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Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

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Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#111

Post by laurent92 »

eecc wrote: post #94
pfdietz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Archaeologists have found inscriptions referring to the cult of "Six Sigma", which is hypothesized to be a primitive form of ritual statistical magic.

Skimming your comment I read “ritual sadistic magic”. Funny how the mind wanders

“Ritual statistical magic” is even more genius: Future civilizations will look down on us for believing that statistics were part of science, not not seeing the hand of the cleric in making them up, just like we look down on middle ages for believing anything monks pretended to translate from the Bible, which in fact they made up.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#112

Post by ijidak »

jameshart wrote: post #29
ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HR wall slogans are cringey when still drying on the wall. They are even cringier in a ruin.

Gives you another perspective on the hieroglyphs on walls in ancient Egypt though if you imagine them being put there by enthusiastic religious branding consultants, and inducing just as much eye rolling from the citizens of the day…

Lololol. I've never thought about it that way.

But it's true. Citizens of those ancient Egyptian cities probably did roll their eyes at some of the wall hieroglyphs.

Especially because the pharaohs exaggerated their victories.

And the priests probably made up ridiculous stories of what their gods "did" and "accomplished"

Some citizens were probably just as incredulous as we are today.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#114

Post by chiph »

AlbertCory wrote: post #45

It's amazing that neither the article nor any of the comments so far mention that Google bought part of Motorola, for its 10,000 patents. Then sold it a few years later. I was in Google Patents and I interviewed people for the position of "acquirer of patents." This was a period when they actually thought the "throw weight" of your patent portfolio really mattered in cross-licensing deals. Most of those patents were…

Not just their patents, but also their cellphone division. My understanding was that the Motorola phones were going to be Google's flagship devices for Android.

So I bought one, and I really liked it - I got regular OS updates (unlike many Android licensees), the phone had a gorgeous walnut veneer back, and it fit well in my hand. Nice.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#115

Post by OldHand2018 »

ansible wrote: post #107
OldHand2018 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in the mobile network part of Motorola. We had smartphones in the lab for testing in 2001. We were all told that they would be on sale by 2003. But that never happened. All of my interactions with the cellphone division were somewhat negative. You got the impression that they thought of themselves as the best of the best and nothing you could offer was worth their attention. The damned RAZR success probably…

What happened with the network / base station side of the business? Moto was doing very well with that in the 1990's. It seemed like that business kind of evaporated, but I don't know why.

It lives on, as a Nokia/Siemens joint venture.

Edit: apparently Nokia bought out Siemens years ago

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#116

Post by mirkules »

pfdietz wrote: post #20
jameshart wrote: post #17

I love the tone of this, it’s like the musings of an explorer who discovered a jungle city abandoned by a mysterious civilization. “there were old wall slogans inside that must have been added to motivate and inspire the employees” … “ the tall building had several brick structures on the lower main level. He suspected that those structures probably had plants and ferns in them so that important business clients and…

Archaeologists have found inscriptions referring to the cult of "Six Sigma", which is hypothesized to be a primitive form of ritual statistical magic.

I used to work for a Motorola-owned company. Digital Six Sigma brings back a lot of “belt training” memories

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#117

Post by laurent92 »

ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #26
jameshart wrote: post #17

I love the tone of this, it’s like the musings of an explorer who discovered a jungle city abandoned by a mysterious civilization. “there were old wall slogans inside that must have been added to motivate and inspire the employees” … “ the tall building had several brick structures on the lower main level. He suspected that those structures probably had plants and ferns in them so that important business clients and…

HR wall slogans are cringey when still drying on the wall. They are even cringier in a ruin.

On my startup’s wall, I have the top cringy slogans of my customers. In the middle sits:

“We advance humanity.”

I guess the message is, don’t take yourself too seriously, most of where companies succeed is happenstance. It still takes a moment to all visitors to understand that it can’t be serious.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#120

Post by spc476 »

I recall when IBM left Boca Raton, Florida (where the PC was invented) in the mid-90s. About a year after they left, a few friends and I roamed the abandoned IBM facility [1] and it was odd seeing empty computer rooms sans the raised floors. Some of the resulting pits were six feet deep (2m). Crazy.

[1] https://goo.gl/maps/CKrEbTkRDwWQNc2d8 Yes, it's a huge hexagon shaped building.

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