At 03:28 PM 1/23/2003 -0500, Walt wrote:
>What do you think? Have we got folks scared enough yet to do their
>backups? Probably time to get back to more enjoyable topics.
>
>I'm toying with attempting to make a mic capsule from scratch. The first
>step toward building a MKH type mic from scratch.
>
>Walt
>
aaahhhh! Just another ho-hum piddling project for Walt.
NB Recording topic related: I cannot get any of my XP 4 USB ports to
recognize the Portadisc, what am I doing wrong? The PortaDisc has the
digital turned on. The computer gulps, sort of, indicating it sees a plug
in its port. No sound device can be detected, as it does on my Win 98
machines.
Walt also said:
>It used to be that folks went and worked as programmers for Microsoft to
>get their retirement fund in order. It did not matter how poor a
>programmer they were, in a few years they would be able to quit and
>retire. Maybe it's not that way anymore and that's what they are grumpy
>about.
In this one case, I want to clear that one up right-off:
In the case of cousin "X", it was ALL about integrity. He co-wrote the OS2
software for IBM. He started when MS had less than 100 people, total. [I
had asked him about MS taking on an application, like my bird software,
then marketing it (after showing it to him).] He almost shouted NO. His
tirade was all about the "If it doesn't instantly make money we don't do it
anymore." mentality he was now (1995) getting all the time from 'above'. He
refused to accept all the management positions, and stayed a lowly
programmer not because he couldn't manage projects or people, but because
of the hassles he would get into all the time about doing it right, and
getting countermanded. He use an example of a "baseball CD" MS produced
one year; full of history, cross references, really a fun project, but, he
said, it didn't quite make money on the first year and they scrapped
it. "All it would have taken is a team of two enthusiasts to keep it
going, and come out with an update every year and it would have been our
best ap project, at practically no additional cost to MS." he shouted.
Just one more "backup story", as true as I can recall it. In grad school,
1963, I knew a lot of physicist grad students who were waiting their turn
on the Cambridge Electron Accelerator. They would write up their software,
statistics and project, get it approved, then wait X months for their two
hours "on the floor" - actually getting data out of the accelerator. X
could be one to 12, depending . .
My closest friend, John Dunning, told me this about his roommate: He got
all the data he needed. He did the statistics, the tests ,the correlations,
the whatever he needed. He demonstrated his point. He got the data
downloaded to tapes and got the tapes. He wrote (no word processors then)
his PhD thesis. He had it typed. Revised. Submitted for comments, returned
with notes, revised again. Final typed all copies (carbons) and bound on
rag paper, . . . . . . . . .all in the trunk of his car one night, every
scrap of information. Every.
You guessed it. Car stolen. Never found, ever. No PhD. Four and a half
years gone. And you know Harvard . .
Tomorrow, Doug, I promise, we'll get back to sounds and recording.
my best regards,
Marty Mutineer.
MIST Software Associates PO Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049
EnjoyBirds.com - Software that migrates with you. http://www.EnjoyBirds.com
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