Anecdote of the Week

In the 1980s, IBM engineer Mark Dean ran into a seemingly insoluble problem: the IBM PC computer didn’t have enough ports to connect a printer, keyboard, mouse, and other external devices. Dean proposed to design an innovative solution, the now known “System Bus”. This revolutionary interface became an industry standard and allowed multiple devices to be connected to a single computer.

One day, while testing new technology, Dean realized he couldn’t find the printer cable. He didn’t want to interrupt the test, so he decided to use a piece of copper wire to connect the printer to the computer. Surprisingly, it worked. This unplanned discovery led to the innovation of “Plug and Play”. Dean’s unexpected experiment revealed that the computer could automatically detect and install connected devices, transforming the way we interact with technology.