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Someone at SGI wrote a paper/web page/blog post titled "Pecked To Death By Ducks", claiming that x86 chips could never compete with SGI, and claiming to refute all the arguments that they could.

Then Intel introduced dual core (or maybe just two chips in one housing sharing a bus), and that generated a lot of buzz. So he wrote a follow-up titled "Pecked To Death By Ducks With Two Bills".

I don't recall the timing, though, how it related to the timing of asking everyone to read The Innovator's Dilemma. But at least some of the time, there was a pretty deep denial (or at least a pretty deep effort to keep the customers in denial).




A bit like Seymour Cray's plowing a field with 1024 chickens instead of two oxen.


That’s really funny for some reason.


IIRC, "Pecked to Death by Ducks" is the title of either a short (nonfiction) story or a book by Gerald Durrell, one of my favorite childhood authors.


I don't recall that one, and I thought I knew Gerald Durrell's work pretty thoroughly. There is a book of that title by Tim Cahill, though; maybe that's what you're remembering?


Yesss! Thank you. I'm embarrassed because I used to have that one, too :)

On the upside, I've never known anyone else who had even heard of Durrell.


I would have thought that lots of folks had watched the "The Durrells in Corfu" TV series (PBS Masterpiece Theatre) and then did some research on the family.

I don't know whether this is available online, but I can recommend it as a pleasant programme, with lovely scenery, interesting storylines, and engaging actors.


Lawrence is probably better known.




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