<<In the case of TPRO, the company makes money on factory automation but the Y2K stuff is purely hype. I couldn't contain myself laughing when I read what are posted on that thread. I work in embedded systems for a living and I know for sure for most of the part, embedded systems don't depend on the clock. Everything revolves around the power up time and not the clock time. But if there is any problem in embedded systems, it would have to be fixed by the company itself and it cannot be contracted out as the code is very complex and cryptic>>
Mike, I sure hope you're right. Most of my investments are not in the Y2K field and I'd prefer not to see a world-wide economic disaster of any proportion.
But here's the problem:
This Y2K problem is not innovative, nor is it offering any way to improve anyone's standard of living in the next century. It's a big accident caused by tech people (like yourself) spending too many decades saying "Oh, that's minor. That can be fixed. This thing will be long gone by 2000. MOST of the devices won't be affected."...
...until we have arrived at where we are now.
I spend most of my time in the biotech area. BMY, like other Big Pharmas has much better things to do with $36 million. They are faced with an ageing product mix and a mediocre internal R & D effort (by today's standards). There are 3 dozen or more companies they could spend that 36 mil on that would improve their business prospects for the next several years-but instead they allocate it to TPRO and their embedded systems offerings.
Don't you wonder why? There are very smart people at BMY, and they just want to continue to prosper in the pharmaceutical business, not tear up their factories, or spend resources on this kind of testing.
They must have gone through quite a bit of agony before deciding that this was necessary. With your background in embedded systems, maybe you should at least try to find out what has them so scared.
If TPRO tests out BMY and several other companies they are about to contract with and finds nothing, that's most likely the end of the embedded question. TPRO will have made some money, and will have to use it wisely in other pursuits. I find this scenario very unlikely.
You said "most" embedded systems won't have a Y2K problem. I believe you're right about that, but it's quite irrelevant, isn't it? Which of the millions (or is it billions) of embedded systems out there DO have a problem? What percentage world-wide will have to be tested? How much potential revenue is there just in diagnostics alone?
Perhaps you are convinced that the potential is very small. But Bristol Meyers Squibb just committed $36 million betting that you are wrong. |
