Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 84 posts

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#31

Post by spitfire »

wheels wrote: post #25
spitfire wrote: post #10

The most interesting part of that article was that they produce prototype boards on the same assembly line as production. No waiting for boards to come in. If they want a board made simply queue it and it's done. They were agile before it was cool to be agile. EDIT: Also, I had a NeXT Cube and NeXT Turbostation with laser printer. They were fantastic. We've barely budged the needle since then.

They were agile before it was cool to be agile. Which turned out to be arrogant, stupid and wrong.

I'd rather think it was just premature.

If they had started to gain traction that factory would have been a significant competitive advantage for them. Further, I think that it could have helped them lower prices even more think, sub $1500 workstations.

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#33

Post by vinced »

equalarrow wrote: post #12
smithbits wrote: post #2

Here's a low quality video of the factory from back in the day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhfUKEu7sJ0 (The copy of the video is low quality that is, the original production values were excellent)

Here's a better quality video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb7foG1rtlA

who did the musical score? John Williams ?

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#34

Post by mkr-hn »

treetrouble wrote: post #14
mkr-hn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manufacturing in the US has never been better. It's the number of people needed to manufacture stuff in the US that's been declining.

Do you have a link where you read that? Not implying it's not true-- just want to know more and searches are coming up empty

http://blogs.forbes.com/timworstall/2011/06/17/what-decline-...

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#35

Post by mkr-hn »

bmastenbrook wrote: post #16
mkr-hn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manufacturing in the US has never been better. It's the number of people needed to manufacture stuff in the US that's been declining.

I'm assuming that you have relatively recent experience in order to make this kind of statement. If you are happy with the cost, quality, capability and flexibility of your US-based contract manufacturing solution, please name names as there are many people who would be interested.

I think you clicked the wrong reply link.

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#36

Post by mkr-hn »

gamble wrote: post #21
mkr-hn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manufacturing in the US has never been better. It's the number of people needed to manufacture stuff in the US that's been declining.

If by manufacturing, you mean chemicals, pharmaceuticals, processed agricultural products, pulp&paper, and heavy industrial equipment. Electronics and consumer products manufacturing is dead in the US.

The quote didn't specify electronics and consumer products.

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#37

Post by razzmataz »

rmason wrote: post #15
ary wrote: post #13

The best I could find on the fate of this factory was from Wikipedia [1]. "NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 and the company was renamed NeXT Software Inc; subsequently 300 of the 540 staff employees were laid off. NeXT negotiated to sell the hardware business including the Fremont factory to Canon. Canon later pulled out of the deal. Work on the PowerPC machines was stopped along with all hardware pro…

I remember well going to a NeXT exhibit at Michigan State. I was blown away by the beauty of the machine but thought the disk storage and lack of color graphics were deal killers. The sales guy working the booth was quick to let me know that I could order a machine with a hard drive and that I didn't have to take the optical disk. In fact he said everyone was ordering them that way. But he grew silent when asked when…

There were NeXT slabs that were available from salvage circa 1998. They were likely the machines in the computing lab in Wells Hall, next to the language lab. There were also a half dozen color turbo NeXT stations in Holmes Hall.

Those machines were some of the nicest to work on Mathematica with. We also had installed the ISCA BBS client on those machines, before the remote telnet access was turned off.

When were you at Michigan State?

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#38

Post by spitfire »

jseliger wrote: post #29
gluecode wrote: post #3

I have a NeXT cube from the 1990s. It is one of the best built products in terms of build quality, I have ever seen.

How does it compare to Model M keyboards? Or the recent editions of those keyboards (see more: http://jseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-custom... )?

I actually prefer the feel and sound of the NeXT keyboard over the model M. Though I much prefer the layout of the model M to the NeXT. Coding was a pain on the NeXT keyboard - no pageup/dn home/end keys. But it was fantastic for writing papers and working with mathematica, frame, etc.

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#39

Post by razzmataz »

pyre wrote: post #7
mkr-hn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manufacturing in the US has never been better. It's the number of people needed to manufacture stuff in the US that's been declining.

Well, that could be due a convergence between automation and labor-intensive manufacturing (which can't be automated easily) moving overseas to fine a cheaper work force. Also, I think the parent post was referring to the fact that Steve Jobs is now CEO of Apple which IIRC does most of their manufacturing overseas (SE Asia). If SJ still believed that quote, then he would have been trying to 'bring it home' so to spea…

Plus, they subcontract their manufacturing to other companies, ASUS and Foxconn among others.

Re: All NeXT Inc.'s Plant Lacks Is Orders (1990)

#40

Post by ghtrgw »

ONLINE STORE :

====( http://www.etradinglife.com )=====

The website wholesale for many kinds of fashion shoes, like the nike,jordan,prada,, also including the jeans,shirts,bags,hat and the decorations. All the products are free shipping, and the the price is competitive, and also can accept the paypal payment.,after the payment, can ship within short time.

free shipping

competitive price

any size available

accept the paypal

jordan shoes $32

nike shox $32

Christan Audigier bikini $23

Ed Hardy Bikini $23

Smful short_t-shirt_woman $15

ed hardy short_tank_woman $16

Sandal $32

christian louboutin $80

Sunglass $15

COACH_Necklace $27

handbag $33

AF tank woman $17

puma slipper woman $30

====( http://www.etradinglife.com )=====

Post reply on HN