Some must have wished they never said it on reflection . . .

Everything that can be invented has been invented.

- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.

- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the future of technology, 1949

I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year.

- editor of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

But what . . . is it good for?

- engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, on the microchip.

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.

- Ken Olson, founder, president and chairman of the Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

. . . while others never seem to learn . . .

DOS addresses only 1 Megabyte of RAM because we cannot imagine any applications needing more.

- Microsoft, 1980

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, 1981

Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM which is more than any application will ever need.

- Microsoft, 1992

. . . and the future? Nanotechnology could make a single desktop machine as powerfull as ALL the computers which existed at the turn of the millenium . . .

Small devices the size of a pocket calculator could readily contain the information and knowledge of every volume in the Library of Congress.

- Nanotechnology: The Library of Congress in Your Pocket, Roberta Wallis, Information Systems Analyst, Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, 1992