Jeff, why waste the time?

Jeff, Eric is really a waste of time. Take his mention about IBM surviving.
Well I was there, I noticed that he did not mention the companies that did
not survive or are now shadows of themselves.

When was the last time you saw a Honeywell computer, RAND, ICL, RCA (yes they
tried to enter the market), even Digital and Data General are rare to see
these days.

IBM infact is a prefect example, the PC division had nothing to do with the
main company but as the market grew so did it. At it's peak IBM's PC
division controlled over 50% of the PC market but since it got so big the
main company rolled it backing to old big mainframe division and started to
make changes (remember the PCjr anybody?) today IBM controls about 20% of the
PC market, is smaller than Dell's share and until the stupid merger between
Compaq and HP was on it's way to being smaller then Compaq's PC section.

And IBM is one of the better survivers of the Mainframe - PC wars, basicly
because they can supply both and everything inbetween.

If the same happen to the space industry, it is unlikely that more than one
of the big aerospace companies can survive the turn over.

Earl Colby pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:40:31 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Jeff, Eric is really a waste of time.

You only noticed that now?

Speaking as someone who wastes altogether too much time on him, of
course...

h (Rand Simberg) :

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:40:31 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Jeff, Eric is really a waste of time.

You only noticed that now?

Speaking as someone who wastes altogether too much time on him, of
course...

No, I noticed it about three months after he started posting. For the first
two months or so Eric asked questions which clearly showed that he did not
know the answers already. A little later in a period spanning less than a
week, he went from asking questions or debating details to making flat out
statements - clearly thinking he already knew the right answers. Nothing
wrong there except he did make a lot of mistakes and when corrected would not
acknowledge his errors.

Now Eric is arm chair rocket critic, he thinks mindless mouthing off is just
fun. On the otherhand I and others have bent enough metal and have done
enough experiments that go wrong to know that if I had not listened to Henry
Spencer, Doug Jones, George Herbert and many others that by now I would have
suffered injury or even death by now.

Many times it is not even advice being given to me, but the discussion of
something with others that warns me about areas to avoid or problems I have
not seen yet.

Anyone who thinks he is God and does not make mistakes or does not needs
correction at times if a fool, a kook, or a con.

And if they try to do any serious rocket work without listening to others,
they can easyily end up dead.

Earl Colby Pottinger

PS. I think there is a good reason why 'The Rocket Guy' has never flown
after the cascade of negative messages he recieved (many from the sci.space.*
groups) after he published his designs.


--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:39:20 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:


PS. I think there is a good reason why 'The Rocket Guy' has never flown
after the cascade of negative messages he recieved (many from the sci.space.*
groups) after he published his designs.

It helped that he has attended the last two Space Access
conferences...

h (Rand Simberg) :

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:39:20 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:


PS. I think there is a good reason why 'The Rocket Guy' has never flown
after the cascade of negative messages he recieved (many from the
sci.space.*
groups) after he published his designs.

It helped that he has attended the last two Space Access
conferences...

I am still not sure what his real game it is. It may be to only sell toys,
but I at the time got the impression he really planned to fly in his design.
The fact that he did not after learning about the problems ahead puts him
well ahead of people like Eric who do not listen to others.

Earl Colby Pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:55:09 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

PS. I think there is a good reason why 'The Rocket Guy' has never flown
after the cascade of negative messages he recieved (many from the
sci.space.*
groups) after he published his designs.

It helped that he has attended the last two Space Access
conferences...

I am still not sure what his real game it is. It may be to only sell toys,
but I at the time got the impression he really planned to fly in his design.

I think that he does really plan to fly, but he's altering his
thinking of how to do so as a result of feedback.

Earl Colby Pottinger ) wrote:
: h (Rand Simberg) :

: On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:39:20 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
: Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
: glow in such a way as to indicate that:
:
:
: PS. I think there is a good reason why 'The Rocket Guy' has never flown
: after the cascade of negative messages he recieved (many from the
: sci.space.*
: groups) after he published his designs.
:
: It helped that he has attended the last two Space Access
: conferences...

