A bunch of useless crap
Published on September 30, 2006 By MasonM In Misc
Found this list on the net. Some folks have just slightly missed the mark.

Subject: Just keep things in perspective "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." --The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

"But what is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, Commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

"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.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible. --A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who . . . wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." --Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "post-it" notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet."' --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life . You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." --Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

'Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859, just before he discovered the first oil well.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." --Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." --Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell. Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction". --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". --Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." --Bill Gates, 1981.

Comments
on Sep 30, 2006
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.


that was a bad call!

Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell. Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.



yeah right! - he is turning in his grave!

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind."


eat your heart out! What a great movie!

But what is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, Commenting on the microchip.


You have to wonder how IBM stayed in business!


on Sep 30, 2006
that was a bad call!


Yeah. Kinda like the banker that refused to loan Henry Ford money for his first factory because the motor car was "just a fad" and "the horse is here to stay"
on Sep 30, 2006
Kinda like the banker that refused to loan Henry Ford money for his first factory because the motor car was "just a fad" and "the horse is here to stay"


oops!  
on Sep 30, 2006
really funny Mason. Maybe you should call it "When You're Wrong.....You're Wrong!!

on Sep 30, 2006
Heh, everybody said when I was a comin' up that I would end up in jail someday and now I see that were right.

Dammit...   
on Sep 30, 2006
Reply #5
Heh, everybody said when I was a comin' up that I would end up in jail someday and now I see that were right.

Dammit...




At least yer on the right side of the bars
on Sep 30, 2006

Ahhh,  people with narrow vision....

or is that short sighted??

they just plain couldn't foresee the future...

on Sep 30, 2006
they just plain couldn't foresee the future...


I wonder which is worse. Not being able to see the future, or not being able to see the past?
on Oct 01, 2006
That's why I never discourage anything....eventually it's going to come back and bite you in the ass.

~Zoo
on Oct 01, 2006

"No one wants to run more than one program at a time!" - Dr Guy, 1993.

Yep!  Prognosticators are idiots!

on Oct 01, 2006
"We'll never have tv's that small, because they'll always need vacuum tubes"~ Ted Bingham (1976) while watching Dick Tracy with his brother. ;~D

Thanks for these Mason!
on Oct 03, 2006
These are great M! Thank heavens these people didn't listen to the naysayers uh?!