Japan. It had a
> certain urgency since Hitler's version of a "denial of service" attack
> involved somewhat more than defacing your web site. (The Poles really got
> the code-breaking ball rolling here as their motivation was even more
> personal)
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