TI Related -- Ebay / Heads Up Notice

[+FarmerPotato]

10 hours ago, JasonACT said:

I've still got my mug from when I did the IEF training in 1994:

 

Oh wow! What did you think of it?  
 

I had some GE training in 1992-94, with James Rumbaugh, and his group's Object Model Tool.  That has been all I needed since. 

 

Here is a $7 copy of IEF, at US' ThriftBooks.

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

One Semi-Mug. 
 

TI's Lemmon Avenue plant in Dallas, TX was where silicon transistors were made in scale, in the 1950s and 60s. 

 

Ed Millis' group moved from a crappy shop down Lemmon, into a much better Lemmon Ave plant. That one was occupied for a long time.  At first they finished and tested a few hundred transistors per day. Ed's ingenuity scaled this up through automated testing until TI could fulfill orders for hundreds of thousands. 

In the 1970s, he was assisted by a young engineer, Mike Bunyard. 
 

 

Ed's early stories are in "TI, the Transistor, and Me: My Dis-integrated journey through Texas Instruments". It's a fantastic book filled with inventions and practical jokes. (Reminds me of Richard Feynman!)   It also brings to life Pat "Jack" Haggerty, Fred Bucy, and Lee Kitchens.
 

 

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

Going from Mugs to collectible Books:

 

Engineering the World: Stories from the first 75 years of Texas Instruments. _Caleb Pirtle III

 

This one is easy to find in used book stores in the Dallas, TX area.  Goes for under $10.   I've stockpiled a few for future door prizes.  On publication, it was gifted to TI employees. 

 

What we have here is a coffee-table book, breezy and not much depth, but it has great pictures from the TI Records archive at SMU.  It doesn't claim to be a history book.  It was commissioned by TI at the time of transferring the archives to SMU.  

 

 

https://www.hpb.com/management-philosophies-and-practices-of-texas-instruments-inc./R-387917072.html

 

Pat "Jack" Haggerty, from 1945 President of TI (as Geophysical Services) collected his presentations in this 1964 book.  It begins with this principle, adopted by those founders who sought to make this tiny company into a giant:

 

"TI exists to Create, Make, and Market useful products and services to satisfy the needs of its customers throughout the world."

 

The TI structure was built on putting many managers in charge of centers, each with some Create, Make, or Market functions. The two 1980s books I saw lately, "Managing a Product Customer Center (PCC)", and the FCC, were already outlined here in 1962.

 

I recognize how the continuity of this mode of operation, the annual planning process, the Office of Strategy and Tactics described here, continues through the 1980s in all the records I've seen.

 

To the end of his life, Haggerty wanted to publish a comprehensive history of management philosophy at Texas Instruments.   I have heard (anecdotally), also read in Millis' book,  that this was the impetus for the official archives, under Ann Westerlin.

 

[JB]

On 9/10/2024 at 5:46 PM, OLD CS1 said:

I have seen Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 reproduction boxes, too.  There is a market for original boxes, but who seriously thinks rotted, falling apart, water-damaged boxes are desirable??

A box is a box. Obviously.

[JasonACT]

14 hours ago, FarmerPotato said:

Oh wow! What did you think of it?

I liked it, though a lot of people didn't.  You code using the mouse, menus and pop-up dialogs.  You basically can't have a syntax error in your code because of that.  But you can't write code before adding the variables it uses.  Then you check your code into the repository model, and generate it for the target (OS/390 or zOS COBOL, Unix C or Windows C, plus others).  You can generate code locally from your checked out code, but you never really have enough checked out to do that with big models.

 

TI sold IEF (then named Composer) to Sterling Software, who sold it to CA (I think that's about right) and it got renamed a few times.  Advantage:GEN, Cool:GEN, CA:GEN.  My work still uses it, but I changed teams and stopped using it in 2017, plus I don't really code at work anymore.

[+FarmerPotato]

13 hours ago, JasonACT said:

I liked it, though a lot of people didn't.  You code using the mouse, menus and pop-up dialogs.  You basically can't have a syntax error in your code because of that.  But you can't write code before adding the variables it uses.  Then you check your code into the repository model, and generate it for the target (OS/390 or zOS COBOL, Unix C or Windows C, plus others).  You can generate code locally from your checked out code, but you never really have enough checked out to do that with big models.

 

TI sold IEF (then named Composer) to Sterling Software, who sold it to CA (I think that's about right) and it got renamed a few times.  Advantage:GEN, Cool:GEN, CA:GEN.  My work still uses it, but I changed teams and stopped using it in 2017, plus I don't really code at work anymore.

Ah, so there's much more to it than I supposed.  

