Did anyone follow the "Bail Out"?

[3v0]

It was said that you would never be fired for buying an IBM computer. But in the engineering world it was well know that IBM was far from the bleeding edge. Like MS their products were a collection of ideas for elsewhere. An like MS IBM had good lawyers.

If MS were to stop business today I am willing to bet that the number of programming jobs in non-developing nations would drop big time. To be competitive the new companies would have to use the cheapest labor possible

Do I like the way MS does/did business. No. But we have exported so many hi-tech jobs that I do not think we can afford to loose many more. And MS employees a lot of people.

In regards to "Bill and Dave". I wish these guys had lived to be 200. But it would be wrong to think they did not spend time greasing the right wheels. It is part of doing business in our political world.

3v0

 

[mramos1]

I wonder if the HP founders would be upset to hear the "basic" printer drivers for new printers are 200 meg and 400 meg now. But you can not kill the printer, you get rid of it when the ink price is too high or not made any more.

MS does not care how big the OS is.. Just get a faster import PC and more memory.

Anyway, on the bailout, I would not have done it. We need to get lean here in the USA. Overweight people, video games taking over, people not working because taxes allow it, cell phone mania, etc. What is weird, people that do not have jobs do have cell phones?

Is it like this in the UK and other places? Or just US.

 

[Mikebits]

I had the fortune of meeting Mr. Packard very briefly before he passed away. Mountain of a man, he seemed bigger than life even at his old age at that time. Very impressive man. I am sure he is rolling in his grave to see what has been done to his company. The test equip portion of the company was its bread and butter, and what started the company. Their first product was an audio osc designed in a garage and sold to the military.

My sister worked for HP as a sw developer for 20 yrs, and was laid off in the last big shakeup. The new CEO has all but destroyed the HP of old...

 

[mramos1]

Funny how those moments stick with you.

I was in Atlanta Ga. for a class on the DEC (Digital Equipment Corp) VAX/VMS system. Walking down the hall on my way to have lunch, I met a fellow named Ken Olsen. We chatted (he wanted to know where I was from and how things where going) and he took me to lunch. Guy was larger than life as well. He was one of the founders of DEC (the main fellow).

Things where a lot different back then. Owners in the building checking out things, buying lunch for customers.

I would guess the PC killed them too.

 

[Ubergeek63]

If MS were to stop business today I am willing to bet that the number of programming jobs in non-developing nations would drop big time. To be competitive the new companies would have to use the cheapest labor possible

I still maintain that some years ago, around 9/11, a bunch of morons could have done the US economy a lot more damage in Redmond than they could ever have achieved in Washington...