|
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
|
Re: [PLUG] OSX "middleware"?
|
Mr. Magill,
You're a cop. You should understand that anal retentiveness is
actually a virtue in some circumstances.
Before I was a teacher, I was an engineer and before that I was in
the military. Both of my previous employments required a certain
anal retentiveness as a survival trait.
You are correct though. Just because reform is necessary does not mean
that it will happen. The Dowager Empress did a whole lot of executing
of even her own sons and grandsons among others to prevent China from
reforming with truly tragic effects to the whole 20th Century of Chinese
history. The course of reform does not pass through what is logically
needed, it passes through whoever does the right job of popularizing.
Martin Luther succeeded where Johannes Huss and Salvonora were burned
and Saint Francis was co-opted.
bs
On Fri, 25 Feb 2005, William H. Magill wrote:
> On 25 Feb, 2005, at 08:51, Art Alexion wrote:
> > I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but these sorts of marketing
> > decisions that override engineering considerations fascinate me.
>
> Throughout history, Marketing has always trumped Engineering.
>
> Ford may have been first, but GM became the automotive powerhouse
> solely because marketing decided that people wanted something other
> than "black." Chrysler "always" had the best engineered cars, but
> nobody managed to sell them. Detroit forgot what marketing was all
> about and ceded their dominance to Japan and Germany.
>
> Univac's was always considered superior to IBM -- except that Univac
> was run by engineers who had no clue about how to sell what they had.
> IBM did.
>
> Back in those days of heady engineering accomplishments, there was IBM
> and the BUNCH --
> Burroughs, Univac, NCR, CDC, Honeywell
>
> ... guess which company is still around today.
>
> Digital died primarily because it could not market its way out of a
> paper bag. They passed that disease along to Compaq who passed it along
> to HP.
>
> Neither Michael Dell nor Bill gates are "Engineering Giants" -- but
> both are marketing geniuses.
>
> The only reason that Linux became a household word was because a
> certain evangelist [who, I think is still on this list :)] got Linus on
> the Cover of Forbes, Fortune and Time (I think those were the covers).
> And as they say, the rest is history. [Many of us in DECUS had long
> before recognized what Linux was all about, but the marketing folks in
> DEC could only say "VMS." Finally, after much finagling, Maddog managed
> to get him an Alpha to develop on. And early versions of Linux were
> ported from Alpha to x86 as a result.]
>
> Jobs is an interesting situation. He himself is a brilliant marketer
> who happens to also understand how to hire brilliant Engineers. Despite
> his anal retentiveness, he seems to be giving both Gates and Dell a run
> for their money. ... Is he hatching another "oh by the way" deal with
> Sony based on the new Cell processor? We'll see if the next Mac comes
> with a Blue-Ray or HD-DVD drive option, or is plug compatible with the
> PS3.
>
> T.T.F.N.
> William H. Magill
> magill@mcgillsociety.org
> magill@acm.org
> magill@mac.com
> whmagill@gmail.com
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
|
|