Car Thread

[G3750]

In 1980 I went to work (right out of grad school) for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). My office was in Pittsburgh (Monroeville) but corporate HQ was Maynard, MA. I got sent to a month of training in MA. My rental car and many company cars (aka DEC wrecks) were Pintos! It seems that DEC CEO Ken Olsen had an affinity for them. He drove one on a daily basis to the point where it was really a junker. His Board of Directors got on his case saying the CEO of $3+ Billion corporation couldn't be seen driving such a ratty car so he went out after the meeting and bought a new one (cash of course). He was a frugal, practical, and kind man. And of course, extremely innovative. I got to meet him once.

George

[healey36]

Met Mr. Olsen once back in the late-80's...DEC was working with DCC on development of the first satellite-based business network, a project funded indirectly by FedEx. I was on an elevator in our Germantown building and he and our then CEO Jack Shaw got on after eating lunch in the company cafeteria. He introduced himself...seemed to be a very nice guy, a bit rumpled, not at all like the most of the MIT prima donna's I've met over the years.

DEC made great gear...their PDP-series mini-computers were core components of our VSAT products for a long time. Unfortunately DEC, like Hewlett-Packard, didn't adapt well to the birth of the personal computer and the death of the mainframe. Ironically DEC went on to become part of what's left of HP after passing through the incompetent hands of Compaq. Looking back I sometimes wonder how I survived all of that turmoil during the 1990's.

Healey

[Tom Dempsey]

Liquor and model trains?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Liquor and model trains?

In part, perhaps........

I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone…but they’ve always worked for me.

[healey36]

I spent a lot of time in the basement and in the garage...fortunately there's a fridge in both places.

Hmmm...now that I think about it, it was right around then when I started packing on all this weight.

Toward the end of the '90's I recall watching the market go up every day, and listening to the brokers saying "It's different this time." It wasn't...I can't recall which was worse, the crash of 2000 or the crash of 2008. Probably 2008, because I should have known better by then.

So now we approach 20,000...

[Tom Dempsey]

Don't worry, there's gonna be a Republican in the White House soon, just give it seven years, the Dow will be down in the doldrums again.

[Mitch]

Don't worry, there's gonna be a Republican in the White House soon, just give it seven years, the Dow will be down in the doldrums again.

The Dow right now is totally false. Had the Fed not pumped $30 billion a month into the market for 3 or 4 years, it would likely be around 11 or 12K, seeing as how this is the slowest and lowest economic recovery in history, not just since the '29 crash. Now the market is poised for another major adjustment, and it will happen after the current administration is gone, but you'll blame the Republican Administration for it. Won't you, Tom?

[Tom Dempsey]

Not the administration, but, their owners. Also, I believe in math, science, and history. History says a Republican administration seems to always go along with an economic run up and then downturn. Check out it out yourself, 1973 Republican administration, 1983 and 1987 Republican administration, 2006-7 Republican administration. It's just history. Democratic administrations seem to follow similar patterns also for other things. It's just history and patterns. In actuality, there is little difference between administrations once you cut through all the punditry and half truths used to gin up the public. I could go on, however, all the facts are out there if you decide to shutdown the usual sources and do your own research.

[rogruth]

Research might get you both sides but you still need to decide no matter the source of your info.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Not the administration, but, their owners. Also, I believe in math, science, and history. History says a Republican administration seems to always go along with an economic run up and then downturn. Check out it out yourself, 1973 Republican administration, 1983 and 1987 Republican administration, 2006-7 Republican administration. It's just history. Democratic administrations seem to follow similar patterns also for other things. It's just history and patterns. In actuality, there is little difference between administrations once you cut through all the punditry and half truths used to gin up the public. I could go on, however, all the facts are out there if you decide to shutdown the usual sources and do your own research.

Gee, Tom, don't confuse everyone with facts, history, and reality.

[healey36]

One little comment about the bloated stock-market and everything goes amok around here.

Here's one for Murph, a French AMC dealer's ad for the Pacer:



I'm not understanding the correlation of the images in this advertisement (other than to distract), but then there's so much I don't understand about the French.


Healey

[rogruth]

I think that is a really nice, well proportioned automobile although the hood ornament is a little oversize.

[rogruth]

I think that is a really nice, well proportioned automobile although the hood ornament is a little oversize.

Wait. I may have that a mixed up.

[Mitch]

Pretty obvious to me. There's a lot there to enjoy, so you'd want to "pace" yourself.

[healey36]

Hilarious, Mitch...you're quite the Francophile!