"that will never work"

[katty]

anything can happen...



"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest, Inventor of radio which subsequently led to T.V.

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." -- Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." -- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

"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

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

"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.

"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.)

"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

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 to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"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, US Office of Patents, 1899.

"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." -- professor of electrical engineering, New York University

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself." -- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox

"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

and, last but not least...

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

[boston bean]

1. cool list. thanks. nt

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

2. CAN'T MEANS WON'T MEANS DON'T WANT TO BAD ENOUGH. n/t

[bleever]

3. "If there's one thing the people at NSA know, it's the fourth amendment ."

Okay, a little off topic, but another absolute statement that was absolutely wrong.

[benburch]

4. I actually tried to convince one of Olson's VPs to the contrary.

He simply refused to think I was anything but a crank.

[cdsilv]

7. I spent 12 years at DEC, and between KO's opposal to

PC's and his 'snake oil' comments about unix, he really missed the ball, which eventually led to the demise of DEC.

It was a really good co. to work for - great $$, great benefits, real concern for the every day employee as long as KO was around - Palmer basically ran the company into the ground.

Ah well, DEC technology is still deeply embedded in computing.

All the tech vendors want to offer VMScluster functionality, but only HP has the technology (from Compaq who got it from DEC....)

I now work for an HP reseller.....

[benburch]

8. I loved the PDP-11!

If I could get copies of RSX-11M+ as a disk image file, I have a partially done emulator for it. But without the OS, it is not worth finishing.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Excellent reminder. Thank you. n/t

[NanceGreggs]

6. Great List & Thanks!

My father quit a good job with Sperry-Rand in the early 'fifties to train as a TV cameraman. The entire family told him he was nuts - no one would spend money on a passing fad like television.

He later went to work as a cameraman at CBS-TV, and when NBC announced it's foray into 'colour' broadcasts, the CBS execs were skeptical - wasn't black-and-white good enough? Why would anyone invest in a colour TV?

[Canuckistanian]

9. Lee Deforest was an asshole

He spent his career stealing other people's designs and sueing other inventors.