Bidding Against NASA

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Mon May 13 13:37:42 2002

If you've taken any journalism courses, you know that many journalists are
idiots, even about journalism. Why should they be different than any other
profession?

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas H. Quebbeman" <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
To: "ClassicCmp List" <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: Bidding Against NASA


> > My guess is that the reporter failed to grasp that they are probably
> > looking for milspec parts, as opposed to the common stuff found in PCs and
> > whatnot. These of course would be far harder to find in quantity.
> >
> > I don't doubt that they are also looking for regular parts for test
> > systems as well. I know they are using a lot of older systems. Last year
> > I did a data recovery job for them where the data was 8080 assembly code.
>
> God knows, reporters are idiots about everything except journalism,
> and who cares except another journalist. But this reporter made a
> point of stating that the stuff most people have in their basements
> doesn't qualify as NASA-sought-after...
>
> Yes, agencies like this may once upon a time have relied upon
> milspec parts, JUST AS THEY USED TO RELY ON SECOND-SOURCING,
> which we all know died some time ago.
>
> Where else ya gonna get a Pentium? P-II, P-III, or P-IV?
>
> But clearly, as they buy only in bulk from "qualified"
> suppliers, no one on the list other than Sellam might
> have what they want in bulk.
>
> However, this could still put pressure on the supplies of
> stuff that we like to collect. Think about the effect as
> it propagates upstream...
>
> -dq
>
>
Received on Mon May 13 2002 - 13:37:42 BST