Tandem once built a machine to government specs. It matched every Mil-spec tossed at it and stood triumphant amongst the rubble of its bid opponents.

Tandem once built a machine almost no one bought and fewer kept running. Tandem went against Cray and IBM at their height of competition and found that slow, wonky, proprietary, 100%, and tool-less lost out to fast, well-documented, proprietary but cloned, 99.9% with great tech support and helpful reps, and fabulous programming tool-sets.

Tandem, last I heard, was an in-joke at Compaq, where their PC department had already re-invented every useful tech in the box and couldn't imagine why their bosses bought the dead husk of a company. Patents, in case you are wondering...

And that is why, when yon troll brags about Tandem, everyone thinks he means bicycles. :) :)

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