Ding-dong the witch is dead!

[Marshac]

Carly Fiorina is gone.

As I write this, HPQ is up 6.77%, meaning her "worth" to HPQ was ~-$5B. Awesome job Carly, you killed HP morale, innovation, and your exit clearly shows what the market thought of your management decisions.

Awesome. Re-branded HP iPods for everyone!

[Beststash]

Possibly Pat Russo (Lucent) will be next........same culture.

She leaves with a $21 million severance package, unbelievable.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I used to play golf with her husband Frank from time to time. He ER'ed from Ma Bell about 8 or 9 years ago and was playing househusband. They're both pretty decent people.

Carly suffered from the inability to transition from the hard charging head lopping sales exec to a CEO. She gathered up people who told her what she wanted to hear, and nobody wanted to bring her bad news because she had a tendency to kill the messenger.

You see the results.

The HP desktop machine I bought 5 years ago is still a product I hold in high esteem. Well made, quiet, good performance. Still a capable unit and I wont throw it out for some time. The HP laptop I bought a year and a half ago is a complete piece of crap. Its broken and needed mail-in warranty service 3 times. The video out has never worked reliably. The mousepad buttons are busted again...for the 3rd time.

HP used to be known as a really great place to work. Employee friendly. Rock solid products that would last a lifetime. How many of you guys bought HP calculators when you started college 20 or more years ago and still have them? You couldnt go into a hospital or research lab without tripping over a ton of HP gear. I thought about going to work there just before I ER'ed...just for a year or two. One of my friends who is an engineering VP over there suggested I think otherwise. "Its really not the same here anymore...and I cant recommend anyone get into this mess right now". Nice.

I hope that ship gets righted. The appointment of the bean counter as the new CEO doesnt bode well. Sounds like a couple of years of (sound the submarine dive alert) deep cost cutting...

Quote:

HP used to be known as a really great place to work. Employee friendly. Rock solid products that would last a lifetime. How many of you guys bought HP calculators when you started college 20 or more years ago and still have them? You couldnt go into a hospital or research lab without tripping over a ton of HP gear.

Yup. HP-41C, still works. I tired of postfix (polish) notation so moved on to TI-30 (maybe Charlie worked on this one!). Lost it, now TI-36 that I've had for many years (no batteries!)

HP buying Compaq is about as smart as Compaq buying Digital.

[JLP]

TH,

That's a shame. You are right, HP isn't what it used to be. They better change some things or they won't be around for much longer.

JLP

[Spanky]

My HP 25C is still working.

[ESRBob]

Learning Polish was bad enough, Reverse Polish completely flummoxed me. Guess you have to be an engineer. TI seems to own the high-end calculator market now.

[charlie]

Hi JohnBlake,

My claim to fame was as the project manager for
TI's first hand held calculator .... the "Datamath".
It was a 4 function "algebraic" type calculator.
Another group at TI was eventually responsible
for the "scientific" calculators that led to the TI-36
Solar ..... I have had mine since the beginning of
time it seems like.

Cheers,

Charlie

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I thought there'd be a few with an old HP reverse polish calculator still kicking around. I still think in reverse polish every now and then. Makes some things a lot simpler...

[Peter]

Quote:

You couldnt go into a hospital or research lab without tripping over a ton of HP gear.

I have several pieces of HP electronic test equipment, some of which dates back to the late '60s. It all still works.

When the 'old' HP became Agilent, I predicted that within 10 years the printer/computer company would be dead, but the test equipment business would still be doing well.

So far I seem to be on track ...

It's a shame.

Peter

[Marshac]

Quote:

I used to play golf with her husband Frank from time to time. *He ER'ed from Ma Bell about 8 or 9 years ago and was playing househusband. *They're both pretty decent people. Carly suffered from the inability to transition from the hard charging head lopping sales exec to a CEO.

I'm sure she rocked in sales. I have seen her give some presentations, and she's quite good, but as you said, it's a different game. Personally, even though Carly is pretty attractive, I wouldn't want to be her husband right now.... i'm sure he has a tough job for the next few weeks....months....whatever. I'm sure it's not easy being forced out of a company like that.

That being said however, I feel the need to quote her-

Quote:

There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore

Her severance package is just a bit sweeter than those of former HP employees, so I doubt it stings quite as much.

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

. . . Personally, even though Carly is pretty attractive, I wouldn't want to be her husband right now.... i'm sure he has a tough job for the next few weeks....months....whatever. . .

Maybe not as tough as it has been for the past several weeks....months...etc. Prior to the separation decision, it's difficult to tell when to be supportive and when to try to help. Once the decision to separate is made, it's clear the job is to be supportive. Sometimes the end of a relationship is easier than the time leading up to it. :-/

Still got the HP15C - paid a pretty penny for it in th early 80s - still runs wonderfully and RPN is great - a lot less keystrokes - I mess on regular calcs all the time. Must be the hard-core engineer in me.

Bridget aka Deserat

[Hyperborea]

Quote:

I thought there'd be a few with an old HP reverse polish calculator still kicking around. *I still think in reverse polish every now and then. *Makes some things a lot simpler...

Heck yeah - having got the RPN burned into my brain from high school onwards made all the Postscript programming I did at one time so much easier - Postscript also uses postfix/RPN type notation. RPN makes a lot of calculations with a calculator easier - no need to dick around with paranthesis or storing off intermediate values.

I owned an HP-33E for many years (though I'd always regretted not having got the 33C with the Continuously powered memory) and followed it with a 41CX (like the 41 but with the built in math and stats packs).

[sgeeeee]

My first calculator was a slide rule.

The summer of my softmore year at college I worked overtime in the coal mines to come up with the $400+ it cost to buy and HP45. Viva la inverse polish.

I think unclemick used an abacus

JG

[eytonxav]

I'm with salaryguru, my first calculator was a slide rule, but before graduating I purchased an HP45. I passed on their HP35 however, which was their first generation engineering calculator. Many years later had a 41C, and then on to a 12C which I still use today (think its ~ 20 years old). I still have the HP45 and 41C and there is definitely a market for these old calcs, but somehow the sentimental value makes want to hold on to them.

HP always had very well engineered and reliably made products, but from my perspective things seemed to get a bit off track after the Compaq merger. Compaq definitely had a strong server line, but I feel the HP desktops and laptops should have survived instead of Compaqs.

As to Carly, I don't know the whole story here and haven't really kept track, but there are many more former-CEOs in industry that are more deserving to go down in disgrace (eg Chuck Lee of Verizon, he wasn't fired but should have been) and I'm sure being a woman at the top isn't a picknic.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

I think unclemick used an abacus JG

Unclemick is from the part of the country that only has three numbers.

One...two and "a whole shitload".

[unclemick]

Hey!

I'm old enough to have had a Bowmar! Remember those.

First job at Boeing - Tuck used to bet the pants off us slip stick cats with his abacus.

I've always been fond of a no. 2 pencil and engineering graph paper.

You never know spreadsheets 'might' be here to stay - like electricity - not like the telegraph.

On the other hand - I have an old K&E slipstick packed away - just in case.