Finally gone...

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Fri Mar 6 20:44:33 1998

At 03:15 PM 3/6/98 -0500, you wrote:
>For quite a few years, one bit of folklore that has popped up on a regular
>basis is that of old IBM dinosaurs running our air traffic control system.
>Well, I was just wasting some (work)time now looking at some recent
>threads on <bit.listserv.ibm-main>, and it is fairly clear that the 9020s
>are now all gone after probably too many years of service.
>
>The interesting thing is that the machines that replaced them, 3083s, are
>also now considered classics.


   That's what you would referr to as using proven technology!

  This reminds me of a story about the HP calculators. When the HP 35
calculator came out some of the US Army artillery men at Ft. Sill saw how
fast they were and their accuracy so they put in a requision to buy a bunch
of them. The Department of Defense liked the idea but they had to have a
feasibilty study to justify the purchase, so they spent $150,000 for a
study that took two years and end the end the study did show the costs of
the purchase to be justified. Next, the army went to HP to buy some HP 35s
but they found out that the 35 had been discontinued and had been replaced
by the HP 45. They tried the HP 45 and found that it was even better, so
they requested that the HP 45 be purchased instead. Again the DOD liked
the idea so they commissioned another $150,000 study to justify the
purchase of HP 45s. After a year and a half, this study also found the
purchase to be justified. The army then went back to HP to purchase their
HP 45s and .... You guessed it, the 45 had been discontinued and had been
replaced by the HP 55. So the army requested that HP 55s be purchased. The
DOD commissioned a third study (only $100,000 this time, the beltway
bandits had this down pat!) to justify this purchase. This time the study
only took a year. Again the army personnel rushed to HP to buy HP
calculators, only to find out that the HP 55 had been discontinued! The
artillerymen gave up and went back to their charts and tables!

  Joe

>
>William Donzelli
>william_at_ans.net
>
>
Received on Fri Mar 06 1998 - 20:44:33 GMT