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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jim kelley who wrote (20957)	11/9/1997 6:52:00 PM
From: Sig	Respond to of 176387

Jim: ###COMPLETELY_OFF_TOPIC### A bit of Sunday reading on the car industry and our government at work. autoshop-online.com A sample: <<<<<They were not only denied permission to haul passengers, the authorities would not even let them bring their contraption inside the city limits. Automobiles were banned in the streets of many cities: Boston, Chicago and Bar Harbor, Maine, to name a few. In Massachusetts, an act to require that all cars be equipped with a bell which would ring with each wheel revolution was voted down, as was one for shooting off roman candles to warn of the vehicle's approach. There were laws that required motorists to stop completely while buggies, surreys and freight wagons dragged by. Speed limits as low as two and three mile per hour were imposed by a few cities and towns. In some,night-time driving was prohibited. In 1907, Glencoe, Illinois, built humps in the streets to discourage speeding. Three years earlier, they had stretched a steel cable across the road to stop the "devilwagons." Most of this was antagonism rather than an attempt to accomplish constructive regulations. While the jumble of confusing ordinances continued to plague pioneer motorists, a new wrinkle was added: the "speed trap." In smaller towns, particularly, marshals and other law officials lay in wait for unsuspecting drivers, timing them by stop-watch or "by guess and by gosh." Some lawmen were authorized to shoot at tires or to stretch chains or wire across the road. Until the motorcycle became a police vehicle, the local sheriff's office was somewhat limited in their pursuit of fleeing cars, since they were either on foot or on bicycles.>>>>

To: jim kelley who wrote (20957)	11/9/1997 7:46:00 PM
From: Meathead	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Jim / John - I know it's a fruitless venture but sometimes I see glaring inconsistencies and just can't help myself. Besides, steve needs to mellow out a little. He routinely launches personal attacks (far more than anyone else on this thread) then he'll say something hipocritical like "soon as I trap someone, they start to make it personal". Almost every response to this thread contains some deragatory jab.. it's quite childish. As well, the incessant bragging about buying more machines, owning more stock, buying/selling more options, being the first, the best at this and that and on and on. Well, you know it get's tiresome and can't all be true which damages credibility. The credibility issue is also a shame because steve obviously understands specific areas of the business like supply chain management. Problem is, being negatively biased towards Dell, it's impossible to tell truth from exaggeration or pure fabrication. One of the strength's of SI lies is it's ability to bring together a multitude of experts and professionals to collectively elevate the investing IQ of thread participants. Spirited debate is good, mud slinging bad, everyone does'nt have to agree but it's nice to be civil about it. Make no mistake, Dell is an outstanding company but it's not perfect. I don't mind learning about areas in which Dell "may" be weak and the possible improvement strategies. steve tries to point some of this out in his posts but unfortunately, the message is lost amidst an onslaught of chest-pounding and exaggeration. Of course, if you guys want to witness the full gamunt of real ugly mud-slinging and name calling interspersed with some of the most educated and highly technical posts, I urge you to visit the Intel thread, you'll learn alot and it's highly pertinent to Dell. MEATHEAD

To: jim kelley who wrote (20957)	11/9/1997 8:42:00 PM
From: Boplicity	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Jim, thread. What I am about to write could be quite bearish concerning the PC industry over the short term and I am hoping the use of short term is the correct statement and it doesn't develop into something much different. Are we at the beginning of seeing the top in the PC industry, just like what happen to minicomputers, and mainframes before them? The sub $1k PC has herald in a sea change on how consumers perceived the value of a PC. Also, it will not be long till $1k PC are targeted for the corporate world. Margins could be shrinking industry wide. Making margins up with selling servers and workstations might help but the selling price of those items too will be becoming down especially if a home server market develops and the fact that the barrier to enter in the workstation market is coming down fast also. If a home servers markets for consumers does indeed develop, we could see non pc devices connect to a home net so the days of multiple PC in a home could be numbered with home servers taking center stage. How much power does a user really need? Where are the applications to take advantage of the power we have now? MMX seems like a marketing ploy, I have seen very little apps that say MMX enabled or needed. Does a consumer need 4 or more gigs in a HD? Is the only growth in the pc industry to be found in consolidation and emerging markets which can't afford the top of the line PC anyhow? Some say the WEB is the killer app. but the PC industry could become just one of the many players with more and more non-pc devices connected, that home server market could usher in. How much powers does a user need to read or send e-mail or to surf? Video streaming over the net will require faster links much more then a faster PC. INTC realizes the need for faster links that's why they are driving down the prices of NICs and getting into cable modems. INTC is also trying to justify and continue PC obsolescence that PC industry is currently thriving on, the so called "Upgrade Cycle." The Mercer CPQ will not be installed in consumer device, it will be targeted to the server and workstation market. Is the upgrade cycle ending after we get to a 100 meg bus, 400 meg CPUs, that we seem to not need anyhow? Last year I was thinking that DVD and xDSL modems would drive the PC industry this year, but where are they? DVD industry is fragmenting before my eyes with infighting, and xDSL market is taking forever to develop because of Telcos foot dragging. The only thing that I can think of that settles my mind a little bit is the statement made by IBM in the beginning of the computer age that they could see the need for maybe three or four computers to satisfy the complete world computing needs and how wrong that statement was. Greg

To: jim kelley who wrote (20957)	11/9/1997 8:58:00 PM
From: Sig	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Jim: Am waiting for Three to give a good description of the Dell tour but perhaps can say a bit here: The factory we visited is showcase building, typical Dell construction off-white, resembles in appearance an office building in a business park. Designed to show the best most modern assembly techniques to potential customers, with tall glass viewing walls dividing the halls from the work floor asembly area Tours are routine and often with small groups of perhaps 7 or 10 people. Parts come in off the suppliers trucks, parked in many bays perhaps 50 feet from the start of the assembly line. The case comes with power supply installed (I'm not sure about that part), the motherboard is inserted by sliding one edge under metal clips in the case and is attached with one screw thru the bottom of the case.Presto, the computer assembly takes 3 1/2 minutes. ( This is somewhat simplified, as the DD is installed and the internal cables are attached.) Each computer is always accompanied by the paperwork (several pages) which gives the configuration ordered by the customer. So that if a CD is ordered,it gets installed, and the DD size will be specified. After assembly, each computer is 'burned in' thru 2 one hour sessions on a huge rack ( holds perhaps 2000 computers), where it is 'exercised' or cycled, the result being less than 1% failure rate of items shipped to customers.. Following that, the customer's specified software is loaded into the hard drive, which requires 1.5 to as much as 8 hours. Packaging is a miracle, flip,clack-clack of two staples and a huge box is born from a flat collaped box, a swift kick and it lands right side up . In drops the shipping cushion, and it gets pushed 10 feet to the computer line (comes thru a wall)where the computer is set in. Then a pre-packaged keyboard from off a truck, then the mouse and paperwork, etc. Box is taped manually, loaded about 16 to a cart and wheeled out to a delivery truck/trailer. As previously stated, the factory output is 8000 per day, so I would expect considerable 16 wheeler activity in the shipping/ receiving area which was not visible to us. SES