And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
As stated previously - the Thinkpad 701. Believe it won some awards for innovative design in the 1995-97 time frames. At that time in my career - I specialized in repairing/customizing/upgrading laptops. Hated working on these with a passion - replacing the keyboard required a T1 torx that was difficult to obtain and broke if you looked at it sideways. Also required four hands to reassemble. It was like obtaining god mode once you got it put back together successfully - if you could make it work properly, you felt like the reset of the day was going to be a comparative walk in the park.
I was part of the development team, still have some souvenirs. The biggest problem with that product was management. It was originally intended to be a "technology demonstrator". Think of how Vette's get you in the dealership, but you end up buying a Malibu. Comments above about build complexity were accurate -- it was to be a low volume, carefully built product. When the buzz started (it had a very, very tiny bit in a Bond flick, amongst other "exposures") there was a leadership change & they decided to make it a volume product. That delayed things a year, which meant it ended up behind the curve performance-wise when it finally came out. It also meant trying to train vastly more people to assemble it, which went about as well as you'd expect. As many of you here can attest, there's nothing "management" can't improve (sarc). Still, the engineering team was a great group & even when told they'd not have jobs when done, every single one of us stayed & finished. It wasn't for the company, but for an idea & each other.
Man, I remember those. First thought was that it was way the hell out of my price range at the time. Second thought was that keyboard would the first thing to break on it, and probably pretty quickly, too.
I tried one of those back in the day. Interesting concept. Build quality wasn't the greatest.
ReplyDeleteI think they called it or nicknamed it the butterfly. I remember when they came out. Interesting concept but it too complex and fragile.
ReplyDeleteInternal code name was "butterfly". Sold and marketed as the Thinkpad 701.
DeleteReally liked those old think pads, had a number of the standard style, last one was the dual hard drive series, well built.
ReplyDeleteMore moving parts that can break. Wonder why it didn't sell well.
ReplyDeleteAs stated previously - the Thinkpad 701. Believe it won some awards for innovative design in the 1995-97 time frames. At that time in my career - I specialized in repairing/customizing/upgrading laptops. Hated working on these with a passion - replacing the keyboard required a T1 torx that was difficult to obtain and broke if you looked at it sideways. Also required four hands to reassemble. It was like obtaining god mode once you got it put back together successfully - if you could make it work properly, you felt like the reset of the day was going to be a comparative walk in the park.
ReplyDeleteI was part of the development team, still have some souvenirs. The biggest problem with that product was management. It was originally intended to be a "technology demonstrator". Think of how Vette's get you in the dealership, but you end up buying a Malibu. Comments above about build complexity were accurate -- it was to be a low volume, carefully built product.
ReplyDeleteWhen the buzz started (it had a very, very tiny bit in a Bond flick, amongst other "exposures") there was a leadership change & they decided to make it a volume product. That delayed things a year, which meant it ended up behind the curve performance-wise when it finally came out. It also meant trying to train vastly more people to assemble it, which went about as well as you'd expect.
As many of you here can attest, there's nothing "management" can't improve (sarc). Still, the engineering team was a great group & even when told they'd not have jobs when done, every single one of us stayed & finished. It wasn't for the company, but for an idea & each other.
Management where I worked were firm believers in knocking up 9 women so they could have a baby in a month.
DeleteFeh. What's it save, 2"?
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly. You clearly don't recall how large & heavy "portables" were back then. We are so spoiled these days.
DeleteMan, I remember those. First thought was that it was way the hell out of my price range at the time. Second thought was that keyboard would the first thing to break on it, and probably pretty quickly, too.
ReplyDeleteTechnology is not so much a straight line, as it is a series of bellyflops, and recoveries.
ReplyDeleteA solution in search of a problem
ReplyDelete