Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2021/10/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yes, Sonny, our governor brags about that, but drags his feet on encouraging people to get vaccinated. On 10/8/21 1:08 PM, Sonny Carter via LUG wrote: > Ford found out about EV by offering the Electric F150 that can power your > house in a power failure, thank you. Now they have so many orders they're > building a couple of new factories and hiring 11,000 Tennesseans to crank > them out. GM has been futzing with cramped electric sedans for years and > nobody wants a sedan, ac, dc, or diesel. > > > > On Fri, Oct 8, 2021 at 9:34 AM Don Dory via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> > wrote: > >> I hope Nathan chimes in to what I am going to say. My opinion is that >> large companies develop myopia when large changes in their environment >> happen. Sears owned the tool and appliance business in the U.S. They had >> warehouses and distribution down. Home Depot happened and they didn't >> respond. Amazon started up and they discontinued their catalogue >> operations. They fiddled on the appliance front and lost to a thousand >> cuts: now Home Depot sells tools, lumber and appliances as well as all >> kinds of things for the home. >> >> Personally, I believe that management fell in love with high margins on >> soft goods and made a decision to expand in that direction. Not their >> specialty so they were killed by competition both upscale and downscale. >> >> Kodak essentially invented digital photography but couldn't let go of the >> high margins from the total film business. Xerox couldn't imagine what >> computers could do. Ford and GM can't see how fast the change to EV cars >> will be: my prediction is that the change from ICE cars will be in the >> same >> exponential S curve that digital photography was. Self driving taxis will >> do the cars what the iphone did to point and shoot cameras. >> >> On Fri, Oct 8, 2021 at 9:22 AM Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net> >> wrote: >> >>> Thanks for your comments, Nathan. I think Sears got caught up in the >>> shopping center craze. In Nashville, they had a fine store near downtown >>> in the 50s and 60s which we always visited. Then, as suburban shopping >>> centers opened, they tried to open a smaller store in each of them, and >>> the large store deteriorated. In a few years, people lost interest. The >>> large store was sold to the Salvation Army, which uses it as its main >>> location in Nashville. >>> >>> On 10/7/21 11:56 PM, Nathan Wajsman wrote: >>>> Jim, you must do a book of those stories some day! >>>> >>>> As for Sears, I remember shopping there quite a bit when we lived in >>> Gainesville, FL from 1984 to 1987. I still have my very first tripod, >>> bought there and branded Sears, when I took up photography as a hobby in >>> 1985. >>>> I think I was last inside a Sears a few years ago during a visit to >>> Puerto Rico. A sad, rundown appearance, clearly a place in terminal >> decline. >>>> Cheers, >>>> Nathan >>>> >>>> Nathan Wajsman >>>> photo at frozenlight.eu >>>> >>>> http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws >>>> http://www.greatpix.eu >>>> http://www.frozenlight.eu >>>> >>>> YNWA >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> On 5 Oct 2021, at 15:47, jshulman at judgecrater.com wrote: >>>>> >>>>> You indeed paved the way in color printing, which had been renowned >> for >>> not only inaccurate color but iffy registration. I recall seeing purple >>> hams from K-Mart circulars, usually slightly out of register ("purple >> ham" >>> became shorthand in our house for a K-Mart shopping trip.) >>>>> In the 1980s and 1990s I was the marketing director for a catalog >>> company that, though considerable growth, printed more than six million >>> catalogs a year in eighteen variations. After considering several major >>> printing companies, including Donnelley (also famed for printing >> telephone >>> directories,) we chose World Color Press, a relative newcomer that was >>> building brand new plants around the nation. >>>>> Our catalog was slated for production at a rural Wisconsin site, >>> recently opened in what had been farmland. During a tour of the facility >>> my rep mentioned that they printed Playboy magazine, and that some >>> potential clients refused to do business with them for that reason. I >> said >>> it sure didn't matter to us, so long as our job was done properly and on >>> budget. We arrived at the proofing room, with 5000K lighting for a >>> uniform standard of judging match of the original files to printed pages. >>> There was a huge proofing table filled with copies of that month's >>> centerfold, being proofed by about six ladies who could have been >>> archetypes of Grandma from a Normal Rockwell illustration. They were >> bent >>> over the table, peering through 10X Zeiss loupes, makes sure the pubic >> hair >>> was in register. >>>>> I walked up to one of the ladies and said, "Interesting job." Without >>> pickup up her head she replied, "Keeps the family fed and the kids in >>> school," with uninterrupted attention to some model's pudendum. >>>>> When I think of all the teenage boys who were worried that mom would >>> find the stash of Playboys hidden under the bed, I also consider that >>> Grandma wanted to make sure they were completely satisfied. >>>>> Jim >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -----Original Message----- >>>>> From: LUG <lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org> On >>> Behalf Of Brian Reid >>>>> Sent: Tuesday, October 5, 2021 9:23 AM >>>>> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> >>>>> Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Remnant of the Past >>>>> >>>>> Sears Roebuck was a major force in advancing color printing, and was >>> THE pioneer in digital color printing. >>>>> By the 1960s, Sears realized that its customers expected the colors >>> printed in its catalog to be spot-on correct. As its VP of catalog sales >>> noted, "Your grandmother will hold the catalog up next to her curtains to >>> see if the colors match. If they match, she will order new sofa cushions. >>> If when the sofa cushions arrive they do not match the curtains, she will >>> return them angrily and stop buying from Sears for a while. The colors in >>> the catalog must be exact." >>>>> By the time I got involved, Sears catalogs were all printed by R. R. >>>>> Donnelley & Sons at its printing plant on Calumet street in Chicago. >> RR >>> Donnelley won and kept the contract because they were able to do a better >>> job of printing accurate colors than the competition. My involvement was >>> advising them on digital color separation technology so they could use >>> 7-color presses; the classic optical separation process didn't work well >>> past 4 colors and the filters were mind-numbingly expensive. >>>>> When my mother buys sofa cushions by mail order, she evaluates their >>> color using the screen on her iMac. Even if she could lift it to hold it >>> next to her curtains, proper comparison of glowing-screen colors with >>> fabric colors is impossible. The catalogs were better. I sometimes wish I >>> had kept one. >>>>> >>>>> On 2021-10-04 13:29, Jim Nichols wrote: >>>>>> As I glanced around me on a cloudy morning, I saw this reminder of >> the >>>>>> days before Amazon and other on-line sources. Sears Roebuck, and its >>>>>> rival, Montgomery Ward, were the mainstay of rural America. >>>>>> >>>>>> >> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/20211004-DSCF3289-Enhance >>>>>> d.JPG.html >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Leica Users Group. >>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Leica Users Group. >>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Leica Users Group. >>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>> >>> -- >>> Jim Nichols >>> Tullahoma, TN USA >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> >> -- >> Don >> don.dory at gmail.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> -- Jim Nichols Tullahoma, TN USA