Dana Shilling wrote:
1981, the first year in which it was even feasible to think of computers as "small box that sits on desktop and is owned by almost everyone (for their sins)" rather than "giant boxes attended to by a priesthood."
The boxes themselves might no longer be giant but just down from my desk at work is a huge room, full of 7ft high racks of numerous boxes that go "whirr" and blink their pretty lights with a "cat in the woolshop" tangle of cables sticking out the back. And yes, they're still attended to by a priesthood. Only the priesthood's security badges let them into that room. There's even a Buckfast in there (codename for one of the modules).
ObB7: So what exactly is behind Zen's screen? A little man with a megaphone or something less organic? And how come Orac never gets an "Error 404. File Not Found" message when he looks things up on the g(alaxy)ww.
Kat W