There are a couple of items which I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere... I believe IBM invented the underlying technology that became Sony BetaMax - Sony opted to keep the format proprietary, thus expensive. The competing format went open - everybody made that format - thus machines were less expensive, and well... I know...few of us even remember video tapes these days, much less BetaMax!
Another one is the handy-dandy barcodes that are now on the packaging of just about EVERYTHING you buy, and the technology to scan it. RFID too, I think... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
