Also in 1985...the crash of a Delta Air Lines L-1011 in Dallas that killed 137.
There's always been a lot of speculation over how IBM gave up an entire industry (the personal computer) to a seemingly insignificant start-up (Microsoft). One theory is that may not have happened if Don Estridge hadn't been killed in that crash. More about him here:
"His most revolutionary move was to make the computer's design specifications public, allowing thousands of young people to write programs for the machine."
We take it for granted now, but before Don Estridge and the IBM PC, "proprietary" was the rule and "open" was the exception. RIP
I'm a former Google employee, they had a similar policy. There were no more than x employees per team allowed on the same plane, above a certain seniority level, only one per plane.
The irony is that there's no such policy for buses, which in many ways are less safe than planes. One catastrophic bus crash on the way to Tahoe could conceivably wipe out most of search quality, or any other department.
"Bill Gates then talked IBM into letting Microsoft retain the rights, to market MS-DOS separate from the IBM PC project, Gates and Microsoft proceeded to make a fortune from the licensing of MS-DOS"
That was of course way before Estridge got killed.
Also in 1985...the crash of a Delta Air Lines L-1011 in Dallas that killed 137.
There's always been a lot of speculation over how IBM gave up an entire industry (the personal computer) to a seemingly insignificant start-up (Microsoft). One theory is that may not have happened if Don Estridge hadn't been killed in that crash. More about him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Don_Estridge
and here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/05/us/philip-estridge-dies-in...
Of particular note:
"His most revolutionary move was to make the computer's design specifications public, allowing thousands of young people to write programs for the machine."
We take it for granted now, but before Don Estridge and the IBM PC, "proprietary" was the rule and "open" was the exception. RIP