NAVIGATION
CATEGORIES
REFERRENCE
LINKS
SGI Sadness
20 answers - 414 bytes -
Message
I just find it sad that a once-great Unix company might end
up being flushed and only the IP being kept. Somewhere along
the way SGI "lost it" and never recovered.
I think that the "somewhere" is when the word Intel showed up in their
business plan.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand
binary and those who don't.
GEEKS:No.1 | | 757 bytes |
| 
Sat, 2005-07-09 at 22:23, James Fogg wrote:
Message
I just find it sad that a once-great Unix company might end
up being flushed and only the IP being kept. Somewhere along
the way SGI "lost it" and never recovered.
I think that the "somewhere" is when the word Intel showed up in their
business plan.
I was going to say "Belluzzo" but other people went along with it. And why they never sold $2000 graphics cards for PCs I don't understand, either.
But I think their biggest mistake was abandoning the low-end. They had the $5000 Indy at a time when a decent 486/DX2-66 was $2500. Then they abandoned any sales under what, $15K? That lost them seats and more importantly lost them volume.
GEEKS:No.2 | | 655 bytes |
| Sat, 09 Jul 2005 @ 22:23 -0400, James Fogg said:
Message
I just find it sad that a once-great Unix company might end
up being flushed and only the IP being kept. Somewhere along
the way SGI "lost it" and never recovered.
I think that the "somewhere" is when the word Intel showed up in their
business plan.
No, their moves with Intel had nothing to do with their failures.
SGI made other more important mistakes that were not related to that.
Also, not everything is SGI's fault. The computer industry as a whole
is more than a little bit screwed up.
SGI is only a symptom of much larger problems.No.3 | | 689 bytes |
| I don't have any idea of the cost, but SGI did sell some high end
graphics cards for the PC many years ago (early 90's i believe).
IRIS Vision or something like that? This was before 3D cards
were really known in the x86 world, which was, as i recall around
mid 90's.
I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one for historical value.
/KRM
Sat, 09 Jul 2005 22:27:15 -0400
Patrick Giagnocavo 717-201-3366 <patrick (AT) zill (DOT) netwrote:
I was going to say "Belluzzo" but other people went along with
it. And why they never sold $2000 graphics cards for PCs I
don't understand, either.
GEEKS:No.4 | | 447 bytes |
| Mon, 11 Jul 2005 07:52:51 -0400 (EDT)
Kevin <kevin (AT) mpcf (DOT) comwrote:
IRIS Vision or something like that?
IIRC the IRIS Vision was the GFX of the Personal IRIS 4D3x shoved into a
MCA card set for the early PWER based RS/6000 workstations from IBM.
Drivers existed only for AIX 3.x. I heared that there where also S/2
drivers so that you could use this thing as a GFX add on accelerator on
MCA PS/2 x86 machines.No.5 | | 905 bytes |
| Sat, Jul 09, 2005 at 10:27:15PM -0400, Patrick Giagnocavo 717-201-3366 wrote:
I was going to say "Belluzzo" but other people went along with it.
And why they never sold $2000 graphics cards for PCs I don't
understand, either.
I thought they did at one point (though it may have been more than
$2k). I seem to recall seeing both an ISA and a MCA personal Iris
graphics card set.
But I think their biggest mistake was abandoning the low-end. They
had the $5000 Indy at a time when a decent 486/DX2-66 was $2500. Then
they abandoned any sales under what, $15K? That lost them seats and
more importantly lost them volume.
Well, they had the which was $5k base price, but that was too late to
help much, especially since RAM was expensive for it and 64megs in the
base was ludicrous considering it only ran Irix 6.x and that it used a
UMA design.No.6 | | 1175 bytes |
| 7/10/05, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon (AT) widomaker (DOT) comwrote:
SGI made other more important mistakes that were not related to that.
Also, not everything is SGI's fault. The computer industry as a whole
is more than a little bit screwed up.
Like all the low-number badge-holders who thought SGI owed them
something and sat around collecting fat salaries doing nothing. And
keeping "C" staff around who did completely inappropriate things like
dvr'ing themselves (using company equipment, to boot) boffing their
subordinates in the office.
, building a cool server architecture (mix-and-match modules w/
the only rule being @ least one of CPU, I/, and graphics) that
didn't fit the 19" rack standard of all modern data centers. If you are
a leader, you can get away with that. If you are trying to rescue
your server sales, you better make sure there are zero barriers to
entry. Reconfiguring a datacenter is a huge barrier to entry IME.
