I used to write speeches and Congressional testimonies for the senior officers in my company. I was insane for high-availability computing because when the deadline comes, the bosses don't want to hear that "the computer's down." I had logins on four physically separate mainframe computers. After I finished a speech on one, I'd use a dialup feature inside the computer to move it to all the others--and I sat there watching the speech go over, byte by byte. I had access to a LAN at home and another LAN in the office, but I kept modems and even acoustic couplers at home and office in case the LANs went down. My basement was full of spare modems, terminals and mother boards.

Then, when we got PC's in '87, I found that I could simply copy the speeches on a floppy disc and carry spare floppies in my briefcase. If my PC at the office or home went down, I could simply drive to the nearest AT&T building, seize an unused PC, plug in my floppy--and work. No more mainframes.