The best of 'Reader Comments': Hotmail security fears and PC birthday arguments
Each week silicon.com is inundated with comments from you, our readers. Here we bring you the best reactions to some of our stories from the past fortnight...
This week we feature your responses to concerns that Hotmail was toppled by the Code Red worm and the emotive issue of the PC hitting the big two-oh.
Pretty poor show...
Paul Kuczora
And this is the company that wants us to give them all of our personal and financial data to use with Hailstorm? In your dreams Bill.
David Smith
What chance do we stand?
What chance does anyone have if the mighty Microsoft can't be bothered to get it right?
...But pretty satisfying
John Rutter
After all the highbrow comments from Microsoft about applying the latest patches, it's somehow nice to see them fall foul of this. Their speciality is in user-type software really, not in secure and reliable servers.
This just goes to show even they cannot get their machines to run reliably, what hope for those poor customers handing over endless license fees?
Golden oldies swap pipe and slippers for a nice little start-up
German workers over the hill at 40
Over the hill at 40?...
Name withheld
...yeah right. They miss out on a number of things in the survey. Those over forty are:
1. more stable
2. more reliable
3. more able
4. more experienced
I prefer 40+ for contracts because they deliver.
Wet behind the ears
anonymous
Ageism? Tell me about it... How about the opposite - and in my opinion, worse - kind of ageism in the IT world?
"I'm sorry sir, you're too young to work here."
I'm currently employed by a top London university, who saw past my age (17) and employed me as a programmer/general IT guy. Many places refuse to employ anyone under the age of about 23, which is highly politically incorrect. I am at least, if not more, tech-savvy than most of the people in the 'employable' age group that I know, but can I even get an interview?
So, to all you HR/IT managers people out there, start looking for young, fresh talent! Everyone knows younger people are better at IT anyway (oops, now I'm being ageist!).
The secret history of the PC Not everyone enjoys celebrating yet another birthday, but last week IBM was quite happy to honour the PC for reaching the grand old age of 20.
20 last week - or was it?
Hugh Davies
To say 20 years ago IBM was mostly only in a few research installations is total hooey!
40 years ago yes - as I remember. I still have a Compaq luggable in the attic - might be worth something one day!
Apple's even older!
Dave Madden
Apple is now 25.
Yesterday IBM celebrated the '20th Anniversary of the PC' with 'nostalgia and hope'. Today the following email arrives from Apple UK's PR company to put the record straight.
April 1976: Steven P. Jobs and Stephen G. Wozniak founded Apple in Palo Alto/California. In their famous garage they developed and produced the Apple I, the first PC circuit board. It had 8kb RAM and an interface for a monitor.
April 1976: The first circuit boards were available at the Byte Shops. The slogan of the advertisement was 'Byte into an Apple'. The idea for the logo was born.
1977: The first real PC the Apple II was developed and sold. This computer could be directly connected to a TV.
1981: IBM introduces the Personal Computer.
2001: IBM celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the PC - five years later!
So how can you celebrate coming 2nd?
Oldie but goldie
Ken Clayton
In 1980 I worked for what was then Leyland Cars. The guy in the finance dept had heard about mini computers but the IT people wouldn't let him have one, so he built his own.
By 1983, we had an Apple in my department (4 external 5.25 FDDs) to handle registrations for product launches and conferences. I went freelance in 1984 and, I think later that year, bought my first PC, a Sanyo MBC 550 with two 5.25 FDDs (no HDD). I`ve still got it somewhere, complete with Wordstar, Calcstar etc program disks. The PC with a Brother HR15 daisywheel printer plus the software cost me around £1,500. It lasted a long time and I wrote 2 books and thousands of articles on it.