Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Then at 8:00 on the dot the Jehovas Witnesses recruitment corps which triggered me into a furious rant about their pedo doomsday cult and suggesting that I roll up the watch tower and smoke it because it’ll be better for my general health than the words in it.

If religion wasn't against this forum's rules (hint hint), I'd relate the unpublished backstory as to what lead to Yasmin Gibson becoming the first "home alone" mother.

[tautech]

Tangentially TEA related. Well I got woken up by a car alarm going off at 05:30. someone else resolved this with a brick after 40 minutes plus some shouting and then the arrival of a police car. Then at 8:00 on the dot the Jehovas Witnesses recruitment corps which triggered me into a furious rant about their pedo doomsday cult and suggesting that I roll up the watch tower and smoke it because it’ll be better for my general health than the words in it.  Now I’ve got to go out and find some meat because all the bloody shops are shut because someone wrote in a book 2000 odd years ago that some dude that pissed off the Romans magically came alive again. The marketoids somehow managed to relate this to chocolate eggs which means the kids are going to be sick later.

So the TEA link. There’s bugger all that appears this Sunday on eBay ever. Grr. Because people have better things to do apparently. How dare they. Plus deliveries are whacked for the next couple of days which means I can’t complete anything I have on the go

Perhaps I should try and clean the vertical pots on my 465...

Had a visit from the JW's 2 weeks ago lucky I was 30M away in the shack or I might have invited them in for coffee and special muffins 

If/when I'm unlucky enough to be cornered by them I always greet them nicely and comment on the weather, then briefly explain that they'ed be better off spreading their word elsewhere as I'm a practicing heathen ! 
The young ones 'just don't get it' but they move along when the older ones lake the lead.
Try it some time. 

[bd139]

I know some of the darker things that go on under the name of JW. They don’t deserve that respect.

Then at 8:00 on the dot the Jehovas Witnesses recruitment corps which triggered me into a furious rant about their pedo doomsday cult and suggesting that I roll up the watch tower and smoke it because it’ll be better for my general health than the words in it.

If religion wasn't against this forum's rules (hint hint), I'd relate the unpublished backstory as to what lead to Yasmin Gibson becoming the first "home alone" mother.

I remember all that. That wouldn’t surprise me if that was related and I can infer how.

Keeping it TEA I located some meat and will be suitably powered up to attempt to refurbish the vertical pots on my 465. They’re the older one which have a simple screw and nut holding them together rather than the later Bourns ones which were riveted.

[beanflying]

Our Neighbors in my late Teens had a Son who was a JW who I finished up travelling to Uni with for a few years for 45 minutes each way. We just figured out that neither of us needed to be converted 

Mitch is currently living on a Boat in a River very much not JW material 

[Specmaster]

I know some of the darker things that go on under the name of JW. They don’t deserve that respect.

Then at 8:00 on the dot the Jehovas Witnesses recruitment corps which triggered me into a furious rant about their pedo doomsday cult and suggesting that I roll up the watch tower and smoke it because it’ll be better for my general health than the words in it.

If religion wasn't against this forum's rules (hint hint), I'd relate the unpublished backstory as to what lead to Yasmin Gibson becoming the first "home alone" mother.

I remember all that. That wouldn’t surprise me if that was related and I can infer how.

Keeping it TEA I located some meat and will be suitably powered up to attempt to refurbish the vertical pots on my 465. They’re the older one which have a simple screw and nut holding them together rather than the later Bourns ones which were riveted.

Until the police take you away for throwing the brick at your neighbours cars🤣

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

Wasn’t me guv

Look what appeared on eBay https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222905807792

[Specmaster]

Wasn’t me guv

Look what appeared on eBay https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222905807792

That has to be an April fools joke🤣

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[tggzzz]

Wasn’t me guv

Look what appeared on eBay https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222905807792

That has to be an April fools joke

Maybe not; googling for "Hewlett-Packard 19511-80014" gives three relevant hits.

But I suspect the price is a joke.

EDIT: and "HP 19511-80014" gives more, including
https://lists.gt.net/ntop/users/26870
rick.jones2 at hp May 31, 2011, 4:09 PM Post #18 of 24 (6030 views)
On Tue, 2011-05-31 at 17:48 -0500, Gary Gatten wrote:
> This is the output from the source of the netflow packets; so not much goodness - just badness
Clearly I need to visit and apply HP P/N 19511-80014 Another web search for you.

I wonder how long such Google searches will work, given that they are "prioritising new content"

EDIT2: and forcing google to search usenet shows other references, but all tied to a rick jones that seems to have worked at HP.

