Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
2
The idea of creating a small desktop computer for personal use
did not occur to Kutt suddenly. It was, rather, an evolutionary
process powered by his expert knowledge of the computer field,
his innate technical curiosity, and, most of all, by his cease-
less search for new ways of making people's interaction with
computers more user-friendly in large organizations such as
universities.
Kutt knew and understood academia as well as he did the
computer business. He had earned his Bachelor of Arts degree
in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Toronto in
1956. After graduation, he did some electronic circuit design
and analysis work at the Advanced Development Laboratory
of Philips Electronics Industries Ltd, but soon moved to
IBM
Canada as an applied science representative. It was not only
IBM
's computer technology that mesmerized him. “In about
the second week up there [at
IBM
],” recalled Kutt, “I'm having
lunch with a branch manager and a bunch of customer people,
getting a shrimp cocktail, which I don't think I'd ever had in my
life, roast beef, prime rib, I'm into a new world!” It was a new
world indeed for twenty-four-year-old Kutt - a sharp contrast
with the not-so-distant past when, at age eight, “he was selling
newspapers at three cents apiece at the corner of Dundas and
Spadina.”
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