Talk:Ken Olsen/Archives/2014
 | This is an archive of past discussions about Ken Olsen. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Removed "No reason" for computer in the home quote
I have temporarily removed the section on the claimed "no reason" for computers in the home quote. The citations given for the "infamous quote" are of inadequate quality. The material is potentially libellous. Wikipedia's policy Wikipedia:Verifiability#Questionable_sources directs us to remove such unsourced material. To be quite clear, the citations given do not support the claims made - they support the claim that someone else believes that Olsen said what is claimed, but we are still non the wiser as to where these _beliefs_ came from. The BBC article cited simply claims that Gordon Frazer believes (how?) that Ken Olsen said something. No citation is given for an actual news source or interview or record of who it was that recorded this comment. The website "snopes.com" whose tag-line is "rumor has it" is about as far from a "reliable source" (see Wikipedia:Reliable_sources) as you can imagine.
This is an important quotation and should be restored but only if proper citations can be given. See WP:ProveIt and WP:Burden and the Wikipedia policy on biographies of living persons.
A recent contributor made a number of worthwhile changes that included claims that Olsen was quoted out of context, which is quite possibly the case. The title "business missteps" was and is completely inappropriate, as no claim was made that any action by Olsen was in some way a "business misstep". The story of the growth of the legend of the supposed quote might well be worthy of discussion, but not under such a libellous heading.CecilWard (talk) 11:02, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Removed "and are indeed among the least understood in the industry" because these are weasel words. Removed "and promulgated the idea" as there is conflicting evidence for his advocacy of PCs; his NY Time obituary (reference 11) quotes him being dismissive of them.
Generally, the lack of any criticism of Olsen here, especially his role in the rapid decline of DEC, threatens the objectivity of this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.73.251.26 (talk) 14:11, 20 August 2014 (UTC)