Yes, it is a slow Easter Sunday. I went to a Maplin to see if they had some useful floor sweepings - but they were shut along with all other nearby shops; what gives?

[Specmaster]

It seems that the 30" monitor I have awaiting parts for, actually requires the use of a DVD-D cable and will work NOT with a DVD-I cable, so new cable on order and we'll know for sure if it works or not with-in a few days.

[Cerebus]

Wasn’t me guv

Look what appeared on eBay https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222905807792

Odd. I'd have expected the seller's name to have 'smith' somewhere in it or a reference to a TW postcode...

[Specmaster]

That would be too obvious, might his account he keeps specially for pulling pranks like this and the collection from Bristol is a red herring 

[mnementh]

While NOT buying Uni-T crud my uv ex scanner pcb box is going along.

Heh... I remember back in the day, making a lightbox for tracing photos into art projects the same way. Used the CCFL tubes & HV converters out of the same scanner to do it; worked a treat and all for a fiver from the Good&BadWill.

Tangentially TEA related. Well I got woken up by a car alarm going off at 05:30. someone else resolved this with a brick after 40 minutes plus some shouting and then the arrival of a police car. Then at 8:00 on the dot the Jehovas Witnesses recruitment corps which triggered me into a furious rant about their pedo doomsday cult and suggesting that I roll up the watch tower and smoke it because it’ll be better for my general health than the words in it.  Now I’ve got to go out and find some meat because all the bloody shops are shut because someone wrote in a book 2000 odd years ago that some dude that pissed off the Romans magically came alive again. The marketoids somehow managed to relate this to chocolate eggs which means the kids are going to be sick later.

So the TEA link. There’s bugger all that appears this Sunday on eBay ever. Grr. Because people have better things to do apparently. How dare they. Plus deliveries are whacked for the next couple of days which means I can’t complete anything I have on the go

Perhaps I should try and clean the vertical pots on my 465...

Had a visit from the JW's 2 weeks ago lucky I was 30M away in the shack or I might have invited them in for coffee and special muffins 

If/when I'm unlucky enough to be cornered by them I always greet them nicely and comment on the weather, then briefly explain that they'ed be better off spreading their word elsewhere as I'm a practicing heathen ! 
The young ones 'just don't get it' but they move along when the older ones lake the lead.
Try it some time. 

https://youtu.be/Afk9p3LhrtA

"Can you spare a moment to talk about God?"

"Can you spare a moment to talk about my boils? I've got this one on my big toe that just won't go away..." 

No, seriously; this guy's got the right idea; if you have the time, be willing to take it and offer them an alternative viewpoint. If not, (and it seems they do have a tendency to pick the exact moment to knock on the door when you're up to your armpits in the middle of a half-dozen annoying things all at once) just tell them "No, thank you."

Most of them are teenage kids doing the missionary work that is required of them in their religion; our religions have their own practices that others find equally weird and off-putting. They usually don't know anything about public speaking, they're nervous as hell and and most of them are trying to convince themselves of what they're preaching as much as they are trying to convince you.

As I recall from the history books, Western religion was a little bit pushier back in the day; what with all those Crusades and errant knights and their "Convert or DIE" BS. We westerners have a LOT of accumulated cultural Karma to work off; take a moment, burn off your fair share.   

Wasn’t me guv

Look what appeared on eBay https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222905807792

That has to be an April fools joke

Maybe not; googling for "Hewlett-Packard 19511-80014" gives three relevant hits.

But I suspect the price is a joke.

EDIT: and "HP 19511-80014" gives more, including
https://lists.gt.net/ntop/users/26870
rick.jones2 at hp May 31, 2011, 4:09 PM Post #18 of 24 (6030 views)
On Tue, 2011-05-31 at 17:48 -0500, Gary Gatten wrote:
> This is the output from the source of the netflow packets; so not much goodness - just badness
Clearly I need to visit and apply HP P/N 19511-80014 Another web search for you.

I wonder how long such Google searches will work, given that they are "prioritising new content"

EDIT2: and forcing google to search usenet shows other references, but all tied to a rick jones that seems to have worked at HP.

Yes, it is a slow Easter Sunday. I went to a Maplin to see if they had some useful floor sweepings - but they were shut along with all other nearby shops; what gives?

Hmmm... I just completed a similar Google-Fu and returned with a few similar finds attached below; it appears Rick Jones was fluent in and frequently recommended judicious application of the "Hewlett-Packard 19511-80014 Attitude Adjuster".

