Well, I am an older reader, and Not very computer literate. I enjoyed the background on the spread sheet my daughters set up for me after my husband passed. I always learn something from your articles. I am considering subscribing. Thank-you.
Nothing is permanent? Small instances of opportunity become real through strong vision? There are many things about this story that hit me, but we certainly know by now that nothing is "forever". We have to be thinking of the next new idea constantly if we are to stay up with the times. I remember reading about VisiCalc, but also remember buying a $125 calculator for my Structures classes in Architecture school! How THAT changed my life!
Before Microsoft developed Excel, it had the somewhat less capable Multiplan spreadsheet program, which enabled the original Macintosh to be used for business applications. Sort of a bridge to the more powerful spreadsheets, which required still more memory, ad infinitum....
Visicalc is before my time. When I attended college in the early 90's to study office administration, I learned to use Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, D-Base-IV and the like. They were great programs for the time. We actually learned the latest versions at my small community college and were taught by teachers who had actually worked in business and office administration. Excellent teachers. Sometimes the best education comes from the smaller community colleges with more hands-on training and real-world experience. The bursaries were pretty sweet too.
One of my favorite articles. Just think of the number of students sitting in classrooms throughout the country at the same time! Picture a bubble over some of them, thinking of a date, thinking of a party, thinking of the next drink or drug, thinking of what the teacher is saying... This one student had a vision that would simplify something (stage one) and he believed in it enough to sell it (stage 2). Look what he started! I do my grocery lists on a spread sheet! He made a contribution that will simplify people's lives forever! At least he started the process (stage three!). They say we use a small fraction of our brain's capacity. What would happen if we all thought of how to simplify something? Just imagine!
The Apple II came out in June of 1977 and the TRS-80 (from Radio Shack) came out in November of 1977. It cost $599, about half of the starting price of an Apple II. I had a TRS-80 and the principle program I ran was VisiCalc. I loved that setup and it radically changed the way the small engineering company I worked at did our proposal cost calculations. We had a room-sized HP "mini-computer" but my little TRS-80 could do things it could never do. I learned a lot about cost forecasting since I had to do all of the proposal costing from then on. We used it happily for a number of years.
Is this post itself a year old? Visicalc came out in 1979, making it 42 years old, not 41.
Maybe this is just an off-by-one error.
Well, I am an older reader, and Not very computer literate. I enjoyed the background on the spread sheet my daughters set up for me after my husband passed. I always learn something from your articles. I am considering subscribing. Thank-you.
Not sure what strikes such a chord with me (the clarity it shows about serendipity and causality?) but one of my favorites of yours so far.
Nothing is permanent? Small instances of opportunity become real through strong vision? There are many things about this story that hit me, but we certainly know by now that nothing is "forever". We have to be thinking of the next new idea constantly if we are to stay up with the times. I remember reading about VisiCalc, but also remember buying a $125 calculator for my Structures classes in Architecture school! How THAT changed my life!
Before Microsoft developed Excel, it had the somewhat less capable Multiplan spreadsheet program, which enabled the original Macintosh to be used for business applications. Sort of a bridge to the more powerful spreadsheets, which required still more memory, ad infinitum....
Fascinating historical lesson Bill. Of course, Apple.
Visicalc is before my time. When I attended college in the early 90's to study office administration, I learned to use Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, D-Base-IV and the like. They were great programs for the time. We actually learned the latest versions at my small community college and were taught by teachers who had actually worked in business and office administration. Excellent teachers. Sometimes the best education comes from the smaller community colleges with more hands-on training and real-world experience. The bursaries were pretty sweet too.
Amazing! Sending this on to my “kid” who uses spreadsheets all the time so he’ll appreciate knowing this as it’s just a few years ahead of him.
Thank you! Always find your articles very interesting. Passed along to others.
One of my favorite articles. Just think of the number of students sitting in classrooms throughout the country at the same time! Picture a bubble over some of them, thinking of a date, thinking of a party, thinking of the next drink or drug, thinking of what the teacher is saying... This one student had a vision that would simplify something (stage one) and he believed in it enough to sell it (stage 2). Look what he started! I do my grocery lists on a spread sheet! He made a contribution that will simplify people's lives forever! At least he started the process (stage three!). They say we use a small fraction of our brain's capacity. What would happen if we all thought of how to simplify something? Just imagine!
The Apple II came out in June of 1977 and the TRS-80 (from Radio Shack) came out in November of 1977. It cost $599, about half of the starting price of an Apple II. I had a TRS-80 and the principle program I ran was VisiCalc. I loved that setup and it radically changed the way the small engineering company I worked at did our proposal cost calculations. We had a room-sized HP "mini-computer" but my little TRS-80 could do things it could never do. I learned a lot about cost forecasting since I had to do all of the proposal costing from then on. We used it happily for a number of years.