4 ms·

Teledyne the name even sounds like the prototypical evil 1980s movie super corp

throwaway2037 4y ago
Yes! I immediately thought of T2's Cyberdyne Systems and Alien's Weyland-Yutani. Real question: Does anyone know the meaning of suffix "-dyne"?
- throwaway5959 4y ago
  “the force required to accelerate a mass of one gram at a rate of one centimetre per second squared” Probably why a lot of aerospace companies used it in their name.
  - water-your-self 4y ago
    I believe stockbrokers also are interested in the kinematics of a gram.
    - tomcam 4y ago
      Cocadyne Industries
- djbusby 4y ago
  Right here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyne https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyne
  - throwaway2037 4y ago
    I feel silly reading your reply. I didn't think dyne was a standalone word!
- gumby 4y ago
  I think it’s short for “dynamic” given the vintage of the names, like ”ola” was popular in the early decades of the 20th century, hence “Shinola” shoeshine or “Motorola” car radios. It is also a non-SI unit, but that might be too obscure — or might motivate nerds like the teledyne founders!
- gumby 4y ago
  “Weyland” is because they wanted to use Leyland-Toyota but we’re sure they’d be sued, so they changed the first letter. I don’t how “Toyota” became “Yutani”. The resulting name is better than Leyland-Toyota anyway.
  - retcore 4y ago
    Wasn't it supposed to have been Leyland Honda and we got the Austin Allegro instead?
- ForHackernews 4y ago
  > The name is reminiscent of several real high-tech companies, including the Gyrodyne Company of America, Teledyne and Teradyne, all of which were founded a few years before Pynchon wrote The Crying of Lot 49, and Rocketdyne, an aerospace company that manufactured, among other things, propulsion systems. > The "dyne" is the standard unit of force in the centimetre–gram–second (CGS) system of units, derived from the Greek word dynamis, meaning "power" or "force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne
- caskstrength 4y ago
  Ha! I've always thought of Tessier-Ashpool every time I saw "Thyssen Krupp" brand on some piece of machinery. Eventually I found out that Krupp supported Nazi regime and used slave labor. Guess they have a fitting name for evil corporation with members of the clan behind it convicted as a criminals against humanity?
  - fennecfoxy 4y ago
    Aaaaah, good ol' TA.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Accujack 4y ago
Like Yoyodyne?
- Maursault 4y ago
  May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined. > The 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension used the name Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems for a defense contractor whose corporate offices feature the sign, "The future begins tomorrow". Yoyodyne is a front for a group of red Lectroid aliens, all with the first name John, that landed in New Jersey in 1938, using the panic created by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio play as cover.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne#Other_fictional_uses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne#Other_fictional_uses
  - davidgould 4y ago
    I'm a big fan of Buckaroo Banzai but it seems odd that you credit BB when the linked Wikipedia article is about the original source of "Yoyodyne" > Yoyodyne was introduced as a fictional defense contractor in Thomas Pynchon's V. (1963) and featured prominently in his novel The Crying of Lot 49 (1966). Btw, Lot 49 is a wonderful book and chock full of little cultural memes like Yoyodyne.
    - Maursault 4y ago
      I assumed OP was probably remembering the 1984 film, and Buckaroo's Yoyodyne doesn't have its own wiki page. That is it. Plus the other uses are interesting even if trivial. Star Trek used the same exact form as the Buckaroo Bonzai film, "Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems," which probably isn't coincidence. I think that's neat, and that everyone should have the opportunity to stroke their chin and ponder this.
  - bmitc 4y ago
    > Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems for a defense contractor whose corporate offices feature the sign, "The future begins tomorrow" That’s an interesting slogan, as I’d have thought that “the future begins today” seems more innovative. The future beginning tomorrow seems a bit of a tautology and procrastination.
devwastaken 4y ago
Datadyne wouldn't even do something this evil, and they made a floating laptop AI to control an alien ship.
- protean 4y ago
  You can't make accusations like that without evidence. I asshume that you have some?
gumby 4y ago
It could be! The company was from the 60s and made a lot of electronics. *dyne names were not unusual, so a movie director in the 80s who had been a kid in the 50s and 60s would have been quite comfortable with such a name.
- andylynch 4y ago
  I think you’re spot on. Another really good example which lampshades this is Nordyne Defense Dynamics, Kwik-E-Mart’s corporate owner in The Simpsons.
  - simonh 4y ago
    Or Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems “The future begins tomorrow” from Buckaroo Banzai. Based on Yoyodyne from the Pynchon novel V.
- Steve44 4y ago
  To add to the examples of the name is the 1950s Fairey Rotodyne[1], a hybrid aircraft-helicopter-gyrocopter with jet exhausts in the tips of the rotor blades. There is a 1954 prototype[2] at the fabulous but small Museum of Berkshire Aviation near Reading, about 30 miles west of London. [1] http://www.hmfriends.org.uk/faireyrotodyne.htm http://www.hmfriends.org.uk/faireyrotodyne.htm [2] https://museumofberkshireaviation.co.uk/html/exhibits/gyrodyne.htm https://museumofberkshireaviation.co.uk/html/exhibits/gyrody...
trevyn 4y ago
Weird, I always think of them as an innocent toothbrush manufacturer because of Teledyne Waterpik.
ckw 4y ago
It was co-founded by Henry Singleton. After the Academy, Singleton elected to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and graduated in 1940, receiving both bachelor's (Sc.B.) and master's (Sc.M.) degrees in this field. During his first year there, he was a member of a three-man team that won the Putnam Prize in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, administered annually by the Mathematical Association of America. Another member of the team was Richard P. Feynman, a future Nobel Prize Laureate.
- willis936 4y ago
  And yet, since Singleton stepped down in 1986 Teledyne has had trouble with reputation. It may be that the only time they make the news is when they've committed Fraud. For me, the sour taste comes from one of their engineers discreetly taking photos at an interoperability test event I was helping host many years ago. The NDA was clear. They knew what they were doing.
83 4y ago
I wonder if they were the inspiration for Datadyne - the evil defense corp in my favorite N64 game, Perfect Dark.