Interestingly enough, I spent some time working as a HP Field ASP and had my own exposure to "The HP Way" (Now there's a cult that rivals JW in its own right; but in a generally more productive manner); I still have my blue shirts in the back of the closet and I did appreciate the generally calm and informative nature of my dealings with their corporate support mechanism. That experience was what I have based my definition of the term "professional" upon ever since.

Alas, that was not to last; as by the time I'd just started my networking with them, that Carly Fiorina's "batsh** crazy" had started filtering down the ranks and everybody I knew wound up either "no longer working with us" or on permanent furlough. It wasn't much longer before the entire division I worked with just vaporized and they started contracting out to Source Support; whom I absolutely refused to work with after getting shafted for a number of parts returns.

However... to bring this full-circle... after that bit of historical and edificational Googlage, I do finally get what my primary Support Contact "AJ" meant SPECIFICALLY when he quipped once that she (Fiorina) was in dire need of lavish application of the HP "Stick of Wisdom". 

*Raises a glass in memory of his once-colleagues at HP* "To better times and better fortune..."

It seems that the 30" monitor I have awaiting parts for, actually requires the use of a DVD-D cable and will work NOT with a DVD-I cable, so new cable on order and we'll know for sure if it works or not with-in a few days.

Yeah, these monitors are Digital-ONLY; no DVI-A functionality and they have the analog pins moved to serve as audio. The DVI-D to HDMI adapter cable should be on your list as well; if your monitor has speakers, this is often the only way to get them to work.

Good to hear you finally got your board in! I'll keep my fingers crossed; do you at least get raster and menu?


Happy Easter from Tejas everybody,


mnem
*Currently in a diabetic coma*

[Cerebus]

HP were going to sponsor me at college. In the end I turned it down as I didn't want to make a future commitment to work for them in a future that, at that age, seemed a long time away. I think I dodged a bullet - it's been hard enough watching HP die and shrivel from the outside, I suspect that watching it die from the inside would have been far, far too painful.

[tggzzz]

"Can you spare a moment to talk about God?"

Know their languages and sources is helpful. I've managed to get street corner preachers to decide to vacate their pitch - merely by getting their kids to think about what they were reading in their religious sources. And the last front-door annoyance was foolish enough to bring her daughter - who ended up asking her mother incredulously "does the bible really say that?". (Don't trust me: read it for yourself).

Interestingly enough, I spent some time working as a HP Field ASP and had my own exposure to "The HP Way" (Now there's a cult that rivals JW in its own right; but in a generally more productive manner); I still have my blue shirts in the back of the closet and I did appreciate the generally calm and informative nature of my dealings with their corporate support mechanism. That experience was what I have based my definition of the term "professional" upon ever since.

Blue shirts were IBM. HP had T shirts

My first experience of HP was that they repeatedly and unnecessarily went out their way to dig us out of a hole when a piece of equipment failed.

Alas, that was not to last; as by the time I'd just started my networking with them, that Carly Fiorina's "batsh** crazy" had started filtering down the ranks and everybody I knew wound up either "no longer working with us" or on permanent furlough. It wasn't much longer before the entire division I worked with just vaporized and they started contracting out to Source Support; whom I absolutely refused to work with after getting shafted for a number of parts returns.

Fiorina explicitly declared that "the HP Way is dead", and replaced it with "The Rules of the Garage".

[mnementh]

"Can you spare a moment to talk about God?"

Know their languages and sources is helpful. I've managed to get street corner preachers to decide to vacate their pitch - merely by getting their kids to think about what they were reading in their religious sources. And the last front-door annoyance was foolish enough to bring her daughter - who ended up asking her mother incredulously "does the bible really say that?". (Don't trust me: read it for yourself).

Interestingly enough, I spent some time working as a HP Field ASP and had my own exposure to "The HP Way" (Now there's a cult that rivals JW in its own right; but in a generally more productive manner); I still have my blue shirts in the back of the closet and I did appreciate the generally calm and informative nature of my dealings with their corporate support mechanism. That experience was what I have based my definition of the term "professional" upon ever since.

Blue shirts were IBM. HP had T shirts

My first experience of HP was that they repeatedly and unnecessarily went out their way to dig us out of a hole when a piece of equipment failed.

Alas, that was not to last; as by the time I'd just started my networking with them, that Carly Fiorina's "batsh** crazy" had started filtering down the ranks and everybody I knew wound up either "no longer working with us" or on permanent furlough. It wasn't much longer before the entire division I worked with just vaporized and they started contracting out to Source Support; whom I absolutely refused to work with after getting shafted for a number of parts returns.

