[time-nuts] 1970's flashback

J. Forster jfor at quikus.com
Sun Jan 13 23:40:10 UTC 2013


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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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>
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