Hardware lust (was Re: The $100 laptop closer to reality)

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On 9/29/05, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:

> I look back at my alma mater years later and wonder what its reputation would
> be if it had spent, say, a mere $2 million a year attracting the 10 to 15 best
> & brightest scholars into its then-emerging computer science department?  It
> did in fact author a handful of the standards which define today's Internet
> RFC's.  But it could have done *so* much more if it had acted in those early
> pre-Microsoft days on a vision of academic excellence rather than a mere lust
> for hardware.

Not disagreeing with your comments on ill-advised computer purchases. 
But unless
you are talking about the paper tape era, that $2M is more likely to
have been able
to cover 4-8 additional faculty when you consider benefits, lab space,
grad student stipends,
etc....

Bill Bogstad