16:38: `If Cars were like Computers', a retrospective....

My aunt recently mailed-out a copy of the old `Bill Gates recently compared the computer-industry to the auto-industry' story (having just seen it for the first time).

I think that the first time I saw that must have been in about 1996 or so (the `start-button' remark must have been a response to Windows 95, right?). At the time, I would have laughed in commiseration.

But by now, I'd forgot all about it; it's interesting to read it again from where I now sit--I think I'd add a point #11:

• There would be no independent auto-mechanic shops, and there probably wouldn't be any dealer shops either; the answer to all problems would be `buy the new model'.

The interesting thing is that, I'm basically the analogue of an independent mechanic as far as software goes; said my wife, the other day:

It's so strange, having this thing that looks like something to me, but then you can just come over and stick your finger right through it.

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