Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anybody'” (1996)

Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by taeric on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @12:18PM (#18123018)

I think the point is that my children will likely never know what a television tuned to a dead channel looks like. I've almost forgotten, myself.

I say that as someone that finds that line rather nice.

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by SuperPaintMan on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @12:38PM (#18123263)

You reminded me of a post JWZ made a while back with a TV in his bar. It's neat how these things can be embedded into our collective experince.

(Copy and paste the link, referrer shenanigans.) https://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/01/snow-crash-simulated/

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by taeric on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @03:11PM (#18124745)

I didn't realize newer televisions simulated the static. That is rather amusing, in many ways.

Also, thanks for mentioning the copy/paste referrer nonsense. Didn't realize they blocked referred links from here and was curious what the reference was for a time. :)

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by InternetOfStuff on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @02:11PM (#18133009)

> I say that as someone that finds that line rather nice.

It is a very nice line.

However, it's dated to the point of losing its meaning.

Like rotary phones :-)

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by notheruser on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @04:13PM (#18125305)

A television tuned to a dead channel looks like the HBO logo... A quick google search said it was still in use as of 2015.

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by taeric on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @04:48PM (#18125565)

What? I was assuming it meant a static "white noise" image. And... yeah, I remember them happening. But in modern transmission systems, that is a complete fabrication. There is nothing about getting white noise to transmit to look like that, and it in fact takes more effort to create such a screen.

Last television I hooked up using a digital antenna would simply not show anything if the signal didn't exist. If you had poor signal, you'd get more compression artifacts. Nothing there should translate to the white noise image.

Right?

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by staticman2 on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:28PM (#18126240)

Type in HBO Static Intro and you'll see what I mean. Example on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC_uTMkmH08

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by taeric on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:35PM (#18126286)

OK, yeah. I know what static is. It isn't like HBO invented that. So, back to the original point. I suspect that it is a short matter of time before nobody really knows what that is anymore. My kids have certainly never seen it. And it is no longer what a television on a "dead" channel shows.

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by notheruser on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @08:16AM (#18129421)

My point was only that if your kids watch HBO they do know what the image in Neuromancer looks like, even if they don't realize what the HBO logo was based on.

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Re:Bill Gates: “I never said '640K should be enough for anyb... by taeric on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @09:46AM (#18130099)

But that fails. The line is that it looks like a television tuned to a dead channel. Not that it looks like a television during the HBO logo.

Could they research it and find the answer? Yes. But that is different from just knowing it.

This makes it unlike the stage imagery, which is still accurate.

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