From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1116ece181be1aea X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-09-11 06:51:10 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!wn14feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi_feed4!attbi.com!sccrnsc02.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F607DC5.5070408@attbi.com> From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada? References: <9keolvs9tjbbbuv1ndnsr69af7mtddemhk@4ax.com> <3F5F1ADB.1070008@noplace.com> <3F5F84C4.70902@attbi.com> <3F606BFA.7020407@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.34.139.183 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-Trace: sccrnsc02 1063288270 24.34.139.183 (Thu, 11 Sep 2003 13:51:10 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 13:51:10 GMT Organization: Comcast Online Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 13:51:10 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:42379 Date: 2003-09-11T13:51:10+00:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote: > And you have to optimize "profit" - not "technical superiority". That's something > that most engineers have a hard time grasping. No! And that is an even harder lesson. What you want to do is to maximize the long-term survival of the company. That is the hard lesson for non-engineering types to learn. An airplane can fly higher if the wheels fall off at take-off. But an engineer knows he has to design for the entire flight. This doesn't say you can't design for the wheels to fall off, just you have to figure out the landing strategy when you do. (WW2 assault gliders, the U-2, and some UAVs have all used variations on this approach.) In corporate terms, you need to do R&D so you have products to sell when the demand for current products dries up. And a company can stay in business for twenty years or more with a 'book' loss as long as the cash flow is positive. (For example, if you depreciate the factory but maintain it, at the end of the ammortization period you will still own the factory, and it will still be useful, even if depreciated to zero on the books. The land you don't depreciate, but at the end of the amortization period, the land plus building may be worth much more than the book value. Some REITs (real-estate investment trusts) are structured this way. They allow you to take a loss every year you own them, then sell and take the capital gain. ;-) -- Robert I. Eachus "As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure." -- Jacques Chirac, President of France "As far as France is concerned, you're right." -- Rush Limbaugh