Jian Huang at University of Tennessee; CS361 Operating System and Systems Programming

Kenneth Brown - ComputerWorld 1984

-Unix starting to lose potion in market
-Due to perception of very little could run on that operating system. Wasn't completely true as all that was needed was to acquire the source code from the vendor and port it to Unix.
-Unix made for professionals and not necessarily useful to "man on the street", would require a lot of training to bring the average user up to speed on how to use it.
-Unix machines required more hardware causing the per unit cost of machines to be a lot higher than other operating systems running on the core of the same machine (ex MS-DOS 2.11 vs. NEC UNIX (version of UNIX System 3 w/ Berkley enhancements) on the NEC APCIII). Cost differences of >$3000.

-Apple Computer found out that another computer manufacturer, Franklin Computer Corp., was using chunks of its operating system including pieces taken from ROM chips in their machines.
-Took Franklin to court where Franklin argued that Operating systems are not "expressions of an idea" which copyright law requires for something to be copyrightable.
-Franklin eventually settled out of court for 2.5 million. Said they, "Will still be competing," Today they make handheld translators/dictionaries.

-Five year effort by the ANSI X12 committee finally yields standardization for data transfer between software and hardware.
-Primary purpose of the standardization at this time was to help facilitate order placements, processing and receiving of information, shipment and receiving of information, invoicing, payments, and cash applications.
-The new standard complies with ISO layers six and seven, the Data Link Layer and the Physical Layer.

-Coors acquired General Electric's Information Services Co, Mark III remote computer service that connects to their computer hardware.
-Used AT&T's Touch Tone service for distributor information and order input. The system was also smart enough to recognize arithmetic and other obvious errors.
-Helped to grow Coors beyond the Rocky Mountains and the Western US while also complying with Coors freshness policy.

-Fortran forecasted the Redskins to win Super Bowl XVIII by 6, experts said Redskins by 3, final game score Redskins 9 - LA Raiders 38.
-Portable electronic devices on airplanes under probe to see if they would cause issues with aircraft hardware.
-Bug caused a nuclear attack alarm to sound erroneously stating that "This is an attack warning. Supplemental information will be provided when available. Take appropriate action."
-Mother links VDT use to her child's birth defects and other users complained of back pain and/or eye damage.
-Little more than a month later, medical experts say VDT's don't cause any of the ailments described by users affected in some way.
-Cobol turned 25 years old.

-First Mobile Computer, the briefcase computer, to go with your briefcase cell phone.
-Didn't actually fold into briefcase but could fit inside of it once the computer was collapsed.
-Hitachi "DVD" player, Laser video disc player.
-BASF 3.5" Flexy Disc "100% error free" and even in 1984 Hewlett Packard had a touch screen pc (HP-150 Touchscreen)