Ktn

Today 25 years ago IBM announced a personal computer (IBM 5150) which changed our lifes and made possible tons of technological breakthroughs.

You can check more information and commentary on the following links:

• Twenty five years of the IBM PC on BBC News.
• IBM PC celebrates silver anniversary on The Register.
• What a Legacy! The IBM PC’s 25 Year Legacy on Low End Mac.
• The IBM PC’s 25 Year Legacy on OSNews.
• How the IBM PC Changed the World on Slashdot.

I have to say that I like PCs (computers) a lot, I like to program for them or mainframes like the iSeries, design hardware (although I haven’t had chance to do it for real work, I’m good, really) and read about new technology whenever I can.

It was a coincidence that minutes before I read this weblog post on Aneel’s weblog I got a call from a bank employee; you know, those that are looking for someone and if the person isn’t there or doesn’t live anymore there they anyways want to get your name and offer you a credit card.

I respond that I’m not interested and they keep trying, wasting my time, so the following comment by Aneel is absolutely true:

One of the pillars of business–don’t waste my (or anyone else’s who you hope to have on your side) time. Ever.

I’m not sure if this happens often in other countries, but what anoys me is that the telephone number I got from Telmex (I guess it’s the biggest Telco in Latin America) was owned by other people. Seems to me that they had (or still have) all of the credit cards available in México because I get a lot of calls from banks and other type of companies looking for them (a married couple I presume). They perhaps moved or just changed the phone number, I don’t know, but is strange that they haven’t updated all of their records for the different banks and companies they have an account on.

I can even say that I get more calls from people looking for them than looking for me or my wife. Hope that with the time those calls disappear.

If you are a Java programmer or are planning to learn Java and program in that language I believe you should take a look to what Richard Stallman has to say about it. So go ahead and read the Free But Shackled - The Java Trap to take an informed decision based on what you really want to do.