Professional DevExpress™ ASP.NET Controls

Chapter 8. Implementing Data Solutions with the ASPxPivotGrid

I took the whole family to Washington D.C. for a vacation in 2001. We had an itinerary that included staying at the wonderful Watergate hotel in a suite on the Potomac side; touring the White House; seeing Mozart's Marriage of Figaro at the Kennedy Center, and visiting several of the museums in the Smithsonian complex. We were able to do everything except go to the Kennedy Center; Mozart was sold out. The opera was replaced with a trip on the Metro to see the Ringling Brothers. (I think the kids enjoyed that more, anyway.)

I recall that at the Smithsonian Natural Museum of American History we saw the Fonz's jacket (played by Henry Winkler on Happy Days), the Howdy Doody puppet, and an Altair MITS. The Altair was a blue box with lights. My recollection of this nascent period of the microcomputer industry is that the Altair was the first complete microcomputer kit, and it was the first microcomputer to have Microsoft software, a version of BASIC. The early version of BASIC made the lights blink, and the user had to interpret the meaning of the lights. I recall that microcomputers didn't seem to hit the mainstream consciousness until computers with monitors and keyboards existed and Lotus 1-2-3 started flying off the shelves. This interval spanned roughly 1975 to 1985 (or a little later).

Lotus 1-2-3 was the brainchild of Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs. Lotus 1-2-3 was a spreadsheet application and was instrumental in helping ...