Fiorina explicitly declared that "the HP Way is dead", and replaced it with "The Rules of the Garage".

I have very little use for organized religion in general; that doesn't mean I haven't read the Bible. I have several times in hopes of inspiration; I find that the only parts I can relate to are the individual Parables, which historically speaking, are the only thing in there that actually came from Jesus, the man who trod this Earth.

Those parts I can get behind; the rest I see as mostly just a multi-millennial political power play. If religion wants to play in politics, let them pay the price of admission just like me: Pay your taxes.




Here's a thumbnail photo of me circa 2002-2003; proudly wearing my Direct-from-HP blue ASP golf shirt earned after completing my "Premier TV Technician" certification. I have a similar certification and another golf shirt for their PCs of the era.

Our instruction in "The HP Way" was pretty intensive for online training and a couple seminars; but it boiled down to 4 pretty simple key concepts:

1) Listen to the customer, understand their problem, confirm that understanding with the customer.
2) TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROBLEM, do everything in your power to resolve the problem BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
3) If you can't resolve the problem before you leave, HAVE A COURSE OF ACTION TO RESOLVE IT and deliver that to the customer BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
4) HP Support will be available on the other end of the line, and any resources they have are at your disposal in the pursuit of that resolution.

Number 4 is what vaporized first; without that, 1-3 had no chance of surviving for long.



That is exactly the kind of "batsh** crazy" I'm talking about. 'nuff sed.



mnem
Not without my ankles.

[tautech]

Our instruction in "The HP Way" was pretty intensive for online training and a couple seminars; but it boiled down to 4 pretty simple key concepts:

1) Listen to the customer, understand their problem, confirm that understanding with the customer.
2) TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROBLEM, do everything in your power to resolve the problem BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
3) If you can't resolve the problem before you leave, HAVE A COURSE OF ACTION TO RESOLVE IT and deliver that to the customer BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
4) HP Support will be available on the other end of the line, and any resources they have are at your disposal in the pursuit of that resolution.

Pretty much exactly how I run my 'ship'. 

mnem
Not without my ankles.

We don't need proof, please no.     

[tggzzz]

Here's a thumbnail photo of me circa 2002-2003; proudly wearing my Direct-from-HP blue ASP golf shirt earned after completing my "Premier TV Technician" certification. I have a similar certification and another golf shirt for their PCs of the era.

Ah. A blue golf shirt. For some reason I presumed you meant a blue shirt with sleeves and tie.

Our instruction in "The HP Way" was pretty intensive for online training and a couple seminars; but it boiled down to 4 pretty simple key concepts:

1) Listen to the customer, understand their problem, confirm that understanding with the customer.
2) TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROBLEM, do everything in your power to resolve the problem BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
3) If you can't resolve the problem before you leave, HAVE A COURSE OF ACTION TO RESOLVE IT and deliver that to the customer BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
4) HP Support will be available on the other end of the line, and any resources they have are at your disposal in the pursuit of that resolution.

Number 4 is what vaporized first; without that, 1-3 had no chance of surviving for long.

That looks like one instatiation of the HP Way valid for a particular circumstance. But the HP Way was more general purpose and more interesting than that.

More general principles were that

• the presumption is that people want to work and, if given the chance, will do good work
• management's role was to ensure that people had what was necessary, and then get out of the way. Managers did not have to control people
• trust your employees. Hence they were encouraged to take components from stores for home projects; they wouldn't abuse the privilege and the company might benefit in the future
• hire good and trustworthy people
• be honest with employees and customers, and don't knock the competition

When setting up new facilities, the early employees were bombarded with "Bill and Dave" stories, indicating the way they thought and solved problems. That helped transplant the HP Way into new people/facilities.

For more information, see the 400 page book "In Search of Excellence". That looked at many successful companies (including HP) and attempted to distill the reasons for success. I wasn't a bad book, but the only common factor I can remember was to keep memos to 1 page long

[Specmaster]

• the presumption is that people want to work and, if given the chance, will do good work
• management's role was to ensure that people had what was necessary, and then get out of the way. Managers did not have to control people
• trust your employees. Hence they were encouraged to take components from stores for home projects; they wouldn't abuse the privilege and the company might benefit in the future
• hire good and trustworthy people
• be honest with employees and customers, and don't knock the competition

Now that to me is far more sensible list and is one that I personally could get behind and take ownership of but the real problem is that management then feel totally useless and cannot or will not accept the basic premise of that list is fundamentally spot on. I would add another to that list;
 

• Managements role is to make sure that the staff really feel valued and appreciated, that way they will go the extra mile when needed

Another problem is that management are often very in adept, very top levels are so inwardly focused and need their egos stroked and as a result promote family members, arse lickers and crawlers into positions that people with half a brain can see they are not suited to, and they award themselves large pay rises and then the overheads become to much for the revenue generators to keep up with so management then start a witch hunt in the workers pool instead stepping back and taking a good long hard look at themselves.

