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The Rise and Fall of 3M’s Floppy Disk

Cars That Think

Floppies have had a surprisingly long life—in January 2024, Japan announced it will no longer require floppy-disk copies of government submissions. Even though the consumer business had huge growth potential, 3M had little experience with a low-cost, low-profit-margin model.

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Inventing Postscript, the Tech That Took the Pain out of Printing

Cars That Think

The time was right because of the imminence of three hardware developments: the first low-cost, bit-mapped personal computer, the first low-cost laser printer, and a decline in price of high-density memory chips. of Tokyo, Japan, introduced the Canon LBP-CX desktop laser printer, which, moreover, printed beautifully. “If

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Honda May Develop Plug-In as Obama Alters U.S. Policy (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

Tony Karrer Delicious EVdriven

The Energy Department is also preparing to award as muchas $25 billion in low-cost federal loans for production ofadvanced technology vehicles, with many of the applicationscoming from companies planning to build plug-ins or thebatteries and components needed to power them. The vehicle costs U.S.

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Designing the First Apple Macintosh: The Engineers’ Story

Cars That Think

make a low-cost “appliance”-type computer that would be as easy to use as a toaster. Mr. Jobs and other members of the Macintosh team made frequent tours of automated plants in various industries, particularly in Japan. Elaborate color foldouts in major magazines pictured the Macintosh and members of the design team.

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How Ted Hoff Invented the First Microprocessor

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Busicom had hired Intel to develop a set of custom chips for a low-cost calculator and had sent three engineers to Santa Clara to work on the chip designs. In October 1969, Hoff, Mazor, and the three Japanese engineers met with Busicom management, visiting from Japan, and described their divergent approaches. You’re crazy.”

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Creating the Commodore 64: The Engineers’ Story

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When the design of the Commodore 64 began, the overriding goals were simplicity and low cost. The initial production cost of the Commodore 64 was targeted at $130; it turned out to be $135. There were additional VIC-20 assembly facilities in Japan, where the disk drive for the C-64 was to be manufactured.

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Why Warren Buffett is investing in electric car company BYD - Apr. 13, 2009

Tony Karrer Delicious EVdriven

GE: The global stimulus bellwether FORTUNE 500 Current Issue Subscribe to Fortune (Fortune Magazine) -- Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of investing: When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact.

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