Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "ColdFusion" channel.

  1. DrexFactor Poi Xerox invented the GUI and mouse, as we know today. They were the first to use it commercially with networked computers in their own offices, called the Alto. They were the first to commercially sell a computer with a GUI, not Apple. Apple requested a tour of Xerox, as some employees were ex Xerox and arranged the tour, wanting to show Apple the wizardry Xerox had produced. Xerox agreed. Apple were knocked out. Bill Gates also toured Xerox. Apple who were making the Apple 2 in volume negotiated with Xerox that Xerox buy $1m of Apple stock and in return they reveal their technology to Apple. In effect Apple paid for the access by reduced profits, as Xerox took a cut. Zerox heads in NYC, who never understood the technology were pulling out of computing. They never understood what it would and could do wanting Apple to make the machines, as they could make them cheaper than them. Gates just took the technology, in making Windows 2, an app sitting on top of an operating system called DOS. IFRC, it was called Windows 2 (there was no Windows 1 to make it look as if it was not the first release). How he got away with it shows something about the US legal system. Windows 2 as an app, was on networked DOS computers I was using. No one used it, using the DOS prompt. It was regarded as something for kids. It crashed a lot. It was regarded, and rightly so, as a poor operating system, DOS, with a poor app to make it feel like and Apple but bugged to hell, so not worth using. No one trusted it. We all wanted UNIX, a proper professional operating system, and got it. BTW, Jobs used UNIX as the base for his GUI with his NeXT machines. Similar to what Gates was doing with DOS, with the GUI being an app on top, but UNIX is vastly superior to DOS. UNIX is also the base of Apple's iPhone OS and Android. Windows was being shipped with anyone's desktop PC's, making computing easier for the 1st generation of users to use desktops en-mass. It was appalling and constantly crashed. Apple's offer was vastly superior being a proper integrated operating system, not just an app sitting on top of an operating system. But their hardware and software were all in one expensive package. With DOS/Windows, DOS applications, of which there was a massive amount on the market, could be run by clicking a Windows app icon. Windows was an app sitting on top of an operating system, DOS, sending commands to DOS underneath. In interface with the user who thought they were on an Zeroz/Apple type of machine. Windows never became a proper operating system, being just an app, until DOS was fully eliminated, which took about 15 years - and in that 15 years still bugged to hell and a poor product. How Microsoft became a giant is purely marketing, as technology-wise they had little innovation, if any at all. The same could be said of Apple, but they were better engineers than Microsoft producing the hardware and a proper GUI operating system to match.
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  2.  @w8stral  Energy costs dominate a business, especially energy intensive manufacturing companies. So locating your factory where energy is cheap makes sense. In ye oldene dayes towns clustered around ports because transport was so expensive. When energy became cheap fuelling fast transport (trains), towns could move further inland.
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  3.  @w8stral  You didn't get it. Shame.
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  4. Great company. British expertise was instrumental in the rise of Tata in the early years. You may find that Ford sold Jaguar/Land Rover because their home divisions were in financial trouble. They needed the money. Jaguar/Land Rover is pretty well left alone to do its thing.
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  5. The density of the energy in these graphene assisted batteries is slightly better as current Li-on batteries, but they must be a lot lighter, which must be a great plus in a vehicle. Energy density is a major factor in batteries as it makes batteries smaller, however the other points of lightness, longevity and fast charge appear to have been addressed.
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  6. Intel did not invent the cpu. A Scottish company were first.
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  7. "the new [Sila] batteries perform up to 40% better" Does that mean 40% more charge is stored for the size of the battery?
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  8. Intel did not invent the cpu. A Scottish company were the first.
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  9. Tata bought the Stanlow oil refinery near Liverpool from Shell. It needs a lot of money spent on it - why Shell sold it. Rumours are that Tata are to sell the place.
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  10. Zuse was not the inventor of the modern computer. He never invented the binary system or was the first to propose using binary for computing.
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  11. The Beetle was copied from the Czech Tatra. After WW2 VW paid royalties to Tatra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a8GVhZiP4c
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  12. The first computers had lights on a panel to represent binary numbers. Input and output by people was via binary. Alan Turing came out with one revolutionary idea of how the computer should be. That was that the man-machine interface should be represented as symbols. That meant letters, numbers and icons. This could only be done by using the cathode ray tube (TV tube) at the time. This accelerated the use of computers. Turing laid down everything we have in the modern computer. He died in mid 1950s, still a young man.
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  13. You need to understand economic rent and its appropriation. The root of inequality.
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  14. Do they scale up for EVs?
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  15. This vid focus far too much on Jobs. It totally understates the value of Jony Ive, the head of design, the man who was key in the iPhone's design, coming out with the slab design with no physical keys except on; having a computer in the palm of your hand. If one man stands out in the creation of the iPhone it is him. The iPhone was easy to use it never came with instructions. When he left Apple in 2019 the share price dropped $9bn.
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  16. They need to R&D more on batteries and small range extender engines.
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  17. So Q-DOS was a rip off of CP/M. Who did this rip off? Was it legal? Microsoft buying an illegal rip off and passing it off as their own does not make it legal.
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  18. This is a very poor film. Highly inaccurate. Poorly research. John Burns BSc (computer science)
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