: I am still not sure what his real game it is. It may be to only sell toys,
: but I at the time got the impression he really planned to fly in his design.
: The fact that he did not after learning about the problems ahead puts him
: well ahead of people like Eric who do not listen to others.

I listen (even to your rambling on about early PCs). I just don't always
agree.

Eric

: Earl Colby Pottinger

: --
: I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
: SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
: the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

Earl Colby Pottinger ) wrote:
: h (Rand Simberg) :

: On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:40:31 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
: Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
: glow in such a way as to indicate that:
:
: Jeff, Eric is really a waste of time.
:
: You only noticed that now?
:
: Speaking as someone who wastes altogether too much time on him, of
: course...

: No, I noticed it about three months after he started posting. For the first
: two months or so Eric asked questions which clearly showed that he did not
: know the answers already. A little later in a period spanning less than a
: week, he went from asking questions or debating details to making flat out
: statements - clearly thinking he already knew the right answers. Nothing
: wrong there except he did make a lot of mistakes and when corrected would not
: acknowledge his errors.

: Now Eric is arm chair rocket critic, he thinks mindless mouthing off is just
: fun. On the otherhand I and others have bent enough metal and have done
: enough experiments that go wrong to know that if I had not listened to Henry
: Spencer, Doug Jones, George Herbert and many others that by now I would have
: suffered injury or even death by now.

I listen to Henry and respect what he has to say as I believe him to be
the most knowledgable on this NG. George and I mostly differ on political
viewpoints. Perhaps we too differ in that regard?

: Many times it is not even advice being given to me, but the discussion of
: something with others that warns me about areas to avoid or problems I have
: not seen yet.

: Anyone who thinks he is God and does not make mistakes or does not needs
: correction at times if a fool, a kook, or a con.

: And if they try to do any serious rocket work without listening to others,
: they can easyily end up dead.

I'm no rocket scientist and have never pretended to be. I have much to
learn WRT to propulsion and the engineering and physics therein. My
background is computers and goes back three decades.

Eric

: Earl Colby Pottinger

: PS. I think there is a good reason why 'The Rocket Guy' has never flown
: after the cascade of negative messages he recieved (many from the sci.space.*
: groups) after he published his designs.


: --
: I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
: SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
: the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

Rand Simberg ) wrote:
: On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:40:31 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
: Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
: glow in such a way as to indicate that:

: Jeff, Eric is really a waste of time.

: You only noticed that now?

: Speaking as someone who wastes altogether too much time on him, of
: course...

But since you add little what's the difference? In short, your time isn't
worth much anyway.

Eric

"Earl Colby Pottinger" wrote in message
...
Jeff, Eric is really a waste of time. Take his mention about IBM
surviving.
Well I was there, I noticed that he did not mention the companies that did
not survive or are now shadows of themselves.

Eric does seem to be quite a waste of time, but it gives me something to do
when I'm waiting for code to compile and link. ;-)

When was the last time you saw a Honeywell computer, RAND, ICL, RCA (yes
they
tried to enter the market), even Digital and Data General are rare to see
these days.

I agree. For every IBM that survived the mainframe to personal computer
transition, there were many that simply did not.

In my industry (engineering sofware), we've been seeing our customers
transition from expensive Unix boxes to cheaper PC's (some running Linux).
The PC I develop software on today cost about an order of magnitude less
than the SGI "personal workstation" type box I used ten years ago.

Many of the "big players" that I remember making these personal Unix boxes
ten years ago are gone today.

If the same happen to the space industry, it is unlikely that more than
one
of the big aerospace companies can survive the turn over.

Sounds about right to me. The others will either choose not to evolve (get
out of the launch provider business) or will fail to evolve quickly enough
to remain profitable.

Jeff
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