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Published 10:39 pm Thursday, April 1, 2010
PC or not PC? Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, who developed an early personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800, died Thursday. It was an article about building the do-it-yourself Altair in Popular Electronics that inspired Bill Gates and Paul Allen to launch Microsoft in 1975.
Imagine how different the world would be today if Gates and Allen had instead decided to build the disco strobe light that was in the same issue.
Chocks away: After the Pentagon said it would give Boeing’s competitor, EADS, 60 additional days to submit a bid to build the Air Force’s long-delayed fleet of aerial refueling tankers, Boeing said it would “review its options,” corporatespeak for “Release the lawyers.”
If you’ve forgotten how long Boeing and EADS have battled for this contract, consider that the fleet of tankers being replaced are two biplanes with 5-gallon gas tanks tied to their sides.
No, the other nasty girl: The Republican National Committee was embarrassed this week when it learned that a fundraising letter it sent to potential donors gave an incorrect phone number that connected them with a phone sex line that promised “live one-on-one talk with a nasty girl” for $2.99 a minute.
Red-faced, the Republicans said it was an honest mistake; they meant to provide the number for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