(First-hand stories from someone working @ SGI circa 2000.)
My take'm surprised it took this long.
=Nadine=
GEEKS:No.7 | | 688 bytes |
| velociraptor wrote:
7/10/05, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon (AT) widomaker (DOT) comwrote:
>>SGI made other more important mistakes that were not related to that.
>>Also, not everything is SGI's fault. The computer industry as a whole
>>is more than a little bit screwed up.
Like all the low-number badge-holders who thought SGI owed them
something and sat around collecting fat salaries doing nothing. And
keeping "C" staff around who did completely inappropriate things like
dvr'ing themselves (using company equipment, to boot)
dvr'ing ? What's that?No.8 | | 1095 bytes |
| Mon, Jul 11, 2005 at 01:54:54PM -0500, Brian Dunbar wrote:
velociraptor wrote:
7/10/05, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon (AT) widomaker (DOT) comwrote:
>>SGI made other more important mistakes that were not related to that.
>>Also, not everything is SGI's fault. The computer industry as a whole
>>is more than a little bit screwed up.
Like all the low-number badge-holders who thought SGI owed them
something and sat around collecting fat salaries doing nothing. And
keeping "C" staff around who did completely inappropriate things like
dvr'ing themselves (using company equipment, to boot)
dvr'ing ? What's that?
Well the context of that acronym feels a bit strange, but I suppose it
fits. I read it as Digital Video Recording. Maybe the C* used at
the time? SE+TRAMs w/ FC-AL and EV cards? Well, we can hope
that's how they did it. Using a USB cam on a wintel book to record the
incident would just make it all the more depressing.No.9 | | 1242 bytes |
| Joshua Boyd wrote:
Mon, Jul 11, 2005 at 01:54:54PM -0500, Brian Dunbar wrote:
>>velociraptor wrote:
>>
7/10/05, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon (AT) widomaker (DOT) comwrote:
SGI made other more important mistakes that were not related to that.
Also, not everything is SGI's fault. The computer industry as a whole
is more than a little bit screwed up.
Like all the low-number badge-holders who thought SGI owed them
something and sat around collecting fat salaries doing nothing. And
keeping "C" staff around who did completely inappropriate things like
dvr'ing themselves (using company equipment, to boot)
>>
>>dvr'ing ? What's that?
Well the context of that acronym feels a bit strange, but I suppose it
fits. I read it as Digital Video Recording. Maybe the C* used at
the time? SE+TRAMs w/ FC-AL and EV cards? Well, we can hope
that's how they did it. Using a USB cam on a wintel book to record the
incident would just make it all the more depressing.
Recording themselves boffing subordinates. Ew.No.10 | | 210 bytes |
| Mon, 2005-07-11 at 15:32, Brian Dunbar wrote:\
Recording themselves boffing subordinates. Ew.
Yeah, usually it's just the customers that get sCr3w3d
/rimshot
GEEKS:No.11 | | 146 bytes |
| Brian Dunbar wrote:
Recording themselves boffing subordinates. Ew.
Sounds like a real winner in the career-advancement sweepstakes, huh?No.12 | | 1578 bytes |
| 7/11/05, Joshua Boyd <jdboyd (AT) jdboyd (DOT) netwrote:
Mon, Jul 11, 2005 at 01:54:54PM -0500, Brian Dunbar wrote:
velociraptor wrote:
7/10/05, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon (AT) widomaker (DOT) comwrote:
>
>>SGI made other more important mistakes that were not related to that.
>>Also, not everything is SGI's fault. The computer industry as a whole
>>is more than a little bit screwed up.
>
>
Like all the low-number badge-holders who thought SGI owed them
something and sat around collecting fat salaries doing nothing. And
keeping "C" staff around who did completely inappropriate things like
dvr'ing themselves (using company equipment, to boot)
dvr'ing ? What's that?
Well the context of that acronym feels a bit strange, but I suppose it
fits. I read it as Digital Video Recording. Maybe the C* used at
the time? SE+TRAMs w/ FC-AL and EV cards? Well, we can hope
that's how they did it. Using a USB cam on a wintel book to record the
incident would just make it all the more depressing.
Sorry, perhaps DVR'ing with capitals would have been better?
I find it amusing that you are speculating on what method the C* guy
used to record himself. I'm not sure if he used a DV cam and put it
on his computer or used direct connected hardware. All things
considered I doubt he had a high enough clue ratio to do the latter.
