Hi Folks,
    From my perspective, MPE will flourish and thrive in the future, the
torch will be passed to those that are committed and I will be counted in
that number. "Bigness" is a word that denotes unthinking and remoteness when
describing a company. HP has recently graduated to this level, but it wasn't
always this way. I worked for HP from the summer of 1972 to the winter of
1976, mainly on the HP3000 in an application environment. HP as a whole was
a community then, almost identical in feeling as the HP3000-L is today.
Nothing less than the highest quality and dedication were found, inspired by
two men, David Packard and Bill Hewlett.

    I ran across an article last night as I was trying to collect my
thoughts and I'd like to share it with you. I found it in Network Computing
issue 10.29.2001 on page 128 titled "BEST OF (IN)BREED" by Fritz Nelson. It
can be found on-line at http://www.networkcomputing.com/1223/1223fn.html

    These two paragraphs cut to the chase:

"By jumping at shortcuts, we encourage innovation through acquisition, not
R&D. We
  encourage hastily developed products delivered by vendors grasping
desperately at the
  mirage of customer loyalty and counting on our propensity to examine the
expediency of
  such choices rather than the ramifications of them. We may be weakening
the fabric of
  technology innovation at a time when there is little access to the capital
necessary to
  sustain invention."

"Bigness has worn well on the beleaguered Hewlett-Packard, one of the few
vendors with a
  pedigree in being that "single source." But HP's success has relied on
both the breadth of its
  offerings and its emphasis on engineering quality. Swallowing Compaq
doesn't bolster either;
  it merely makes for a bigger company and fewer choices for us."


    MPE(and CSY) are the last vestige of the "HP Way" at HP, but it will
resurface, just maybe not at HP...

    Men of insight..
    Men of granite...



                                      Eric Sand
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