 

I *did* see TI marketing Composer, at Object World, just before Composer was sold.   I was confused when 'Code Composer' became the name for TI's Eclipse-based IDE. 

 

 

[Gary from OPA]

Well someone bought the Corcomp Ramdisk at $450 usd, it's gone now, but from another seller, they decided to put up a PEB and it's various cards including a PCODE one.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/166968855240

[Gary from OPA]

If you got $99.99 burning a hole in your pants, then why not waste it on a plastic flip top case for your beloved solid state software command modules.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/365121461210

Edited September 15 by Gary from OPA

[+OLD CS1]

13 minutes ago, Gary from OPA said:

If you got $99.99 burning a hole in your pants, then why not waste it on a plastic flip top case for your beloved solid state software command modules.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/365121461210

No charge for the potato chip crumbs.

[+OLD CS1]

Your chance for a Horizon RAM Disk, $400 with free shipping.

 

https://ebay.com/itm/405231708678

[+OLD CS1]

Or, another, if'n yer up for a fight.

 

https://ebay.com/itm/405226338138

[Gary from OPA]

2 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Or, another, if'n yer up for a fight.

 

https://ebay.com/itm/405226338138

Most likely will end up selling close to the $400 the buy it now one is at. If I can get my lot of 4 original horizon cards working, in might throw them up on eBay as well, as currently have two 4000 and two 3000 working so I don't really need the other 4 if I can get them working perfectly again.

[+OLD CS1]

Okay, I just fekked up and bought a batch of ICs for a 99/22 kit.  Not realizing I was not buying a completed build (duh!)  It was a BIN of $50 plus tax.  When it comes in, I will offer it to anyone here for my cost, free shipping.  Hit me in PMs if you want it. Dibs are claimed

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/405233143468

[HOME AUTOMATION]

[+dhe]

[HOME AUTOMATION]

NIBs ...I just love NIBS...

Spoiler

...Pretty CHEESY!

[Andrewmacattack]

1 hour ago, dhe said:

Zach has a whole box full of them $$$$

[+Ksarul]

On 9/18/2024 at 8:18 PM, Andrewmacattack said:

Zach has a whole box full of them $$$$

Just from those pictures, not rare by any stretch of the imagination--I think there are more copies of each of them in the two boxes than there are TI collectors. . .I suspect he'd probably still have half of them left even at $10 a pop. The market isn't large at all.

[Switch1995]

5 hours ago, Ksarul said:

The market isn't large at all.

Yup.  Whenever I do an eBay "rush" to thin the collection, I start everything with a bid at $0.01 and free shipping.  Let the market work.  I've made more $ doing this than trying to set prices.   Rarely something "good" goes for $20-$40, but most of the time I'm surprised (in a good way) at the prices realized.

Edited September 20 by Switch1995
edit

[Gary from OPA]

What a poor looking TI99 console, looks like it's been in the '83 console price war with a VIC20 and lost more than half it's keys....

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/266998147838

[+OLD CS1]

11 minutes ago, Gary from OPA said:

What a poor looking TI99 console, looks like it's been in the '83 console price war with a VIC20 and lost more than half it's keys....

Is that like hockey mouth?  Summer teeth?  ("Sum 'er over there, sum 'er over there...")

[+FarmerPotato]

In the 1983 TI book, Semiconductor FCC Management, this is the last paragraph of "Recognition Programs":

 

Quote

"Some FCCs present recognition awards when employees and teams reach certain goals. The awards are of little material value; they typically include such items as tee shirts, umbrellas, pen and pencil sets, pins, badges, keychains, and plaques.  All of these things represent an expression of appreciation on the part of management for exceptional performance, and serve as a memento of the occasion."

 

Of course, the tip about pens and pencils comes AFTER the chapter "Managing TI through People".  Which has woven in:

 

the importance of recognition

the importance of your managers knowing that recognition motivates people

the importance of performance raises if people are to be retained,

how TI awards bonuses,

the importance of recognizing accomplishments,

the importance of letting people know where they stand,

the inviting of employees for a coffee and conversation but working in the topic of their successful efforts...   

 

J. Fred Bucy thought in 1962 that recognition was really important.  Also, he didn't let go of a good, simple phrase.

 

But the book doesn't mention mugs. 
 

P.S. The last two pages of the book list the 86 contributors to the book.

 

[+FarmerPotato]

 

These mugs

[+FarmerPotato]

Entry into the "Best Presentation" category is this Home Financial Decisions module:

 

 

Oh, I see its companions:

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

OMG!

 

Sales Meeting, Banff Springs, Canada