=Nadine=
GEEKS:No.13 | | 891 bytes |
| Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 02:59:36PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
Well the context of that acronym feels a bit strange, but I suppose it
fits. I read it as Digital Video Recording. Maybe the C* used at
the time? SE+TRAMs w/ FC-AL and EV cards? Well, we can hope
that's how they did it. Using a USB cam on a wintel book to record the
incident would just make it all the more depressing.
Sorry, perhaps DVR'ing with capitals would have been better?
I find it amusing that you are speculating on what method the C* guy
used to record himself. I'm not sure if he used a DV cam and put it
on his computer or used direct connected hardware. All things
considered I doubt he had a high enough clue ratio to do the latter.
I don't know whether to be happy or sad that he wasn't doing immoral
things using company made equipment.No.14 | | 253 bytes |
| Joshua Boyd wrote:
I don't know whether to be happy or sad that he wasn't doing immoral
things using company made equipment.
Pudgy middle-aged office workers, amateur video. You should be happy
that you've not seen it.No.15 | | 299 bytes |
| Tue, 2005-07-12 at 16:05, Brian Dunbar wrote:
Pudgy middle-aged office workers, amateur video. You should be happy
that you've not seen it.
These days, it could get you a reality TV show on Fox and a contract for a sleazoid commercial for Hardee's .
GEEKS:No.16 | | 497 bytes |
| Tue, 12 Jul 2005, Joshua Boyd wrote:
I find it amusing that you are speculating on what method the C* guy
used to record himself. I'm not sure if he used a DV cam and put it
on his computer or used direct connected hardware. All things
considered I doubt he had a high enough clue ratio to do the latter.
I don't know whether to be happy or sad that he wasn't doing immoral
things using company made equipment.
I wonder if he used a spaceball?
-DanDNo.17 | | 182 bytes |
| Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 03:08:56PM -0600, Dan Duncan wrote:
I wonder if he used a spaceball?
I don't know, but those are made by someone else and rebadged I thought.No.18 | | 513 bytes |
| They are. Spacetec made mine, and it is identical to some of the
re-badged SGI ones. The same company also made a game controller
in the mid-late 90's. I think it was called S or
something of that ilk.
/KRM
Tue, 12 Jul 2005 17:01:00 -0400
Joshua Boyd <jdboyd (AT) jdboyd (DOT) netwrote:
Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 03:08:56PM -0600, Dan Duncan wrote:
I wonder if he used a spaceball?
I don't know, but those are made by someone else and rebadged I
thought.No.19 | | 446 bytes |
| Kevin wrote:
They are. Spacetec made mine, and it is identical to some of the
re-badged SGI ones. The same company also made a game controller
in the mid-late 90's. I think it was called S or
something of that ilk.
S 360, iirc. I have one somewhere. A couple of times I've tried
to get it working under Windows 2000, so far without success, on the
speculation that it might make a good controller for FPS games.No.20 | | 951 bytes |
| I think it flopped as a game controller. A lot of people found
out that the actuality wasn't as cool as the concept.
I had the same experience with my Spaceball. I bought it new to
use within 3DSMAX (v1.2) and just never ended up liking it that
much. I had a lot more fun with the demos that came with it than
i did actually using it in production.
/KRM
Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:53:06 -0400
Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino (AT) speakeasy (DOT) netwrote:
Kevin wrote:
They are. Spacetec made mine, and it is identical to some of
the re-badged SGI ones. The same company also made a game
controller in the mid-late 90's. I think it was called
S or something of that ilk.
S 360, iirc. I have one somewhere. A couple of times
I've tried to get it working under Windows 2000, so far without
success, on the speculation that it might make a good
controller for FPS games.
QUESTION ON "Unix"
- SGI Sadness
- Maintainence level issue
- Axil 225 in Israel for free (no ship).
- Paginf space in HACMP Cluster
- Summary: Samba upgrade problem 'smbd -V' gives fatal:
- CXX-DEV: aCC compiler version
- SUMMARY: URGENT: DNS issue(s)
- RE: Be the "biggest" out of all your friends... homageida
- HPUX-DEVTOOLS: Safe use of libc stub pthread_mutex_*functions
- URGENT: DNS issue(s)
- New arrival to the family.
- What has replaced Kodak PhotoCD Pro?
- Dell oops
- Ultra 20 thoughts
- Details on "Free Ultra 20" program
- FS: NetApp Shelf, Sun multi-pack and Portmaster2
- gmail from pocket outlook?
- Sun crushes the used Sun market
- Sun crushes the used Sun market
- Sun crushes the used Sun market