1 Jan
2002
1 Jan
'02
6:36 a.m.
On Tue, 1 Jan 2002, Chris wrote:
AMP is a different company.
- don
Chris, I
suggest that you do not have all of the relevant facts. The
wrench carries that name because Crescent Tools were the original
developer and manufacturer of it. That the name is used generically for
all adjustable wrenches of that design is a tribute to its popularity
and usefulness. Much the same as we speak of `xeroxing' copies.
Centronics did not invent the Blue Ribbon connector. Amphenol did.
Centronics merely found a useful application that became the standard
parallel connector on printers (and on early computers - pre IBM). Not
quite the same accomplishment.
I know the facts, and I know exactly why it carries that name (much like
a Yankee Drill). But the arguments regarding the usage of terms was that
you should call the item by its name, NOT by the common usage term. It
becomes irrevlivant if the common name is that of the maker (in the case
of Crescent), or of the company that popularized it (in the case of
Centronics). The name is wrong either way. Under the "Crescent" logic,
lets just call the "Centronics" connector an "Amphenol"... unless
that
will confuse the issue as they already have a number of connectors
commonly refered to as "amp". I was really pointing out the irony that support for
the "its not a
Centronics" argument was itself using a term that is doing EXACTLY what
the Centronics term is doing... miscalling an item because of a popular
name.
I guess that was lost in the typing... I'll try to sprinkly more
emoticons in my text next time.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>