[mnementh]

Here's a thumbnail photo of me circa 2002-2003; proudly wearing my Direct-from-HP blue ASP golf shirt earned after completing my "Premier TV Technician" certification. I have a similar certification and another golf shirt for their PCs of the era.

Ah. A blue golf shirt. For some reason I presumed you meant a blue shirt with sleeves and tie.

Our instruction in "The HP Way" was pretty intensive for online training and a couple seminars; but it boiled down to 4 pretty simple key concepts:

1) Listen to the customer, understand their problem, confirm that understanding with the customer.
2) TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROBLEM, do everything in your power to resolve the problem BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
3) If you can't resolve the problem before you leave, HAVE A COURSE OF ACTION TO RESOLVE IT and deliver that to the customer BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SITE.
4) HP Support will be available on the other end of the line, and any resources they have are at your disposal in the pursuit of that resolution.

Number 4 is what vaporized first; without that, 1-3 had no chance of surviving for long.

That looks like one instatiation of the HP Way valid for a particular circumstance. But the HP Way was more general purpose and more interesting than that.

More general principles were that

• the presumption is that people want to work and, if given the chance, will do good work
• management's role was to ensure that people had what was necessary, and then get out of the way. Managers did not have to control people
• trust your employees. Hence they were encouraged to take components from stores for home projects; they wouldn't abuse the privilege and the company might benefit in the future
• hire good and trustworthy people
• be honest with employees and customers, and don't knock the competition

When setting up new facilities, the early employees were bombarded with "Bill and Dave" stories, indicating the way they thought and solved problems. That helped transplant the HP Way into new people/facilities.

For more information, see the 400 page book "In Search of Excellence". That looked at many successful companies (including HP) and attempted to distill the reasons for success. I wasn't a bad book, but the only common factor I can remember was to keep memos to 1 page long

Oh, no... I realized at the time it was happening that I had hooked up with HP just in timer for "The beginning of The End".

At first I was excited to be a Field ASP for them; and I hoped (and was told it was possible, likely even) that if I kept my nose to the wheel and served our customers well, I could make the jump to full-time salaried employee and be the guy on the other end of the phone. Just about the time when it was reasonable for that to happen was when it all started to crumble.

They told us at the seminars that what they were teaching us was a "high-octane distilled version" of the general HP ethic that was custom-tailored to the onsite service division I was working for. I know there's a lot more of it; the "Bill & Dave" stories were also part of those seminars and even the online training.

But the most important part for me was that feeling of knowing that while I was the face of HP to the customer, HP had my back every step of the call; and they were not just a parts desk, they had knowledgeable techs working WITH me, in a proactive manner. I only had that at one other job, and I can't talk about the work I did there.


mnem
Belly full of ham and green beans and potato salad... nappy time.

[tggzzz]

• the presumption is that people want to work and, if given the chance, will do good work
• management's role was to ensure that people had what was necessary, and then get out of the way. Managers did not have to control people
• trust your employees. Hence they were encouraged to take components from stores for home projects; they wouldn't abuse the privilege and the company might benefit in the future
• hire good and trustworthy people
• be honest with employees and customers, and don't knock the competition

Now that to me is far more sensible list and is one that I personally could get behind and take ownership of but the real problem is that management then feel totally useless and cannot or will not accept the basic premise of that list is fundamentally spot on. I would add another to that list;
 

• Managements role is to make sure that the staff really feel valued and appreciated, that way they will go the extra mile when needed

Another problem is that management are often very in adept, very top levels are so inwardly focused and need their egos stroked and as a result promote family members, arse lickers and crawlers into positions that people with half a brain can see they are not suited to, and they award themselves large pay rises and then the overheads become to much for the revenue generators to keep up with so management then start a witch hunt in the workers pool instead stepping back and taking a good long hard look at themselves.

My list was off the top of my head; there are many other points, variants, and consequences that I missed mentioning.

The management, pre Fiorina, was pretty competent.

