On Jun 13, 2013, at 2:37 PM, "JOANNA A." <[email protected]> wrote:
> Someone from Tandem just self-published a book about that company's golden > years. I worked there for a couple of years (85-87), and boy, were they > golden. A friend went to Tandem after NCR, in the days when NCR MEANS COMPUTERS bloviated on the Huntly-Brinkley News. As I understand it, Tandem was bent on fault free execution of software (primarily for banks). Fault tolerant or fault free is a commendable goal, regardless of the end application. NCR was forced to leave computers because it 1) failed to fire and correct quality control employees who purchased substandard materials rejected by NCR and then resold it to NCR and passed it. (I kniw because I exposed and reported it.) And 2) could not come up with an inexpensive, fast memory (I know because I was the QC analyst assigned to it). Many engineers fled to Xerox, became involved in PARC, and fled elsewhere when Apple traded stock for a peek and use of PARC's innovations, saw its value and turned the tech world upside down. I think both Tandem and Apple treated comfort of the end user as the primary goal of the company, Tandem in terms of zero errors and Apple in terms of demystification of the technology and ease of use while still maintaining end accuracy. Until recently, Microsoft was the king of copying others' success. They now are on the road to oblivion while Samsung is picking up their discarded top hats. It's curious to watch the big publishing firms buckle under a bit if aggression from Obama's corrupt DOJ, while Apple hangs in there like a Headwaters Forest activist tied to a 1000 year old redwood tree. Apple is currently single handedly encourage a corrupt, purchased (by other corporations, not Apple) Congress to rewrite the arcane, obtuse, unfair and cumbersome stupid tax laws. As portions of the world abandon the dollar as a reserve currency, why would any sane person move safe currency earned elsewhere INTO the US? I don't think any other American company has had as much impact on recognizing and improving worker rights in third world countries as has Apple. Every so often I write Apple's management and urge them to come up with an app that allows citizens to vote democratically and without taint so we can abandon the unworkable, purchasable representative democracy that has led us into so many worthless wars and the poisoning of our lives and that of the planet. As the world succumbs to renegade, conscience-less corporados, I believe people of good will but with no financial acumen should latch onto the progress of talented people who thrive in the corporate world and who actually give a shit. Dan Scanlan _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
