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Re: What color was “Apple Beige”?

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On 1 Feb 2021 00:40:50 GMT, Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
>On 2021-01-31, Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>> On Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 12:50:04 PM UTC-7, Mike wrote:
>>> ICL cloned the QL (and extended it) for the OPD.
>>
>> That inspired me to look up the Wikipedia article on the One Per Desk,
>> where I discovered its ironic fate... being so expensive, it ended up
>> being issued to those who were likely to just use it as nothing more
>> than a telephone.
>
>'Twas ever thus.  Fancy, expensive hardware is seen as a status symbol,
>to be reserved for the elite.
>
>When a PPOE converted from the old crossbar PBX to a Mitel SX-200,
>people could get fancy multi-line telephone sets with all sort of
>options.  The trainer pointed out that ironically the fancy sets
>usually went to the execs, while the lowly secretaries had to make
>do with a 2500 set.  And that's exactly what happened when we got
>the hardware.  It took a while, but eventually the bosses realized
>that the secretary who managed all their calls needed the Superset
>a lot more than they did.
>
>Similarly, when it came time to put a personal computer on every
>desk, the most powerful machines with the biggest monitors went
>to the executives who barely used them.  We techies got the
>medium systems, while our poor data entry clerk, who stared
>at a monitor all day, got the smallest, cheapest unit even
>though she needed a big screen more than anyone.

There are occasional exceptions to that short-sightedness.

At one PPOE -- a small software house -- the developers got the newest, fastest
PCs.  The accountant also got a new machine.  Just about everyone else got a
developer's hand-me-down; I think the QA department had first dibs.  People got
a machine commensurate with their requirements.  The IT manager had a great way
to squelch complaints.  Their own desktop was one of the least powerful PCs in
the company.  When somebody would gripe about wanting a more powerful machine,
more for status than for need, the manager would point to their own desk and
state that if this lowly PC was enough for their needs, perhaps the employee's
existing machine, which would certainly be newer and faster, was already
sufficient for them. 

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What color was “Apple Beige”? Marco Scholz <tool@disroot.org> - 2021-01-30 11:28 +0000
  Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2021-01-30 11:59 -0500
    Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Marco Scholz <tool@disroot.org> - 2021-01-30 18:08 +0000
      Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? maus <maus@dmaus.org> - 2021-01-31 08:10 +0000
        Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2021-01-31 10:06 +0000
          Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? mjb@signal11.invalid (Mike) - 2021-01-31 11:09 +0000
            Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2021-01-31 16:01 +0000
              Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? mjb@signal11.invalid (Mike) - 2021-01-31 19:31 +0000
                Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2021-01-31 12:30 -0800
                Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2021-02-01 00:40 +0000
                Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2021-02-01 11:45 -0700
                Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? usenet@only.tnx (Questor) - 2021-02-01 21:26 +0000
          Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2021-01-31 07:09 -0800
          Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2021-01-31 18:26 +0000
            Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? maus <maus@dmaus.org> - 2021-01-31 18:51 +0000
          Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2021-01-31 18:57 -0400
            Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2021-01-31 21:14 -0500
              Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2021-02-01 01:48 -0400
            Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2021-02-01 11:45 -0700
    Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2021-01-30 17:45 -0800
      Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2021-01-30 23:25 -0500
        Re: What color was “Apple Beige”? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2021-01-31 07:48 -0500
  Re: What color was ???Apple Beige???? dave@661.org (David Griffith) - 2021-02-09 01:59 +0000

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