Part of their training was that, even when they knew where their troops needed to go,  how to encourage the troops to the realisation that they wanted to be there too. Once that was accomplished, the troops would automatically guide themselves in the desired direction.

Another management strategy was to ensure the relevant troops were talking to each other, and the get out of the loop - thus avoiding Chinese whispers.

As for layers, when I was on the bottom rung, if I had been promoted 6 times I would have been CEO. Three months after joining the company, my new boss received a personal call from the CEO who said "you are doing an excellent job, but causing our partners some anxiety, so please don't  persue this çourse". Ihad warned him it was a flat company; he believed me after that.

A classic Bill and Dave story was that Paul Ely was responsible for a new mincomputer. It was sent to initial customers, who complained it didn't work. Packard sent a "blistering" memo: "please do not ship products that do not meet there published specifications". Ely's admirable response was to frame it and hang it on the wall, and he went on to have a good career at HP.

As for valuing employees, shortly before I joined HP hit a soft patch, so everybody in the company had a 10% pay cut until things improved. There were no complaints, and pay did go back to its previous levels. In the UK that was helped because a few years earlier government imposed a nationwide pay freeze. HP's response had been to move payday from the of the month to the beginning of the month

[bd139]

Three failures always start the circling of the drain:

1. Deep hierarchies.
2. Magic bean methodologies and fads.
3. Playing chess by smashing the board off the table rather than moving the pieces.

[bitseeker]

Sounds like a good deal.

May be I will try to bargain abit more, wish me luck.

So, how'd it go? I saw in the other thread that you got one/some?

[bitseeker]

There’s bugger all that appears this Sunday on eBay ever. Grr. Because people have better things to do apparently. How dare they. Plus deliveries are whacked for the next couple of days which means I can’t complete anything I have on the go

I spotted a nice, late-model 34401A last night for a good BIN price. However, it had Best Offer enabled. Although several resellers had already queued up their offers, a side effect of TEA often prevents me from hitting Buy It Now when there's a Best Offer button sitting right next to it. It's like it has a slightly stronger gravitational pull on the mouse cursor — hmm, it does have more non-whitespace characters. Suffice it to say, someone else was less hesitant to pay the asking price.

Did I need another bench DMM? Of course not! Did it look like it should be on my bench? No comment.

[mnementh]

My list was off the top of my head; there are many other points, variants, and consequences that I missed mentioning.

The management, pre Fiorina, was pretty competent.

Part of their training was that, even when they knew where their troops needed to go,  how to encourage the troops to the realisation that they wanted to be there too. Once that was accomplished, the troops would automatically guide themselves in the desired direction.

Another management strategy was to ensure the relevant troops were talking to each other, and the get out of the loop - thus avoiding Chinese whispers.

As for layers, when I was on the bottom rung, if I had been promoted 6 times I would have been CEO. Three months after joining the company, my new boss received a personal call from the CEO who said "you are doing an excellent job, but causing our partners some anxiety, so please don't  persue this çourse". Ihad warned him it was a flat company; he believed me after that.

A classic Bill and Dave story was that Paul Ely was responsible for a new mincomputer. It was sent to initial customers, who complained it didn't work. Packard sent a "blistering" memo: "please do not ship products that do not meet there published specifications". Ely's admirable response was to frame it and hang it on the wall, and he went on to have a good career at HP.

As for valuing employees, shortly before I joined HP hit a soft patch, so everybody in the company had a 10% pay cut until things improved. There were no complaints, and pay did go back to its previous levels. In the UK that was helped because a few years earlier government imposed a nationwide pay freeze. HP's response had been to move payday from the of the month to the beginning of the month

An amusing note... after dinner we went out shopping, and I stumbled across this on clearance, which corrected an oversight that has left a hole on my desk since Dec 31. Somehow, it just seems quite apropos set against the conversations at hand.

Cons:

Ugly discount stickers all over the box.
Only 3/4 of the year left.
Have to put my coffee down somewhere else.

Pros:

Got it for $3.
Dilbert speaks to me on a visceral level. Still.
4 months of Dilbert-a-Day to binge at my leisure.

I think I still came out ahead.

mnem
Mmmmm carrot cake.... mmmmm...

[tggzzz]

Three failures always start the circling of the drain:

1. Deep hierarchies.
2. Magic bean methodologies and fads.
3. Playing chess by smashing the board off the table rather than moving the pieces.

... and are flagged to the employees by having a drive to create more patents (because a tech company without visible concrete IP isn't as saleable).