throwaway2037 4y ago

Yes! I immediately thought of T2's Cyberdyne Systems and Alien's Weyland-Yutani. Real question: Does anyone know the meaning of suffix "-dyne"?

throwaway5959 4y ago
“the force required to accelerate a mass of one gram at a rate of one centimetre per second squared” Probably why a lot of aerospace companies used it in their name.
- water-your-self 4y ago
  I believe stockbrokers also are interested in the kinematics of a gram.
  - tomcam 4y ago
    Cocadyne Industries
djbusby 4y ago
Right here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyne https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyne
- throwaway2037 4y ago
  I feel silly reading your reply. I didn't think dyne was a standalone word!
gumby 4y ago
I think it’s short for “dynamic” given the vintage of the names, like ”ola” was popular in the early decades of the 20th century, hence “Shinola” shoeshine or “Motorola” car radios. It is also a non-SI unit, but that might be too obscure — or might motivate nerds like the teledyne founders!
gumby 4y ago
“Weyland” is because they wanted to use Leyland-Toyota but we’re sure they’d be sued, so they changed the first letter. I don’t how “Toyota” became “Yutani”. The resulting name is better than Leyland-Toyota anyway.
- retcore 4y ago
  Wasn't it supposed to have been Leyland Honda and we got the Austin Allegro instead?
ForHackernews 4y ago
> The name is reminiscent of several real high-tech companies, including the Gyrodyne Company of America, Teledyne and Teradyne, all of which were founded a few years before Pynchon wrote The Crying of Lot 49, and Rocketdyne, an aerospace company that manufactured, among other things, propulsion systems. > The "dyne" is the standard unit of force in the centimetre–gram–second (CGS) system of units, derived from the Greek word dynamis, meaning "power" or "force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne
caskstrength 4y ago
Ha! I've always thought of Tessier-Ashpool every time I saw "Thyssen Krupp" brand on some piece of machinery. Eventually I found out that Krupp supported Nazi regime and used slave labor. Guess they have a fitting name for evil corporation with members of the clan behind it convicted as a criminals against humanity?
- fennecfoxy 4y ago
  Aaaaah, good ol' TA.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Accujack 4y ago

Like Yoyodyne?

