There cannot be many people who have not heard what Decca Records said about the Beatles.

But, just in case, the company turned down the chance to sign the group with the comment: 'Guitar music is on the way out.'

People have been opening their mouths and inserting a foot for as long as anyone can remember.

Some of the more memorable include: A Western Union employee wrote in 1876: 'This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.

'The device is inherently of no value to us.'

The editor of Popular Mechanics magazine did a good job of forecasting the relentless march of science when, in 1949 he wrote that: 'Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.'

The editor in charge of business books for publishers Prentice Hall obviously agreed.

In 1957 he wrote: 'I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year.'

'There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home,' wrote Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. in 1977.

'The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.

'Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?' argued an unknown businessman when asked if he would invest money in the radio in the 1920s.

'The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible.'

A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing a reliable overnight delivery service.

Smith went on to found Federal Express.

'Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.' Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society, 1895.

'If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment.

'The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this.'

Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M 'Post-It' Notepads.

'Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.'

Marchal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

'Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.'

Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.

'The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.'

Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

And, of course, returning to computers, the most famous one of all: '640K (of computer) memory ought to be enough for anybody,' Bill Gates, 1981.