[time-nuts] 1970's flashback

paul swed paulswedb at gmail.com
Mon Jan 14 21:10:59 UTC 2013


To the group
I really enjoyed the dropbox content. Pretty good pix and can't imagine
dragging that stuff around. That said its good that HP did spinoff T&M
otherwise it would be totally gone.
Now look at HP what a mess. Financial mis-engineering.
Regards
Paul
WB8TSL

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 1:03 AM, Scott McGrath <scmcgrath at gmail.com> wrote:

> All this ties back to the US fascination with financial engineering which
> got rolling in the 80's. and the deregulation of the financial markets.
>  Back when most companies were funded by debt   The banks had a vested
> interest (sic) in making sure companies had a healthy pipeline and good
> long term management practice otherwise they were not going to get paid
>
> Now it's all about manipulating the stock price for too many companies a
> prime example being Kodak. they killed a bunch of product lines which were
> generating a healthy operating profit. And broke businesses which depended
> on them. Just to cause a momentary jump in the stock price yes silver based
> photography is not the market it once was but there are segments which are
> relatively insensitive to price and those were profitable.  Kodak also
> killed professional digital products.  Including the best color printers
> out there if you had a picture at Disney it was printed on one of Kodaks
> printers.  And to add to the stupidity they did not even spin off the asset
> to another company.  They just left customers in the lurch
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 13, 2013, at 3:40 PM, "J. Forster" <jfor at quikus.com> wrote:
>
> > It's an unfortunate fact of life. When a technology company grows, sooner
> > or later the MBAs, lawyers, and vulture capitalists take over and the
> > priorities get set by them and the quarter-over-quarter performance,
> > rather that the science or engineering.
> >
> > I detest managers who believe that a person can competantly manage
> > anything, like a soft drink company, a sneaker company, or a high-tech
> > company. One size dies not fit all. Not even close.
> >
> > I often wonder what good ideas and inventions died on the boardroom
> floor.
> >
> > This issue is not, by any means, limited to HP/Agilent. Corporate
> raiders,
> > like Danaher, has done it to a bunch of companies, like Fluke and
> > Tektronix. And they are not alone. EG&G, TRW, and ITT are other examples.
> >
> > YMMV,
> >
> > -John
> >
> > =================
> >
> >
> >
> >> I imagine that Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard have been spinning in their
> >> graves for years, seeing what has become of their company. Why anyone
> >> thought it was a good idea to sell off the divisions that made "real"
> >> products and become a PC company is beyond my understanding.
> >>
> >> Years ago, I thought HP printers were top rate. I'm not even sure that
> >> is true any more.
> >>
> >> Joe Gray
> >> W5JG
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 6:44 AM, Volker Esper <ailer2 at t-online.de>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Thanks, Joe. Though I don't have such time equipment, the pictures are
> >>> fascinating me and make me recall the days when the name "HP" stood for
> >>> High
> >>> Precision (or High Price) rather than for cheap printers.
> >>> Those days are gone...
> >>>
> >>> Volker
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Am 13.01.2013 12:27, schrieb Dave Brown:
> >>>
> >>>> Thanks for these, Joe.
> >>>> The photo with the sign 'set your watch' is especially interesting for
> >>>> me as it shows a pair of old clock displays the same as one I have
> >>>> here.
> >>>> These are the two digital displays that are showing the same digits.
> >>>> There's part of a third one the same on the extreme left but the
> >>>> display
> >>>> on that one is not visible in the photo. My clock has a different
> >>>> mechanical dial on the ten turn pot at the extreme right of the front
> >>>> panel- otherwise the unit I have here looks identical to those in the
> >>>> photograph.
> >>>> I have never been able to track down any info on this unit. Mine came
> >>>> from a US military installation here in NZ (Black Birch) that has long
> >>>> since been shut down. It's certainly old technology- RCA 'numitron'
> >>>> displays and mostly TTL circuitry. I've had it running here
> >>>> continuously
> >>>> now for about six years driven from an HP 5245M timebase - the clock
> >>>> has
> >>>> never missed a beat. (recent quakes excepted ) Also. one of the
> >>>> newspaper cuttings in that collection you posted mentions the flying
> >>>> clock being down here in NZ to visit Mount John, a magnificent
> >>>> observatory site in South Canterbury. These days it's a well known
> >>>> astronomical observatory run as part of Canterbury University Physics
> >>>> Department.
> >>>> Dave Brown
> >>>> Christchurch, NZ
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph Gray" <jgray at zianet.com>
> >>>> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> >>>> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> >>>> Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 10:10 PM
> >>>> Subject: [time-nuts] 1970's flashback
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> Some time ago, a local Amateur gave me a CD with some radio related
> >>>>> information. Also on the CD was some information from when he was in
> >>>>> the Air Force. As it is Time Nuts related, some of you might find
> this
> >>>>> of interest. I have posted the images in my Dropbox and will leave
> >>>>> them there for a few days before removing them. Several images are
> >>>>> large.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ri8md891qne99vn/fuSDWspqWD
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Joe Gray
> >>>>> W5JG
> >>>>>
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>>> To unsubscribe, go to
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> >>>>> and follow the instructions there.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >
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