Maursault 4y ago
May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined. > The 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension used the name Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems for a defense contractor whose corporate offices feature the sign, "The future begins tomorrow". Yoyodyne is a front for a group of red Lectroid aliens, all with the first name John, that landed in New Jersey in 1938, using the panic created by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio play as cover.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne#Other_fictional_uses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyodyne#Other_fictional_uses
- davidgould 4y ago
  I'm a big fan of Buckaroo Banzai but it seems odd that you credit BB when the linked Wikipedia article is about the original source of "Yoyodyne" > Yoyodyne was introduced as a fictional defense contractor in Thomas Pynchon's V. (1963) and featured prominently in his novel The Crying of Lot 49 (1966). Btw, Lot 49 is a wonderful book and chock full of little cultural memes like Yoyodyne.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    I assumed OP was probably remembering the 1984 film, and Buckaroo's Yoyodyne doesn't have its own wiki page. That is it. Plus the other uses are interesting even if trivial. Star Trek used the same exact form as the Buckaroo Bonzai film, "Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems," which probably isn't coincidence. I think that's neat, and that everyone should have the opportunity to stroke their chin and ponder this.
- bmitc 4y ago
  > Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems for a defense contractor whose corporate offices feature the sign, "The future begins tomorrow" That’s an interesting slogan, as I’d have thought that “the future begins today” seems more innovative. The future beginning tomorrow seems a bit of a tautology and procrastination.

devwastaken 4y ago

Datadyne wouldn't even do something this evil, and they made a floating laptop AI to control an alien ship.

protean 4y ago
You can't make accusations like that without evidence. I asshume that you have some?

gumby 4y ago

It could be! The company was from the 60s and made a lot of electronics. *dyne names were not unusual, so a movie director in the 80s who had been a kid in the 50s and 60s would have been quite comfortable with such a name.

andylynch 4y ago
I think you’re spot on. Another really good example which lampshades this is Nordyne Defense Dynamics, Kwik-E-Mart’s corporate owner in The Simpsons.
- simonh 4y ago
  Or Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems “The future begins tomorrow” from Buckaroo Banzai. Based on Yoyodyne from the Pynchon novel V.
Steve44 4y ago
To add to the examples of the name is the 1950s Fairey Rotodyne[1], a hybrid aircraft-helicopter-gyrocopter with jet exhausts in the tips of the rotor blades. There is a 1954 prototype[2] at the fabulous but small Museum of Berkshire Aviation near Reading, about 30 miles west of London. [1] http://www.hmfriends.org.uk/faireyrotodyne.htm http://www.hmfriends.org.uk/faireyrotodyne.htm [2] https://museumofberkshireaviation.co.uk/html/exhibits/gyrodyne.htm https://museumofberkshireaviation.co.uk/html/exhibits/gyrody...

trevyn 4y ago

Weird, I always think of them as an innocent toothbrush manufacturer because of Teledyne Waterpik.

ckw 4y ago

It was co-founded by Henry Singleton. After the Academy, Singleton elected to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and graduated in 1940, receiving both bachelor's (Sc.B.) and master's (Sc.M.) degrees in this field. During his first year there, he was a member of a three-man team that won the Putnam Prize in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, administered annually by the Mathematical Association of America. Another member of the team was Richard P. Feynman, a future Nobel Prize Laureate.

willis936 4y ago
And yet, since Singleton stepped down in 1986 Teledyne has had trouble with reputation. It may be that the only time they make the news is when they've committed Fraud. For me, the sour taste comes from one of their engineers discreetly taking photos at an interoperability test event I was helping host many years ago. The NDA was clear. They knew what they were doing.

83 4y ago

I wonder if they were the inspiration for Datadyne - the evil defense corp in my favorite N64 game, Perfect Dark.