Thus it was written in the epistle of Doug Becker,
> As is the custom of most Corporations, showing forth their public face, I
> think it matters not what any of us do; their only goal with those would
> suggest something other than what they thought up themselves, is to try to
> make the opposition go away as quickly as they can, anyway they can. If that
> means making promises they never intend to keep, so be it.

I think it would be well for us not to get too fatalistic or cynical here.
Winston says that changes are to come.  Carly, in private email, says that
she hopes that she hopes that their investment will serve to reassure us as to
their commitment.  There is something to that.  Even the most cynical among us
are willing, I expect, to note that HP is concerned about the bottom line.
They care about making money.  I see no reason for them to put money into
what they intend to dump.

Further, I'd like to make a quick comment to those who say, "HP is not
committed to the 3000 because it takes a long time for MPE to support new
hardware," particularly those who say that in the same breath with "the 3000
is so incredibly reliable!"  Folks, the 3000 is reliable *because* CSY won't
let something out of the lab until it has been sufficiently tested.  When the
standard is as high as it is for MPE, that takes time.  It's no like whipping
out code and dumping it on the market so that the market can test it.

CSY has been turning out new stuff at what could well be described as a
blistering pace, all things considered.  Now we climb all over them for it
having bugs in it.  Well, now, isn't that surprising.  Come on, folks.

I come from a musical background.  I know a little about making violins.  And
I know that the amount of time which goes into it matters.  There are some
things one cannot rush and quality is foremost.  I, for one, would like to
see CSY decide that it's ok to take the time to make Strads and to sell them
as Strads.

The primary thing I *like* about Ann and Carly and everyone else leaving MPE
out of the list is that I *don't* want the impression going out that this is
just one more box on which you install M$ Word and plan to reboot and or
tweak constantly.

The 3000 can and will be a "strategic platform", but not by just being thrown
in the same bag with everyone else and expected to perform better (maybe it
can, maybe it can't), but by being so good at what it does that the boss stops
trying to use Win98 to run the whole operation :-).

Ted
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Sys, Southern Adventist University
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The description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded,
belongs to mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but
requires them to be drawn.
                        -- Newton, Isaac (1642-1727)
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         Deep thoughts to be found at http://www.southern.edu/~ashted